What's Past is Prologue
The deep crimson snout that poked itself through the open front door of the less-than-modest house sniffed both purposefully and whimsically, detecting scents of Saturday on the crisp morning air and, satisfied that the morning was the correct one and...
Conversations
"Has he said anything?" "Not a word for the past few hours at least." "Did they give him too much tranquilizer?" "They had to control him just to get a blood sample. I'm betting PCP or worse. The tranq shouldn't screen anything in the system." "Are...
Amo, Amas, Amat
The young tiger felt a little fidgety, more so than usual at this time, but he couldn't really say why. It was another Friday afternoon, and he sat as patiently as possible in the small tutoring room, waiting for his charge to show up. It was unusual...
One of Those Talks
"Hey, Pris!" The female Papillion stopped, pivoted her head toward the sound, her butterfly-like ears perking upward, long dark fringe dancing in the afternoon breeze. Her keen eyes found the source of the call quickly, and she grinned. "Antonia!" she...
Academic Defenses
The cremello-colored mare's pastel blue eyes focused sharply on the crystal screen before her, studying every word, mark of punctuation, and turn of phrase of the document that she was perusing. At one point, she snorted faintly, making the student on...
The Desperate Hours
The large, powerful lion looked through the observation window into the hospital room beyond, his forepaw clenched desperately into a fist pressed against the glass, his face caught somewhere between terror and rage. The body in the bed beyond lay...
Triptych
When Malcolm was still but a kit, his mother often warned him about making silly faces, saying that he might wake up one morning to discover that his face had "frozen" that way. At this particular moment, he wondered if it might be true after all, as...
Discharge
_ Signum is a binary._ Zachary Parker despised formality, and minimalism was a close second. He had few options but to cooperate if he wanted to get out of here; despite what he'd been promised, he was being held "just a bit longer," and no one had...
Film at Eleven
"All right, folks, if I could have your attention please..." The compact, uniformed coyote looked around the bare anteroom of the local sheriff's office, almost biting his lip to keep from expressing his delight that the group was so small. It had...
Forever Afternoon
_"Post sonos, relinquat nuntius."_ As the dull note sounded in his ear for the third time that afternoon, the young lion smiled sadly and disconnected his cell phone. "Still no answer." "I'm sorry, Bobby." Feigning nonchalance, the athlete set...
Blowback
_"WHAT THE BLOODY FUCKING HELL DID YOU DO?!"_ The well-dressed wolverine, breathing carefully through his aristocratic nose in long, deep draughts, kept his muzzle clamped shut so that the scream that his mind had so carefully constructed did not,...
Preoccupied
_ What's the worst thing you've ever done?_ _ I won't tell you that, but I'll tell you the worst thing that ever happened to me... the most dreadful thing..._ --Peter Straub,_Ghost Story_ The deep crimson blur that took up so much of Parker's...