Kilgore's Five Stories #15: March 2022: Kilgore's Five Stories, #15

By Shaun Kilgore

Kilgore's Five Stories #15: March 2022 brings together more new monthly stories by author Shaun Kilgore. In this latest volume, you'll find A Different Kind of Therapy, the latest of the O'Riley's Bar stories; The Song of the Sleeping Violet, a small town tale where a chance meeting sparks a romance; The Martyr of Cantelania, a young monk called by his god to preach in a corrupt city pays the ultimate price for his faith; The Best Seat in the House, a story that offers glimpses of ordinary lives and the thoughts of a watcher looking down upon them from some faraway place; and Trail of Ash and Bone, a tale of the survivors of a cataclysm searching for a new start.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Founders House Publishing LLC
• Release date: Mar 31, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201373245

Shaun Kilgore

Shaun Kilgore is the author of various works of fantasy, science fiction, and a number of nonfiction works. His books appear in both print and ebook editions. He has also published numerous short stories and collections. Shaun is the editor of MYTHIC: A Quarterly Science Fiction & Fantasy Magazine. He lives in eastern Illinois.

Book preview

Contents

Introduction

A Different Sort of Therapy

The Song of the Sleeping Violet

The Martyr of Cantelania

The Best Seat in the House

Trail of Ash and Bone

About the Author

Copyright

Kilgore’s Five Stories #15

March 2022

Original Short Stories Every Month

Shaun Kilgore

Introduction

I’m back again to present you another volume of monthly short fiction written by yours truly. As as been the case more and more lately, I am offering five very different tales. I’m branching out into other genres much more frequently lately. I feel like it’s time to move beyond fantasy and science fiction some. In this fifthteenth issue of Kilgore’s Five Stories, you’ll find another of my O’Riley’s Bar stories, a fantasy story that delves way back into my eariest fantasy fiction, a quirky romance story, and few more off-beat stories that are technically fantasy, I think. I’ll let you judge for yourselves, dear readers. With that said, read on. I hope you enjoy this month’s selection.

Shaun Kilgore, March 2022

A Different Sort of Therapy

A Nights at O’Riley’s Bar Story

There was nothing worse than the kind of freezing rain that fell in a steady drizzle on that cold December evening. It left this layer of slush on the windshield that was frozen solid barely an hour. The hard crust left behind was damn difficult to get off—especially when your scraper was broken in two! Sheila Richardson cursed under her breath at the lousy luck, and felt like eating nails, when she realized her car’s heater was going to take forever to warm up enough to start thawing the ice. The ancient Ford Taurus was an epic piece of shit, but somehow still got her from point A to point B most of the time. It wasn’t like she could afford to trade it in for the latest and greatest.

The whole episode was made all the more aggravating by the obnoxious day she’d had at work. Even now, with her back facing the office building, Sheila got this mad desire to find something flammable and set the place ablaze. Instead, she continued scraping the windshield with the remains of the scraper.

Finally, she cleared it off enough to be able to see.

Sheila yanked open the door of the Ford and practically jumped inside. Her teeth were chattering and her face ached from the frigid air. She was rubbing her hands together franctically then holding up to the vents. The temperature was noticeably warmer, but by no means, hot. She didn’t think the Ford’s heater core worked that well anymore. Another thing to replace—hopefully after winter was over and she’d gotten her tax check.

Shifting the car in gear, she eased out of her spot in the parking lot and took it slow across the patchy frozen surface. Turning onto Wilson Street, Sheila intended to go home at first, but she passed the turn onto Fairbanks Avenue, and kept going until she reached the intersection with Oak Street. Without really thinking, she turned south and drove towards downtown. She was distracted by her lingering frustrations from dealing with the incompetant twits in management at work that day.

The Ford lumbered along, shaking slightly at each intersection, then squealing slightly when Sheila pressed