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The quiet early morning moon washed Alecia Ossario in its silvery tinge. She was dressed in black from head to toe, turtleneck covered with a leather jacket with far too many pockets to even be possible on top and jeans and lace-up boots on the bottom, save for her hair which had decided green was the way to go tonight. She made a mental note to tell Jasper to bring the delivery time a couple hours ahead, so she doesn’t have to be up when the only other people awake are the…

Read Previous Episode | Start at the Beginning

Tony Hall walked into Due North’s one and only gym, strutting up to the ring in the centre, basking in the crowd’s cheers and laughter. He’d fought in this ring for nearing five years now, five nights a week — same as any other job.

In those years, he’d faced all sorts of opponents: small, impossibly fast fighters; large, bulky fighters who moved slowly but packed a punch and a half; bears; bearotaurs, terrifying bear-minotaur hybrids; bearees, which are towering creatures that can split into several smaller bears and still not be…

Episode 0

Steadman Hirsch, premier and proudest realtor in all of Due North, stood in front of his latest job-well-done. Handy job, real estate. Supported his lifestyle quite well, what with everyone always welcoming him in with open arms and big, teeth-baring smiles.

This particular listing was a particular brand of fantastic. 8 Brook Way. Oh, if these walls could talk! (The fact that some of these walls could, in fact, talk, had no bearing on Steadman Hirsch’s use of the expression, for he was born with a rare condition preventing him from recognising any sort of irony whatsoever.)

There was the…

Part 1

Liam put down the letter and took a moment to just breathe and process all this information. He turned to the walls of books and marvelled at the sheer amount of knowledge they possessed. …

Liam stepped hesitantly into the study, feeling a strange sense of detachment despite his many years in this house. He had been with Mr Device for over fifty years and had enacted each command to the T for every one of them. He was on amicable terms with the entire Device family and there wasn’t a place on the grounds he couldn’t go, nor a facility he couldn’t use. Except the study. The one thing Mr Device had absolutely insisted on was the study being off-limits to everyone else.

But that changed last night. Last night Mr Device had died…

“Well, that was a complete and absolute disaster!” Oscar exclaimed, strutting into the room. Gary swivelled out from behind his desk spanning the length of some fifteen-odd computers, refusing to leave his chair “on a matter of personal principle”.

“What are you talking about?” he cried incredulously. “Your disapproval ratings are off the charts!” He turned the monitor with a supporting graph around to prove his point. Gary was, in fact, right. Oscar — or rather, Pinstripe — was now leaps ahead of the others.

He faltered for a moment at Gary’s news. “Wait, really? Already?”

Gary shrugged. …

The day I met you, I warned myself not to fall for you. But you see, that’s just it. You were an unattainable ideal whose embrace I desperately wanted to be enveloped by. A fire that would allow me to escape, but leave me singed nonetheless, a lingering reminder of the mistake I so gladly made. You were a mirage of elusive perfection so still and beckoning that I almost didn’t want to come too close for fear of seeing it dissipate. But of course, I did. Unattainability only amplifies yearning, and truly, what are we without a little yearning?

…

Two hours later, the hotelier’s pills had worked their magic and James slipped into an initially dreamless sleep after having told the stewards he didn’t want to be woken up before they land.

Slowly, the figments of his imagination began to creep in. I was expecting things just as amusing as his idle mind, but oh, was I in for a surprise. A nasty one. Instead of bright skies, strangely coloured animals, and funny petty revenge, I got generous helpings of pain and sorrow.

James found himself lying in a meadow next to Anna, both of them staring lazily at…