Havok Publishing

Archive - October 2020

SS - Staff Saturday featured image

Predator or Prey

I sit, enthroned in the branches of a mighty oak. Waiting…
Grandmother had warned us not to gather herbs in the woods. “Beware the wolf who hunts the forest for unsuspecting souls,” she would say.
That day, I forgot.
I should have known better, but I was drawn by a man more beautiful

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S2 Fantasy Friday featured image (season 2)

Blinded by Color

Colors splashed behind the blind man’s eyes as he stumbled through a crowded marketplace. An eruption pulsing between blood red and pale blue shouldered past. A burst of yellow and brown darted in front. Kolzak swallowed down a wave of nausea, forcing himself not to collapse under the colors relentlessly smashing into his mind

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S2 Thriller Thursday featured image (season 2)

Silver like Grief, Black like Guilt

The king is dead.
I slump in my best dress on the pew at the back of the cathedral while the funeral bells toll overhead. Outside the church, villagers scream in protest at the leaving nobility, whose emotions stream behind them in trails of color. Amber irritation. Pale boredom. Sour, brown fear.

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S2 Wacky Wednesday featured image (season 2)

Hiccups and Grit

Donny Chandler would never tell me what I needed to know. Which was why I needed to get the hiccups.
Great.
I slunk into Tornado Taco on the corner of Main Street and Bell Avenue. The last time I was here, I made a complete fool of myself. Not my fault, but still…

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S2 Techno Tuesday featured image (season 2)

Prison of Stars

“Earth to Echo.”
Electricity courses through Echo as Darbo’s deep voice prods her consciousness. She stirs, blinking out at the spaceship’s main chamber.
My jail cell.
Darbo stands by the main control panel, pressing the button that shoots shock waves across Echo’s incorporeal form. Nearby, his daughter Delilah crunches on star-puffs

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S2 Mystery Monday featured image (season 2)

Midnight

Of all the underground clubs in this sodden sponge of a city, it had to be that one.
I tugged my fedora lower over my brows, but it did little to block out the damp chill of the October night. My neck prickled as I surveyed the disturbing sight splayed out on the alley’s cracked asphalt.

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SS - Staff Saturday featured image

Departures

I watch through frosted windowpanes as the alchemist rides into town.
His furs are damp with dew, his hands hidden but for his reddened fingers. He glances up at the orphanage, and the vision lashes my eyes like a pine branch.
A fat old man with dead eyes. A little black bottle

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S2 Fantasy Friday featured image (season 2)

From the Touch of Her Finger

“You find them in the weirdest places,” Aida said to me.

She overturned a rock. A black and yellow-spotted salamander scampered beneath a nearby mossy log.

“I haven’t looked for salamanders since elementary school,” I said, getting ready to squat next to her. “I’m game.”

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S2 Thriller Thursday featured image (season 2)

Komainu

You have something special in you. A weapon no Komainu can wield. Father’s words echoed in Koji’s mind.
Sitting on the dojo floor, he glanced back, drinking in the beauty revealed through the glass wall. The black sea of space teamed with countless stars. Somewhere out there, a month’s journey from this space station,

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S2 Wacky Wednesday featured image (season 2)

Weatherman

“I assure you, Mrs. Marcel, this drought is going to break.” Al Bee Bee Watcher smiled at his landlady. The apartment lobby’s 1920’s décor surrounded him, clashing spectacularly with the modern computer on her desk.
“And I’m telling you, there’s no chance.” Mrs. Marcel shook her head. “Put away your raincoat, Mr. Watcher;

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S2 Techno Tuesday featured image (season 2)

Always the Future

Sandra watched the passenger ship enter Delphi’s atmosphere like a shooting star. In the morning, she would leave with it, and her future would end.
She leaned against the windowsill and looked down at her luggage. Five bags. I don’t need keepsakes. Memories will be enough. They’ll have to be.

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S2 Mystery Monday featured image (season 2)

The Lab Glasses

Carrie removed the clutter from her husband’s dresser, dropping each piece onto the bed. A package of new shoelaces. An old watch, the hands on its face forever proclaiming three-thirteen. A comb. His lab glasses. Safety pins. A tie clip.
At this rate, it would take the baby’s entire nap time to get

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