Chapter 2

On Saturday morning, I drove Belinda to her home, about two hours north, where we picked up her guitar, and had lunch with her parents. They were happy that she had found someone to share her first week. We were able to tell them that we would be sharing the next two weeks, as we were helping two other guides, in separate coaches, but following the same general route from London to Rome, where we would be flown back for a week off before our next trip.

When the two victims were driven away from Fox’s home under Police escort, their destination was the King Edward VII Hospital in London’s Marylebone district.

Absinthe and Roulette both go home for Christmas vacation, but events draw them and their friends together.

http://whateleyacademy.net/index.php

Chapter 1

I should have known that I was too old to try to pull that dead stump. I wasn’t the young buck any longer, although it would have been hard to describe me as a buck in my youth. It was about the time of the third pull that I felt something was wrong, with my left arm and chest suddenly painful and my strength going, I fell onto my back and looked at the scudding spring clouds.

After a man is stabbed in the back and dies, he wakes up in the Labyrinth with a new body, new power, and another chance.

This story takes place in the same universe as my story Invoker.

The Garden Party
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

“Maybe you should go down to the strip and find yourself somebody to do the job,” I suggested. “You know, just like Richard Gere did. Find yourself a Julia Roberts.”

“If I thought that would work, I might,” he said, the man who had just introduced himself as Jerome. “Now do you want the money or not? Will you do it or not?”

Chapter 23 October 31, 2025

Whit and Lucy were silent at the kitchen table eating waffles. This wasn’t their normal Friday morning routine, usually Whit got up early and ate a bowl of yogurt, took a walk, or watched youtube. Lucy slept in until she absolutely had to get up and start her shift caring for Anthony.

Lucy eventually broke the silence, “Mom texted me, she’s kind of pissed.”

Whit lowered his fork, “Yeah, well her Buddies of Jesus church brought that piece of shit to our town so I could care less how she feels.”

That was a lot of work, but it worked. There seemed to be a real world now that I lived in, with me the cartoonist Barbara and my husband Keith. As I had depicted myself, in my seventh life I made a living drawing The Watsons. But a lot had changed.

Lilly had found the last several days particularly hard, for multiple reasons, and today was no exception. She groaned again at what was another extremely disappointing orgasm that had passed through her body with little more than a tremor. Lilly was frustrated, deeply frustrated, and she wasn't sure what to do about it.

Chapter 9

Next morning, we were both awake early and I was resting my head on Randalls’ shoulder. It was quiet in the hotel, just the sound of the air movement from the conditioning. He squeezed me.

“I guess that we should remember these moments before the storm. You realise that today is the first day of the rest of your life. Up until now, you’ve been a good presenter and reporter, with some stand-out stories. Today, you’re a multiple Walkley winner, with one of them a gold. That’s something that others have taken decades to earn.”

I wake before the alarm. The room is grey. I lie there taking stock - the burn is still there, but noticeably less. The itch is mostly gone. But there's something in the boxer briefs again, the same thick dampness against the labia as when I woke in the night.

I get up carefully, not waking Emily.

I pull open the waistband and check the boxer briefs in the bathroom. A white discharge in the crotch - different from last night, no sour smell, something milder. I drop the underwear to the floor and turn on the shower.