Un-Dead: Life Within Parole (Chameleon Moon Short Stories), #2

By RoAnna Sylver

This short story takes place the first October 31st after Chameleon Moon, Book 1.

Parole's devastating collapse left overwhelming damage, and a lot of dead. As the city's de facto leader, Evelyn Calliope does her best every day to hold everyone together, including herself. Now the sweet but sometimes-eerie Jenny Strings says she can speak to the deceased - and someone very important wants to talk to Evelyn. Unfortunately, where Jenny offers treats, Hans is up to his usual tricks. This ex-'ghost'  has a brand-new body, and he's having way too much fun stretching his legs to let someone take his place as the Emerald Bar's resident poltergeist.

Some secrets are meant to be kept. Some are meant to be shared. And some should just stay buried. 

Happy Halloween!

• Language: English
• Publisher: The Sylver Lining
• Release date: Oct 30, 2016
• ISBN: 9781540198778

RoAnna Sylver

RoAnna Sylver is passionate about stories that give hope, healing and even fun for queer, disabled and other marginalized people, and thinks we need a lot more. Aside from writing oddly optimistic dystopia and vampire books, RoAnna is a blogger, singer, and artist. RoAnna lives with family near Portland OR, and probably spends too much time playing videogames. The next adventure they would like is a nap in a pile of bunnies.

Book preview

UN-DEAD: A Chameleon Moon Short Story.

Copyright © 2016 by RoAnna Sylver.

Cover art by RoAnna Sylver.

Formatting by Lyssa Chiavari.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of either the author or the publisher.

All rights reserved, which includes the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever except as provided by the U.S. Copyright Law.

The reports of Parole casualties kept coming in, and Evelyn had a headache. It pounded at her temples the way the gunfire rang outside. Her elbows rested on Garrett Cole’s desk—no, her desk. The plan was always to fall back to the Emerald Bar in a crisis. It was sturdy and defensible, easily protected by Danae’s technology and energetic barriers, and everybody knew its name. So they’d set up their fortress here: Evelyn, Danae, Zilch, Finn, and everybody else they’d been able to scrape together to form a functional team, powered and otherwise.

That Evelyn would lead them hadn’t even been in question. Everyone already looked to her for answers and protection and courage; now it was just a little more direct and official. And every leader needed an office. Fortunately, the Emerald Bar had one. So it was only natural that she ended up in Garrett’s room.

Where he had died.

Evelyn very clearly remembered coming here with Regan—her stomach jerked remembering him too—and seeing the yellow police tape around the Bar’s entrance. Jenny Strings saying Garrett had left a message for her. Listening to that recording, right here. She tried to avoid this room as long as she could, and never stay too