Just a girl who walks dogs and hangs out in cemeteries. Stay feral, y'all.
Jessie did not remember Sophie's face. That was the first thing that terrified her. She remembered the weight of the little girl's arms around her waist. She remembered laughter, the warmth of a small body pressed against her, and a voice calling her Aunt Jessie with the absolute confidence children reserved for people they believed... Continue Reading →
When twenty-three-year-old Amara Okafor arrived in Canada, she was prepared for many things. She was prepared for the freezing winters, or at least she thought she was. She was prepared for the difficult coursework at university, the long evenings studying, and the challenge of navigating a city where she didn't know a single soul. What... Continue Reading →
There were three things Evelyn Hart knew with absolute certainty. The government had too many secrets, coffee was not nearly strong enough to compensate for a twelve-hour shift, and anyone who voluntarily worked in an underground archive probably had something fundamentally wrong with them. Unfortunately, Evelyn had been working in one for eleven years. Officially,... Continue Reading →
Gabriel did not react at first. Jessie had seen that kind of stillness before. It was not confusion. Confusion moved. It narrowed the eyes, tilted the head, searched the room for context. This was something else entirely. Gabriel's face had emptied, as though his mind had rejected Anna's words before they could become real. “My... Continue Reading →
When Claire Bennett bought the little blue house at the end of Willow Street, everyone thought she had lost her mind. Her mother called it “a charming opportunity to develop a nervous breakdown.” Her best friend, Sophie, said it looked like the sort of house where a Victorian ghost might demand rent. Even the real... Continue Reading →
Matilda Thistlewick had reached an age where she believed she deserved three things in life: comfortable shoes, uninterrupted afternoon naps, and the right to tell people to bugger off without providing an explanation. At one hundred and forty-four years old, she felt these were perfectly reasonable expectations. Well, the universe apparently had other plans. It... Continue Reading →
Gabriel did not speak for several minutes after Jessie announced they were all going to meet Evan. Jessie let the silence sit. There had been a time when silence made her uncomfortable. She would fill it with a threat, a joke, a question designed to force the other person to reveal something. Vale had taught... Continue Reading →
The first time Margaret Sullivan fell in love with Thomas Bennett, she was nineteen years old, wore her hair in a long braid, and believed that the greatest tragedy in life was running out of chocolate biscuits. Thomas was twenty-one, had a laugh that could fill an entire room, and possessed the unfortunate habit of... Continue Reading →
Matilda Thistlewick had survived one hundred and forty-three years without causing a major magical catastrophe, which was impressive considering she had once accidentally turned her landlord into a decorative garden fountain. In her defence, he had been standing rather close to the begonias. She had also transformed an entire wedding cake into a flock of... Continue Reading →
Jessie stared at Gabriel for so long that the room seemed to become unnaturally quiet. “You're telling me I recruited you.” Gabriel nodded. “To help Daniel?” “Eventually.” Jessie leaned back in her chair. “I need you to understand that the word 'eventually' is beginning to make me homicidal.” Under different circumstances, Gabriel might have smiled.... Continue Reading →
