A collection of science fiction short stories written for Smackdowns or inclusion in Tevun-Krus, Oorah's monthly sci-fi e-zine. I just wanted to let you guys have access to them, since most of these stories end up in some contest anthology somewhere, getting dusty. Hope you enjoy them. If you see text high-lighted, that was done deliberately for the sake of a contest.

Enter a world where Humanity and her mutant offspring, the Dark Edge, live side by side, separated only by an elaborate conspiracy to keep the Dark Edge secret known simply as the Shield. A conspiracy that's about to fall as a group of psionics called the Brotherhood of Advanced Intellects plots to destroy mundane Humanity and supplant them with a super race of their own! Join Mordecai, a Lone Gunman, a powerful psionic tasked with preserving the Shield, Ingamon Lash, his vampire companion, and Tragedy McMaster, a human detective as they struggle to stop the Brotherhood from launching an all out war between Humanity and the Dark Edge.

After having a tantrum in court that lands him in contempt, Chad Barrington is forced to seek counseling and take two months off. Unable to work, this top notch lawyer decides to go on vacation and sooth his battered ego. Chad quickly learns that it's possible to be a total Douche in paradise as well...

"We cannot be conscious of what we are not conscious of." Julian Jaynes. The Origin of Consciousness in The Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind. "Before there was just me now, there was a bunch of other stuff that I don't remember. People keep telling me I should remember, but maybe if you can't remember there is a reason." Thus begins Lara's story as she escapes from a mental Institution. Who is she? What reality should she believe? In a crowded marketplace in Haifa, Lukas's body is wrapped in a bomb, his hand on the detonator. But then, the young man has an awareness of all the lives of those around him, the possibilities, their hopes, their dreams and Lukas doesn't detonate the bomb. Whisked away to a black site, the interrogators brutally try to find out why. Only to discover he has identical DNA with a patient in a mental Institution in the United States:Lara. But this is impossible. A psychological thriller traveling into the intimate and infinite realm of time and parallel worlds. Is Lara's reality the one where she's holding a bloody knife and her family has been slaughtered? Is it the one where she's in the mental institution against her will, being experimented upon? Is it the one where's she working as a gardener for a woman who has secrets of her own? There's an even more frightening possibility with even more potential. That all of them are true. The powers-that-be think they can dig for the answer. By sending her to the Fourth Floor. That's a mistake. Because there is a Fifth.

Headless bodies start appearing in the streets, so cunning Detective Rashida Heyes and her partner have to stop the killer to prevent the apocalypse ***** After bodies start appearing in the middle of the streets, hollowed and headless, Detective Rashida Heyes and her partner, Travis Virgil, are given the case. However, once they dig deeper, meeting the emotionally broken Victor Eccelstone, and realize how heavily the church is involved, Rashida has to acknowledge that this case might be bigger than she had ever imagined. These crimes aren't the act of one man - they're the beginning of the end of the world [[Winner of the 2017 Wattys Storysmith Award]] [[word count: 150,000-200,000 words]]

For the first time in two hundred years the River Thames has frozen over. In the city an Ice Fair has sprung up bringing the wonders of the old Frost Fairs back to London. Its centrepiece is a circus with a Dragon in it. Audiences are captived, the press at odds -is it real or a clever piece of deception. At an old house in Snowfields, Martin Warr is working his apprenticeship at Warr and Pinkel, his father's Undertakers firm when the body of a young girl cut out from the ice of the frozen river arrives to be prepared for burial. When the ghost of Dr Craw, the Southwark Strangler who haunts the Undertakers house suggests that the girl may have been murdered, Martin decides to investigate. The Ice Fair is a curate's egg of a story. A gothic tale of majicians, angels and ghosts, dragons and gods, of murders and the thing that lurks in the dark, twisting currents of the River Thames. And about an Undertaker who thaws the heart of the Frost Queen. Wonderful Artwork by Shirokibo / DeviantArt

What will you do when the Dark comes for you? Trapped beneath the streets of Boise, Idaho, an odd cast of players encounter an ancient evil determined to devour the souls of humanity. Pitted against themselves and ancient forces they don’t understand, each individual’s humanity will be tested. Man, woman or monster? Hero or heel?

I was in Biology 101 when the sirens went off. We were herded in single file to the buses that escorted us to the loading docks twenty miles away. Once there, I got dislocated from my group and watched as they boarded the space pod I was meant to be on. Several minutes later, airborne and on their way to space, the white pod exploded into a ball of flame and ash. Lost in the whims of guilt and relief, I joined another group on a separate pod. Ten minutes later, I looked down upon the Blue Planet for what could very well be the last time. It was not sorrow that I felt for her, but fear. De-ac-ti-vated tells the story of how Earth perished and its inhabitants were forced to flee into the black unknown of space. But leaving Earth was only the beginning. No one could have fathomed what the deep black of the cosmos held for them. Highest Ranking: #62 Sci-fi (02/11/2017) I want to thank @kario12 for a great cover design. Your skill is breathtaking and I love working with you. I would also like to thank Tobias Roetsch for the lovely artwork we were allowed to use. Your talent is superb!!! You can find more of his stuff here: http://taenaron.deviantart.com/

When a replacement crew fails to arrive and he loses communication with mission control, an astronaut on the International Space Station finds himself alone, completely alone. This is a SHORT story, split into five parts. (Originally started with the title "Left Behind" but decided to change it - sorry!)

The harsh winters and freezing blizzards of the tundra are all familiar to Anyu. Living amongst her tribe in the frozen wasteland, she has learned to survive and fend for herself. But when she is lost in a strange blizzard, Anyu finds herself in a world of creatures, spirits, and magic that she has only heard of in legends. Led by her mysterious guide Kano, Anyu searches for a way back home. But before she can leave, she will have to discover the truth about herself and the land she calls home. What has Anyu's tribe been keeping hidden? What is her connection to this strange new world? And what are the secrets hidden beneath the ice? Highest Ranking: #44 in Fantasy Cover by @KatrinHollister