Shine Bright: Short Stories of Weirdness

By Rena Darling

"Beginnings" is the story of how a chance meeting between Sophia and a beautiful stranger sets off career-changing events for both of them. Will It be for the better, or will it be for the worse?

"Samael" is the strange tale of wayward soul Kai, thrust far away from home, meeting the mysterious Samael, who has answers, but they come at a price: Come away with him among the cosmos, or stay trapped in this strange place.

"Dark Box" is a first-person look into a life with regret, and it means to be presented with the opportunity to change that. Would you choose to change your past?

In "Shine Bright, My Star" a mother sits powerless as her son, Julian, lies in a hospital bed dying from cancer. She meets a deliverer, one who takes the soul home. She learns that even it times of tragedy, there is beauty.

"Wolf in Human Skin" gives us a little look into the world of changelings when the corpse of a hound is found to have more...human qualities. It takes a bite out of you.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rena Darling
• Release date: May 5, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463183496

Rena Darling

Rena Darling is a Narrative Design Researcher, Lead Writer and Executive Producer of Role-Playing Games at Onyx Girls Entertainment. She will graduate from Full Sail University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree. Rena has a short story published in Scarlet Leaf Review. Even in her downtime, she tumbles down the rabbit hole of research for fun.

Book preview

Table of Contents

Title Page

Table of Contents

Beginnings

Samael

Dark Box

Shine Bright, My Star

Wolf in Human Skin

About the Author

Beginnings

Ah, freedom! Sophia yelled at the top of her lungs outside the temp agency she just escaped from.

Sophia was usually an Ice skater but decided on a whim to take a sabbatical, to spite her parents. She wasn’t the rebellious type or held a particular grudge against them, in fact she loved them very much. That love sometimes made them push her a too hard with their dreams of Olympic gold. She was fighting, in her own personal corner of the world, for the right to be free.

She looked down at her phone, checking the time. She smiled as she headed toward the bus stop, humming an unrecognizable tune and people watching. The stop wasn’t a long walk, about two to three minutes on foot. Sophia reached the bus right as it opened its doors. After paying the fare she found a window seat in the back and sat down, placing her earbuds in her ears and playing her Hype me up! playlist, trying to pump herself up for the game tournament at a local convention. Sophia wasn’t exactly esports material, but she did pretty well locally when she was able to compete.

A few stops go by as Sophia dazes in and out of reality, letting her mind escape to somewhere less boring than the ride.