• The Final Encore

    Pop star Maria De Mornay had just finished her latest concert, which had been a resounding success, and her fans—the De Mornay Army—had the time of their lives. Maria was promoting her new album, which had gone diamond in record time. In the dressing room, the atmosphere was quiet as Maria retouched her makeup before…

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    The Hollow Tombstone

    Sabrina was camping with her friends at a park near La Plata, Maryland. After a full day of activities, they sat down around a fire to exchange horror stories. Donnie, the prankster of the group, began with a tale about a curse placed on one of the inhabitants of La Plata. This resident, he claimed,…

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  • Beyond the Grade

    Emanuel sat frozen at his desk during the exam, the empty answer sheet glaring up at him accusingly. He could almost hear his father’s disappointed voice, echoing his past failures. The clock’s relentless ticking seemed to mock his paralysis. Mrs. Rottenmeier’s heels clicked methodically up and down the aisles, her presence looming like a storm…

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  • A Tale of Time, Taste, and Tempered Ambitions

    In the waning hours of the night, Seymour, a renowned chef from North Carolina, was perfecting his latest culinary masterpiece — a frog chili with habanero that promised to revolutionize the culinary world from his modest kitchen in “Le Cook of Seymour.” As he mulled over his future away from the strip mall to the…

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  • Riches Beyond Time

    On a quiet night in 1980s Baltimore, Maryland, the streets buzzed with the lingering excitement of an Orioles game. Martin, having told his wife he was working late to sneak off to the game, found himself walking alone on Russell Street, his heart still racing from the night’s win. In an attempt to avoid bumping…

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  • Moonwatchers

    Raul’s nights at the public observatory in Washington, D.C., were solitary ventures, draped in the silence of a city asleep. February’s chill seeped through the walls, a constant companion as he tended to the machinery that allowed others to gaze at the stars. The observatory, a sanctuary of solitude, was his escape, where the moon’s…

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  • Echoes of Tomorrow

    In the quiet expanse of rural southern Maryland, where the night sky stretched vast and unyielding, a lone man named Marcus trudged homeward. His path, illuminated only by the dim light of a crescent moon, was a familiar one, trodden countless times in daylight but seldom under the cloak of night. It was during this…

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  • The Interrogation

    The room was stark, illuminated only by the harsh fluorescent light that buzzed intermittently above. I sat across from two agents, their expressions unreadable, their badges shining ominously under the light. Agent Harris, with a voice as cold as the steel table between us, broke the silence. “Let’s start from the beginning, shall we? Tell…

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    La Plata’s Vampire Hunter

    I’m Caesar, and let me tell you, life in La Plata, Maryland, was as normal as it gets until a new student named Leon was transferred to our high school. I knew something was up from the moment Leon walked into La Plata High with his enigmatic aura and an almost theatrical aversion to the…

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  • Nocturne’s Game: A Scammer’s Descent

    In the underbelly of the city, where the digital world bled into the shadowy alleys of crime, there lived a scammer named Eli. Eli was skilled in the art of deception, his fingers dancing over keyboards as he wove nets of lies to ensnare the unwary. He was a modern-day bandit, living off the riches…

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