Written for the NYC Midnight short story challenge. I signed up thinking “as long as I don’t get romance, I’ll be fine.” Well, my story had to include an instructor, and the generic theme of absentminded, and of course had to be in the romance genre. And this is the resulting story. Please enjoy the…

«Stop.» Hamilton’s glowing hands sliced through the mist as he chopped the air before him. They had walked all the way from the gatehouse to the small family cemetery. «What do you want? Why can’t you talk to me with Horatio?» «I will tell you.» Luminescent green fog trailed from the ghost’s fingers. «Pay attention.»…

Hamilton leaned against the wall in the corner of the grand ballroom and watched Elsinore’s elite spin around each other in a flurry of silk skirts and coat tails. Masked faces hid silent laughter and smiling eyes. Every Friday night, the Danes family held a party fit for royalty. Usually they assigned some kind of…

Laurence emptied his lungs with a heavy sigh as he looked around his barren room. The wooden floor and faded Victorian damask wallpaper had been his constant companions since he was a child. Now it was time to leave them behind. All his belongings had been packed into two ancient leather duffle bags and a…

This was the first board meeting where Hamilton didn’t sit next to his father. His father wasn’t there. He was dead. When he lived, his father used these meetings to train Hamilton and teach him how to lead the company. He had always ensured his successor could see all the important mouths, but the new…

Tonight seemed the perfect night to talk to spirits, if Horatio believed the movies. It was just after midnight, and purple-blue fog obscured the full moon and cast a ghostly glow over the land and trees. Hooting owls echoed their chants from the woods on both sides of the narrow cobblestone drive where Horatio stood.…