Mister Garrik looked up at the ceiling, raising an eyebrow at the muffled sounds of a woman’s pleasure. “Mister Sterling, I appreciate your time, but I came here to do business, not be distracted by the sounds of blue theatre.” Will cleared his throat. “Apologies, Mister Garrik.” Will’s quick mind pulled a lie out of thin air. He was talking before he’d really formulated his story. “I am hosting a friend who... used to wo...

I managed to control my temper when the program director informed me that I would be making a personal appearance to function as an emcee for a Halloween bash. I thought my promotion to full time air personality would change things. I was wrong.Now, before I could launch into my rant my boss informed me that this was a costume party at the popular nightclub that was located inside of the larger hotels. The hotel had purch...

 And so it was that Mathias the hand-healer found himself in the shackles of a cage being wheeled out of town. Four hideous men walked in formation around the caravan as the driver led his horses through town to parade their new slave. "Look upon him!" the town crier exclaimed, "look upon the foul harlot, but fall not to his evil temptations!" Look upon him they did. They did not see much a man to fear; strong as he was h...

He called to her, she could feel it in her soul. As she made her way to him, her body thrummed with need. Her master sat regally on a lush cushion at the end of the room. Julissa approached slowly, eyes down. She let the sheer gossamer robe she wore over her nakedness, slip from her shoulders and pool on the tiled floor. She had led another life once upon a time, but now, as she kneeled obediently on the floor at the feet...

Her hair was the color of golden wheat, like her mother’s. She was beautiful but not in a coveted manner, her eyes were not the color of the sea. Nor was she a graceful swan with porcelain skin. She was beautiful in the way the wind dances through hair, of black coffee in the morning, in the way the ocean kisses the shore. She was beautiful because she refused to taste the sadness of her fate. The little girl grew up play...

"Do not tell a friend anything you would conceal from an enemy."-Arab Proverb***"There is, of course, the tale of the man who built a horse of ebony that flew through the air with its rider—" "We've heard that one already. What about the tale of the three Sufi Qalandars who were each the sons of kings and also each blind in one eye?" "That one was as old as a dried date when my father was a boy. If you want to hear a trul...

I am leaving this record for the future. I imagine that people in the future might imagine that life right after The Plague was much different than it was. But since I am writing for the future, let me explain what The Plague was. It was a disease that reached pandemic proportions, in the year 20XX, and which targeted almost solely males, with a mortality rate well over 90%. Women were mostly unaffected by the disease, th...