When Andrew got home from Iris’s shop, Olivia was sitting on the stone wall in the backyard, watching Mia as she played with a ball on the half frozen grass. She wore a heavy sweatshirt and her normally neat hair was tangled in the wind as it hung over her face. “Hey, Liv,” he said […]

The next morning, Olivia was feeling a little better. The nightmares had been filmy and inconsistent, not lingering when she opened her eyes. And she’d been further touched to wake up and see her daughter and all of her friends still asleep in the room with her. Noah woke up as soon as she moved […]

Liv was trembling as Noah helped her into her bed a little while later. He didn’t know what they’d done with her over at Roman’s, but her hair was still wet and she smelled herbally and fresh. He went to stand up as she laid down, but her hands slid down his arms and gripped […]

Bzzzzt….Bzzzzt… Cleo had fallen into bed the minute they’d gotten home from The Blossom Step’s show in New Hampshire. It wasn’t even that late and she’d been almost embarrassed to admit that she wasn’t up for going out partying in Manchester afterward with Tyler and Ryan. Sometimes it sucked being the older one in the […]

Roman and Celine were at the edge of their property when Andrew pulled up. By this point, the spirit possessing Olivia had told him all the details of his bank accounts, how flush they were and how he needed to get them. It was important, more important than anything else. Liv’s voice was ragged by […]

“Help me.” The voice whispered to Olivia from the shadows outside of the house. It was ten at night and she was getting home from yet another terrible shift. Her head pounded, and all she wanted was to go to bed and ignore it. She had the onyx in her pocket, so nothing should be […]

A knock at his door pulled Noah’s attention away from the movie he was watching. “It’s open!” he called, hitting pause on his remote. The door opened as he was standing up and Olivia walked in, looking suspiciously sheepish. “Hey,” she said. “Hi?” “So I’ve got a new game for us to play.” Oh, this […]

For the last week of November, it surprised Noah at how busy the Christmas tree lot was. He had figured people wouldn’t be getting their trees for at least another week if they didn’t want them to dry out. But instead, people were getting into the seasonal spirit early. “Hey boss,” Charlie said, sitting down […]

“How’s your mom doing?” Those were Ryan’s first words as he squeezed Cleo tightly seconds after walking in the door. She hugged him back, oddly touched that it was his first concern. When he’d called to ask if he could stop by on his way back to Boston tonight, Cleo had assumed it was just […]

“Good morning, Roman.” Roman was standing outside the general store, taking a sip of his coffee before he got in his truck. At least, that was his plan until Charles Baxter had stepped up beside him as he leaned against the side of the truck. And suddenly the icy wind felt just a little colder. […]