Havok Publishing

Fantasy

Dead Men Tell No Tales

“The wax man’s face is melting off!” Another one for the list of weird things that I say with surprising regularity.
“Melting how?” James Prothero asks.
I scowl at him over my shoulder. “How many ways can I mean melting?”
“Are we talking Wicked Witch of the West or Ark of the Covenant?”

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Borrowing Time

Peter had thought dying would be an awfully big adventure.
But not like this. Not when he wasn’t the one staring it in the eye.
He couldn’t let Jane face death without him, because he couldn’t face life without her.
He watched her chest rise and fall, her breathing labored and ragged.

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Waking Ugly

Waking to a kiss sounds romantic. I mean, I had no problem with the kiss itself—soft lips, tickle of a mustache, faint licorice flavor. But oh my goodness people, what was a man doing in my bedroom?!
I sat bolt upright. My forehead smacked against his.
Ouch.
He staggered back from

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Life’s a Bowl Of…

Two minutes until the session begins, and the folding chairs circling the gym are already filled. It’s going to be a long night.
Horatio’s seated to my left, which is good. Of all my patients, he tends to be the most level headed. Last session, Frank had that chair, and he packs

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The Sea’s Mercy

Are you the Beowulf who took on Breca in a swimming match on the open sea?”
The festive hall quieted. Unferth, that envious rat, who had remained silent throughout the hero’s introduction, now sought to sow discord. Beowulf’s boasts had convinced King Hrothgar, and everyone else in the mead hall, that he’d be

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Worthy of Honor

Save my son.
The plea echoed in Marek’s head, as dark and haunting as the forest through which he stumbled. His breathing labored—as did that of the unconscious child cradled in his arms.
“Come on, David, stay with me,” he begged.
Something rustled in the bushes ahead. Marek halted and squinted into

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A Haunting Conversation

When I emerged from my coffin to stalk the darkness, I didn’t expect to find inspiration.
I strolled through a graveyard under a blanket of night. The gravestones glowed a ghostly gray luminescence under the gaze of the full moon, and shadows jittered with ghoulish glee as the boughs of trees swayed

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Melvin the Mediocre

Melvin trudged through the downpour, head down in an effort to avoid the wind and wet.
Getting fired wasn’t enough. He’d returned home to endure yet another lecture from his parents. Over dinner, they again complained about his lack of potential and the detrimental effects of his juvenile obsessions, specifically “that stupid role game

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Super Gus Gets Some Kicks

“Bow-Shock, your arrow-neous ways are off target! Seeing you quiver before justice is my aim!” Arms akimbo, I stand astride the ledge of the shattered window of the jewelry store.
Clad in a neon-green jumpsuit, Bow-Shock responds to my o-pun assault with a hail of arrows.
I backflip over the onslaught, my

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Blackbeard’s Wizard

“He serves the devil, you know.”
Clay, the child they had captured three days prior, shifted on the bench as Captain Thomas Kalapser stared him down. “I know.” A slight breeze entered the open window of the cabin, catching the corners of the maps strewn upon the table behind him.
“Then why?”

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Cleopatra, Genghis Khan, and Steve

Steve leaned against the wall of the elevator and checked his watch. Just a few minutes after 2 a.m. A weird time to be alone with Genghis Khan and Cleopatra, but as a late-night standup comic, he’d seen stranger things. Maybe the situation would provide good material for his next bit. Sure sounded like

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Nessie Sings the Song

Inverness, Scotland 21st April, 2023
My grandfather told me stories of the Loch Ness Monster. Or Nessie as he lovingly called her. How she surfaces in the spring when life is new and the waters are warm. He saw her once, when night’s cloak had descended. Head thrown toward the moon, she gave…

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