October Sci-fi & Fantasy
()
About this ebook
Top Writers Block brings you 9 sci-fi & fantasy tales to read during the breaks in your day. Aliens, ghosts and dolls do their best to worry you or make you smile. They might even frighten you. All the authors' proceeds go to Sea Shepherd (France), who devotes itself to protecting our oceans and seas and the life within.
Top Writers Block
Top Writers Block is a diverse and eclectic group of talented writers who decided to write stories together - just for the fun of it! We are happy to announce that authors proceeds have always gone, and will continue to go, to Sea Shepherd.fr every time Smashwords has made a payment! Thank you to those who have supported the group, independent authors, and Sea Shepherd. Our collections are usually written with one theme or genre in mind. Each author contributes when they have the time, so some of the collections have as many as twelve authors participating. Every collection has something new, with stories and poems ranging from romance, drama, and adventure to mystery, fantasy, and horror. All the Top Writers Block's proceeds will go to Sea Shepherd, so by buying you are helping to keep our oceans alive! Thank You all so much!
Read more from Top Writers Block
Loneliness Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStitches Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRibbon & Yarn Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRune Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCareless Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAging Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJustice Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMountains/Rainbows and Lonesome/Coping/Too Much Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsVigilance Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGardens Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPoverty Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBack Roads & Water Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsParade Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhy Me? Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWho Would Know? Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMeetings Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRequieted/Unrequieted Love Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTop Writers Block Presents Moldy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHumor Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWheels Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLeaves In the Wind Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPain Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWell... Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRed Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTop Writers Block Presents Once Upon A Time Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTop Writers Block Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsInto the Night Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFools Rush In... Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Winter Collection Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to October Sci-fi & Fantasy
Related ebooks
Ghosts are Assholes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIn the Shadows Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsQuantum History Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Gnome Problem (a novelette) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBlame The Goth Girl Vol. 6: In The Beginning Was The Word, The Word Was With The Banshees, And The Word Was Siouxsie Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Extractor Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Reluctant Renfield: Vegan Vamp Mysteries, #8 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Cane Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe First of Many Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsParanormal Encounters Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Ghost of Julian Kane Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOracle of Spirits #2 (BBW Werewolf Shifter Romance) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAmazing Sexual Practices of Other Worlds Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Pink Boots Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOracle of Spirits #2 (Werewolf Shifter Romance) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOracle of Spirits #2 (BBW Paranormal Romance): Oracle of Spirits, #2 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5One Bullet Too Slow: One Wrong Step 3 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Dream Eater Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Radioactive Vampire Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBlame The Goth Girl Vol. 1: In The Beginning There Was Bauhaus: Blame The Goth Girl, #1 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5My Wife Isn't Dead Anymore Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsConspiracies and Stuff: Dreamland Junction, #1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThat’s Not a Girl, That’s a Vampire Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGaslight and Fog Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIris After the Incident Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cheat Sheets: 108 Stories of Infidelity Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStay Out of the Woods: Strange Encounters, Volume 3: Stay Out of the Woods, #3 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEternal Bite Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsVibrations Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Free Writer Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Fantasy For You
This Is How You Lose the Time War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tress of the Emerald Sea: Secret Projects, #1 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Fellowship Of The Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Priory of the Orange Tree Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The City of Dreaming Books Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Don Quixote: [Complete & Illustrated] Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Assassin and the Desert: A Throne of Glass Novella Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Stories of Ray Bradbury Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Assassin and the Empire: A Throne of Glass Novella Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Assassin and the Pirate Lord: A Throne of Glass Novella Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Piranesi Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Assassin and the Underworld: A Throne of Glass Novella Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Silmarillion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ocean at the End of the Lane: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Picture of Dorian Gray (The Original 1890 Uncensored Edition + The Expanded and Revised 1891 Edition) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fairy Tale Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Immortal Longings Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Phantom Tollbooth Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Labyrinth of Dreaming Books: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Eyes of the Dragon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mistborn: Secret History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Talisman: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nettle & Bone Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Titus Groan Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sarah J. Maas: Series Reading Order - with Summaries & Checklist Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Warrior of the Light: A Manual Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for October Sci-fi & Fantasy
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
October Sci-fi & Fantasy - Top Writers Block
Collection of Short Stories
by
Top Writers Block
on the theme of Sci-fi or Fantasy
October Sci-fi & Fantasy
Copyright©Oct. 2014 Top Writers Block
Published on Smashwords
ISBN: 9781311612373
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
http://suzystewartdubotbooks.weebly.com
Smashwords License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of these authors.
Credits
Cover design : Suzy Stewart Dubot
Table of Contents
RIPPLE by Barnaby Wilde
COULROPHOBIA by Melissa A. Szydlek
BENEATH THE TARP by Don Bick
BLUE HAZE by Suzy Stewart Dubot
ANNIVERSARY LIGHTING by John Muir
DREAMS II by Tracey Howard
IT’S HOW THINGS ARE by Melissa A. Szydlek
VISITORS by Barnaby Wilde
BECAUSE IT’S EVIL by Melissa A. Szydlek
An English writer of quirky verse, short stories, detective fiction and novels with a sense of the ridiculous, now retired from a career in manufacturing and living in the South West of England.
Ripple
by
Barnaby Wilde
Copyright: Barnaby Wilde September 2014
I never used to believe in ghosts.
But, now, I'm beginning to wonder if it isn't the ghosts that don't believe in me.
There have always been people who've seen ghosts, of course. Or, perhaps I should say that there have always been people that claim to have seen ghosts. In earlier times, in simpler times, when people were less well educated, when technology was less advanced and when the church was more powerful, it's perhaps not surprising that more folk believed in the spirit world and the existence of phantoms, spectres, ghosts, call them what you will, but I, for one, was firmly rooted in the present and believed that these sightings were, at best, mistaken. At worst, I considered them to be the ravings of the delusional, or the gibberings of the simple minded. On the whole, I didn't consider them at all and dismissed such talk as harmless twaddle. Mostly harmless, that is. I guess there will always be those that can conjure harm out of almost anything.
I saw my first ghost a little over three months ago.
It wasn't a headless horseman, a woman in a crinoline, a red Indian chief, or even a crying child. What was so surprising about the encounter, apart from the encounter itself, of course, was the sheer banality of it. I was in my own home, watching the re-run of an old film on the television, when I became aware of someone else in the room. He, for it was a man, didn't walk through any walls, or materialise in a flash of light and a puff of smoke. He was simply sitting in the neighbouring armchair, watching the same television as me.
I wasn't aware of him arriving, I simply became aware that he was there.
My first thought was that I must have dozed off and that this man, not someone I recognised, had arrived while I was asleep, perhaps let in by my wife. Maybe it was a friend of hers? Perhaps she was even now making tea or coffee for him in the kitchen. I had no idea.
I'm sorry,
I said. I didn't notice you arrive. You must think me very rude. I think I may have dozed … .
It became apparent that the stranger was taking no notice of me whatsoever. My voice trailed off and I wondered for a moment if I were dreaming the whole incident.
And then … then he wasn't there anymore.
His disappearance was as remarkable as his arrival. Which is to say, that it wasn't remarkable at all. It's just that he wasn't there anymore. He didn't get up and walk away. He didn't explode in a shower of sparks. He didn't even slowly fade away to nothingness. He just wasn't there anymore.
I began to doubt my own eyes. Had I imagined the whole thing? Had I been asleep? Who was the person that I'd just … just what? Had I seen someone, or simply conjured a figure from my subconscious? I stared at the empty armchair for a while, ignoring the TV that was continuing to drone away in the background.
What's up?
my wife asked, as she walked back into the room. She was carrying two mugs of tea on a small metal tray. You look as if you've just seen a ghost.
She put the tray down on the small side table between the two armchairs and sat down in the now vacant chair next to mine.
Are you OK?
she asked, when I didn't answer.
Hmm. Yeh,
I nodded.
You don't sound very sure. You aren't feeling ill are you?
I shook my head. No. No. I'm fine. It's just ….
What?
Oh. Nothing,
I said, and turned back to the film. She continued to watch me for a few moments, before turning her own attention back to the television. I couldn't concentrate, though, and kept flicking glances in her direction, as if expecting that she would be suddenly transformed into the man I'd seen earlier.
We aren't expecting any visitors, are we?
I asked.
No. Why are you asking?
I shook my head. Nothing,
I said. But I had seen something. I was certain of it. Almost certain, anyway.
It was just one day later that the man was back again. It was the definitely same person, though he'd changed his clothes in the interim. This time, though, he walked into the room, paused, raised one hand slightly, with his forefinger pointed vaguely towards the ceiling, as though he might have forgotten something, turned on his heels and walked back out. I was momentarily rooted to the spot and it was several seconds before I followed him out into the hallway, by which time he was nowhere to be seen. This time there was no doubt in my mind that I'd seen something.
My wife was in the kitchen, preparing vegetables for our lunch. Is there someone in the house?
I asked.
She looked at me, oddly. Only us. What made you ask that?
I just saw a man walk into the sitting room.
Didn't you ask him what he was doing there?
I didn't get a chance. He walked back out and …
This was going to sound stupid, even to me.
And what?
And then he wasn't there anymore.
Is this a joke?
I shook my head. No. I've seen him before, though.
"What do you