Stories

One for sorrow, two for joy, three for a girl and four for a boy.

Five for silver, six for gold, seven for a secret never to be told.

I am sure many of you, like me, learned this children's nursery rhyme about magpies. According to an old superstition, the number of magpies seen predicts whether you will have good or bad luck. Something I came across subsequently, was the existence of many variations on this rhyme, some more sinister than the children’s version.

One of those is incorporated into this short story about boyhood abuse.

Out of necessity, Armie accepts what his life has become, but when a handsome stranger issues an unexpected challenge, the walls he's so carefully constructed begin to weaken. Once the dust settles, will they crumble altogether?

Eighteen year old Owen has escaped the bullies from his home coven and started a new life in Teonards. He never want to have anything to do with his old coven ever again.

The coven have been looking for Owen since he was discovered missing. Mica is in Teonards on a supply run and decides to ask around while he's there.

When the two meet fireworks and revelations are abound.

Can minds be changed?

Prompt responses and Short Scene/Stories that won't leave my head alone.

Psychologist James Mannigan is granted a series of interviews with the Vynx brothers, four men of unknown origin found naked wandering Dartmoor fifteen years ago who claim they are not human. Housed in the Seahaven Open Facility in a remote part of Scotland, they live unremarkably alongside other guests.

At first, through his questioning and study, James finds nothing he has not encountered before. Until Guardian, one of the brothers, insists on sharing their beliefs on reincarnation. As events unfold and finally reach a violent climax, James finally learns why he has been chosen.

This started as a story for the Grid Game and has gotten bigger.

Simon is a newly turned vampire, he's made his home in a lovely cave on a mountain.

Unfortunately, someone else has decided they like the cave too.

My prompt was - A newly-made vampire (verb) deep forest on a mountain no one dares enter (conjunction/pairing word) the cat won't move.

Chase has had a tough couple of years, and just when he thought the clouds were lifting, he faces another ending, one that threatens to send him back to a dark place. Hank was his rock, his perfect partner and best friend, but in one short evening, Chase managed to screw everything up. How will he survive the loss… and the guilt?

It's 2010, and Peter “Trout” Spencer is thirty-two, living a gloriously gay one-night-stand life. That is until an instance of mishearing by his grandmother at her eightieth birthday party throws his world off kilter. What she hears as “I’m going to get married in June,”—to someone called Wendy—is in fact, “I’m going to get Marisse and June,” his stepsister and her girlfriend. When she offers her six bedroom Hamptons house as a wedding present, Trout has a dilemma; in the world of fake news, could he be forgiven for seeking out a fake wife?

Cody and Damian, blessed with an untimely history, meet again on New Year's Eve. Will this be the final time?

"May You Never Be Too Old to Search the Skies on Christmas Eve" - Anonymous

A Further Twelve Gays of Christmas Short Story

Rudy and Trevor return to Loch Arkaig for Christmas with new friends; two men who got together on a gay cruise; a celebrity chef who found love with his late best friend's husband; a baker and his tree-hugging partner; two older men who have been together forever; and finally, a doctor working for charity and his lawyer husband. All about to meet together on Christmas Eve, some for the first time.

But, of course, my dear readers already know them well.