Spiral Of Need

The things we want are so very rarely the things we need. Clifton Heights, a modest Adirondack town, offers many unique attractions. Arcane Delights sells both paperbacks and hard-to-find limited editions. The Skylark Diner serves the best home-cooked meals around, with friendly service and a smile. Every August, Mr. Jingo’s County Fair visits, to the delight of children and adults. In essence, Clifton Heights is the quintessential small American town. Everyone knows everyone else, and everyone is treated like family. It is quiet, simple, and peaceful. But shadows linger here. Flitting in dark corners, from the corner of the eye. If you walk down Main Street after dark, the slight scrape of shoes on asphalt whispers you're not alone, but when you look over your shoulder, no one is there. The moon shines high and bright in the night sky, but instead of throwing light, it only seems to make the shadows lengthen. Children disappear. Teens run away. Hunters get lost in the woods with frightening regularity. Husbands go mad, and wives vanish in the dead of night. And still, when the sun rises in the morning, you are greeted by townspeople with warm waves and friendly smiles, and the shivers pass as everything seems fresh and new... Until night falls once more. Handy's Pawn and Thrift sits several blocks down from Arcane Delights. Like any thrift store, its wares range from the mundane to the bizarre. By daylight, it seems just another slice of small town Americana. But in its window hangs a sign which reads: We Have Things You Need. And when a lonely traveling salesman comes looking for something he desperately wants, after normal visiting hours, after night has fallen, he will face a harsh truth among the shelves of Handy’s Pawn and Thrift: the things we want are rarely the things we need. ©️ Crystal Lake Publishing

Harris Black's sister died, which has sent his world in a spiral gloom. Having to juggle the loss of his closest family member, and high school, Harris struggles to find the light in his life. He just wants to run away with his girlfriend, Sarah, to Stonefall where they can live off their musical dreams. While Harris struggles with the darkness of grief, Sarah White deals with her own issues. Her dad is a drunk, and hardly pays attention to her, and she faces bullies at school because of what she wears. As they navigate their lives together, willing to work through their own pain to create something wonderful, secrets come out, and a loss larger than Harris's sister shakes the lives of these two teens.

What happens when you find yourself addicted to your professor, willing to do whatever it takes to do just have her, not caring she is married, but then she turns out to be your aunt, meaning it's a taboo. Can you fight it or you are just going to give in?

She was set up for murder, betrayed by her ex and her best friend... Framed, broken, and left to rot in a hospital bed. Sally had no one left… Except him. Dante 'Doom' Castillo. He was feared by the underworld, worshipped by the mafia, he was her father’s brother, her forbidden obsession. The one man who swore to protect her but not out of love, he wanted something she never even knew she had. A key. To a secret so dangerous, it shattered everything she thought she knew about her life. The fake murder, the betrayal, the inheritance, and the seduction was all a carefully orchestrated game designed to make her run straight into his arms and she did but Sally was done being played, because now she knows what he’s hiding. What he became the moment she shattered the one thing he needed most... Now he’s unstoppable and unkillable. And the worst part? She still wants him.

Prior to that day, she had never been so hopeless in her life. In any case, when she was in the most humiliating circumstance, the nonsensical man she met ended up being the legend of M city. He was rich, amazing, attractive, and he had a unique association with her… She was orchestrated to go on a prearranged meet-up. The two kids cried and called her: "Daddy beats us, help!" She hurried over in sweat, while the man was remunerating those two kids for their incredible acting abilities with huge drumsticks ... She indignantly said, "Alex, my prearranged meet-up has been obliterated by you!" The man said in a soft tone, "I'm the dad of the kid. Assuming you need to get hitched, shouldn't I be the best option?"

At my own wedding, I find out the woman behind the veil isn't even the one I'm supposed to be marrying. Instead of getting mad, I give her the wedding of the century. It's all because of what happened in my past life. I'd exposed that she wasn't my bride in front of everyone and blew up the whole ceremony. That forced Jessie Clarke, who'd been at the hospital with her childhood sweetheart, Oliver Grant, to rush over reluctantly so we could still get married. Because of that, Oliver refused treatment and died on the operating table. When I heard he was gone, I told Jessie she should see him one last time, but she refused. All she said was, "Blame it on his bad luck." After we got married, we acted just as in love as before. I kept getting money from my family to save her company every time it was on the verge of collapse. But on the anniversary of Oliver's death, Jessie shoved me off the top floor of her company. I hit the ground hard enough to end up a broken, bloody mess. As I fell, I caught one last look at her face, streaked with tears. "If you hadn't forced me back to marry you, Oliver wouldn't have died! You get to keep me, but I lost him for good! Why do you get to live a happy life?" So that was it. She'd blamed me for Oliver's death from the start. She'd never loved me at all. The next time I opened my eyes, I was back at our wedding ceremony.