The Pub

Now Sig and I were alone on the bike path. My eyes had finally adjusted enough to make him out as more than a pale shape against the asphalt. We were both shivering, me from the cold and the adrenaline dump, Sig from the pain of what I’d just done to his knee. “I’m sorry,” I said, and I meant …

My brain went through its personal boot sequence, loading whereami.sys and whathappened.exe. I’d only been out a second, but I didn’t know that. Meanwhile the fight was still going on without me. Someone was pulling Sig backwards with a rear choke. I could only make out shapes, but that was enough. That figure holding Sig from behind, that was Jenna! …

Before I knew what was happening, Sig had grabbed me by the neck. He half hauled, half hurled me into the dark, along the bike path that stretched away from the sidewalk, into the trees. I twisted out of his grip and recognized him—his narrow frame, his mess of pale hair fully head and shoulders above mine—just before we were …

Before I even caught a bus home, I called Miranda, left her a message: that she had to call the police about Chelsea, that Chelsea was probably dead, that Nick and Sig were behind it. I didn’t say how I knew. It occurred to me that I was staking a lot on Miranda trusting me when she had no good …

The call I wasn’t expecting came while I was at work. My phone showed “Miranda Lee,” so I took my second break of the day to answer it out on the smokers’ balcony. “Chelsea’s missing,” she said, instead of “Hello.” “What happened?” I asked. Chelsea was Nick’s sickly friend-with-benefits, who had roped Miranda into that night at the bar. “I’ve …

Now here’s a bizarre story. Normally, when we hear of a story concerning vampires or werewolves getting a little crazy, it usually has to do with violence against each other. And even then, those news stories about men or women convicted of some violent crime, confessing to being vampires or werewolves, turn out to be tales of the mentally ill. …

I had to talk to Miranda again. But I didn’t have her phone number; I didn’t even have her last name. The morning after whatever happened with us had passed in surreal silence, like we both hoped I’d leave before she noticed me. I skipped my stop on my first bus home from work and let it carry me as …

Did you know that mistletoe is, by definition, a parasitic plant that survives by draining the life from the host tree? In other words, the plant equated with love during the holiday season is a vampire. Perhaps the most interesting aspect about mistletoe is that its vampiric qualities are thought to be the main reason the plant’s connected with matters …

For the first time in three years, I couldn’t face going back to the Grappling Club. I hoped if I could avoid Nick, I could pretend the night with Miranda had just been a one-night stand, nothing bizarre or sinister. I could let what I’d remembered fade back into forgotten hallucinations. It didn’t work. Usually when my life wasn’t making …