A More Personal Announcement

To let everyone know, there will be no update this coming Monday. That is due to a sudden and sad development with my family. My last remaining grandparent, my paternal grandfather, died this week while he was swimming in the Atlantic. He and the woman he was with got caught in a riptide. After an hour of swimming, the woman got out, but my grandfather was unable to do the same. The police tried to revive him when they found him, but he was long gone. We're still waiting for the autopsy to complete and otherwise trying to figure things out, so I need a little extra time to focus on that without having to worry about staying on my posting schedule. Thank you for your understanding.

~ Kelsey

Color My World Short Story #9

Eden was the only one who'd moved by the time I returned. After spending so much of the night hard at work madly finishing up our plan with our person on the inside to bring down The Company, it'd been my turn to take another break. The first had been to return home to check on the two lovebirds, and checking up on them had made the rest of my task harder. Getting extra clothes and other things out of my room proved incredibly difficult with Amaranth and Ethereal all cuddled up in my bed.  Amaranth had stirred for one brief moment, but with the glassy gaze of sleep in his eyes I doubted he'd even remember seeing me when he woke up for real. I'd made sure to leave him and Ethereal a note though. The second break now consisted of me taking a nap, washing up as much as I could, and getting a bite to eat. I'd had rougher nights, but this one was certainly going to be ingraining itself firmly in my noggin for the rest of my years to come. Not just because of the stress, but because of the aftermath our humble group would cause upon our success.

     "B, it's more than past your turn if you want to get some sleep or something."

While we knew each other's real names, we used each other's codenames here.

     "Good luck, U. He's not having a break," our orange friend, G, told me with a grin, "It took all my effort just to get him off his computer and onto the couch."

An Update About Two Things

Hiya there! I've just got a few things to update you guys on before the new week begins. Third Generation's Chapter Twenty Nine marked the end of Dianthus' teenage years, which means I've been hard at work prepping everyone and the town for the fourth and final part of her arc. Naturally, that means that drastically cut into my time prepping the next chapter, which is why there will be one more short story on Monday to give me the extra week to focus on the content instead.

The second update is about my work I've been producing on Tapas. For those that don't know, it's a novel/comic sharing website that hosts both partnered content and free content posted by its users. I started a story there, Devout, that updates each Tuesday. Recently, they've posted a notice saying they're starting an event for brand new stories that offers the chance of becoming partnered and earning money for one's work. I haven't fully committed to participating just yet, but I've been putting something together. Depending on how well I think I can handle the increased workload, I'll start that second story. Of course I don't plan to have that affect the content on the blog, but I do want to put the knowledge out there that there might be a slightly increased scattering of me doing more short stories when I get behind. I can't say for certain on the likelihood and consistency of such a thing happening yet as naturally everything's still very much up in the air. I simply wanted to give you all a heads up. That is all.

Hope you have a great day!

Gen Three- Chapter Twenty Nine

Sensitive topic matter addressed this chapter

I hadn't been in Mr. and Mrs. Thicket's bedroom enough for it to be weird. Somehow, given how open they were, I doubted they'd be upset if they caught Arbor and I even if it would be humiliating for all parties involved. I got the impression though they'd be happy that Arbor was taking another step back on the path to being normal. Yes, this was normal. He and I were a couple. He and I were both adults. This was what adult couples did.

However, I knew there were parts to this that were far from normal. Arbor and I held each other close. Our lips hardly parted, our legs intertwined, he'd taken off his shirt, and our breathing was ragged. By this point, I knew I should be feeling the same desire I could feel he had for me. It was true my body reacted when Arbor's caressing slowly wandered nearer towards those parts, and the surge of sensation scattering up and down every inch of my core hinted at why my sister and her girlfriend couldn't keep their hands off each other. However, as soon as Arbor's touch retreated so did the feeling. All that remained was warmth. A warmth I loved more than the pleasure. I was so utterly enraptured by the man with me. It scalded my body with a happiness, with a security, with a peace of true belonging I almost started to cry. This was why I wanted to be with him. Because we were right. Because by being together we created something good in a world that could be cruel.

Gen Three- Chapter Twenty Eight

Reality sunk in more after the police left. Gilly hadn't been able to stand listening to the report, so that made it mom, dad, and me hearing of the travesty while Blaze did his best to console my sister. I heard and understood every word the police said, yet at the same time I hardly listened. As soon as they offered to show us the pictures of Mirage and Tappy and I said yes, I was gone. They hadn't been strangled or tied up with rope. No, the killer had taken it to a new level. Mirage's head had been cut off and sewn on Tappy's body. Tappy's head had been cut off and sewn on Mirage's body. Then their paws had been stitched together as if holding hands. According to the report, they'd been left quite far in the woods. It took all that time and a lucky, or perhaps unlucky, pair of hikers to find them. It made the police wonder if the killer was the same as the cats usually ended up being found in much more populated areas, but the killer could also have wanted more space between the crime and time of discovery. The city had grown so alert about the situation that the murders had become more and more sparse over the past several months. The majority of the stray cats had been rounded up, and everyone watched their owned pets.

     "Dia, I'm so sorry."

The tears must have come rolling down. I thought I just sat there. Motionless and heartbroken I thought I sat, but I didn't feel the wetness cascading from my eyes until dad knelt before me and gently wiped it away with his thumbs. Then he gathered me a tight embrace as mom scooted over to wrap my back and hold my hand. 

     "I just hope this is the last time. If something from this helps them find the killer, I could accept that." I mumbled hopelessly.

     "They have to be catching the person soon." mom encouraged.

I nodded miserably, even though the whole city had been saying that for months.