Serial Saturday: "Fairies Under Glass" Part 19

Part 19

"The Dean's Office"

Lewis groaned and rolled onto his side. Why was his bed suddenly so uncomfortable? He opened his eyes, rubbing away what little sleep he'd gotten. Somehow he was laying on top of his bedding, fully clothed, and his shoulders ached terribly, like he'd pulled a muscle or two.

He reached up to his shoulders and felt the small tears in the fabric. The pain that lanced through him at the mere touch of his fingertips brought everything in the last twelve hours rushing back in painful clarity. The museum!

Lewis rocketed awake and sat upright, glancing down at his hands. The Chain rested against one palm, and there was the Gyth shining up at him from the blanket down at his feet. On instinct, he went to set the two pieces of the Phantasmagyth beside each other, but the memory of the chaos the restored Phantasmagyth wrought prompted him to keep them as far apart as possible. He swung his legs over the side of the bed, noticing that he was still wearing his warehouse jumpsuit, and there were definitely tears in the shoulder. He quickly slipped that outer layer off, noting the further damage to his own clothes underneath.

A small hum of chatter had begun in his closet, and when Lewis opened the door, a whole throng of tiny bodies tumbled out, sparkling as they zipped through the air, and crawling along the ground. Every inch of space was now filled with strangely-shaped gourds, and it smelled strongly of bubblegum.
Lewis snatched a shirt and shoved it over his face, pinching his nose shut as he staggered backwards. "What the heck are those things?" he spluttered.

The elves around his feet were giggling and running through the carpet fibers. A passing fairy paused to answer his question.

"They're special houses we make for ourselves in a safe, dark place. Our word for them is misti."

"Yeah, well now my closet smells like an air freshener factory!" Lewis complained, throwing the shirt over his head and storming to the bathroom to brush his teeth and hair.

Queen Evalia sat on the tile countertop, attended by a gaggle of fairies. "Ah, good morning, Lewis!" she called up to him. "I hope you slept well after yesterday's ordeal."

Lewis groaned as the smell of the misti wafted up from his own shirt. He wrinkled his nose. "Okay, but did your fairykind have to build those funny-smelling gourds in my closet, with all my clothes in there? I don't want to walk around smelling like a girl!"

Evalia tilted her head, then nodded. "Ah, you must be referring to the misti. I'm sorry, the smell is actually quite pleasant when we can spread them out over a larger area--and it is strongest when the misti are fresh. It should wear off in a few days or so."

Lewis returned to the room to fold up his ruined cover-alls and grab his backpack for the day's classes. "Here's hoping, anyway," he muttered. "I'm going to see what the damage is over yesterday's catastrophe. I think all of you should stay out of sight till I can figure out if Krasimir Schlimme is on the lookout for you or not."

He returned to the bed and put the Chain safely in the small pocket at the top of his backpack. The gyth, he wrapped in his ripped shirt and stuffed in a shoebox, which he placed on the shelf lining the top of the closet. He'd have to figure out someplace more secure for what looked like a diamond the size of his fist, but that would have to do for now.

Out in the hallway of his dorm, Lewis glanced at everyone who passed him, his ears picking up on snatches of conversations, listening to what people might be talking about. There were plenty of people mentioning "the museum", and "what the heck happened yesterday", but other than a large poster declaring that Moulton House was "CLOSED FOR REPAIRS", he didn't see much.

Out on the streets of the Browning Academy campus, it was a different story. Warehouse 31 trucks rumbled up and down, along with dumpster trucks for hauling construction debris. Lewis saw a team of Warehouse 31 workers heading toward the museum and walking past him, but when he tried to wave, one of them stopped and pointed.

"You!" she snapped. "You're that kid who did the ride-along yesterday, when the whole building went berserk!"

Lewis felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up, but it did seem like everyone who caught her comment was infinitely more intent on ignoring them and keeping out of it, than expressing any interest.
"Um, yeah," he stammered. "I was just going to trade in my jumpsuit--"

"Don't," she said, yanking the bundle out of his hands. "Stanley's pretty steamed; word is he's already been to the Dean and complained. You're off the roster, kid. They've never had a student ride-along go so badly. Guess you have to find a posting somewhere else." She shrugged and kept walking, taking his ruined jumpsuit with her.

Lewis stood on the sidewalk, feeling so much like a rowboat set adrift in choppy water. What was he going to do about a job, now that working at the warehouse wasn't an option? The semester had already started, but surely there were openings somewhere! He shrugged and headed to the educational facilities. If he didn't have work duties to report for, the least he could do was attend his classes for the day.

In the Algebra classroom, many students held quiet conversations, spinning theories as to what might have caused the uproar on the day before. Some chalked it up to a prank, others said that the building was old and it just collapsed all of a sudden, while others seemed to think it was sabotage somehow.

"Whatever it was," said one knowledgeable young man with sharp features and sleek, dark hair, "The museum's just going to stay closed for the rest of the year. I hear a bunch of really expensive artwork got damaged by the rumpus."

Lewis could feel his heart thumping, and he wanted more than ever to just melt into a puddle and fade away. How much longer could he hold out until someone figured out he was to blame?

After class, Lewis found Melanie waiting for him in the quadrangle just outside the building. Keats was being his usual adorable self, yapping and rolling onto his back for belly-pats.

Melanie chuckled. "Glad to see he still wants to be friends with you," she remarked. "Come with me. The Dean asked me to bring you to his office for a chat."

Lewis felt the blood drain from his cheeks. The Dean! Stanley had complained about him specifically, hadn't he? Of all the people on campus to know that Lewis Grant had caused the wanton destruction of priceless displays, the Dean would definitely know it was him--and then what? Would Lewis be expelled from Browning Academy? Would he tell Lewis' parents? Evading Krasimir Schlimme was one thing, but trying to hide the truth from his own parents? Lewis didn't think he could, if they asked him at this point.

He felt nothing but trepidation and fear all the long way to the Administrative Block at the far end of campus. Here, there were few students walking about, if any. Mostly faculty tended to have any business at all being in this region of campus, as there weren't any shops or classrooms here, just private offices.

The Dean's office was at the end of one of these buildings, with a plaque bearing his name bolted to the wall just beside the door: "William J. Rushford, Dean of Students." Lewis had only met Mr. Rushford once, at Orientation Night the year before, when he'd first arrived at Browning Academy. He remembered being intimidated by the man, almost terrified of him, but whether that was because Dean Rushford was a terrifying person, or the whole Academy experience had just been dreadfully new to the young man, he couldn't recall. But he was duly terrified now, all things considered.

Melanie led Lewis into the building, and pointed to a few chairs placed alongside the wall while she approached the secretary's desk.

"Lewis Grant is here to see Dean Rushford," she said.

The secretary nodded. "I'll let the Dean know he's here," she answered.

Melanie gave Lewis a small wave as she left. The secretary stepped softly over to the imposing door along the far wall, tapped on it, and poked her head in briefly to say something Lewis couldn't hear. After a moment, she left the door and nodded to the petrified young man. "He's ready for you," she said. "Go ahead."

Lewis took a deep breath to steady his nerves as he crossed the room and entered the door.

Dean Rushford sat at his massive oak desk, but he left his chair to meet Lewis at the front of the room with a ready smile and a firm handshake. He had brown hair streaked with silver and receding a bit from his face, but his straight teeth and clear blue eyes bespoke welcome, not disappointment.
"Lewis Grant," he said warmly, gesturing to one of the chairs placed in front of his desk. "Please take a seat. Good to see you."

Lewis swallowed the lump forming in his throat as he dropped into the seat. He couldn't keep his hands from fidgeting as the Dean returned to the tall leather armchair behind the desk. He shuffled a few papers from a file in front of him. Lewis had a pretty clear idea what those papers might contain.

"Okay, so you're a second-year student here at Browning Academy, it looks like," Rushford murmured. "Grades are looking good, class attendance fulfills expectations..." He set the paper down and clasped his hands in front of him, looking right at Lewis. "It seems that your job security is the part that you've been having trouble with. Why don't you fill me in on why that seems to be the case?"

Lewis opened his mouth, but any words he might want to say seemed to scramble on contact with his brain. "My jobs..." he stammered, but he couldn't finish the sentence. What could he say? I was just fine working in the janitor position until I found out that the artist whose exhibits I cleaned was a sadistic maniac who got away with trapping and displaying creatures from another dimension simply because they weren't human. "Well, uh, it's been... tricky, you know, sir..."

Dean Rushford nodded. "The second year is always the hardest--just when you get the hang of classes, school policy throws you another curve by adding in a work shift you have to keep track of, a job you might not have any experience in, and I know it can be tough." His eyes dropped to the papers on his desk. "Now, from what I can see here, Daniel Gilroy had no issues with your work ethic. He confirmed that you always showed up on time, and wanted to do the best you could with whatever assignment he gave you."

Just hearing the adult saying good things about him was enough to quiet Lewis' nerves.

The Dean continued. "The trouble, it seems, centers around the guest artist we allowed to open an exhibit at Moulton House. I received a letter from Mr. Krasimir Schlimme this morning, telling me that he'd found your skillset sub-par, he has accused you of stealing his artwork, of intentionally defacing some of his displays, and he seems to think that yesterday's debacle had something to do with you." He furrowed his brow in confusion. "Is there anything you'd care to explain to me? Who am I to believe? Mr. Gilroy, who says you're an admirable student and a trustworthy employee, or Mr. Schlimme, who seems to think you are a thief and a troublemaker? Don't worry; nothing you say here will be communicated in any way to Mr. Schlimme, or even Gilroy, for that matter. You can speak freely and in confidence, Lewis."

Actually I can't, Lewis thought to himself miserably. Not one syllable of his true motives could ever be shared, or else the fate of these creatures would be sealed! "Well, sir... I--" Lewis swallowed hard and tried to come up with the right words to say how earnest he was. "I would say that every time I entered Moulton House and put on the uniform, I made it my goal to do my best work, every time."

"And did you, at any point, end up bumping or breaking a display or two, no matter how slight or even accidental?"

Lewis slumped his shoulders. "There were a few times," he began slowly. "Once, when a group of children came into the space during a birthday celebration, they broke a lot of displays and caused a lot of mess. Maybe he was referring to that. There was one other time when I was cleaning and Mr. Schlimme came up behind me and I accidentally knocked a display off the wall... but he was there, and he said not to worry about it."

Dean Rushford leaned back in his chair and tapped his chin. "And at any point, to the best of your knowledge, did you ever see any displays go missing?"

Lewis gulped. How much did Schlimme really know about his attempts to rescue that first group of fairykind? "Well, um," he stammered, "The exhibit hall changed many times, and displays would be in new configurations, or whole new sets of exhibits replacing old ones, but I always assumed it was those Warehouse 31 techs that were responsible for taking the old things down and putting the new ones up. I never did anything like that, as the janitor."

A glint flickered in Dean Rushford's eye. "Except the day Mr. Schlimme was preparing to add the giant sculpture, correct? He enlisted your assistance in transporting the displaced art--"

"To storage, yes," Lewis supplied quickly. It occurred to him that in all of this he never really considered the cameras, the way they were watching him even if Krasimir or Adolf wasn't in the room. "But I never took the pieces out of the museum itself." Because they weren't pieces, they were fairies! His thoughts justified.

Dean Rushford nodded. "Yes, that does seem to coincide with what we saw on the security camera footage. Thank you for your honesty, Lewis." He clasped his hands on the desk in front of him. "Unfortunately, that brings us to Warehouse 31, and Stanley Finch's complaints. He said that you asked a lot of strange questions at the beginning, but that he never expected any issues--until the ride-along where everything went wrong. Stanley insists that he's never had a ride-along that resulted in such a fiasco, yet from everything you've told me, I can't help thinking that he's exaggerating when he tries to pin the blame on you. Again, I've reviewed the camera footage and it seems you weren't even in Exhibit Hall G when the displays collapsed. The foreman sent you to Hall B, didn't he?"

Lewis felt his spirits lift. Really, not even the cameras had noticed his little detour with the Gyth! "He did," he nodded. "I was in there when I heard all the screaming and crashing and shouting." He wagged his head. "Was anyone able to figure out what happened?"

Rushford grinned. "The safety responders found evidence that some pipes running through the ceiling and the outer walls had burst, leaking water and particulate-laden air into the building and causing irreparable damage. It was nobody's fault, really. I just wanted to see what you had to say about it." The Dean nodded slowly as he allowed the news to sink in. "Anyway, that leaves you without a job to fulfill the student-work requirement for your grades, and I'm sorry to inform you, Lewis, that there aren't currently any job openings here on campus. It's after the start of the semester, as you know, so all openings have been filled, with the exception of the warehouse tech position you are of course vacating at this point."

Lewis stiffened. His lack of employment would affect his grades? "What am I going to do, then?"

A smile flickered around the Dean's mouth. "I said there were no openings on campus, but you're in luck! There's a carnival setting up nearby, one that Browning has worked with before, and the manager has said he's willing to employ Academy students while they're here. It's more of an evening shift, you'll need to take the bus to and from campus every time, and you might have to work a few extra days to make up the hours, but the school is willing to sponsor your bus ticket and waive any missing hours, so long as you can keep the job for the duration of the carnival." He stared at Lewis with his piercing gaze. "Can you manage that? No getting into trouble this time?"

Lewis nodded. Anything to keep his grades up! "I'll do my best to stay out of trouble, sir!"

Dean Rushford grinned and reached out to shake his hand. "Wonderful! The manager's name is Mr. Thaddeus Storm. You'll report to the carnival grounds on Friday, right after your classes for the day."
Lewis stood and nodded as he shook the Dean's hand. "Yes, sir. Thank you!"

He exited the office in a much better mood than he'd been several minutes ago. Sure, it didn't sound like much of an arrangement, and leaving campus every day probably meant Lewis had a lot of late nights in his future--but his grades wouldn't suffer, and at least he'd have something to keep him busy while he figured out what to do next to help his Phantasmian friends.

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Serial Saturday: "Fairies Under Glass" Part 18

Part 18

"Things Go Sideways"

The truck shuddered to a stop, and the jump-suited workers disembarked.

"All right!" barked the man who'd invited Lewis along for the ride. He held a clipboard in his hand. "Let's get these crates out and unloaded in the correct exhibit halls. Half of it's going to Hall B, and the rest is going down into storage for Hall G."

"Oh, hello! Can I help you?" stammered a familiar voice, one that made Lewis cringe and turn toward the wall. Mr. Gilroy!

The delivery handler gave the clipboard to the old curator. "Here's the manifest, sir. We've got some sculptures and paintings for display."

"Hmm, yes," Gilroy skimmed the papers and nodded. "All right, everything seems to be in order. I'll just check things off as you unload."

The man nodded as the others loaded the crates onto flats and dollies. "You know more about where this stuff is going than I do."

Gilroy straightened the lapel of his jacket. "Yes I do--Oh! Young man?" He bustled over to two guys with a crate marked with Krasimir Schlimme's stamp. "Young man," said Gilroy, "this crate is going straight to storage. Take the short way around." He nodded toward a second entrance farther down the back wall of Moulton House.

Lewis saw his chance. He couldn't be sure which crate from Krasimir's warehouse section he'd slipped the Gyth into, but he figured he had enough time to search through them once they were in storage. He flipped up his collar as high as it would go, and pulled his hat down to mostly conceal his face. Seizing the handle on a flat bearing a second crate of Krasimir's "stash", he followed his coworker down to the entrance Gilroy indicated.

"Hey!" the handler barked. "New guy!"

Lewis froze in his tracks and turned to face him. The man pointed to another crate. "Take this one over to Hall B and start unloading," he said.

Someone else stepped in to take the crate from him, and Lewis had no choice but to leave all that behind. He trundled the crate up the utility entrance and started going through the motions of blindly unloading the paintings meant for display, while museum staff set the frames in their predetermined spots.

After the crate was empty, Lewis found himself inside the museum with nothing immediately to do. As much as he felt the urge to stop by Hall G and revisit his friends, he suppressed it, instead heading over to the stairwell down to the storage area. He walked with intentionality, and yet kept his head bent to obscure as much of his face as possible. He arrived in that back room just in time to hear Gilroy becoming very worried.

"Oh, dear, I wonder what this could mean..."

Lewis squinted through the doorway, full of curiosity. Gilroy stood at the table with the delivery foreman. A crate stood open between them, and on the table amid other trinkets and "fairy sculptures", lay the immense Gyth!

Gilroy was examining the manifest very closely. "Hmm, no... I don't see anything about this on there. Where did you say you got this?"

The handler huffed. "I'm not saying anything! If it's in the crate, it had to have come from the warehouse, and if it's from the warehouse, it belongs to this Schlimme guy, so what's the big deal? He must have left it off the request when they entered the manifest to be filled."

"Well," Gilroy hefted the large gem in his hand. "I suppose I'll just have to take it to him and ask what he intends to do with such a display. It's certainly nothing like anything else he has made!"

The curator headed for the door while Lewis was lost in thought, and there wasn't much time to think of an excuse for being down there before the door swung open and almost knocked him over.

"Oh! Sorry, young man!" Gilroy gasped, as the collision knocked the glasses off his nose. The Gyth slipped from his grasp as the old man fumbled, and Lewis barely caught it.

"No harm done, sir," Lewis said, keeping his face pointed away from the curator's sight. "Shall I take this to Mr. Schlimme's office, myself?"

"Eh?" Gilroy grunted, still fidgeting with his glasses and trying to get them on right. "Oh, of course; I'm a very busy man, and I don't much like to pry--but I suppose if you're working at the warehouse, then it would be your business if an item is left off the manifest!"

Lewis pivoted and had his back to Gilroy by the time the old man had his glasses on straight. Take it straight to Krasimir, he thought to himself, Yeah right!

Walking back into the hallway, he studied the Gyth back and front as he mulled over what to do with it. A fain set of grooves along the gold setting at the back caught his attention. The way they were shaped, they almost looked like--

"Links in a chain," Lewis muttered under his breath. Not just any links, though. He stopped in the hallway just outside Hall G and slid his backpack off his shoulder. Opening the small pocket at the very front, he pulled out the Chain. The links there had the same shape and pattern!

A faint fluttering sound overhead made him think of his fairy friends. He imagined actually being able to ask them about it, once they could converse in private. "Hmm, is this how they're supposed to go--"
While he mused, Lewis held the Chain in one hand and the Gyth in the other, and brought his hands closer. He felt the pull of attraction between the two metal surfaces, like a magnet, and as soon as he said the word, "together?" the two pieces connected with a satisfying snap.

The ground began to shake and rumble under his feet, and Lewis heard crashing and banging happening within Exhibit Hall G. He dropped the Phantasmagyth around his neck and slung his backpack over his shoulders as Warehouse 31 techs and museum staff came running.

Lewis went straight for the doors of the exhibit hall, and when he flung them open, a scene of pure chaos erupted before him.

Fairies flew in all directions, while elves climbed up the walls and loosened displays from their shelves and frames. Glass panes shattered, and walls crashed as Lisa the giant stretched out her legs and boomed, "What's going on?"

Lewis located Gathlen in the midst of all the confusion and made straight for the unicorn.

"Lewis!" whinnied the former Guardian. "Have you come to release us all?"

A spinning cloud of fairies zoomed out of the room chiming "FREEDOM!!" and sounding like a drunken bell choir.

"Help me!" Lewis gasped. "All I did was put the Phantasmagyth back together. What's going on?"
Gathlen danced around to avoid stomping on the elves underfoot. "You mean," he blustered, "you don't know?"

"What is that supposed to mean?" Lewis retorted. "If Krasimir Schlimme finds everybody out of their displays, he's going to--"

"What is the meaning of this?" Thundered a savage voice, and Adolf charged into the exhibit hall, followed by a gang of burly, flat-faced thugs. The thugs all spread out with bags and began rounding up the fairies, while Adolf pointed straight at Lewis. "You!" he roared, and he lunged toward the young man.

The bodyguard never got the chance. As Lewis cringed and braced himself for the impact, a high screech split the air, and Lewis looked up in time to see a fearsome lion with claws outstretched, swooping down on massive eagle wings.

"Oh snap!" Lewis yelped, turning and taking off across the exhibit hall floor. Another rumble knocked him off-balance, and a portion of the ceiling crumbled, jarred by Lisa's shoulder.

Lewis kept running, dodging falling pieces of rubble and doing his best not to trip over the fairyfolk and random goblins and ogres rushing around the area.

Something struck his shin and knocked his feet out from under him. Lewis rolled onto his back just in time for the gryphon to sink its claws into his shoulders.

"Augh!" Lewis groaned. "I'm a friend! I swear!"

The talons dug in deeper, and the gryphon began beating its wings. Lewis felt the ground drop away behind him, as the gryphon carried him higher and higher above the milling crowd.

"No!" He reached up and grabbed the talons, his entire body weight now dependent on the creature's grip. "Please, no!"

The gryphon hovered in the air, almost level with the ceiling. It leaned in close, opened its beak, and shrieked right in Lewis' face. Then, as his entire head rang with the deafening noise, it let go.

"AAAAAUUUGGGGHHH!!" Lewis screamed all the way down.

Halfway to the floor, his back connected with something soft, and he saw fingers curl over him.

"Caught you," Lisa murmured, lowering him gently to the floor.

The fairies and goblins were already pouring out of the gaps in the wall of the museum, and the screams of the unsuspecting public were increasing with each passing moment. It was Lewis' worst nightmare, unfolding before his eyes.

Gathlen galloped up to him. "Lewis! You've got to get that thing out of here!" he dipped his nose to indicate the Phantasmagyth still hanging around the young man's neck. "Come with me!"

Lewis moved automatically, swinging onto Gathlen's back as the unicorn charged through a gap in the wall. A net hissed over their heads, draping around Lisa and trapping her arms at her sides.

There were already so many people gathered on the far side of the street with their phones and cameras out, taking pictures of the destroyed museum and the glittering clouds pouring from it, not to mention the gigantic dark-haired woman wriggling frantically against her bonds.

Gathlen kept running till he reached the quadrangle on the far side of Browning Academy campus. There was a small forest there, thick with trees and highly adequate for hiding.

"How do I fix this?" Lewis demanded desperately. "I'm pretty sure every single Phantasmian in the area just woke up, and the Underworlders have rounded up most of the fairykind--but there's the gryphon who got loose, and who knows what they're going to do to Lisa..."

Gathlen bucked his head. "Take the Gyth off the Chain!"

Lewis lifted the gem, but the chain and the back of the Gyth seemed to have fused into one piece. "How, though?" he wailed. "It's stuck! I can't--"

A menacing roar cut off his words, and Lewis dodged just in time to avoid the dark shape that hurtled out of the bushes toward him. A wolf! But not just any wolf.

Lewis saw the way the beast glared at him, the way it snarled and slunk toward him.

"Adolf!" Gathlen whispered.

"Give... me... the... Phantasmagyth, boy!" Adolf's deep, hollow voice issued from the wolf's mouth.

"Take it off!" Gathlen repeated from his hiding spot, as Adolf's confident steps closed the distance between him and Lewis.

"I'm telling you, I--" Lewis felt his fingers close around the edges of the gem, and in the same moment, the Chain fell away, and Adolf launched himself at the defenseless boy.

Lewis caught the full weight of a man slumping against him, and there was little he could do as Adolf's human head connected with a tree behind him, knocking the bodyguard out cold. Lewis worked his way to his feet.

"Gathlen," he whispered, "it worked!" He heard no answer, so he wandered toward the last place he'd seen the unicorn. "Gathlen?"

Inside a thicket nearby, he found the unicorn, cold and stiff, with his hooves poised in the air, just the way he'd been paralyzed. Lewis felt a twinge of disappointment, but he backed away and left Adolf and Gathlen behind. Krasimir's agents would find him eventually.

On his way back to the dorms, Lewis glanced toward the section of campus where Moulton House stood. The jagged edge of the ruined wall still jutted against the sky under the setting sun, and there were still plenty of people and emergency services personnel on the scene.

His shoulders ached where the gryphon had clawed him, and Lewis' whole body felt like it was made of jelly.

Within moments, a cloud of glittering, shimmering lights surrounded him, as all the fairies freed from their displays who managed to escape the goblins now gathered around the one responsible for their freedom.

"Thank you, noble human!" chimed a fairy. "We have been dispatched by our Queen to carry you back to your place of rest."

Lewis couldn't even concentrate enough to respond, but he felt the tug of dozens of tiny hands on his clothes, and his feet no longer touched the ground. Instead, he floated, borne on a cloud of light, all the way to the dorms.

The fairies didn't use the door, but the window to his room slid open on their approach, and the fairies carefully slid the backpack off his back before they deposited him safely on his bed. Sleep finally claimed him, and Lewis spent the rest of the night dreaming of hopping goblins, clattering fairies, angry gryphons clawing at him, and vicious werewolves chasing him through an endless labyrinthine museum that continuously crumbled around him as he ran and ran.

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Reader's Review: "Threats By Numbers" by Kimberly A. Rogers

 

Synopsis from Amazon:

Everyone has a number but only a few can see them. I’m one of those few. And now it might get me killed.

I’ve been in hiding all my life. Working as a secretary for a paranormal relocation and PR firm is quiet, simple, and above all filled with low numbers. But then I see a man who’s registering as a Ten — They aren’t supposed to exist. To make matters worse, he’s the firm’s new security specialist.

One incident changes everything. In protecting the firm, I’ve been exposed and now far bigger threats are closing in on me. Hunters who won’t stop until they’ve brought me down. I don’t know who to trust.

The most dangerous man I’ve ever met is offering protection. But trusting him might be the last thing I ever do.

Threats by Numbers is a fast-paced Supernatural Thriller with romance and humor set in an urban fantasy world.

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My Review:

Back in 2015, I encountered Kimberly Rogers for the first time, through her series the Therian Way, which was part urban fantasy, part alternate-universe (where humans, Elves, and Therians--shifters--coexisted in the modern world), and part clean romance, and all of a sudden I had an author and characters I could obsess over! I didn't realize how much I actually enjoyed a good shifter story, because till that point the only shifter novels I'd heard of were Omegaverse smut, or just really dark trashy stuff. 

But this? This was beautiful, enthralling, and absolutely wholesome.

But that is all to say that I have come into the "Rogue Spotter Universe" knowing that Rogers is an author I trust to deliver excellent twists, a well-paced plot, great characters... and the fact that she's currently re-vamping the Therian Way series, so this is pretty much the only way I'll be able to enjoy anything close to those characters for the immediate future! (Boo...)
That being said, in the absence of Therians Baran and Raina.... Lauren and Mathias are a reasonable substitute. I wouldn't say "comparable", but "reasonable."

Not going to lie, I really enjoyed it. First of all, it's set in the Seattle/Olympia area, which very familiar to me, living in the Pacific Northwest my whole life! Rogers nails the vibe of that place, even with her paranormal twists to it--I get definite Grimm or Supernatural feels in this one! Whereas this series seems more focused on Fae factions than actual shifters, Rogers still displays a strong grasp of folklore and masterful ability to create her own original brand of "superpowers", such as the eponymous Spotter, a parahuman with the ability to see a person's threat level, depicted as a number from 1 to 10 hovering over the person's head.

Lauren, a Spotter, has been keeping her head down and staying low-profile for a few years as she's worked for a PR firm that deals with relocating monsters and paranormal entities that threaten the safety of normal people living around them. She's a simple secretary, completely comfortable in maintaining a bubble of low-risk people around her.

Mathias arrives as a security assessor dispatched to the firm to ensure that intimate company secrets are not threatened, no leaks are imminent, and that they can continue their job of cleaning up and quieting down rumors and encounters with paranormal beasties and other sorts, maintaining the safety and status quo of their clientele... but in Lauren's eyes, he's the most dangerous person there.

It's kind of obvious from the start where the whole story arc is headed, at least where Lauren and Mathias are concerned. Just your bog-standard enemies-to-lovers, will-they-won't-they, wholesome romance. It's the part of the plot that doesn't deal with the relationship drama that I found most intriguing, though, and that I think is where Rogers shines. It's a web of mystery carefully constructed and patiently doled out one scenario at a time, with moments you see coming, and twists you don't. And it seems the partnership between Lauren and Mathias has only just begun!

I would give Threats By Numbers a hearty *****4.5 STARS***** and include for good measure an Upstream Writer Certified WHOLEHEARTEDLY RECOMMENDED, if only because it comes from very much a trusted source! It's a bit mundane in its plot in many ways, but if you come for the romance, guaranteed you're going to stay for the intrigue, the world-building, the fantastic lore, and the amazingness still to come!

Further Reading: (Also by the Author/Urban fantasy/Wholesome/Romance)

The Therian Way--Kimberly Rogers
       -Leopard's Heart 
       -Wolf's Path  
       -Tiger's Shadow

Verona: The Complete Mermaid Tales--Pauline Creeden
       -Scales 
       -Submerged 
       -Salt 
       -Surfacing

The Fair Folk Chronicles--Jeffrey Cook and Katherine Perkins
        -Foul is Fair 
        -Street Fair 
        -A Fair Fight 
        -All's Fair 

The Alexander Legacy--Sophronia Belle Lyon
       -A Dodge, A Twist, and A Tobacconist 
       -The Pinocchio Factor

The Bhinian Empire--Miriam Forster
     -City of A Thousand Dolls 
     -Empire of Shadows

Wonderland Guardian Academy Series--Pauline Creeden
       -Red The Wolf Tracker

The Time Tree Chronicles--Lisa Rae Morris
       -The Emergence

-Anamatus--Derrick Tribble

Upstream Updates: Mid-Year Check-In

Life Stuff

Well! "What with one thing or another..." Six MONTHS pass! Where has this year gone?

I'll just say it, getting sicker than you've ever been really sucks the life out of you! It eats up your time and your strength... Almost like being hooked up to The Machine!

2022 started with me and all the rest of my family coming down with Omicron in various stages. Mine started with intense fatigue and a sore throat in the second week of Winter Break, (so, right around Christmas/New Years) and by the time school started again, I was moving slow and short of breath, but at least the joint-buckling aches had gone away! I thought if I just walked slow everywhere, I could get by, but by the afternoon, my principal stopped me and sent me home to recuperate. Y'all, I spent the rest of the week doing everything I could to fight it: taking meds, resting, drinking tea (me, a non-tea-drinker, managed to develop a taste for Throat-Coat tea (with lots of mallow root and slippery elm), albeit with an inordinate amount of Starbucks Cinnamon Dulce creamer mixed into it! By the next week, I could breathe and I wasn't coughing much, so I returned to work victorious and hoped things would get back to normal.

The trouble was, being sick for so many weeks really slowed down my writing and reading habits... like, almost completely stopped any sort of motivation or momentum I had going. My plans to hit the year running with the second draft of Fugitive of Crossway? Pfft. I didn't feel like reading much, so it was taking a long time to finish ebooks and such.

Then, in March, I all but confirmed that I wasn't just "shedding because my hair was too long and it had been three years since my last good haircut"... I was actually losing hair from all over my scalp. Like, I could hardly run my fingers through my hair without pulling out a few hairs, even just shaking my hair, I could watch them float away down my arms. And when I got my hair wet? Yikes... Whole palm-fulls of hair. I went from having "fine, thick hair" to a scraggly mane of "barely enough hair for a ponytail" in about a month. I took to buying a bunch of wide cloth headbands and wearing them to hide my seriously janky hairline, as spots around my temples had thinned enough to see my scalp through the hairs that remained. It was an awful couple months of not seeing any improvement at all, and wondering how long I'd have to coddle my own scalp... It finally stopped actively falling out by the end of April, and by now, I can see small one-inch spikes of new hair growth poking up through the longer hairs, so that's encouraging, to say the least!

Suffice to say, I have not hit my monthly writing goal of 25K a month even once this year... At last count, I've only just barely cleared 60K, all told so far. It's dismal, but here's to a better and brighter second half!

Writing

Fugitive of Crossway

As I mentioned before, spending the start of the new year sick as a dog really threw a spanner in the works of my writing habit, as even after I recovered, I didn't want to push myself too hard and risk undoing the progress I'd made... especially when things turned from "recovering from illness" to "but your hair is still falling out" for three months!

I'm just glad I was able to plunk out all my notes and get those finished up before things went sideways, because no matter how many days passed without any kind of motivation or energy to write, I knew I could always come back to it.

The toughest thing about second drafts, though, is figuring out what to keep, and what to add, and specifically how the small details need to change. I think the thing I'm running into with Fugitive is something I've expressed before, that this wasn't like Princess of Undersea, where it was a short story told in separate installments with certain details and transitions glossed over. It was much easier going back through the pieces I had for the fanfiction and adding and embellishing scenes to more fit a novel's storytelling style, than it is to now take what is essentially a novel and figure out how to cut things down to size so it doesn't feel like it's dragging or overblown!

With that being said, I think I probably won't make a big deal about how long it is anymore. I can't compare Book 1 and Book 2, when both are essentially telling enough of their own respective stories as it is. Perhaps Books 3 and 4 will end up a similar length to Book 2, and it will look more like I planned it this way all along!

At this point, I've only just finished Chapter 1, and the thing that I've changed is putting more things right after one another in the first scene. Rather than starting in the evening and overlapping into the next day, I just started in the morning and put everything into the same day, using the events themselves to pass the time, rather than telling a story like "and then Main Character went over here and did this", "and then Main Character went Over There and Did That." The difficulty came in trying to figure out how to work the secondary plot and make it more related to the first! One chief complaint from my "alpha reader" (my brother, who read the first few chapters of the first draft) is that Mellisande, my secondary Main Character is rather confusing and he has no idea why the two stories are connected, so at first it feels like gratuitous self-insertion. (Which, if I'm being honest, it kind of is... but I don't want that to be the whole summation of her character!) The thing is, her connection to Simon and the others isn't really revealed until like Chapter 7 or so, which means I am faced with the challenge of trying to make her relevant in the chapters building up to that. It took me about six different tries to come up with an opening that is as attention-grabbing as the very start of the book, but at long last, I figured it out, and was able to complete the chapter. So now it's on to Chapter 2, and beyond!

I'm really hoping I can get the rest of the draft done in these next couple months. I am desperate to have a second book on the market!

Fairies Under Glass

So... This is the other project taking up space in my imagination. I started it when I finished the first draft of Fugitive, and it's plugging away quite satisfactorily!

There have been quite a few changes from the very first time I wrote it. I went through a couple different choices with the name of my main character, just because I wanted it to fit more into the new style--so "Casey" became "Lewis", and the fairy character whose name had always been more of a placeholder "Sheerya", became "Ashwyn." The names that didn't change, however, are those of Krasimir Schlimme--the villain--and his bodyguard, Adolf. Those names are just so diabolical and fitting, nothing will ever induce me to change them.
I think the most interesting aspect about going back and rewriting a story I wrote so long ago is the fact that when I wrote it--I hadn't even graduated college yet! My concept for "Browning Academy" was definitely something I'd made up without any concept of how a formal education worked, I was just making things up based on what I'd read in books and such.

Now, having worked in public schools for almost ten years, I feel like I am more able to infuse the story with some of my real-world experience. Sure, Browning Academy is really an odd institution with its closed campus and requirement for students to register for "work experience", but it's not completely outlandish. I think it also gave me the leeway I needed to give Lewis friends around him that he's meeting up with, or they're interrupting his day to hang out with him, so it's not just him all by himself with the fantasy folk.

I've nearly gotten to the point in the story where things are really going to go sideways (I suppose it would be the climax? I am trying to decide whether there is an actual point where everything in the story culminates before the actual ending... but that just goes to show the kind of stories I used to write when I first started!) and I've almost completed my notes for how the rest of the story is going to be revised in this serial... but if you haven't started it yet, now is as good a time as any!

Reading

Reading was the other activity to suffer due to my illness and prolonged stress of this year!

In January I finished two books. Pendragon: Merchant of Death by D. J. MacHale, I wanted to be impressed with it, I was ready for a chaotic, fun adventure... but reading it kind of left me with the impression that it aimed for a reading audience much younger than what I was expecting. I mean, I know I'm not the age range for Middle Grade or Young Adult--but really, I have found selections of very good writing in spite of the target age range, and this... wasn't it. The narration felt very Middle-Grade-ish, but some of the events and scenarios felt more advanced, like it was directed more at Young Adult readers because it would be too intense or too graphic for Middle-Grade readers! I don't know. It just wasn't my thing. The other book was a Reader's Review featured read: Death Rites by E. A. Copen, and you can find my review of that title at the hyperlinked text.

Then in February, I only managed to finish one book, Archenemies by Marissa Meyer. It's the second book in her Renegades trilogy, and I really love what she's done with the story and the characters! I don't mind the romantic subplots she puts into her stories because the story is still compelling when you disregard it!

March, I believe I actually managed to get out to the library, so I had more new books to read, and more motivation to finish them! I read Library of Souls by Ransom Riggs, the next installment in the Miss Peregrine series, and I think a satisfying conclusion to this particular story arc (as I believe the next three books kind of put the characters on another arc, while this one had a lot of closure for the mysteries presented throughout). I really enjoyed how he developed the lore and concepts, and the way Riggs uses strange antique photos that would normally be discarded as "flawed" somehow, or just ended up poorly exposed, damaged, or just aged, and turns them into illustrations for the scenes he describes in his narrative is highly inventive and really lends a dose of realism to his urban fantasy world!

That was also the trip to the library when I discovered that Anthony Horowitz had written a sequel to Magpie Murders, called Moonflower Murders! It was a thick book, but I powered through it. I love the way he gives it all the feel of a classic Doyle or Christie whodunnit, even going so far as to include the fictional "novel" said to have contained clues to the mystery at hand in the actual book itself, so readers can go "direct to the source" themselves, and venture to solve the mystery along with the characters. Brilliant.

The two indie books I read in March were Argentum by Debbie Manber Kupfer and A Promise Due by Amy Hopkins. The former book came as somewhat of a surprise because it had been so long since I read the first book in the series that I kind of forgot that the tone was less "middle-grade" and more "Young adult" so some of the scenes were a little more graphic and intense than I anticipated! The latter, however, was just as delightful and enthralling as I wanted it to be--but for more specific impressions, you can click on the hyperlinked titles to read my featured Reader's Reviews.

April, I finished reading the library books with One By One by Ruth Ware, Dragon Teeth by Michael Crichton, and Skyward by Brandon Sanderson. I've decided that I like Ware's style, she can really write a mystery! I thought I was reading the signs and following the clues, but the red herrings really got me this time around! Dragon Teeth was a bit of a departure from Crichton's signature "science fiction" and more along the lines of The Great Train Robbery in that he crafted a story around espionage, survival, and the human aspect of things, rather than science, technology, and speculation. Skyward was "Branderson" at his best, crafting a "City-of-Ember-esque" world where the society that lives underground is told certain things about the possibility of life on the surface that are supposed to keep them from going above, keep them in their prescribed roles for the benefit of the ruling class... until one plucky youngster (a girl this time) gives into her dissatisfaction and sets off to discover the truth... Some excellent, unique concepts at play here that I can't wait to read more of!

I only read one indie title in the month of April, and that was Danarko by Maxina Storibrook. You can read my official review by clicking the hyperlinked text.

Then in May, I didn't get out to the library for any more books, so the only other titles I read were two anthologies for which I wrote Reader's Reviews: Mythical Doorways which was an anthology by the Fellowship of Fantasy, and Cracks in The Tapestry, the anthology I participated in along with the Tapestry Group. Again, check out the hyperlinked titles for the full reviews.

As for what I'm currently reading, I'm about three quarters of the way through Threats by Numbers by Kimberly A. Rogers. This Rogue Spotter Universe series ties into her Therian Way series which I loved--and also, which is getting a reboot, an update, if you will. The main characters, Lauren and Mathias, don't really strike the same chords in me as my favorite Therians, Baran and Raina, but the mystery she's setting up in this book is plenty intriguing, so I can't even be mad about that! I've also got two books on my nightstand: Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson, which is sending off some very different vibes from anything else of his that I've read, and Supernova, the last book in the Renegades trilogy by Marissa Meyer. I also stopped by the library recently and picked out six books, but there's no telling how many of them I'll finish by the end of summer! So... maybe see you in the next quarter? Or perhaps I'll update again in December!

At any rate, whatever happens, you can be sure I will...

Catch You Upstream!

Serial Saturday: "Fairies Under Glass" Part 17

Part 17

"The Ride-Along"

Lewis flinched, earning him a confused frown from the student walking by him, but he managed to regain his composure and keep a straight face as he rounded several corners to isolate himself. He put out his hand, and Ashwyn landed on his palm, her wings flickering with excitement.

"You found it?" he asked.

"Yes! It's here--in another building, though," she answered. "Building C--I saw a few people with the same clothes that you usually wore, so I think you could trade with them. The Captor has commandeered almost half the building with crates of Phantasmians and Underworlders, and actual structures and plants he's brought back from our world."

Lewis sighed. "So, where exactly is the Gyth? Did you see it?"

Ashwyn nodded. "Through a window, in a small room on the side near the front of the building--just like Lisa said, this room is guarded by armored ogres. But inside, I could see it in a glass case, just like Gathlen and the gryphon."

Lewis felt the excitement tingling through his arms. He felt like a criminal mastermind, casing for the heist of a lifetime. "So once we get into the building, all we'd have to do is figure out how to get past the ogres, and we'd have the Gyth, just like that!"

Ashwyn bobbed into the air. "Fairykind could do that easily, especially the elves because they don't glow like we fairies do."

Lewis tensed as he heard footsteps approaching, but the person kept walking down another aisle, and he could continue the conversation, albeit much quieter. He squinted at the fairy standing in front of him. "Does this mean I'm going to have to rescue more fairies?"

Ashwyn's wings twitched. "Maybe?" She chimed coyly. "Just a few more elves, at least. If that makes you nervous," she chattered on, as Lewis was about to cut her off with a protest, "I and a few other fairies can sneak in while you're at class, find the pieces with elves in them, and that way, you can come in later and know exactly who to look for."

Lewis considered the ramifications of his actions. "I don't know..." he groaned. "I think at this point, if I show my face at Moulton House, Krasimir will find out, and he'll get suspicious--"

"Not if you take the place of the student who is supposed to be there!" Ashwyn offered brightly. "You wear a uniform, and you already know how to act like you are just there to do your job."

"Ashwyn," Lewis complained. "I just started this new job! I don't want to do anything to jeopardize it. In a week, maybe--but not on the first day!"

"Fine," the little fairy retorted. "I'll let Queen Evalia know you're laying low for now. We'll be ready when you call for us, and we'll be watching for anything you should know about at the museum."

Lewis nodded. "Okay." He turned away and walked to another section of his assigned area. Once he finished his task list for the day, he checked in with his supervisor, a trim young man with a blunt haircut and narrow eyes. His name was Stanley.

"Got it all done?" Stanley grunted, looking over the list.

Lewis nodded. "Yes, sir."

"Any problems?"

"No, sir."

"Good; report back tomorrow after classes, and you'll do the same tasks again."

"Mr. Stanley," Lewis licked his lips and did his best to appear confident and yet nonchalant, "Can I ask--"

"What?" Stanley grunted, focusing his squinting gaze on Lewis in a way that made the words stick in the younger lad's mouth.

"Um," Lewis stammered, "Is there a chance I could maybe rotate to another building? Or am I stuck at this one warehouse for the rest of the semester?"

Stanley snorted. "What do you think this is, a scenic tour? Hate to break it to ya, but warehouse is pretty much drudge work all the time. I mean, if you want a change of scenery, I guess you could help unload the trucks as they come in, but as far as storage and maintenance, you're pretty much in charge of one area, and one area only. No swaps or rotations."

Well, there went that idea. "Okay, thanks," Lewis muttered, and trudged out of the warehouse lot.
That evening, at Study Hall, Quincy immediately wanted to know what Lewis thought of his new job, and for once, Lewis was glad that there wasn't much to tell.

"We report in, clean our areas, make sure the bins stay organized, sort the shipments as they come in, and keep a log of everything," he said. "That's all." He shrugged and sat back, shooting a glance toward Quincy herself. "What about you? What new job are you trying out this semester?"

The dark-haired girl grinned. "I've got a job at the Browning News Agency, as a journalist. It's so much more exciting than working at the library, but there's still a lot of research and reading and writing to do--I think I like it a lot!"

Jesse had traded in his food court job for a shift at the grocery store, and Henry had found a much calmer, simpler assignment at City Hall.

"New semesters are for trying new things," Jesse remarked, saluting the group with his slice of pizza. "I guess we all took that to heart!"

Meanwhile, Lewis found himself only half-present in the conversation, as the focus shifted to textbooks and upcoming quizzes. Part of him listened and nodded along as the others took turns reading through information about art styles at the turn of the century. The other part of him thought about a room full of stiff, captive fantasy creatures, and a baseball-sized gem sparkling in the moonlight.

For three days straight, Lewis kept his head down and stayed dedicated to his work at Warehouse 31. By the time Friday arrived, he reported to his section of the warehouse dressed in the official Warehouse 31 jumpsuit, just in time for Stanley to jog over.

"Grant!" Stanley barked.

Lewis wiped his hands and turned to face his supervisor. "Yes, sir?"

"Get over to Building C. They're loading a bunch of crates and they need an extra pair of hands."

Lewis didn't hesitate. "Right away, sir." He strode out of the warehouse and headed down the lane to the building with a large WAREHOUSE 31 truck parked in front of the loading dock.

Sure enough, jumpsuit-clad workers bustled in and out of the warehouse with crates stamped with the destination of Moulton House.

One of them stopped when he noticed the young man gawking at them. "What are you doing over here?" he barked.

Lewis raised his hand and waved. "Hi, I'm... here to help."

The dock worker shrugged and waved his hand toward the open bay doors. "Get in there and close up the crates. We need to get them delivered as soon as possible."

Lewis felt a tremor race down his spine. What a great time to have the fairies nearby... if only he'd known about this opportunity ahead of time, he could have brought Ashwyn along! He hustled inside the warehouse.

As expected, several tall, leathery monsters stood against the back wall, some of them only having one eye, while several small crates lined the sides. As Ashwyn had said, there was a portion of this section especially walled-off, with a thick door and a keypad at the entrance. However, when Lewis crept closer and peered through the small window into the room, he didn't see any massive gem. The tables inside the secure area were all empty--and where were the disguised ogres?

"Hey, you!" Someone shouted, and Lewis tried his best to appear as innocent as possible. The man glared at him in much the same way Adolf would. The man even curled his lip at the sight of him, the same reaction as the burly bodyguard. "What are you doing over there?"

Lewis stammered a few unintelligible syllables, trying to craft an excuse on the fly, when the man pointed to where a few open crates stood next to a table laid with row upon row of glittering brooches and sculptures that looked like they were intended for the museum gift shop. "We're supposed to be packing these ones, dingus. You're not authorized to touch anything else."

Lewis nodded emphatically. "Oh, right, okay!" He shuffled over and began fitting the lids on the crates as the other man nailed them shut.

As he grabbed the lid for the next crate, a flashy object caught his eye: there, amid the jeweled roses, strange coins, and bedazzling dragonflies (and miniature dragon sculptures) was a large white gem in a gold setting. The shimmering gem was about the size of his fist, and Lewis didn't have any doubts as to what he was seeing. The Gyth! Out here among the rhinestones and quartzite "crystals"!

Lewis quickly checked with his eyes. The man's back was turned, and the only other people in the room were fussing with an eight-foot-tall crate. Quickly, he snatched the Gyth and shoved it into the crate in front of him with one hand, while fitting the lid on top of it with the other. The lid settled over the frame of the crate with a thud that brought the other man's attention around.

"What are you doing?" he snarled.

Lewis patted the top of the crate. "Just making sure everything is secure, sir," he murmured.

The man rolled his eyes, but he walked over as Lewis backed off, nailing the crate shut.

Lewis cleared his throat. "Will that be all?" he asked.

The man shrugged as the others came in to cart away the sealed crates. "Yeah, that's what we needed here... unless you wanted to do a ride-along--"

"Sure!" Lewis didn't want to appear too eager, but just as someone curious about the warehouse jobs in general. "That sounds great."

The man jerked a thumb over his shoulder. "Get in the truck, then. We'll drive out to the museum, unload, and drive back."

Lewis nodded quickly and headed for the loading bay. The last few crates were going in the cargo space, and he headed for the cab.

"I'm a student intern going to ride along," he informed the confused driver.

The driver shrugged. "Okay, just sit in that middle seat there and try not to bother any of us."

Lewis obediently took the seat he indicated. A few minutes later, four workers opened the doors of the cab, but there were really only three seats available.

The driver shrugged. "Gonna have to squeeze. The kid is riding along with us."

The next thing he knew, Lewis felt the rumble of the engine under him as he sat, the only teen in a cramped cab full of adults in the same pale warehouse jumpsuits, headed back toward the center of Browning Academy campus en route to Moulton House.

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Reader's Review: "Cracks in The Tapestry" by The Tapestry Group

Synopsis from Amazon:

What happens when the mundane and the fantastic meet? We get Cracks in the Tapestry.

Review for Cracks in the Tapestry follows description.
A former secret agent’s sister return from the dead, bringing with her mysteries surrounding her miraculous return?
A Reverend takes his message from God to a new planet eager to spread the gospel.
A NASCAR driver discovers there is much more happening on the track then he ever had imagined.
A thief must steal her love’s most prized possession.
A scientist discovers something very peculiar about an archeologist exhibiting odd behavior.
A newborn siren discovers a man who can resist her song.
A Sioux warrior must face off against the might of the US Military Remnant to defend his home and people.

Will you peer through the Cracks in the Tapestry?

>>>>>>>>>

My Review:

Ever since publishing Princess of Undersea for the first time in 2016, I had been looking for more publishing opportunities. In 2017, I contributed a short story to Dreamtime Dragons, and it was about that time that another group of authors from a writers' group I was part of on Facebook decided to produce an anthology, and we called ourselves The Tapestry Group.

The theme for the anthology was "when fantasy bleeds through into reality", and now that I have finally read all the stories involved, I wanted to review some of them!

Cracks in The Tapestry starts out reasonably well with "Ghosts of the Past" by Arthur David, a rousing crime-thriller style mystery tale of two sisters who had once been agents of a clandestine organization, until one sister got killed and then the other sister decided she wanted out of the organization. The twist? Five years later, the "retired" sister gets recalled when she receives word of an attack perpetrated by none other than her long-dead sister. What is really going on, here? Is someone impersonating her sister, or has the organization managed to do the impossible in her absence? I found the story relatively intriguing, although the pacing was a little clunky in places, and the ending felt rather abrupt--but all in all, a great start to the anthology, for sure!

Next up was "The Revival of Om" by R. Eric Smith--and I have to say, I found both his stories (he also had a second story in the anthology, "Through The Eyes") highly entertaining and unique! "The Revival of Om" is set up like a story of a preacher heading to the Wild West to present the Gospel to the native cultures, complete with a language barrier and a famously loose grasp of contrasting cultural practices... except that this preacher is coming from Earth and attempting to stage a revival on an alien planet. I was especially intrigued to see the way the preacher tried his best to stay straightforward in his presentation, yet when the translator attempted to further "translate" not just his words but the ideas into concepts more akin to the aliens' own belief system, the resulting communication gave new meaning to the phrase "lost in translation"! 

Smith took me on a journey again in "Through The Eyes", as a doctor heads to an asylum in the Congo Republic, where a brilliant researcher has suddenly and mysteriously gone insane, responding violently to her colleagues and babbling in some strange language. The doctor's process of figuring out how to calm her down, and then communicate with her yields some fascinating results--and the twist at the end that brings the payoff to all of the confusion and strangeness had me grinning with admiration! Smith is definitely an author I would read again in a heartbeat!

Of course, there was one story in the anthology I was most excited to read, because I am already a fan of the author. "Life at The Speed of Time" by J. D. Cunegan once again puts on display his strongest skill, and the one I most consistently enjoy across any of his stories: his sense of characterization. A NASCAR driver competing in Daytona experiences a strange sensation while in the middle of his race--not quite deja vu, but almost like magic. His reality is shaken, but as he learns more about it from his own racing team, he discovers that all is truly not as it seems! I think this story was probably my favorite out of the entire anthology! Cunegan does storytelling so well, throwing the reader right into the midst of the action through the eyes of a relatable point-of-view character, and we feel all the chaos, confusion, and curiosity that comes along with the incredible journey! (Definitely check out my reviews of other J. D. Cunegan books at the end of this review!)

The other stories in the anthology were quaint enough, just not as spectacular as the ones I've already mentioned. "The Sky-Rock Thief" by C. Scott Davis and "The Sioux" by Benjamin D. Pegg were both somewhat stories that followed characters from Native American backgrounds, with Davis' tale taking place far back in history, while Pegg's story brings the Lakotah culture far into the future. I found the contrast of time relatively interesting, but as far as the characters themselves, or even the plot, it just wasn't as thrilling as the others. And the final contribution to this anthology was a simple poem by Lorna Woulfe, a few stanzas describing the sensation and the experience we wish for the readers in this collection of stories, as they witness these "Cracks in The Tapestry."

My story "Heartsong", I'm opting not to review, but you can read a review of it from another reader by clicking the hyperlinked text! Here, I will just mention that it takes the archaic superstition that "a woman aboard a ship brings trouble" so the common response was just to throw her overboard, and turns it into "origin lore" for the mythical siren, a beautiful creature who could sing such alluring songs that men would throw themselves overboard at the sound of it. It was a fun tale to develop, not quite "Little Mermaid" but more along the lines of a gender-swapped, mermaid-themed "Beauty and The Beast", as my main character, a woman who became a siren after she was tossed overboard, and discovers a man who seems immune to her songs. She holds him prisoner until she can figure out what to do with him, or why she can't seem to drown him like the others.

On the whole, Cracks in The Tapestry celebrates the weird and wonderful dimension just beyond the "real world", and the writers who attempt to peel back that veil separating the two and give readers a glimpse of what is possible on a true flight of fantasy! I'm rating this anthology a solid ****4 STARS**** for the great storytelling on display, and I would definitely recommend it to anybody looking for a pleasant little "sample pack of imagination"!

Further Reading: (Anthologies/Also By The Authors)

The Jill Andersen Series--J. D. Cunegan
       -Bounty 
       -Blood Ties 
       -Behind the Badge 
       -Behind The Mask 

Punk Anthologies--Writerpunk Press Group
      -Sound & Fury: Shakespeare Goes Punk, Vol. 1 
      -Once More Unto The Breach: Shakespeare Goes Punk, Vol. 2 
      -What We've Unlearned: Classic Literature Goes Punk

-Road Brothers--Mark Lawrence

-Dreamtime Dragons--Dreamtime Fantasy Authors

-The Longest Night Watch, Volume 1--Lacey D. Sutton (Editor)

-Notna--J. D. Cunegan

-The Night Alphabet--David M. Donachie

-Mythical Doorways--Fellowship of Fantasy