I’m glad it’s morning. It’s starting to get cold once the sun goes down and I really wanted to crawl into the car last night, even with the bad smell there. It doesn’t stink as much when it’s cold, but Dad’s still there in the driver’s seat and I don’t like to look at him. It scares me and gives me bad dreams—when I can fall asleep. The only time I can make myself climb in is when it’s raining, or it’s time to take care of Jill. Otherwise, I stay outside, here in the woods with Mom.

They say magic is all around us during childhood. It can be found on a glorious Christmas morning, under your pillow once the tooth fairy has claimed her prize, or at the seaside, as rolling waves crash and silver blue sailing birds fly.

Sometimes, though, magic takes us down darker roads… and what we find there clings to our dreams, even when sunshine is at its brightest.

Toward the end of his usual 12-hour shift at Science Now Advanced Research Labs, Chief-of-Staff Dr. Calvin Chubb entered the men’s room and screamed. He backed out of the lavatory and hurried to his office. There, he picked up the phone and dialed the Security Division extension.

After two rings, a male voice said, “Security Division. Night Supervisor Everett Mann speaking.”

Love may be a many-splendored thing, but in writer Brittany Muscarella’s Weird Words entry “Love,” it’s just a shade or two less so. Enjoy…