That afternoon, Roman was bored. He was tired, he was lonely, he was afraid in that lingering way that was becoming second nature. But above all that, he was simply bored. Celine had left a little while ago with Aidan and he was sitting here in this room, just bored. He hadn’t been tempted to […]

It turned out that ocean waves did sound like Roman remembered them from his childhood. He was walking on the shore of a beach he didn’t recognize, his no-slip work shoes still sliding in the sand as he made his way toward the surf. Dark clouds hung heavily above him and the water was a […]

Tyler and Ryan were at their apartment when Cleo got home and she half-considered walking right back out. Not that she didn’t love them, but she was exhausted after a very stressful day with her mother. And looking at them was a reminder that not only did Ryan at least think she’d blown her chances […]

The waves towered over him and he knew. He knew he wasn’t getting out of this. No, he was going to die here alone on the ocean, away from everything and everyone he loved. He wanted his mother so badly it hurt. He wanted her to tell him everything would be alright. And as the […]

Against her better judgment, Iris was back at Town Hall. No matter what she heard from Vivien or the ghost she’d seen last time, she had to go check the basement. If the papers were underground, then maybe they were in the basement of the most obvious place they could be. And if Iris skipped […]

“It’s one leak, how hard could it be to find?” Noah muttered to himself as he lay on his back underneath the enormous three basin sink in the back of the Limerick. “Oh yeah, I’ll be done in twenty minutes.” It had been an hour and a half by this point and he wasn’t sure […]

Cleo had always been a practical songwriter. She’d never really relied on “the muses” or divine inspiration to get what she needed. But right now, all of her usual methods were failing her. She needed an album to go with “Pull You Back,” and it had to be written around the song itself. Alright, this […]

Andrew hummed softly along to the radio as he stocked the shelves at Forest Charms. It was a quiet morning and he was here alone, though Iris was on her way back soon. Luckily, there hadn’t been too many customers today and nearly all of those orders were going through the mail. The Christmas rush […]

The next morning, Iris was back at the Countess. She hadn’t looked through their collection for the missing pages yet, focusing all of her attention on the likely locations in town. But she couldn’t get back into Town Hall to sneak into the basement yet, Andrew had the store for the next two hours, and […]

Despite the fact that the internet in Iris’s shop was better than pretty much anywhere else in New Winslow that wasn’t directly downtown, it still dragged sometimes. But it was strong enough that after a sputtering start, the video chat program opened and she could see Roman’s face come into view. “Roman!” she exclaimed, as […]