Mei Hua Flower

Welcome back to Clifton Heights. Sheriff Chris Baker and Father Ward meet for a Saturday morning breakfast at The Skylark Diner to once again commiserate over the weird and terrifying secrets surrounding their town. Sheriff Baker shares with Father Ward the story of a journal discovered in the ruins of what was once an elaborate koi pond and flower garden, which regales a tale of regret, buried pain, and unfulfilled debt: “Sophan” – Jake Burns has always been a bit...off. Rude, awkward, sometimes brutish, he's tolerated by Nate Slocum and his friends because he hits a mean line drive, and because they all know but don't discuss the abuse he faces at the hands of his troubled father, a Vietnam veteran consumed by his demons. But Jake is suffering something far worse than domestic abuse, and when Nate discovers what, he faces an impossible choice: help Jake and put himself in the path of evil, or abandon him, only to damn himself in the process. ©️ Crystal Lake Publishing

Tunnels deconstructs the individual’s Romantic fascination with ‘love’ or the grammaticality of beauty. Ideally, the ‘tunnels’ in the collection are subterranean love poems from the suburban imaginary. These seemingly syntactic tunnels travel through one’s literary imagination or heterotopic dreamscapes, and while αγάπη (Greek for ‘love’) inspires these rhizomic tunnels to navigate the abysmal ‘meta-spectacle’ of gesture, language or moment of poemness, the mind like the many-colored jeepneys of Manila, where driving past roast goose restaurants in Shek Kip Mei or spotting stilt houses in Kampong Kleang, attempt to explore the transgeneric textualities of the everyday, alongside the unstructurality of time and space, the littoral and the liminal.

Some fairy tales have happy endings, some have tragic ones, but there are also some fairy tales that never really end. Let's say, the story of a crown prince who was never crowned, a younger brother who pursued pseudo revenge, a lotus princess who never became a lotus flower, or the story of siblings who were banished without breadcrumbs. For a long time hanging around without any certainty, the tales accidentally unite to achieve the same goal. Being in the same side. Fight against the same enemy. Seize the happy ending, because the darkness doesn't deserve it.

The day my husband, Eric Johnson, brought his foster sister home from overseas, he gave her our master bedroom. "Yvonne just lost her husband. She's heartbroken, so I want her to feel comfortable," he said. I nodded obediently. "Okay." The next day was my birthday. Yvonne said she was feeling down and wanted her brother, Eric, to go stargazing with her. Eric turned to me and said, "She really needs me right now. I'll celebrate your birthday with you later." Still, I smiled and nodded. "Okay." Ten years of marriage and I was ready to walk away from it all… Because I have lived this life once already. In my previous life, I made the mistake of asking Eric to stay with me on my birthday. I did not let him go stargazing with Yvonne. She ended up falling into the water in her sorrow and was rushed to the hospital. After that, Eric shoved my head into a bathtub and held me there until I drowned. In this second life, when Eric handed me the divorce papers and said, "I’m only marrying Yvonne to help her revoke her foreign citizenship and restore her citizenship here. Once it's done, we'll remarry." I did not hesitate. I signed my name without a second thought. By the time he came looking for me again, I was already sitting on his archenemy's lap, smiling like a flower in full bloom.

"W-What do you want?" "I want to see the girl who saved me. Do you know who I am?" James sharply gazed up at Delilah's blue eyes. Delilah innocently shook her head at him. "From now on, call me, Mr. J." James Harristian, aka James Belgenza, is the mafia leader of Daga Nero, a splinter group of one of the oldest famous mafia families in Naples. Apart from his powerful ruler of the town who controlled the underground weapon industry in Europe, James was also a successful owner of a high-tech motor company. One day, James was deceived into a scam dinner by his mistress. It strived to kill him, but somehow, he escaped. Being trapped in gunshots with his enemy, a flower girl saves James' life from his shameful miserable death. Delilah is a flower girl who runs a small flower shop in an alley in Naples. She thought innocently helping James to get to the hospital without wondering who the man was. When James has another chance to breathe, he does not feel grateful to his savior unless to kidnaps her. Unfortunately, Delilah turns out to be a collateral of her father's debt, which ran off unable to pay. Therefore, he intentionally kept Delilah in his mansion and added more debts to confine her forever. What will happen when the debt is only a scheme to kill James and Delilah is a pawn? Meanwhile, James falls for Delilah, who tries hard to pay her unpaid debt.

"I would dedicate my life to Flowers." Yes, Flowers. Flowers hasn't been a big part of my life until she came into my life. "Thinking of you," I said as I held the Blue Salvia flower The petals of our youthful fondness have finally blossomed! ...

"You foolish bitch, do you really think you can marry Henry?". Her mouth curved into a wicked smile as she lowered her head to look at Ashley. "I am the real daughter of the head of the Browns. You will never become the bright and shinning flower of the Brown family" she let out a low snort "It would have been better if you end up like your stupid mother" she said with an evil grin on her face Ashley tighten her grip on her cloth as she heard Lucia's statement "You will never know what the drug you took was and what I have in stock for you. But one thing I'm sure of is that you enjoy your wedding night in advance" She then took out her phone, and dialed a number. "Are the two street ruffians I have arranged especially for my sister ready? Tell them to come here now." Ashley opened her eyes wide in shock upon hearing what Lucia had said. She knew that Lucia had never liked her. But she didn't expect that her to be this vicious. It seemed that Lucia wanted to drug her and found someone to rape her. Such a wicked woman!

Strip now! you're my wife anyway" Harrison had said to Katherina as she fret over the chair she was sitting on. He was definitely not the man she had nursed till he got his memory back. He was now violent and over protective of her. "You are my wife Katherina, you are mine. You are mine alone!" Harrison roared slamming the flower vase down. "No Harrison. I am not your wife and I never was your wife. Give me breathing space Harrison....leave me alone!" Katherina said in voice so tiny as tears flowed from her eyes. It was evident she was tired of the whole drama already. Harrison sprawled to his kneels in front of her. He gently hugged her patting her hair softly and swiftly. "I'm sorry Rina, I'm sorry for making you cry, I'm sorry for hurting you, I'm sorry....I'm sorry. Please give me another chance, please do not leave me alone all by myself. I love you....I love you so very much Rina" he wailed to her ear. "Harrison." "Swear by my name Rina, tell me you only love me and not my brother." Harrison cried holding her body firmly. He definitely was in pain as he uttered those words with great grievance. Katherina just watched him wretch in pain. "I do not love you Harrison, I do not!" She had said back to him throwing his hands off her. Had she made a wrong choice of staying with him? Was he showing her this side of his just to keep her to himself or was he getting a revenge on her for lying to him just to acquire his wealth?

Karen was once obsessed with tribal witch Lyra, who falsely accused me of stealing the Moon Soul Flower, claiming I cursed her spirit sight. My destined mate, Alpha Karen, whipped me before the Moon Goddess statue and banished me to the frozen Cliff of Sinful Wolves. When I returned, I became tame, hiding all my wolf nature in front of him, becoming just a gentle shadow. But when he discovered the truth about what happened at the Cliff in my blood-stained wolf tooth talisman, he went crazy. "Elara, please, answer my mate's call one more time!"

In order to protect my father, I was tortured for ten hours, but my father was busy celebrating his adopted daughter’s eighteenth birthday. With my dying breath, I called my father and said, “Dad, it’s my birthday today. Could you wish me a happy birthday?” “You crazy monster! You got your mother killed in order to celebrate your birthday! How could you still ask me to celebrate your birthday? You should just die!” With that said, he hung up. The next day, my corpse was placed in different flower pots and put in front of a police station. My father was in charge of inspecting my corpse, and he could immediately tell that the murderer did this for revenge. What they did to me was cruel and made a mockery of the police’s authority. But he did not manage to tell that the deceased was the daughter he hated.