April 1st. For eight minutes, a section of downtown Portland and everyone in it comes to a complete and absolute standstill. During that time a bank is robbed... and a young girl is murdered.Three high school students, a shut in, a man involved in organized crime, and an amateur mage. The events of ...

Amateur sleuth Drew Nance and her father Attorney Carson Nance are conducting a secret investigation of a criminal world hidden behind the facade of business and high finance – a criminal world that caused the death of Drew’s uncle David and her cousin Jane. But they know that pursuing the case will...

An orphaned student, an unexplained expulsion and a mysterious smiling boy… Sophie Dayton had long come to terms with the death of her parents. Having made it through the UK foster care system, she’s happily settled into her second semester at university. Then one day a bunch of security guards show...

Within the enigmatic Illian Cluster, a hungry creature named Zev prepares to depart from the space station for good, content to go wherever the cosmos might lead them. When they arrive on planet Hallow, they set a chain of events in motion that will change countless lives, human and otherwise. Also...

All is calm in Miss Matilda's Orphanage when suddenly there is a loud crash in the late hours of the night. Is it a thief? Is it an animal? Miss Matilda goes to find out....

Heroes are the last line of defense against those who would destroy society.  After graduating from The Academy, Liam has finally achieved his life's goal of joining those protectors and becoming a Hero.  Moving to a sleepy town in Iowa, he looks to prove his worth.  Only for a series of murders to ...

Luke is chasing the last mage to see his mentor alive. He tracks them to the town where his mentor is buried, and while there he visits their grave. Luke gets the chance to question their target on how their mentor died, what they have been doing the last sventeen years, and becomes involved in a po...

Freudendorf is a secluded town in the Alps, and it's hiding a dark secret. Anyone who ventures into the western foothills where the old castle lies will be taken by the Beast of the Night... Rosen moves into town with her dad as he hides from debt collectors. She only has one hand but doesn't let th...

Lottica and Nick probably could have dealt with the sudden death of their parents. They probably really could have coped. IF. IF they hadn't had to deal with foreign grandparents who wanted to whisk them off to Lebreima, a small Old World country thousands of miles away from their friends and neighb...

M.I.C.A.I.N , stands for Mobile, Independently Cognate, Artificially Intelligent Nano factory. At twelve angstroms long,  he's Microscopic,  often finding it difficult to relate to his human peers at Special Dimensions Agency where he works as a investigator and fixer of  of micro electronic circuit...

A young girl has been kidnapped by malicious fairies. It's up to Londra Albot, agent of the Magician's Guild, to rescue the child. But by sunrise, the fairies will spirit their captive off to lands unknown. The night is short and Londra much move quickly to avoid the wrath of the Lady of Rags....

A life full of joy and tragedy, Vila's story begins with the very person she despises. Thankfully, a man by the name of Sommi rescues her from the clutches of her master. Years go by with her bubble of ignorance to what goes on anywhere else and she lives happily on the outskirts of Kai village. Thi...

A crow mage wakes up from a nightmare. They are expecting to have an average day. By the end of it, they will wish they had stayed asleep....

You find yourself in the attic while the moon gives an eerie glow. You search for an exit out of this creepy house. There's a monster tracking your every movement. Will you escape, or is this just another game?    By Robin Dobi (first copy dated) 2014 (c).All rights reserved.Any copies of this story...

Only the biggest fish can save us from eternal suffering. There is no second life....

He runs the underground. She’s made it her playground. Their time together--the stuff of pulp fiction. When a corrupt corporate conspiracy threatens to tear them apart, they blast back with their offbeat brand of crime and chaos. This story is just one from the pulps. Film critic Roger Ebert once de...

Little did Rose know that being a player would be met with a long-standing evil. This is a short story centered around Rose and Kay, in one of the alternate universes within the "Zeroth Knight universe." Volume 1 of the first series can be found here: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/16079/zeroth-...

How do you commit murder without anyone suspecting? Is the perfect murder really possible or does it just require the perfect man? When she finds a piece of paper that includes a murder plan written by the idol of the school, it includes nothing but scenarios that may or may not end in deadly accide...

The two moons of Talius gleam with a hypnotic glow; Araius with the color of a cooling blue, and Kranos beaming in a gentle orange. Arairus obscures Kranos with his enormous celestial body, letting Kranos peek out only halfway. This means that it's the month of Gantelos, the season of cold that hove...

Argus was a dungeon, sprawling for miles under the cities of man above all the way until a human, angry at the death of one of his companions, murdered him.  When he discovered where he was, he found that he had come back to life as nothing more or less than a human being, complete with its own nerv...