I released the third of my Patreon Challenge stories a few days ago, Online Undead. You can check it out here if you’re my patron:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/online-undead-23976252

And here’s a teaser:

My name is Charlie (no relation to Leroy) Jenkins, and I think I’m being haunted. But of course, I’m getting ahead of myself, and it’s not so much haunted as…well, I suppose I should start at the beginning.

Nathan and I had been best friends since the 2nd grade, when his family moved here from Dallas eight years ago. His parents hadn’t allowed him to socialize outside of school at first, but we’d found other ways to connect. We’d done everything together online we could, really, but mostly what we’d done is play video games. We’d spent so much time paired up in the digital world, it was almost impossible to believe that I’d never see him again not only physically but also digitally.

Around 5th grade Nathan’s parents loosened up a bit and we’d begun hanging out more in person, but the pattern had already been set. The digital world was our domain, and we spent most of our time together there, battling dragons of all different shapes, sorts, and sizes. 

We started with Disney’s Toontown Online, quickly progressed to Pirates of the Caribbean and then to City of Heroes, and when NCSoft stupidly shut down CoH, moved on to Secret World: Legends and World of Warcraft. Lately, however, we’d been going the nostalgia route, playing Toontown Rewritten (a fan-made server created after Disney shut down the original) while our phones were almost completely dedicated to Pokémon Go.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/online-undead-23976252

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From Joe's writing

She had said her prayers every night for as long as she could remember, but since Tanner’s death praying had been difficult at best. She believed in God, Jesus, and of course the blessed Mother Mary, and she still had faith, but it was harder. If God existed, why would He allow the creature that murdered Tanner to exist? Surely it wasn’t one of God’s creatures. But God saw everything, didn’t He? How could He let something like that – something that had no right to exist in nature – destroy her brother? How could God take away the one person she always knew she could count on?

— Small Things, Chapter 19