Stories

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?

Ethan has a plan. No dating, nose down and get good grades so he can go to college on a scholarship and get away from his drugged zombie mother, criminal father and what's left of his siblings. He's going to drag his best friend Mason along with him because someone has to look out for the moron. The best laid plans are broken up by his greedy father, and someone who cares enough to defend Ethan.

Arad Ansari is a homeless street slug in the Grey District A-5 colony. Work is hard to come by and he has to compete with the animal/human hybrids called DemiShou, forcing him to make his way in less than savory methods. Getting off-planet sounds like a godsend, but fate has a way of complicating the best opportunities of a man with little luck.

Two serious writers named Frank and Ben take a stab at collaboration, and end up mired in a contract they never really wanted. This ... is their story.

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NFL quarterback Andrew Thompson is tired of being blasted in the press for his notorious playboy lifestyle and wild reputation. But just as he's trying to make changes in his life and become a better man, a brand new article by respected journalist Aubrey Miller, goes viral. The author berates Andrew for perpetuating a negative image of gay men in the media and questions his dedication to the community. Initially, the quarterback is furious with Miller, but a chance encounter with the handsome writer leaves him rather conflicted about his feelings.

Antonio Martellini's a rising star in the family, having turned a dingy Brooklyn bowling alley into a hipster hot spot. When his grandfather asks him to lunch, Tony gets an offer he can't refuse. Can he pull the project off? Is he ready for prime time?

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?

Stepping off the bus from school, and clasping my boyfriend Kyle’s hand, I was unaware that my life was soon to change dramatically, while being distracted by Kyle, I didn’t notice that my stepfather had just driven past.

Within an hour, I would be packing my bags in preparation for a move to a new home and life, living with my uncle Mitchell and his husband Xavier.

This story is autobiographical in nature, but I have made some modifications to protect the identities of those included in it. All the names have been changed, and in some cases things such as gender, locations, and sometimes familial compositions have been altered.

All that being said, this is MY truth, and it's time I released it so that I'm free to create from a place other than brokenness and sadness.

This will be dark, but there are spots of light in the great black. No void is truly empty when one gazes into it. The light from our eyes illuminates more than we realize.

~Samuel

Camp Refuge is where anyone can find their place. This is the story of its inception.