The Matzah Ball

My husband's protégé boasted she could disarm bombs blindfolded, relying on her so-called intuition. Her reckless misjudgment triggered a bomb's secondary detonation sequence, endangering an entire building. I intervened, using the dangerous liquid nitrogen condensation method to save the day. As a result, Rita Smith was removed from frontline duties and placed under investigation. Patrick Munoz tried to defend her, but I stopped him cold. "If you back her now, you won't just fail to save her. You'll be dragged down with her." Crushed by the pressure, Rita staged an accident that killed her, leaving a letter blaming him for abandoning her in her hour of need. He said nothing, only preserving her letter in his study. Years later, he became a nationally renowned bomb disposal expert. During a terrorist attack, I was strapped to a timed explosive. He arrived to defuse it but repeated Rita's fatal mistake. As the timer ticked down, he gave a bitter laugh. "Rita was just nervous back then. If I'd supported her, she'd be a hero today." The bomb detonated, leaving nothing of me behind. When I opened my eyes again, I was back to the point when he tried to defend Rita. He didn't know that the building housed the nation's top-secret core server.

A parent in my son's preschool group chat tagged me out of nowhere. "Theo's dad, your son's lunches always look pretty nice. Starting tomorrow, pack one for my daughter too." "I'm not asking for free food. I'll give you ten dollars a day. That adds up. You can make a little extra on the side." I stared at the message, almost laughing from how absurd it was. My son has severe food sensitivities and a fragile stomach. Every ingredient in his meals is specially sourced, and a single lunch costs far more than five hundred dollars to prepare. And this man thought ten dollars could buy it? I replied with two words: "Not happening." The next day, my son came home crying. His lunch had been taken by another child, and the teacher had scolded him for being selfish. Fine. Since they wanted to push this far, I would show them exactly how far I could go.

My husband and I scratched off a five-million-dollar lottery ticket at a lottery shop. Before we even had time to celebrate, the rosary I had worn since childhood suddenly snapped, a single bead cracking clean off the chain. Without another word, I grabbed him and tried to buy tickets that very night to flee back to the southwestern mountains. The lottery shop owner stared at me in shock. My husband clung to the metal shutter and roared, "Have you lost your mind?" But I gripped that broken wooden bead tightly. "We leave now." My husband flung my hand away, his eyes bloodshot. "I'm claiming this prize today. If you dare run, we're getting divorced!" I nodded without hesitation. "Fine. The five million, plus the used car at home, all go to you. I'll leave with nothing... "But tonight, I have to leave this city."

Two weeks before the wedding, I took my parents to dinner at my fiance Derek Matthews's family home in Larkhaven, Franklin. The evening was supposed to be the last planning meeting between both sets of parents, where we would finalize the ceremony and the honor-table seating. I hadn't expected Derek's childhood friend, Paige Bennett, to be there too. Mrs. Matthews suggested a little dinner-table game. Everyone would draw a numbered envelope. Whoever drew the highest number could ask one small favor of whoever drew the lowest. I drew the lowest number. Derek drew the highest. Everyone urged him to make his request. Paige smiled as though she were only joking. "Derek, let me choose for you. "At the wedding, my parents should sit at the honor table." I thought Derek would at least say that a game was a game and wedding arrangements were not prizes to be claimed. Instead, he merely frowned at me. "It's only two seats. "Paige's parents have always been close to our family. "I won the draw, and the rules say you owe me one request. "Don't embarrass everyone over this." I set down my fork, picked up my phone, and posted a message in our family-and-friends group chat. "There has been a change to the wedding seating. My parents will no longer be at the honor table." Derek visibly relaxed. Paige smiled at me through shining eyes. "Thank you, Hannah. I knew you would be generous." I didn't look at her. I simply continued typing. "Because my parents will not be attending this wedding. "Neither will I."

The Eze (king) of the Afugiri community Eze Obinna was suffering from a curse from a wizard who visited his throne to invoke the curse on him. The wizard was paid by Arinze, a rival to the throne to lay the curse on the king (Eze) because it is only when the Eze is dead that he stands a chance to be enthroned. This beloved Eze Obinna of Afugiri can only be saved by a magic bean that can only be found in a forbidden forest. The curse on the Eze will take his life in 30 days if the magic beans are not retrieved from the forest and administered to him. The Eze was already dying; his body is swelling-up as he is losing consciousness daily. If nothing is done, he’ll be truly gone in 30 days. Before getting to this evil forest, you must pass through the river where Mermaids come out at the bank to hunt for humans, Bushbabies that walks at night with mats, The land of Silence if you make noise because of what you see, you’ll be killed, the land of ‘Don’t look up where the monster that flies above you won’t spare you once you look at it, the land of Lust where your utmost desire will be presented to you and if you fall for it, your soul will be whisked away, the coven of witches where witches will gladly suck blood bloodd if you don’t know how to overcome and so many other strange-lands that require a set of virtue to cross. Brave warriors must be summoned from the 11 clans of Afugiri, these warriors must not just be brave physically, and they must also be strong in character because battling the spirits and crossing those strange lands with strange beings requires virtues.

Every century years mates are chosen, destined to produce the Fated one - the offspring who will lead in the war between Werewolf and Vampire. Many have tried and many have failed. Death and fear dominate the two communities. Anastasia, a seer and messenger of the moon goddess foresees the Chosen, but all is not as it seems. Felicity Stone is resisting the pull of the mate bond and as a result putting herself and the world in danger, without even realising it.