Birthday Blues Alice was in no hurry to get out of bed on her birthday. She'd wangled a day off from the employment agency without letting it slip that she was turning thirty, and for this she was grateful. She'd witnessed the leg-pulling on other people's birthdays and knew it would have been twice as bad for her because thirty was a landmark age.
NEO-CORTEX An intruder. There's an intruder in my house. In my darkness. The rooms and hallways are pitch black, but I can hear him. There's someone in here with me. He has penetrated this black place. I sense him exploring, moving through my house.
The Last Act of The Travelling Prankster He sat alone at a corner table in the large restaurant staring at the other customers. Brenden hadn't requested that particular table beside the pale doors to the kitchen, but his slightly tatty suit had caused the waiter to hide him away from the richly dressed diners who chatted away oblivious to the small man who watched them intently.