Heat Rating: Zero

Content Warnings: Warnings: Witches, vampires, gamer geeks, and a lot of silliness

Four intrepid heroines face off against the vampire menace with tongue in cheek results.

Alone with A Hurricane
Staying home alone during a hurricane is boring, until an unexpected visitor comes to call.

Lighting's fury raped the darkness. Laughing, shouting wind tore through the trees, hurling twigs against the windows.

Flickering candles had been the only light since shortly after the storm began. How long ago had that been? The candles were running out, and with the huge oak branch that had fallen in front of the garage door, I wouldn't be taking the car anywhere until I could get a tree service to cut it up and take it away.

How ironic that I'd left Florida to avoid hurricanes--Andrew had been more than enough for me, thank you--only to get nailed by one here. What luck. So here I was, stuck, no electric, no phone, going slowly mad for lack of something to do. Take my advice on this, don't go through a big storm alone. It isn't so much because something might happen to you. Oh, no. You might just succumb to boredom.

Tick Tap
Is that a tree tapping at the windowpane or is someone just glad to see our heroine?

The room was shrouded in darkness, still. I blinked, unsure amid the haze of sleep what had awakened me.

Tick, tap, tick, tap.

Of course, what else. The tapping on the window again. It never failed to haul me out of a perfectly good sleep. I huddle deeper into my covers, burying my nose in the blankets against the cold, wishing that I could afford to turn the heat up a bit more.

"No, I won't look. Absolutely not. Go away," I told the sound. "I know what you are. You can't make me look at you, now go away, stupid tree."

Driving Home
On her way home from work, a single mom winds up in a unusual pre-dawn car wreck.

"Night, Jeanie."

The young waitress paused at the door, turned and waved at the night shift's cook, "Night, Sam. See you tomorrow."

She walked out into the parking lot, glad that her shift was over, and eager to get home and see her two kids. Jeanie missed seeing them when they came home from school, but at least she got to see them off in the morning.

Keys jingling, she unlocked her car, got in and cranked the engine, listening to the old familiar grinding noise. "Come on, Hildie," she urged the old sedan. "Start for mama." The engine gurgled to life and Jeanie shifted the car into gear, backed out of the space and, manhandling the wheezing vehicle into drive, exited the nearly deserted parking lot.

The Great Convocation
Live action role playing games just never go the way they should...

The setting sun colored the lake in crimson and rose, serving as the perfect backdrop to our planned evening.

"Okay, everyone knows their roles," I tell the assembled people, their faces pale with makeup, false-fanged smiles, and costumes all created to represent the motley group of vampires they'd chosen to portray that night. My own face is no less pallid, teeth no less sharp and the costume I wear just as elaborate and outlandish. All part of the game we will play tonight.

"Before we get started I would like to thank Timothy for convincing his parents to let us use their vacation home." After a lot of cheering for Tim's parents the group settles down and attention returns to me. "Make sure you stay in character, no breaking the mood, no flashlights, no goofing off."