Round One: Four friends on a picnic in 1830s France decide to pass the time with a wishing game not unlike Truth or Dare. The wishes they make weave tales of love, addiction, sensuality, hope, fear and rebellion laced with just a bit too much Truth... Round Two: When the bones of the recently-deceased Frederick Barbarossa are stolen, Petrus the surgeon/chaplain/executioner/ herbalist/scaliwag must get them back, whatever it takes... Round Three: The widow of Assha Yokuta is being haunted by the ghosts of her dead sons. The monk Yokui wants simply to lay the spirits to rest, but finding the truth of where they died - and in the service of whom - is harder and more dangerous than he could have imagined... These stories have been written for The Pub's Historical Fiction Smackdown! The Historical Fiction Smackdowns are hosted by @FrozenInTime and involve writing short stories with particular criteria until you are eliminated! I hope you enjoy!

Seven girls tied by time. Five powers that bind. One curse to lock the horror away. One attic to keep the monsters at bay. ** After the storm of the century rips apart New Orleans, sixteen-year-old Adele Le Moyne wants nothing more than her now silent city to return to normal. But with home resembling a war zone, a parish-wide curfew, and mysterious new faces lurking in the abandoned French Quarter, normal needs a new definition. As the city murder rate soars, Adele finds herself tangled in a web of magic that weaves back to her own ancestors. Caught in a hurricane of myths and monsters, who can she trust when everyone has a secret and keeping them can mean life or death? Unless . . . you're immortal.

Delilah's life is perfect, isn't it? She's engaged, her stalker has been put in jail, and she's probably now the most popular girl in school. But when two new students show up, her life starts getting mixed up once again. And when Delilah starts to get notes again, she does what she had always done, she keeps it a secret. And when something serious happens with River, she doesn't know what she's supposed to do. But if her stalker is still in jail, who could possibly be sending her notes?

It was pity that first made Dannie speak to him. She had known Ryan since she was a kid, but he had always been the popular Golden Boy, and she had always been the tomboy that didn’t mind not having any friends. It was odd, she had thought, that all the popular kids who had once kissed the ground he walked on, didn’t so much spared him a glance anymore, and it was this that made her sit with him that one faithful day and begin something that would only end up causing her pain.

Faye Caldwell has never been the same ever since her sister, Terra, killed herself seven years ago. She's haunted by her sister's memory, taunted by nightmares that mock the day her sister plunged to the ground. The fear of falling and ending up like Terra consumes her. Even the slighest falls make Faye scream, the terror taking over her body. Faye doesn't know how much more she can take. What she doesn't know is that those fears and dreams will drive her to do something that will change the way she looks at her life forever. Kole Frost lives a normal life. He has friends that he can (somewhat) count on, and a brother who is always there for him. He doesn't think that being dragged to Xia, a club that allowed minors, would do anything to him. He doesn't want to go, but he goes anyway--just to get his friend off his back. And when his best friend, Terence, gets drunk, he doesn't think anything of it. It's normal. Normal. But little does he know that that trip to Xia is about to change his life forever. The two worlds collide when Faye and Kole meet at the legendary Gate. The Gate, said to be protecting them from a horrible beast on the other side of its borders. The Gate which separates the two genders from each other. The Gate, which no one has ever seen before. That is, until now. Faye and Kole will learn that their "normal" worlds are not so normal after all. They'll learn that Cesve has secrets, ones that have been kept for a long, long time. And they take it upon themselves to find out just what those secrets are. There is one thing that must always be remembered: The Gate keeps them apart.

Vanessa Laine is a college student and aspiring musician. She's got the look and she's got the voice. The only thing that's stopping her is her stage fright...and an opportunity. But opportunity knocks when pop-punk band, The Velocity, holds auditions for a new lead singer at the restaurant that Vanessa works at. Getting in was the easy part. Surviving as the only girl in the band is the hard part. Can she do it?

Why, hello, my loyal enemy, surprised you ended up in the school newspaper? Sorry, I just couldn't let your rule breaking ways not be written down for the whole school to see. We all know that you're not afraid of breaking the rules, to get what you want. Don't let your ego run rampant (Oh, wait too late). Actions have consequences, you egomaniac, if you think this is bad watch out, I've only just begun. Because this is my payback for you doing the unthinkable ... - Brie

As her senior year begins, Leah has changed, but no one is sure if it is for the better. According to their loved ones, her relationship with her boyfriend is apparently unhealthy. The only thing that their friends and family can do is force them to stay apart. But you can't keep these two away from each other that easily. Instead of breaking up and moving on, they decide to keep their relationship a secret from everyone. But it isn't as easy as it might seem. Old flames arise, and so do other problems that Leah and Blake had never had to face before. Life isn't fair, but Leah and Blake are still learning that love isn't either. (Sequel to Our Song)

Leah is beautiful, outgoing, and popular. Because of this, she's gotten everything she's ever wanted. Except for one thing. All she's ever really wanted was to please people, but she never seems to be able to. Unlike her friends, she doesn't care about any of the superficial things that seem so important. To Leah, if something isn't fair, it just isn't right. So when an isolated classmate named Blake gets to listen to music during class while no one else can, she can't help but feel annoyed by him. When their English teacher partners the two of them up for a project that will last them the entire school year, this only adds fuel to the fire. Their assignment is to create a song describing their relationship. Sounds easy, right? Not for these two. Blake is different, and Leah is about to find out that different is just what she wants and needs. But what she doesn't know is that Blake has a secret, and it's something he desperately wants to keep from her. Falling in love with someone isn't as easy as it might seem. Life isn't fair, but Leah and Blake are about to find out that love isn't either.