by Michael Kingswood Betty sniffed back tears and wiped the back of her right hand across the bottom of her nose. It had gone runny from crying so hard. She squinted into the early evening darkness, her left hand flexing on the scarred and fading brown leather that wrapped the steering wheel of her Camry,…
Tag: Story Time
A Man of Faith
by Michael Kingswood The shriek that left the girl’s mouth was guttural, profane, and inhuman. A roar from the Pit of Hell itself, something that her vocal cords could never have produced on their own. Joseph knew the sound well; he had been evoking it from demons for years. The girl was fifteen, wearing a…
VIP Treatment – A Dustin Cofield Adventure
by Michael Kingswood Most folks have heard the term “Christmas in July.” The suburban town where I’m stationed is run by smart-alecks, though, so Lockwood has “Christmas on the solstice.” Because symmetry of timing and rigid thinking. What most people don’t know is the concept, whether fun or annoyingly pedantic, derives from a real necessity…
Kicking The Anthill
by Michael Kingswood Kevlar and ballistic plating doesn’t help worth a damn against magic. Sergeant John Singleton really wished he’d known the suspect was going to turn out to be a wizard. He would have called for Special Magics. Instead, SWAT showed up, and they never had a chance. John’s police cruiser sat cross-ways across…
Hermes’ Kringle
by Michael Kingswood If someone had told Brian’s 8-year old self that he would one day be outside the world fixing Santa Claus, he would have laughed and called him crazy. But then, when he was 8 years old Brian hadn’t really had a notion that there really was an outside of the world. It…
Smoke and Embers
by Michael Kingswood Woodsmoke filled the air despite the stiff breeze blowing in from the east. It seemed to rise from everywhere, and never mind the determined efforts of the fire department personnel, who had labored for hours to contain the fire. Where once this had been a non-denominational neighborhood chapel—white and pure exterior finish,…
Give A Dog A Bone – A Doggy Mystery
by Michael Kingswood Harry loped along beside his best buddy John, the grass of the park where John liked to go running soft beneath Harry’s feet and the air rife with scents: clipped grass, John’s sweat, pollen, and despite the bright sun overhead, humidity like just before a good rain. Breathing easily through his mouth…
Fences and Neighbors
by Michael Kingswood Jerome’s back ached. A constant state of things after years spent hunched over his fields, tending his plantings. But today it was worse. The lingering chill from a winter that refused to leave made his joints stiff, lending an extra bit of oomph to the complaints from his spine. He gritted his…
Case of the Missing Rocker
by Michael Kingswood “What’s with the hat?” Dominic was looking at a holopic that was hanging on one of the beige-painted walls of the waiting room he and his partner, Alex, had been pacing around in for the last fifteen minutes. The 3D image showed a slender yet muscular man, stripped to the waist and…
Popper’s
by Michael Kingswood It was nearing the end of David’s shift at Popper’s Books And Things. Even for a Tuesday, it had been a slow day. Maybe half a dozen people had actually bought something all day; not for the first time, he pondered whether working the counter at a small bookstore was the best…