Days of Future Past
The jackal-headed god Anubis raised a hand-held anti-grav, and trained it on a stone block weighing hundreds of pounds, causing it to rise effortlessly in an invisible beam. He guided the precision-hewn block to a gap in the wall of the pyramid under...
Wolfbane
The howls of the beast rang through the darkness of the night that enveloped the eighteenth century German forest, a deep and throaty sound. The sheep instinctively feared the large and strange predator that they knew lurked out in the darkness, and...
In Our Midst...
Old Pete had been a fixture on Oak Street for as long as people could remember. Out of his small, ramshackle shed he sold newspapers, candies, gum, and other assorted notions to bypassing folks, all of whom knew Pete by only his first name. Old Pete in...
Anomaly
**Anomaly** by ff\_b Dr. Chan the paleontologist furrowed his brow and mopped beads of sweat from hisforehead. The newly-excavated Tyranosaurus Rex skeleton was highly unusual,with several remarkable features that couldn't readily be...
Easter in Hell...
**A knock coming to my front door early one bright Easter morning was my first clue that things weren't going to be all sweetness and light that day; a steaming, viscous puddle of a black, tar-like substance was all over my doorstep. As I stared...
Colosseum
**Colosseum** by ff\_b "See Rome and die," Roger's mother had always said. That was hopefully not to say that the visit would be lethal, but rather that Italy boasted so much for a visitor that one could be fully content just seeing the...
When the Rapture Comes...
Roger was sitting in his living room sucking down a Slushy on May 21st, the day that yet another extreme fundamentalist whack job had predicted the end of the world. _What a joke!,_ thought Roger, _the same whack job had predicted the end of the world...
The Cabin
**The Cabin** by ff\_b Larry and Darryl had been best buds since junior high school, so it was only natural that they wound up together in the hunting cabin on the evening of October 31st. After a few hours of cards and Coors, Darryl...
Deadfox
On his lunch hour away from his menial, soul-sucking job, Alex blundered upon a downtown store which didn't seem to fit in the 21st century. Drawn like a moth to the flame, Alex ventured into the small establishment, wondering why he had never noticed...
World Without End
Roger had regarded his cat, Frankie, to be his best friend, so much so in fact that when the cat died he cremated the body and retained the ashes, stipulating that they be put into his coffin upon his own demise. In accordance with his will this...
Shifters
Jim had taken Elaine for a walk in the deep forest. It was one of their favorite cheap dates, plus as their relationship deepened, he felt compelled to tell her something before they went any further. It was something that Jim felt she...
The Uninvited
_ **The Uninvited** _ At the busy airport in the capital city of Carjackistan, I saw the American traveler ahead of me inadvertently bump into an older native gentleman. "Oops, sorry!," offered my countryman apologetically. The foreign man...