Very well written and I love the unexpected Biblical reference. I enjoyed it. Thank you for taking the time to write this.

> Standing from my chair, and I let out a long, annoyed sigh. “Cain.”

stay awhile and listen!

[deleted]

Not just some random dude it was Marcus Varro

??

Sister Selene Dormund was not in the mood for tricks this night. When no obvious source of the package on the coven's doorstep materialized, she looked down at the foreign object again. It had the proper mailing address, the shape a simple cardboard box. And the receiver was... her?

Who would send a package to the doors of a coven when just about every sister was away? Who would send mail here if they knew that was the case? Why was the package addressed to her and only her?

Common sense told Selene to abandon the package where it lay. But Selene was a sister of the faith, and the faith ascribed all acts in one's life to hold purpose. She glanced all around the coven's entrance one final time, hands shaking as she slowly extended them from beneath the folds of her robes. Then she plucked the package like a forbidden sweet and swept back inside the walls of her darkened home.

Be calm. Selene quickly stepped down the main corridor, towards the sparse room she usually shared with three other sisters. They were off on missions, like everyone else save her. She had been given a different mission: to protect the home and heart of the faith for everyone else's return.

She had kept to her duty for two weeks. The sisters were expected to return at the beginning of the third. They would either be gallivant and celebratory at a successful journey, or silent and grim against rejection and expulsion. Not everyone believed as they did: not everyone welcomed the sisters' presence.

Presence. Presents. Is this a present? Did someone really know...?

She had never spoken about her birthday, never publicized it beyond a simple date in the coven's records. It had come and gone in the past without recognition by others, and she had been fine with that. The faith she believed in was a greater source of joy than the recognition of another year gone by. And she had seen so many years go by within these walls.

Selene immediately moved to her bed, a simple structure with white sheets over a white mattress. Sitting down, she forced her hands to stop shaking before she moved to open the package in her hands. The shadows on the walls danced as the light outside faded into night, echoing the motions of her fingers as they tore cardboard and pulled out wrapping paper.

It's getting dark. I need to light the candles at the altar. But Selene didn't get up from her current task. As she saw what lay inside this package, this object sent specifically to her, her eyes grew wide.

What... is this?

She held the hidden treasure in her hands. It was a candle. A single, white candle the length of her forearm. The wick was midnight-black, the wax smooth and clean. Her nostrils twitched as she smelled vanilla in the air, her fingers and thumb rubbing against the candle's surface to entice more of the aroma.

Vanilla. She sniffed deeper. A vanilla-scented candle. My favorite. But I never said-

She stopped as something fluttered down to the cold floor by her covered feet. Brushing her robe aside in her haste, she gripped the candle tightly with one hand to grab this new curio with the other. Squinting, she recognized it as a white card, blank save for a few words.

Be the flame

And be the light

On this, your

Birthday night.

Selene blinked rapidly, clearing her eyes. A smile slowly bloomed on her face, the surprise and shock turning into a heartfelt happiness. Someone, somewhere, had the faith and courage to send her this treasure. This was no trick, not in her eyes or the eyes of the faith she believed in.

To Selene, this was a sign her unspoken prayers had been answered.

You ask a moderator.

[removed]

That was really good

It's nice.

This was great, well done

I don’t remember how I came into existence. I don’t think I was born like the others. I don’t remember a childhood or a sibling or a parent. I just was and always has been. No beginning and really no ending in sight. I'm fine with that. I think the travelers put so much thought into what they once were or what they still have left to do in their own realities; the reality that isn’t here.

This place doesn’t have an exact name and it changes for a lot of the travelers. Some call this place limbo, purgatory, the void, Bardo, Summerland; the list goes on. I call this place home and, although I didn’t have a childhood similar to any of the travelers, I did learn and grow here. I learned how to help them, how to listen to them. I enjoy it for the most part, but sometimes it’s very lonely. No one ever stays, no one ever wants to. I’m not sure they could.

A deep sigh escapes me as I ponder this for the millionth time. I’m fine with it, really. I tell myself. Who am I trying to convince anyways? My home is pleasant and warm. There’s sunlight that beams through the slightly dusty windows, giving life to the many plants. There are vines reaching their leafy arms over the door-frames, windows, and white bricked walls. Tulips, daises, and lilies cluttered around most of the surfaces. A small, cozy love seat that faces the large oak bookshelves lining the wall and between them a small coffee table made of a large amethyst geode I found many moons ago. The kitchen is directly behind the love seat with large, open windows above the sink. There are many different types of ingredients and food products in the cabinets and refrigerator. They don’t go bad and anything you can think of wanting will always be in there. I don’t have much use for food, but the travelers sometimes find comfort in a hot tea or some chocolate chip cookies. You see, not only do people get lost. This place is for everything that is lost, whether it be a simple fashion magazine or a large amethyst geode you can use for a coffee table. I even get useful guides for building, decorating, and caring for plants. It’s my way of connecting to a world I have never seen so I can understand the travelers and help them more. Sometimes I feel like one of them when I wear their clothes and speak like they do.

I don’t travel too far outside of my home here, there really isn’t much need. I have a large garden paved with stones and crystals. An iron bench sits in the middle surrounded by beautiful wildflowers of every color and variety. I enjoy watching the bees collect pollen and fly about with one another. The birds sing the most wonderful songs as they glide about with no worries. Here there are no predators, no worries, or even death. I have never seen any animals other than birds and insects. Its bliss and calm mostly, the weather is almost always sunny and bright. The travelers take much comfort in this and most of them are confused by the thought of this in-between world being so wonderful and calm.

I take a seat on the loveseat, sinking into its cushions as I snuggle my body into it. I get that familiar tickle in my brain and jump up excitedly, “A traveler!” I exclaim as I rush to the door.

Before they have a chance to knock the door swings open and I see a man before me.“H-Hi, uhm, I think I’m a bit disoriented. I don’t know where I am, but I saw your home and thought maybe you could help me. I can’t find my phone or... Uhm, really anything else.”

I stare at him, slightly bewildered. All of the travelers that come here always know what happened and are angry or sad or just confused on where to go after they pass in their own reality. They always know. I’m only supposed to be here to help guide them on where they go next and to talk them through what next reality options are there for them. To give options and help show the way. “You don’t remember anything?” I ask, panicking slightly. Don’t panic.

He puts his hands on his head, grabbing and rubbing at his short dark brown hair. His expression changes like he’s straining so hard to remember anything. “I-I don’t even remember my name. What’s happening? Please, I don’t understand.” He says in an increasingly panicked tone. Behind him the clouds begin to deepen in color. A gentle wind picks up, delicately swaying the many wind chimes strung along the front of my home.

Shit. “Come inside, it’s okay. Everything is okay. Let’s get you some tea or something.” I beckon him inside and gesture towards the loveseat, “Sit, please. I’ll do everything I can to help you; it’s my job."

How do you set up user flairs?

I looked at the man. "Do you seriously want me to answer that?"

"What do you mean?" he asked, perhaps a touch too quickly. "That's why you're here, isn't it? Don't you want to get hired on for my next job?"

I shook my head politely. "I'm a troubleshooter. I only have two jobs. To know trouble when I see it. And to shoot it, if somebody pays me enough. And you, sir, are definitely trouble. Fortunately--"

He made as if to jump up out of his seat, but he froze when I moved my hand and he saw that I already had him at gunpoint.

"Let. Me. Finish. I was about to say 'Fortunately, nobody's paid me to shoot you.' I remember the job you're talking about, and I happen to also know what the police said was stolen. And I seem to recall that amongst the stolen property were a set of diamond and platinum cufflinks more or less exactly like the ones you're wearing right now."

"So, no. My answer is, 'no thank you.' I have no interest in working for a man who plans an entire heist just to throw off the authorities after he has already performed the robbery himself. But if the reason you actually called me here for this interview is because you wanted to figure out if anyone knew what you did? I honestly don't think that they do."

"Good to know." He swallowed. "You gonna put that thing away?"

"Not yet. Look. I'm going to level with you. You're pretty good at planning heists, but you suck at planning a life of crime. You didn't have a plan in place to liquidate the loot. You didn't do anything about the cameras at the bank. If that kid had been carrying a cell phone, your entire plan would have gone up in smoke five minutes faster than it did.

Now, you've stiffed your crew, you're hiding out in a shabby office in the Mafia's backyard, and you're within the 90th percentile of Uncle Sam's Most Wanted. Let me help you out of this situation you've put yourself in."

I gave him a moment to stew in his own juices, as he wondered what a person with my skillset could possibly do to help him.

"Half a million for all five jewelry sets. Final offer. Do we have a deal?"

"Now, hold on--"

I cocked the gun.

"I said, do we have a deal?"

And here I made a point of grinning like the devil himself.

"Or are you going to make trouble for me?"

I found Sonja pacing in her bedroom, tear stains streaking her cheeks. She sat on her bed for a while, then stood up and sat down at her desk. I suppose she meant to do something as a distraction, but she just sat there, one hand on her mouth, staring into the distance. Every so often, she’d let out a sigh.

I leaned back in the doorway, arms crossed, waiting.

Eventually, she started—maybe she noticed something in the corner of her eye—and whirled around to face me.

“Hello, Sonja.”

“You! B— But you— You’re—”

I waited for her to say it.

“But you’re dead! You can’t be here! How … how are you here?” Her voice trembled. She stood up and walked towards me, silently, as if afraid to disturb whatever situation had been carefully contrived to make this encounter possible. She reached out and poked me, and when all of her senses confirmed my existence, she looked up at me. Funny, I remembered her being taller than me. “How can you be here?”

I stared at her furrowed brows and questioning eyes, trying to formulate an explanation for everything that had happened since I last saw her. “I’m assuming you cremated my body?”

“What? Yes, we did. You … asked us to scatter the ashes, didn’t you?”

I smiled a little at that. “Yes, I did,” I replied, nodding a bit, though to her or to myself, I wasn’t entirely sure. I took in a deep, shaky breath. What was I supposed to say? I opened my mouth to speak, but nothing came out. I tried again. “I’m back.”

“Well … yeah. How?”

“It’s … a long story. Do you have time?”

​

I kept the first paragraph because it adds some context to the following sentence, but I ended up changing my mind about how long it's been since she died, so Sonja wouldn't still be grieving the way she's portrayed in the paragraph.

oh i need a part two

Haha happened to us all I suppose.

I'm glad you had fun, I'm just happy you tried the prompt.

Thanks! I tried to think of how I'd write it if the princess found out by the 5th attempt at first but couldn't get the creative juices flowing. So I improvised. xD Thanks for reading. I had fun with this prompt. Have a nice day!

Godfuckingdammit OP nailed this!

We stopped in our tracks, a latte in my hand, and the door in hers as I was leaving and she was entering. We stood in silence, assessing one another and the creatures behind.

“You see it too?” She mouthed to me, her eyes were watery and heavy, the sky blue irises contrasted by the deep purple circles under her eyes.

I gave her a curt nod, not wanting the Beast to see that I saw what I saw. Be vague. Be mindful. Be stealthy. The Beast that followed her was small, not much bigger than myself. It was covered, in what I presumed to be a cape, but I could see the two features that my creature had - it’s stomach churning, pointy tooth smile, and large empty white eyes…my Beast, however, had eyes as black as night.

Our creatures minded a good distance between, a dozen feet or so. Despite that distance, I knew they could hear, knew they could see. The Beast never missed a thing.

On the spot, I had to invent a way to communicate, to speak with this woman. “Oh my gosh, hey! I haven’t seen you in so long!” I exclaimed, bringing her into a hug. “Play along,” I said ever so quietly, I’m not sure I didn’t just imagine it. “How are you?”

“I’m great,” she smiled, a pained smile; I heard the creature behind her snort. “And you?”

I huffed, “I’m exhausted,” I held up my latte. “That’s why I needed this guy, can I treat you to one?”

She nodded, “absolutely!” She let herself in, and I couldn’t help but catch the creature that followed her. Despite the strength and quickness that this woman closed that door, the creature slid through it with ease and grace; almost like a dancer.

She followed me to the counter where I placed the order. “And the name?” The barista asked, very unenthused to be serving me once again. Everyone The Beast touched reacted the same way to me.

“Addison,” she said, and I could feel her creature stir at her words. At her name. At her. My gut started to rumble.

“It’ll be $5.79,” the barista accepted my payment and moved on, while I stood at the bar waiting for her drink, I motioned for her to sit down at a table.

Quickly enough, her drink was in my hand. “Excuse me,” I whispered to the barista, this one reminded me of a pixie. “can I borrow your marker?”

She rolled the marker over to me, clearly uninterested in what I had to say. I jotted down my phone number, and rolled the marker back, catching glimpse of The Beast. Of my creature.

He had an air to him. One of grief. It never touched anything it was around, except for people of course. It was always floating, motionless above the ground. Watching. With black eyes, soulless eyes. And a grin, that stretched the size of its face; containing teeth sharper than I’d ever seen. I’d never seen what those teeth could do, but the nightmares I’d been having told me everything I needed to know.

Right now though, it’s eyes were on Addison’s creature; and it’s was on mine; they knew the other existed. Did they know we could see the other?

I laid her cup down, “well, I really should be going. Have a lovely day,” I hurried out of the shop rather fast, feeling The Beast follow in tow.

•••••••••••••

It had been weeks. I still heard nothing from Addison. These weeks had been rough, the nightmares worse. I don’t know how I know, but I know my time is ending soon. The nightmares are getting worse, my plants are dead, and my loved ones no longer loved me - all because of this creature, my creature, The Beast. As I prepped for bed, I could feel it in the corner watching me; malice in gaze and hunger in his smile. It was nearly feeding time. It was my end.

He had taken everything from me, stolen the life I had built for myself. And now, his meal, baked in its glory; was ready.

I looked at The Beast, tears filling my grey eyes. “I hope you’re happy.” He growled in response, his smile growing wider; he was proud of the meal he had prepared. My phone rang, which snapped us out of our trance. I went to it, not reading the caller. Not particularly caring. “Yes?”

“This…this is Addison,” the voice was faint, fearful. The Beast snapped his head in my direction.

Oh no.

“Are you okay?” I asked, realizing I’d never told her my name.

“You need to run,” she whispered.

I turned around, ready to sprint; instead, coming face-to-face with The Beast.

I wasn’t fast enough.

Hehe good one

This was a good take on the prompt, I had written it such that the princess figured it out only at the 5th attempt and pulled a wingman.

Also props for making this dude dense and having a hunch, nearly all of us men don't act on the signs

Have a good day writter

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"Uh, everyone? Could we have your attention for a minute?"

My family took a break from chowing down on Aunt Denise's signature buttermilk pie to look over at me and Lana. Instantly, my confidence shriveled up and I thought about backpedaling when Lana rested her hand on my shoulder. "I'm right here, Michelle. You can do this."

I took a deep breath and faced my assembled family again to say, "Lana and I need to tell you something--"

"Are you engaged?"

Half of the room turned to face my cousin Horatio, who rolled his eyes and fired back, "Oh come on, you know what they're like. The first time Michelle brought Lana around, I thought they were married already."

Lana coughed. "Well, yes, but--"

A chorus of congratulations and squeals of excitement drowned out the both of us. As Lana tried to get a word in, I groaned and let out a shrill whistle. As my family finally stopped talking, I said, "That's only part of the announcement. The other part is...well, this."

Lana and I nodded at each other before closing our eyes. I felt my body change, black fur growing out across my body and my skeleton changing shape. When I opened my eyes again, I was a seven foot tall werewolf and Lana had turned into a little black bat that was currently sitting on my shoulder. I smiled sheepishly at my family, who had been stunned into silence, and remarked, "I got turned into a werewolf about a month ago and Lana's a vampire."

My grandpa got out of his recliner and walked over to us with a stern expression on his face. My heart raced at the thought of my grandpa turning against me. He looked me right in the eye and let out a long, frustrated groan. "Do you have any idea how much money you just cost me?"

I tilted my head in confusion. "What??"

Suddenly, my dad let out a triumphant cackle and interjected, "Time to pay up, pop!"

My grandpa grumpily handed my dad a couple hundred dollars before saying to me, "I swore up and down that you'd end up with a demon, your old man said it'd be a vampire. Lo and behold, he got it right."

Lana fluttered off of my shoulder and onto my muzzle. "So, you're...not angry or whatever?"

My grandpa shrugged. "I got out of the monster huntin' vocation a lifetime ago. And even if I wasn't, it ain't my business who my granddaughter falls in love with. Even when it costs me money. Now get yourself some pie and start telling us how y'all popped the question."

I pulled my grandpa into a bear hug and said, "Thanks grandpa."

"Of course, pumpkin. Now tell us the proposal story already, damnit."

Why do I need a troubleshooter? Well, that's kind of a loaded question, isn't it?

After all, if I knew why I needed you, I wouldn't be talking to you. I'd be talking to a specialist. The whole point is to have you on-hand to help contain the damage if things don't go according to plan.

Example. The Midtown National Bank job in 2018. Now, I was not personally involved in that one, but I've worked with most of the people who were, and I can tell you... it wasn't their fault.

That job was a clusterfuck from start to finish. A perfect storm in a bottle. Everything that could go wrong, went wrong three different ways.

So, I'm going to walk you through what happened as I understand it. And after I finish, I want you to explain to me everything that you would have done differently, and when you would have done it.

I mean-- yes, assume you have full access to our comms, you've talked to us beforehand, whatever your usual setup is, you've got it. Because on this job, I don't think it would have helped much.

So it starts with Nick. Sharp guy. Grew up on the wrong side of the tracks. Quick, efficient. Self-reliant. His job was to steal a getaway vehicle without attracting too much attention. (And you have to remember, this was kind of the last hurrah before they started putting those damned chips into everything.)

So we're about half an hour out from the start of the show. And Nick's out there casing the side of the road, looking for a good mark. And all of a sudden, here comes half the city's public works department setting up Christmas decorations. In October! Something about the weather forecast and the budget was going to disappear if they didn't spend it? I dunno.

Anyway, Nick quickly realized the downtown area was too busy to steal a car in broad daylight, so what does he do? He keeps his cool, and he heads north to the underpass. Hotwires a beaten up old Ford minivan that still has its muffler, but a bad enough paint job that he knows it's probably not owned by drug dealers. Quietly drove out of there and then opened it up on the highway.

Rolled up 5 minutes early. The rest of the crew's looking at this thing like "are you even serious?" But it worked and the engine was quiet and the previous owners probably don't trust the cops enough to file a police report right away.

Next up is Jayden. Bit of a mamma's boy, but he knows his shit when it comes to computers. He's not in the van with the rest of the crew. He's stealing wi-fi from a coffeehouse uptown. It's his job to hack into the traffic cameras and shut them down while we're passing through the area, so the authorities don't have as much to go on.

Well, he jacks in, and just as he's halfway through uploading his package, the system reboots. Turns out it just downloaded the latest firmware update. Half of Jayden's tools are suddenly useless. He can't even communicate with the cameras upstream anymore. So what's he do?

He spoofs another set of update requests downstream. You ever try to update something on your computer or your phone, after everything's already been updated? There's like a little pause, you know? Before it tells you that everything's already up to date? Well, Jayden throws together a macro and just starts spamming thousands of update requests downstream to the camera company's server. The server pings back with information about the current version, and all 28 cameras are like going "We're up to date. We're up to date. We're up to date." So you get that little update pause while it checks which version is installed, but thousands of times per second.

It doesn't shut them down, it just makes them very slow. But slow is probably good enough. Traffic is light, road crews notwithstanding, so there's a good chance that our vehicle can slip through the lights.

So now Tyler walks into the bank lobby. He's the face. Silver tongued devil. It's his job to spike the receptionist's coffee. You know, Tyler trained as a stage magician? Never made it big. But one thing all stage magicians know is that the hardest audience to fool is kids. They don't have any preconceptions, they're not concerned about being polite, their heads are all viewing the action from a different angle than your regular adult audiences. It makes sleight of hand almost impossible. And, what do you know, the reception's fucking kid is with her. Twenty minutes to closing on a weekday and she's got this brat with her. There's a whole story behind that but it's too long to get into. So what does old Tyler do?

First, he charms the receptionist, so she trusts him. That was already factored into the plan. But then he wastes five extra minutes that he absolutely does not have teaching this little kid a simple magic trick. And as soon as the little kid starts practicing it, he can dump the powder into the receptionist's coffee with nobody the wiser. She's just about closing the door to the ladies room when the Ford pulls up and Leon jumps out.

Now, Leon got his start in construction, quickly moved to demolitions. And this was back in the 80s and 90s, when the regulations kept changing. So he knew everything from welding to shaped changes. Even volunteered for the Bomb Disposal Squad for a while, until one of the bombs went off while some kids were trying to evacuate. He's nothing if not adaptable, and he came loaded for bear with 3 different ways to get himself into that vault.

And once he noticed that slack-jawed kid staring at him from behind the receptionist's desk, he just froze up. Acetylene torch already lit.

And then he reaches over and pulls the fire alarm.

Well, that got the kid out of the building. And it cleared out the tellers and the back offices. And you can imagine the receptionist clutching her drawers as she flees the bathrooms and whatnot. But it also drew a lot of attention to us and put us on a timer.

So Leon burns a hole through the lock in record time, levers open the vault, and quickly grabs the five lockboxes we were concerned about. Runs out the main entrance, hurls them into the Ford, jumps in and pulls the door shut.

Now, we need to switch vehicles. So, rewind one hour.

I don't know what to say about Devin. He's a real zoomer. He's sharp, he's quick on his feet, and he never misses a trick.

Nick had already stolen another vehicle the day before and parked it in this one parking garage that's normally at about 50% capacity. Premium space on the second-lowest level. Practically all we had to do was pull in, abandon the old vehicle, and peel out.

Devin's one job is to keep an eye on the vehicle and make sure nothing happens to it until the job.

So a beat cop shows up, about an hour out from Go Time. Big guy. Out of shape. Stereotypical as hell, except he keeps everything holstered. Devin takes note, then moves to a place where he's less conspicuous. Half an hour passes. The cop doesn't go inside the parkade, he just stands around outside, occasionally talking to people. Apparently the hustle and bustle on main street made walking his usual beat a little too much like work, so he decided to kill some time here.

Well, this just won't do, but what can Devin do about it? 20 minutes. 15 minutes. Devin gets word through his earpiece that Tyler and Nick are ready to go. Do we have a second car or not?

"We got the car."

So Devin, this fucker, he covers his face, he nonchalantly creeps up on the cop, using the pillars of the parkade for partial cover. He suddenly grabs some lady's purse, runs right past the fucking cop, and then runs a full extra block before making a right turn into an alley. I asked him later why he didn't just make a hard right as soon as he got past the parkade. He said he wanted make sure the cop would follow him at least one block. Well, I guess it worked, but god damn. Coulda been shot if it had been anybody but Paul Blart chasing him. We made the switch, no problem, apart from the fact that Devin was nowhere to be seen.

And like I said, he didn't miss a trick. Left the purse behind as a distraction. Switched out his shirt layers before parkouring down to 6th street. Disappeared into a crowd at the bus terminal. Stupid as hell. But it worked. A month later, he rolls up wanting his cut. Police don't even know his name.

So anyway, we got the car. All that's left now is to get the loot out of the country. Now, Gus is a part-time dock worker in his 50s. Very reliable. Very loyal. Affable. Knows how to keep his mouth shut.

And, normally, all of that would have made him the perfect asset to help us load the second vehicle onto a cargo ship. Nick just has to park it in the right spot, hop in the back with Leon, and it'll get loaded on the ship along with all the other new cars. We meet up in Italy after the ship makes port. Gus is just there to make sure it all goes off without a hitch.

Which is why it's too bad that his buddy operating the crane recognized him from having worked shifts with him previously. I don't know what Gus said to him, and I don't know what they did. The vehicle got loaded onto the ship, just like we planned. But when Leon and Nick left the lockboxes closed until they hit shore. If they'd broken them open, we would have known it.

But when they made land in Italy and we retrieved the lockboxes and finally did break them open, all of the jewelry was missing from them. Now how on Earth would you have prevented that?

(to be continued...)