Tag: Jessie St. James

Be Mine – A Books of Binding Flash Fiction

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The February wind chased Cian across the wind-chilled patio concrete and back into the house. He closed the sliding-glass door against the onslaught and set his covered basket of fresh cuttings from the winter garden on the table, tickling little Noel’s toes with cold fingers and eliciting a squeal of delight from the baby. He shrugged out of his coat and draped it across the back of a chair, stooping to kiss his son’s round cheek, then straightening and crossing to the big island counter to lay a kiss on the back of Winter’s neck. “I think I got everything.” Read More …

Monster – A Books of Binding Flash Fiction

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He was coming back. Jessie whimpered and bit her lip, hating the sound for making her look weak and vulnerable. Of course, she was vulnerable, hanging from the chain in the vineyard’s barn. Helpless against the cuts and blows the red-headed freak was inflicting on her. Her body was tender with fresh bruises and sticky with drying blood. She was dizzy and exhausted, her throat raw from screaming, and her arms trembling where the chain held her upright. She had no idea how long she had been here. Less than a day but far too long already. Winter would come Read More …

Underwater – A Books of Binding Flash Fiction

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The crowd finally thinned as they got near the octopus tanks, and Jessie felt something tight inside her uncurl for the first time since they’d arrived at the Seahaven Aquarium. She hadn’t realized it would be this crowded, but she should have, she guessed. The place was lousy with families trying to entertain kids who, like her, were out of school for the holiday week. She desperately wished she had chosen somewhere quieter, maybe the art museum, or hell, what was wrong with an old-fashioned movie, except that her date preferred to watch at home where he could turn on Read More …

Social Climbing – A Books of Binding Flash Fiction

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Jessie set two overly full fountain drinks on the small table and flopped down into the empty chair. “Rock climbing is thirsty work.” Cat Chen, her new friend from Seahaven Academy of the Arts, smiled around her straw and took a long drink as she adjusted her harness. “Fun though.” Jessie took several long swallows and nodded. “I’m glad we did this today. It’s been a rough month, and like half my house is in mourning. I feel bad for them and everything, it’s just…” “A little much sometimes?” “Yeah, a lot much sometimes. It’s good to get out of Read More …

Welcome to Seahaven Arts – A Books of Binding Flash Fiction

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“Are you new?” Jessie looked up from the slip of paper she was reading, her new class schedule. She was finally here, at The Seahaven School of the Arts, where she had been dreaming of going for as long as she could remember. She nodded. “I seem to be a little lost. I’m looking for Room 311B, but I can’t find it. It goes from 311 to 313, but no B.” The girl in the long broomstick skirt and lacy purple poet’s shirt smiled. “That’s because it’s in the old building. All of the classrooms that have a “B” in Read More …

Leftovers – A Books of Binding Flash Fiction

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Jessie St. James felt a grin growing as she watched Justin MacDowell toddle around the worn wood floors of Otherworld Books, the stubby felt feathers on his turkey outfit sashaying with each bit of progress he made. She looked at Brian and found him grinning, too, teeth a flash of white against terracotta skin, before he leaned over and redirected his adopted little brother. “It’s hard to believe how much he’s grown in just a month,” she said, and decided to plant her plump butt in the doorway of the stock room to corral him a little. Brian chuckled and Read More …