He's obsessed, insane even. He has to know her, watch her, touch her. She's his, and nothing will stop him. But she's smarter than he thinks.. ••• "You call me if he bothers you ever again, yeah?" "It's really nothing I-" he cuts me off "You'll call me." He says firmer "okay?" "Okay" I say softly, looking up at him. He's so fucking close to me. We just stand there for a moment and I'm having trouble remembering how to breathe. He leans closer, gently tilting my head up so that my eyes stay on him. "Good girl"

A little girl in a pink, cloud-soft frock once wandered into a world that should have warned her away. She found them at the edge of a dying playground. Two identical boys, caked in mud, standing too still for children their age. Their eyes followed her long before she spoke. "Why are you both sad?" she asked, her voice light and untouched by caution. They smiled. "Because we are dirty," one said. "And no one wants to play with us," the other added. It should have been a simple answer. It wasn't. She frowned, as if the world had made a small, correctable mistake, and took their hands without hesitation. That was the first choice. The smallest one. The one that mattered most. By the time they reached the park, the air felt different. It was quiet and heavier than anything, as though something unseen had drawn closer just to listen. "Let's play," she said brightly, tossing a ball into the space between them. But there were only three of them. And she refused to leave either side. So she ran back and forth, laughter breaking into breathless gasps, small shoes scuffing against the dirt as she tried to belong everywhere at once. With him. With him. Never choosing. Never stopping. Until the boys stopped smiling. Until they simply watched. "You'll get tired," one of them said softly. "You can't play both sides forever," the other murmured. But she only grinned, flushed and stubborn, her voice trembling with a promise she did not understand. "I can. And I will play with both of you." That was the second choice. Years later, when the bodies began to surface, when whispers of manipulation, obsession, and something far darker crept into every room she entered, no one thought to trace it back to a sunlit afternoon and a game that never really ended. But some games don't stop. They wait. And the most dangerous players are the ones who were never taught to choose.

Geoff and Naomi are dead, and they're depressed, but when Geoff's cat Bernie dies as well, they embark on a wild journey to find it in the underworld. ***** When Geoff dies, alongside his girlfriend Naomi, they end up sharing an apartment in the Underworld as skeletons. But after a few years, Geoff starts suffering a mid-death crisis. What's the purpose of going through the motions as a skeleton if you can't really live? Then he gets word that his cat, Bernie, just died and he can collect him and bring him home! Geoff and Naomi hurry to get Bernie only to discover that, due to a clerical error, their cat has been lost. With the hunt for Bernie giving new purpose to Geoff's un-life, he and Naomi begin a quest to get back their cat. Battling skeleton pirates, climbing the sky ladder and facing off against the villain who took Bernie, Geoff is determined to find his purpose - or die a second time trying! [[2018 Wattys Winner - The Originals]] [[word count: 30,000-40,000 words]]