**WATTYS 2024 SHORTLISTED** To overthrow the cruel King who brutally slaughtered her foremothers, the last surviving water witch Elara Consuli must team up with novice warrior Juda Vikaris from the Serpent Order and realise an ancient prophecy, before the blood-thirsty ruler discovers her existence and kills her too. Season 1 of The Last Water Witch *** The waters surrounding the Kingdom of Druvaria are deadly. Cursed by the Naiad, the sorceress race wiped out by King Ban-Keren, no one dare step foot into the poisoned waters in fear of certain death. Everyone, that is, apart from Elara Consuli, the last surviving water witch. In Grimefell, the cut-throat slums of the citadel, Elara blends in well with the rest of the accursed thieves and vagabonds lurking in the shadows, but her secret comes with a heavy price. Juda Vikaris, also has a secret of his own. As a skilled novice of the Serpent Order, the brutal assassins loyal to the King, no one escapes his watchful eye or the edge of his blade, and what better way to get revenge for his mother's death at Ban-Keren's hands, than by infiltrating the elite guard itself? But leading a double life is starting to take its toll on Juda as the training of the Order seeks to destroy who he once was and turn him into a cold-blooded, emotionless killer with each passing day. Juda has his own reasons for hating the Naiad and Elara knows all too well that the Serpent Order can never be trusted, but can their mutual hatred of Ban-Keren - and mutual attraction - stop them from betraying one another? In a world of dark secrets and a blood-thirsty King hell-bent on retaining power any way he can, Elara and Juda must decide whether to stand together and fight, or to trust in their natural instincts and remain enemies until the bitter, poisonous end.

When Sarah Solomon took refuge in an old cottage in the woods, she knew it would only be a matter of time before the monsters came a' calling. Cursed with a power she neither wants, nor knows how to harness, Sarah has become a target, but who is her hunter? The army of monsters at her door? Or the lone vampire who has killed many of her kind and is now claiming he's the only one who can save her? Faced with little choice, Sarah flees with the one creature she knows she shouldn't trust, only to discover their connection runs far deeper than a chance meeting in the woods. In fact, it's as deep as the blood running through her veins.

'Whitechapel. The East End of London. Streets of tawdry degradation and grisly dark crimes of unlimited horror.....' From the comforts of London's middle class suburbia, to taking refuge in an old abandoned asylum in Whitechapel, Megan's life has changed immeasurably since meeting the vampire, Harper Cain. Now living with Harper, his blood brother Garrick and Garrick's gang of mercenaries, Megan finds herself at the centre of an age-old war between the vampires and their enemies, the lycan-esque Varúlfur. Still struggling to cope with the turn her life has taken, Megan discovers that not only is she unable to escape the ghosts of her past, but she is going to have to contend with some very dark revelations about her future. A vampire with the history of Whitechapel running through her veins she might be, but Megan will soon learn that there are far worse things to be frightened of than ghosts.

'Praying for the Devil?' With the war between the vampires and Varúlfur more brutal and blood-thirsty than it has ever been, Megan Garrick has been forced to seek sanctuary with the one person she hoped she would never have to turn to. By her side is her ever-constant companion, Lucius, the little boy who holds the key to opening the Gates of Purgatory and behind those gates awaits The Smiling Man himself. Now Megan fights a race against time to find the one being that can help her win the war once and for all. But where do you even begin to search for an Archangel? It seems the answers could lie within the journal of a seventeenth-century vampire and Megan just has to identify all the clues. Can she find them all before the Gates are opened?

'I was falling. And he was going to catch me. I just knew he was.' For Megan Walden, life is all about perfection. She's the perfect friend, the perfect wife, the perfect office dogsbody, but what happens when she makes a decision that cracks the glass protecting her perfect little world? During a night-out in the shadow of her effervescent best friend, Megan meets Harper Cain and is instantly intrigued by the mysterious tattooed rocker-type with his trace of Bostonian accent and brooding darkness that lurks behind his smile. Knowing instinctively that she is playing with fire, and yet finding herself inexplicably drawn to the irresistible Harper, Megan embarks on a course that will destroy the foundations of her whole world and force her to question everything and everyone she has ever known. Plunging headlong into a nightmare she cannot stop, Megan realises too late that playing away with a mysterious stranger is the least of her worries. It's time for her perfect life to come to an end Will Harper catch her? Or will Megan be able to save herself?

'Don't look, Lillian. Never look into the eyes of a Sin-Eater, you will be as cursed as he is and will forever languish in darkness.' Lillian Elmes remembers the warning her mother gave her about the town's Sin-Eater only too well. How could she not when she'd ignored it as a child, only to find herself plagued with nightmares when she'd seen with her own eyes what the dark work of the Sin-Eaters entailed? Now an adult, Lilian's curiosity still burns deep, especially when she crosses paths again with the town's freshly-appointed Sin-Eater, the mysterious and strangely alluring, Daniel Carver. Desperate to find out whether the rumours about the dark priests are true, Lillian makes the journey into the forest to spy on Daniel in his woodland cottage, only to realise that she really should have heeded her mother's warning all those years before. For Lillian Elmes, looking into the eyes of the Sin-Eater is going to bring her far more than she had ever imagined it would - murder and mayhem, ghosts that just won't lay to rest and an attraction that might just be more lethal than the undead who've started rising from their graves.

You find yourself going about your day to day life. The sun goes down, the streetlights turn on. You start to make dinner. You hear a scream. You look around to find the source or simply shrug it off. Later that night, you turn on the television. There has been a murder. A shiver runs down your spine. You change the channel and try to pretend it never happened. Ignorance is bliss, eh? For my first magic trick, let me introduce you to "The Butcher of Eden". This trick is based on a 10MN writing prompt I while back. Thought it would be a great way to stretch my imaginations and get the writing juices flowing. So, enjoy!

A jolt. A small hitch in the rhythmic beating of my heart. Dèjà vu didn't even begin to describe it. ... My heart stopped, my breath jostled forward, shock rippling through my system. It happened again. For a few precious seconds my mind froze up and, together with my body, went into a complete lockdown. It was the same each time I saw him.

When the USA entered World War 2 after the attack on Pearl Harbor, thousands of men went to enlist in the Armed Forces. Half a year later, the Army announced that they were looking for female volunteers for a special program. And since it is an experimental unit, the Army decides to integrate them in another brand-new unit: The Airborne. Follow a group of extraordinary women who refuse to let anybody stop them from fighting for their country alongside the men. Read about the bonds they forge, the challenges they face and the experiences they gather.

When Earth is conquered by the sinister Greys and the alien who killed Evie's husband returns seeking her help, she must find a way to enact her revenge and fight the growing feelings for the creature who is an exact replica of the man she loved. *** Two years ago, Evie Morgan's husband disappeared. Under suspicion of his murder, no one believed Evie's story about the mysterious creature with the black eyes that killed Tom and assumed his identity. Now, trying to survive in the ruins of post-invasion London, Evie's world is once more thrown into turmoil, when she meets the alien that destroyed her life. On the run from his own kind, he offers her insider knowledge on how to defeat the Greys, in return for her protection. At risk from her fellow survivors discovering 'Tom's' true identity, taking the alien back to her camp is going to be no easy task for Evie. With the alien's genetic make-up assuming more of Tom's identity every day, Evie struggles between her hatred for her husband's killer and a growing attraction for him that confuses her. The time is coming for Evie to decide. Pull the trigger or put her trust in the creature that tore her whole world apart? *** Content warning: This story contains mature sexual content, and themes of violence and reference to an attempted sexual assault.