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blam-marie · 8 days

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SKIN DEEP chapter 1

Like this? This one is actually a published book that you can buy! Or request at your library :) Links here!

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Louison left the river for the fourth time of her life on a hot August day. She pulled herself from the waves to the sandy shore alone, with no one to witness the beginning of her journey. Her siblings had broken the ancient traditions by refusing to accompany her to land. They were terrified of what would wait for her there. She didn’t share their worry. Louison knew the world of men well, and she would manage on her own. But then, it wasn’t as if she had much choice.

Far away, beyond the rocks that bordered the little sandy beach, she could see the menacing bell tower of St. Adalbert Sur Mer piercing the sky. The small church’s metal roof gleamed like a lighthouse under the heavy sun, a pinprick of light presiding over a quiet village with a dark secret.

That secret was the reason that Louison was here. Three times over the summer, the naked, lifeless body of one of her siblings had been found in the river. Naked, and cradled in cement. It was a crime that no one could discover, aside from those who lived in the waves. For the St. Lawrence’s clans, this meant war. To steal a pelt was one thing; but to throw the skinned bodies of Selkies back in the water to be found by their families? That was just unimaginably cruel.

Three times already, Louison had been sent to land to investigate the disappearance of a sibling. She was her clan’s emissary, like her mother and grandmother before her. This time, however, the problem at hand was much worse than a missing selkie, trapped by a human out of cruelty disguised as love. There was no one to save and no sibling to reunite with their family. Louison, for the first time in her life, had to solve a murder.

She was afraid, of course. But she couldn’t let fear take hold of her. The clan’s matriarch herself had assigned her this mission, and Louison was determined to see it through. She would find out who was responsible for this and drag them into the waves. Sedna could decide their fate.

Taking advantage of the high tide, she slid forward onto the smooth pebbles of the beach. The day was warm, but there was no one in sight. Humans, following strange customs, usually disappeared from the shores towards the end of summer, when their offspring returned to the learning places that they called schools.

Once she’d left the water, the transformation took her. Her body stretched, her almost three hundred pounds of bone and flesh splitting into perfectly plump arms and legs. It was never pleasant, but she endured the shift stoically.

From as far back as their history could recall, the transformation had always been a group ritual. That day, under the uncaring glare of the sun, Louison had only herself. She used her sharp claws to tear at her chest, slashing awkwardly at the fur on her ribs until she could grab a handful and rip it off. The pale, damp skin of her new breasts rose towards the sky as she heaved under the morning light. With salt on her lips and the sun in her eyes, she struggled out of her pelt with as much grace as a salmon stuck in a fishing net. For Louison, every second spent in the open was a second too long. She knew that on this beach, she was a target. Someone could spot her at any moment. Had she had the choice, she would have preferred to land at Selkie’s Cove, a small shallow bay surrounded by rocks a few kilometres from St. Adalbert Sur Mer. She could have hidden in any of the caves dotting the cliffs there, and would have had all the time in the world to shift into human form.

Unfortunately, it was the very place where her sisters had last been seen alive. Selkie’s Cove was definitely somewhere where her investigation would take her, but not before she could put on some clothes and establish her cover in town.

Louison rolled onto her knees and looked around her warily. There was no one in sight. She got her feet under her, her legs trembling with the effort needed to stand after months spent in the river. Louison, unlike other selkies, practised walking often. She knew what movements to make and how to shift her weight from one foot to the other, even when she was rusty.

It was her mother that had insisted on this training. She used to warn her about growing slow, about spending too long on the beach after leaving the water. It was dangerous. Keeping that danger in mind, Louison picked up her fur pelt and folded it carefully under her arm.

The wind coming from the river made her shiver despite the warmth of the sun on her naked skin. To the east, a line of pebbles separated the beach from the bike path. She started painstakingly walking towards it. Her steps gradually grew more sure on the wet sand and large rocks until she had a decent stride going. At the bend of the path, where the sand gave way to yellowing grass, stood a small wooden structure. It was nothing more than the municipal employee’s shed, and yet Louison knew that she would find what she was looking for inside of it. Old Gustave had worked all his life to keep the beach clean and welcoming. Although it had never been part of his official functions, he had also gotten into the habit of keeping clothes and other useful things inside his shed. Especially after his wedding to the beautiful and tragic Armande.

Louison had liked Armande. Her mother had investigated her disappearance from the clan, once. It was one of the only times when it had had a happy ending for everyone involved. Of course, Armande hadn’t lived long on land. That just wasn’t where their specie thrived. But she had been happy here, and that is what mattered. Gustave had never taken her pelt — nor touched it, as far as she knew.

Few humans respected the Great Taboo. For that, the clan gave him their tentative trust.

The shed wasn’t locked. Louison pushed the door with effort, the old hinges covered by layers of rust and salt. The place was full with tools, machines, and who knew what else, all carefully kept on high metal shelves. In a corner, behind an abandoned lawn mower, was a plastic bin on which someone had painted “lost & found”. Louison had a moment of fondness for Gustave. There were piles of clothes inside, all of them carefully folded and apparently sorted by sizes. A couple of shoes and boots were also lined up under a work bench nearby. Behind the clothes bin was an old metal locker. Upon inspection, a padlock and its key had been left inside.

Louison placed her pelt on the highest shelf with reverence. She hastened to shut the door before she could change her mind. The sharp snap of the padlock locking was at once reassuring and terrifying. She gnashed her teeth and forced herself to walk away from the locker, back towards the bin. She had to find something to wear that would support the cover that she and her siblings had come up with.

August was the perfect month to move into St. Adalbert Sur Mer. Every fall, dozens of students that attended CEGEP in the neighbouring town came here to find cheap apartments. They filled the village with new faces. There wouldn’t be a better moment to slip in unnoticed. Louison, with her large honest eyes and round face, figured that she could pose as a student of marine biology, which would give her the perfect cover to carry out her investigation.

She pulled out a few plaid shirts and some pants from the bin, then chose a sturdy-looking pair of boots. All of the clothes were visibly second-hand, but that would only serve to help sell her “poor student” image. She pushed aside everything that was too brightly coloured or had a different cut than she recognized. Fashion had doubtlessly changed a lot since the last time that she’d come on land, and she hoped that she wasn’t making a mistake with her choices.

She didn’t want to have to come back to the shed to pick something else. Too many selkies on land made the mistake of visiting the place where they had stashed their pelts too often. It wasn’t subtle, and increased the chances that someone would follow them there. Better not to take that risk.

Lastly, Louison went to the work bench and started to check the drawers. She hoped that Gustave’s generosity would have extended to leaving her some money, just enough so that she could find a place to sleep while on land. With a serial killer on the loose, the last thing she wanted was to have to return to the river every night and risk being noticed.

Fortunately, the park ranger was a generous man. A few bills had been slipped under a flower pot, as well as the flyer for the local youth hostel. She bit her lip, trying to think of the best way to show her gratefulness to the old man. Louison picked a pair of scissors from the tools on a shelf nearby and cut a lock of her dark hair, which she tucked under the flower pot where the money had been. He would know what it meant; the clan now owned him a debt.

And the clan took its debts very seriously.

#skin deep #writer #writing #writing is hard #selkie #my writing #queer romance #murder mystery #supernatural mystery #romantic suspense

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blacktabbygames · 1 year

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it's the steam fall sale and scarlet hollow is 20% episode 4 is coming out next week so it's the perfect time to pick it up so you can join the Discussion https://store.steampowered.com/app/1609230/Scarlet_Hollow/

#scarlet hollow #steam sale #visual novel #renpy game #choices matter #cousin bonding #supernatural mystery #yes you can date monsters in it #no you dont have to date monsters in it #but you probably should #but idk i dont make the rules #stop asking us if you can date your cousin we're not doing that

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harperhelton · 11 months

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my newest TV obsession is FROM on MGM like i have so many questions number one why isn't the series finished already so i know what is happening

#from tv series #mgm studios #supernatural tv show #supernatural mystery

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triaelf9 · 2 years

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HEY HEY If you want something funny, that's also a supernatural (murder?) mystery with a new take on the legend of sleepy hollow WATCH THIS SHOW IT IS SO GOOD!!!!

Also friends are in it, so go support them by watching! So this group can make more shows!

#Headless #october #supernatural mystery #comedy #heartwarming #If you like wwdits you will like this

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karlenandgail · 7 months

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Things get tense in the antique shop...

“There is only one problem, she is no longer here. And not just here as in New Orleans, she is no longer of this Earth.” Armaund stated in a flat affect.

Karlen felt his entire world implode.

“No…no, it can’t be!” Karlen stood and his face became hard, his back straightening, and his posture aggressive. The men were lying to him, he knew it. His eyes began to shift to a golden whiskey color as his intense stare alternated between Armaund and Jean Pierre. “I know she said she was going somewhere she wasn’t sure I’d be able to find her, but you’re lying. She is not dead. I will NOT,” his hand slammed into the table open palm, causing both the other men to flinch back in shock at the resounding boom that echoed off the lathe and plaster walls, “believe that she is dead. WILL. NOT. Now, tell me where she is, or I will find out on my own.” By the time that he finished, his voice was a growl, and there was a muscle ticking on his jaw.

Armaund looked up at Jean Pierre, this was not the reaction they had quite anticipated. After having talked with Gail before she left and even Anna, devastation was more in line with what had been expected. But, it seemed the prince did know Gail, and was determined to find her. It was time for their slight misdirection to end.

“My husband does not lie,” Jean Pierre said plainly. “He did not say she was dead. He said she was no longer of the Earth. Which she is not.” His head tilted to the side, with a slight inclination. “She is safe, and she is alive. You understand that those of us who have been protecting her could not allow just anyone to learn of her location. She does not remember your name, but Your Majesty, I knew from our first meeting who you were.” A wry smile formed on the immortal male’s face.

“Then stop fucking around and tell me where she is, or take me there. The longer you delay, the shorter my patience for this bullshit gets.” Karlen was ready to call upon his brother’s soldiers if need be to force the two in front of him to tell him where she was. He would do it. He would search to the end of creation, never had he been this close in three centuries.

“There is one problem, sire.” Armaund swallowed. “You will have to set aside your title and all benefits from it to go where she is. There is another you will have to bow to, and she does not take kindly to be challenged. Pull that explosive reaction there and you will be put on your ass, if you’re lucky. If not, Kellen will be negotiating for your resurrection.” He took a deep breath, how did Abriella deal daily with demons and not obliterate them. They were such babies.

“Excuse me?”

“Sit.” Jean Pierre now sounded like the one in charge. He too was not going to tolerate more outbursts. Once Karlen had, he too again took a seat. “She is not within the human realm, and where she is has royalty that does not tolerate such behavior and will not care who your brother is if you act like that.”

“Where?”

“Imperium.” Armaund responded this time and loved watching the color drain from the demon’s face. Oh, lovely, he’d heard of it and the spectacular woman who ruled it. “Any more questions?” There was a bit of a smirk on the immortal’s face now.

“Why is she there? You said she’s safe?” Karel was now completely confused. What in the nine hells was Sophia doing in IMPERIUM of all realms. The one where his brother held now sway, if not the exact opposite. What would happen when the found out who she was to him?

“She is a dear friend of the Queen, who is going to have one of her other friends try and help her find you. Imagine that. Your Sophia is also very dear to the two of us and one of our friends who is in Imperium with her. She is quite safe. As long as you relinquish title and standing for the time you are in Imperium, there will be no issue.” Had Karlen been from any other realm, but Uffern, it would be different. However, the realms had been at war in the past and Armaund knew that if Karlen tried to walk in there as a Crowne Prince, that it would not go well and might end up with him in the stockade. All that would do was cause Gail more upset.

“I would die for her, my title and standing in any court mean nothing if she is that close and I cannot reach her. What do I need to do in order to be seen by the Queen and King? I will do it now.” Karlen didn’t even hesitate. His crown had never done anything for him in Uffern but make his life a pain in the ass dealing with Korben and Persephone. Kellen and Calliope were the only two sane ones.

Jean Pierre was impressed, he had expected Karlen to try to bargain, but this was almost too easy. He wasn’t sure he believed it, but he knew Abriella would see through any deception in a second. “Wait here. I will go talk to Abriella. Armaund, please see to our guests needs while I am gone.” His husband nodded to him. He knew he would, but he wanted Karlen wondering what was going on.

In an instant Jean Pierre was in the reception area of the Palace in Imperium. He waited, knowing a guard would soon appear to see who arrived and what they wanted. He was not disappointed when Thenasus wandered in, full gear, looking surprised to see the immortal Grigori standing there. “Is something wrong on Earth?” The demonic nephilim’s eyes narrowed in question.

“Tell Abriella that Gail’s Prince has arrived in New Orleans and is currently having coffee with Armaund and I.” Watching Thenasus’ eyes widen almost had Jean Pierre chuckling. “If she could please come most expeditiously, we would appreciate it. He is…touchy…and a bit impatient to see his redhead.” Jean Pierre smiled.

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aterovis · 1 year

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Cav Crawford has a lot going on. He’s a college student. He has a side gig as a PI. Oh yeah—and he sees ghosts.

When four teenage boys disappear while ghost hunting but only one reappears days later (covered in blood and with no memory of what happened), the police point the finger at the boy. The boy’s parents hire Cav to prove his innocence, and it doesn’t take him long to realize he’s in over his head. To complicate matters, Cav unintentionally summons the ghost of his dead boyfriend, who can’t seem to move on.

As the investigation deepens, Cav unearths disturbing similarities between his current case and a decades-old murder-suicide. By the time he realizes the power of the dark forces at work, it’s too late—he’s caught the attention of the killer, and he’ll soon learn there’s more than one kind of death….

OUT NOW! (Support local bookstores!)

#gay books #lgbtq #murder mystery #a kind of death #gay author #cav crawford #lgbtqai #lgbtq books #paranormal #supernatural mystery #ghosts

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behindthesemasks · 7 months

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An artifact is found, not the one they're looking for, and it has some interesting properties....

As the wind howled outside the structure that had been erected by Serge and Katiana, the lead archaeologists on the project, all those inside were very glad for the domed ‘tent’ that had been setup and the kerosene heaters that kept the interior at a “balmy” 68 degrees. All were reticent to step outside at the end of the day, the wind biting at any exposed skin. Thankfully the vehicles all had remote starts, so at least they were warm after the mad dash from the opening of the structure to their doors.

So far there had been many discoveries of pottery and other stoneware. There were some evidence of fires within the interiors of the buildings that they had found the walls to still intact in the layers of earth that now covered them. At the edges of the current site, the ground was approximately 8 feet below the normal ground level. Towards the middle it got up to about four feet below. The differences were accounted for in that they were trying to find the edges of structures and not move too quickly as they descended through the centuries of earth. Going too fast was how you broke things, made mistakes, and/or missed things you should not.`

For the most part Mel, Klaus, Eric, and Alexander did the excavation of the relics with the others taking turns providing security and assisting all of the graduate students who were there with removing the buckets and buckets of dirt that had to be sifted through then disposed of. This was a site of significant cultural heritage to the people of Serbia, so they would not be filling back in the areas they were excavating. They would become just additional structures in the current historical site on the mountain.

It was shortly after they had broken for lunch on their sixth day there when Alexander brought a curious artifact over to Mel, who was standing up at the top of the site cleaning off a piece of pottery in a basin of distilled water. “Look at this piece Mel, it appears to be some sort of figurine. Human it would look like. Maybe a doll?” He handed the small artifact to her after she had set the pottery piece on a screen to dry.

The small carved person was about 4 inches tall and about two inches from the end of one arm to the other. Dirt was tightly packed into each of the carved lines and a crack that ran through the middle of it. As Mel looked at it, she had to admit that it did in fact look like a little person. From the amount of dirt on it though, it was hard to see the fine details. “I’m not sure what it is, Alexander. As far as I know, there have been no other discoveries like this at the site. Everything else has just been pottery shards of some sort. Let’s clean it up and see what we’ve got.” She gave a shrug.

Turning back to the table that the water basin was sitting on, she dipped it a couple of times in. There was a soft bristled brush that sat to the side of the basin. Mel carefully used that to remove the dirt and debris that were stuck onto and into the details of the artifact. As the details emerged, Mel couldn’t help but agree that it did look more and more like a small person. There were little holes that went through each “arm”, her initial thought being that the small carving had been a pendant or sewn onto something, but she would have to evaluate it further later to be sure. It would not be unheard of for a culture to use something similar as an amulet.

Once she had cleaned it as best she could in the rudimentary facilities of the dig site, she picked up a small cloth near the basin and dried the item. Turning back around she took a few steps and called for Erik and Klaus to come look at it. Maybe one of them had seen something similar since they had done more excavations in Europe than she had. As she waited for them to come up from the main dig, she examined the carving more closely and weighed it in her hand. The others from her team also started coming over to see what Alexander had found, forming a loose semi-circle around Alexander and Mel as Erik and Klaus approached.

They could not have been more than three or four yards away when Mel started to close her fingers around the carving. For some reason she could not determine, it seemed to be heating up. At first she had assumed that it was her body heat making the stone feel warmer, but then she noted that when she turned it over, the side away from her almost seemed hotter than the side in her hand. Could it be some stone that held properties she was not familiar with? Again, she would have to research it more later to determine what it could be.

When Mel’s eyes opened, she let out a startled gasp and backed up, away from all of them. Her eyes scanned their faces as her heart raced like a thoroughbred just out of the gate. “What…what the fuck is going on?” Her eyes scanned all of their faces, only three now remaining looking human: Nic, Donovan, and Case. Klaus and Erik looked to be some sort of Elven creatures, their features finer and their eyes a bright blue that mimicked the Caribbean Sea with the noonday sun shining down on it. Cam and Dez looked Lupine, their eyes glowing a darker blue, more the color of Lapis, with the same golden flecks in them as the stone held. Gabriel had fangs like a Vampeer, so when he reached out and stepped towards her made her back up faster. Caden was covered in white fur and had features strongly resembling the Irish Puca. And then there was Alexander who had been standing next to her. His skin was now an iridescent blue and he had what looked like gills on his neck.

Nic had felt the ‘thump’ but didn’t know what it meant; neither did the anyone else on the team. What he could see and did know was that Mel was terrified and quickly backing towards the edge of the dig. It was a straight eight foot drop if she didn’t stop, and the thought of her falling had him moving towards her. What was scaring her could be figured out later, the first priority was keeping her away from the damn edge.

“Alexander, do you want to keep my cousin before she decides to back over that edge, please?” Nic called out as he tried to come at her from the side. Something told him that whatever she had in her hand was one of the enchanted artifacts that they were there to find. It didn’t look like anything that had been in the dossiers that Alexander and Mel had put together before, but he also knew that meant little. What about it was causing her to look at her team like they were about to murder her concerned him. Once they got it away from her, they were going to need to put that thing behind glass before someone got hurt.

Tears were streaming down Mel’s face as she kept moving backwards, she had to get away but wasn’t sure they’d allow her to. Part of her kept telling herself that she was losing her mind and was hallucinating what she was seeing. There was no way that the men before her could be anything but human, yet she could see them clearly and in most cases it appeared that they all knew that she could see them. It wasn’t like she didn’t know about enchantments and enhancements from her brothers and mother. Could they be something more? Could she trust any of them? Maybe there had been something on the artifact that caused her to hallucinate. That could be a logical explanation, right?

Her grip on the artifact tightened and it almost seemed to be searing into her palm and fingers now. Her eyes and head were sweeping back and forth between all of the men as she came perilously close to falling over the edge. In a moment of pure instinctual response, Alexander lunged forward and grabbed her arm to keep her from toppling over the edge and down the eight feet to the bottom. He’d been moving slowly to not spook her, but his actions did just that. Not realizing what she was doing, Mel let out a scream and brought her free hand around, balled into a fist, to connect with his temple with all of her strength, yanking backwards as she did.

Nic was a fraction of a second too slow and mere centimeters too far away to keep her from falling. His fingertips brushed Mel’s inner wrist before she fell backward over the edge of the dig. Everyone froze in that instant and it seemed like an eternity before the sound of her landing on her back, followed a fraction of a second later by a sickening thud of her head hitting a barely unearthed pottery jar were heard. It was another moment before anyone moved again, this time Erik and Klaus being the first two over the edge and down into the pit with her. The other teams of archaeologists and students all came running as the rest of Nic’s team descended into the pit over the side as well, all forgoing the ladders they normally would have used. It was only eight feet and they were willing to risk it after watching Mel fall.

As the brothers knelt over Mel’s stilled body, Klaus noticed the scent of blood. Without thinking his shirt was over his head in an instant and he had Erik helping to find where it was coming from. Hushed tones were used as they first attended to the bleeding wound and then tried to determine where and how else she was injured. Her hand was still tightly wrapped around the small figurine, an idol really. Nic took his shirt and used it to get it out of her hand and deposited it into one of his pockets for the time being. Someone had to find out what that damn thing was.

All of that was of little concern to the men who were now gathered around the one person that they were supposed to protect but had instead scared the shit out of to the point that she was now gravely injured. With many of them having had combat experience, they quickly devised a plan to get her out of the dig site and to one of the SUV’s. Then they could get her to the town and get real medical attention. How they would deal with the rest of what had happened, that would have to wait. Right now, keeping her from dying on the top of the mountain was their paramount concern. If she didn’t make it, all of their lives would become forfeit and they knew Nic well enough to know who it was that would be behind the bullet that would take them out one by one till they were all dead.

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