Havok Publishing

Mystery

Fairy Tales

Professor Kaitlyn Valemon turned off the projector and faced her class. “So, if you’re ever in Ireland, make sure to look out for the fairy rings.”
“Have you been?” asked a student.
Kaitlyn’s heart panged. She’d always wanted to go to Ireland to do first-hand research of their myths and fairy tales.

Read it now

The Electric Chain

Since their arrival in Engine 26, Girard Avenue Northeast had descended into chaos. Beyond the hulking pumper and unraveling hoses, onlookers had gathered at the perimeter established by the DCFD to watch the Brentwood colonial burn. Justine Buchowski was rounding out her initial site survey,

Read it now

The Elusive Conman

Lazy, swinging jazz filtered in my window from the music school on the floor below my office. I swirled my glass, listening to how the clinking ice joined the quick staccato melody from the saxes and the rain outside. Every once in a while, a rumble of thunder or bright flash of lightning added some excitement to my personal concert.

Read it now

For Este

Officer Ward pulled up to the house. Danielle’s car sat in the driveway behind Taylor’s SUV. Coincidence? Might make his job easier—two birds, one stone—but he dreaded the coming conversation… or confession. Too close to this case, he cursed himself for not asking the chief to make this call.

Read it now

Big Man Floyd

My neighborhood can be mean, and some might say I’m the meanest around, but I only do what I do to keep the riffraff in line. And, yeah, maybe I enjoy it a little.
One evening in late winter, with the pavement still slick from slushy snow and the

Read it now

Cruel Sister

It were Beathan who first laid eyes upon the bones lodged between the rocks along the salt sea, looking like so much driftwood whitened by the sun. Tangled all around with long strands of golden hair, they were, as if bound in a most precious net. It were mournful to see.

Read it now

To Break A Kingdom

Today, the war ends for me. That’s what I tell myself, as I enter the royal suite. One last mission and I’ll satisfy the debt binding me to the Great Lord.
Darkness envelops me like a friend. My hand closes around the hilt tucked into my servant’s dress as I step over the snoring maidservant at the foot of the royal bed.

Read it now

The Lightkeeper

Cold air burns my throat as it rushes in and out of my lungs, my feet pounding across the snowy shore in rhythm with my heart. My eyes are locked on the lighthouse, on its strangely muted glow. Gemma would never let the stars outshine it.

Read it now

Unpixelated Prince

“Come on!” I tug C4t3rp1ll3r’s arm as footsteps thud down the corridor from both directions. “If you escaped that video game only to be killed before I learn your real name, I’ll never forgive you. Even though you saved Alice.”
Saving my little sister won’t

Read it now

The Last Take

The rain was coming down in sheets, a reminder that some things can’t be undone. I stood in Stage 7, watching my team tear down the set where Vivian Cross died three months ago.
“Cut!” I’d screamed that fateful night, but the cameras

Read it now

The New Caretaker

“I can’t tell you how happy I am to have somebody finally take the caretaker position,” Mayor Geoff Collins said. “Can’t have the cemetery becoming an eyesore.”
“I’ve always been good at landscaping,” Brady replied. Good enough, anyway. “And the apartment

Read it now

Elvira

At the stroke of midnight, I sat with my nose pressed against the window of Gran’s bedroom, watching Elvira glide out of our house and into the snow-draped beauty of Buffalo’s Delaware Park.
Gran saw her, too, and shouted, “No, sweetie, come back!

Read it now