15 Results in the "Burned Cover" category
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Story
Burned Cover
Erika Walker has a problem. Her mother isn’t who she says she is. An urban-fantasy set in supernatural Chicago. -
“Why didn’t you text?” “No signal in this place.” Rick did not look happy with that response. Erika wasn’t all that happy with it either. The whole reason she had come here was to get a better feel for these ghost hunters… and to help out and maybe see something interesting, she supposed. Mostly, it was for evaluation. The fact that they had been out here for almost an hour without checking in didn’t bode well. Erika wasn’t all that happy to disparage her gender, but Rick seemed…
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53.0 K • Ongoing
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Chapter
12 - Visions Through the Veil
The middle row of the minivan’s seats had been removed, resulting in Erika sitting all the way in the rear. In place of the middle seat, a few racks were bolted to the floor, able to slide around for easy access from the outside when the side doors were open. Upon the racks sat an assortment of equipment. Some were electronic items: EMF readers, motion sensors, microphones with big dishes around them, video cameras of both digital and VHS varieties, flashlights, ultraviolet lights, Geiger counters,…-
53.0 K • Ongoing
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Chapter
11 – The Hunters
Erika pulled up to the rundown arcade a full hour before midnight, their expected meeting time. The old beater van was still parked around back. Rick’s ride, presumably. Joining it was a motorcycle. Not one of those sleek modern things, but an old-school Harley. The owner clearly took care of it. Most of it was polished up to a shine that gleamed in Erika’s headlights. She pulled up alongside it, hopped out, and was just about to knock on the arcade’s rear door when she heard muffled voices…-
53.0 K • Ongoing
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Chapter
10 – i – Bounty
Noblesse Oblige. Before Sargon of Akkad united his peoples and formed his empire, before the pharaohs of old Egypt erected their monuments to their own demise, before the Romans built their roads, and before humans made the paradigm shift from hunter-gatherers to an agricultural society, man hid in caves and cowered from the monsters that lurked in the night. The apex predator, the tool-using top of the food chain… Those titles did not belong to humanity. They weren’t the dominant species. Not…-
53.0 K • Ongoing
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Finding a hotel in Chicago, even on short notice, wasn’t much of a trial. A few hundred hotels, motels, hostels, inns, and bed-and-breakfasts were scattered throughout the city. Erika had no particular preference, as long as the place was clean and discreet. The kind of place she could get into with cash and few questions asked. Cash was the important bit. Perhaps it was paranoia, but after having been in a massive archive that seemed to catalog everything, from street light patterns to the mayor’s…
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53.0 K • Ongoing
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Erika followed the navigation on her phone, turning down one of the seedier streets in Chicago. It was up north, pretty much the opposite side of the city from where Erika and Daniel lived. It was, nonetheless, the street he had given her over the phone. She drove down, frowning at every building she passed. A video rental place that looked sketchy as shit right next to a store advertising clothes, shoes, erotic toys, and lingerie. And a hookah lounge. Two separate tattoo parlors whose signs had faded…
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53.0 K • Ongoing
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Erika didn’t want to look too suspicious as she stalked around the church. Not the easiest thing in the world when it was three in the morning. Anyone was suspicious at this hour. It was some small consolation that there was next to no traffic or pedestrians in the area of the Old St. Patrick’s Church at this time. That said, Erika wasn’t one for subtlety. That nun was in some way associated with this church. Maybe finding Friar Tuck inside would be an acceptable alternative. If Erika could…
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53.0 K • Ongoing
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Chapter
06 – A Proper Investigation
“So, I call you on a Friday and you can just come right out and hang?” Daniel shifted in the passenger seat of the old pickup, looking uncomfortable. “Sorry,” Erika said, not taking her eyes off the road. “Didn’t mean to imply that you had nothing better to do. But… did you not have anything better to do?” “My… family likes to go out on Friday nights,” he said, still looking distinctly uncomfortable. It was probably the worn seats—though the passenger seat wasn’t half as…-
53.0 K • Ongoing
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He adjusted his necktie as he stood in the elevator. The floor indicator lit up slowly. It wasn’t a modern elevator. Even though the building was only ten floors, the elevator took its sweet time. He occupied the time picking off small bits of lint or dust from his suit. Most were probably imaginary specs but the cleanliness felt important. A single chime accompanied his arrival to the final floor. Picking up the long black case at his feet, he stepped out into the old Gilmore Building’s…
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53.0 K • Ongoing
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