V. R. Cumming

Lucy Varna

Celia Roman

C. D. Watson

Four dark tales of the holiday spirit. "Christmas Eve Gift" by C.D. Watson. Old Bill sets out on her annual Christmas Eve journey to her niece's house, and discovers an unexpected darkness along the way. "A Dark Christmas" by V.R. Cumming. (A World of the Vampyr short story.) Alice, a dark daughter of the vampire Elizabet, turns the table on a family of hunters, with unexpected consequences. "On the 7th Day of Christmas" by Celia Roman. (A Sunshine Walkingstick short story.) Sunny finally gets to throw a party with her friend David Eckstrom, only a monster shows up and twists a small kink into her New Year's Eve festivities. ​"Twelfth Night" by Lucy Varna. (A Daughters of the People short story.) A thirteen-year-old Lukas Alexiou encounters the Woman with No Face for the first time, and must decide between seizing his destiny, or allowing his father to control him forever.

Dreaming of a Dark Christmas

Killed every day for a crime she didn't commit, and reborn again the next. Alice Humboldt has a perfect life. She spends her days cooking for her family, tending her infant daughter, and socializing with her neighbors, and thinks nothing of her existence outside the roles she plays. Until an icy-eyed police officer knocks on her door and accuses her of being a terrorist. As Alice's world crumbles around her, she's forced to confront the truth of her own existence: Is she as real as she feels? Or is she merely a product of someone's imagination, a programmed character in a video game? And if she's just a character, what is she going to do about it?

C. D. Watson

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