Keith and I had decided we were going to try to go together into what would be my eighth life and his second. But deciding on another world to make was harder than we thought.

Rascal's First Halloween
By
Rebecca Anna Coleman

-3-
Rascal's Reflection

I thought mom was just joking when she said she'll allow me to dye my hair blue to match my cosplay. But on this lazy Thursday afternoon. I found myself sitting in a vinyl salon chair, with a heavy, salon cape draped over my shoulders and tied firmly at the back. This was my first time visiting a salon and I found the lingering chemical smell a bit weird. It was also very noisy.

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 locker room routine is practiced now. End stall, bag on the hook, change in under two minutes. Mark is already on the floor, because Mark is always already on the floor - changed in thirty seconds in the open bay, the way he always does, because Mark has never had a reason to think about changing in a locker room.

I find him at the dumbbell rack, mid-warm-up.

"You're late."

"Two minutes."

"Two minutes is late." He racks the weight. "Biceps first."

---

CHAPTER 6
That day was one for bimbling. Sunscreen slathered, floaty dresses and floppy hats donned, or shorts and T-shirt in Lil’s case, and it was a slow amble past a wide variety of shops and tourist traps, with the occasional pause for ice cream, or a cold soft drink. We eventually emerged at the seafront, where all the usual sorts of souvenir cabins and eateries lined one side of a broad footpath, the other dropping onto a sort of beach.

Chapter 17: A Moment Between Queens

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 following morning my mother first picked up the Twins and all our schoolbags from Niamh’s house, then on to Ciara’s. Ciara squeezed in the back while her mother sat in the front passenger seat. As we were about to pull off, Aoife remarked that Ciara didn’t have a seat belt on; there were only three belts in the back of the car. Saoirse unclipped herself from the middle seat belt, yielding it to Ciara, unclipped my belt, snuggled in beside me, and clipped us both into the one belt.

“Sorted!” she announced and my mother pulled off again.

The dial tone buzzes in his ear like a trapped wasp. Caden taps his fingers against the desk — once, twice — before the receptionist finally picks up. "First available is Thursday at two," she says, the words clipped. He books it without asking questions. The phone clicks back into its cradle with a finality that feels heavier than it should have. Petra's number glows on the screen beneath it, untouched. Data first. Then emotions.

Ashton wondered why he had even bothered to attend his prom. He was going stag, which said a lot he thought. Always there but never the main person. He looked around and saw all the people that in one way or another had made a mark in school. Bill the star quarter-back. Mary the head cheerleader. Peter, the star baseball pitcher, accompanied by his date Eric who’s batting (almost) always amazed people. Charleene the student council president. Wolfgang the school paper editor-in-chief. Martin this year’s valedictorian to be. Ashton had interacted with all of them and was constantly in their shadows. Perhaps that was his problem. All the others had focused on one thing they were good at. Ashton had let himself be spread out.

Cover art by Erin Halfelven
©2026, SammyC

Looking back at my earlier high school days, I can honest say I was a clumsy kid. The one who would take a pratfall slipping on thin air. Did you need to see someone who once threw his lunch into the air due to someone pushing him to the ground?

My hands raised high, right here.

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.”