They have certainly helped in the past and I welcome the interaction.Full disclosure; I am considering moving some of my writing to other online platf...rms. All open-access and free-to-read, of course. The stories published here will be my unwitting test material as I check out different sites by posting them there. Otherwise, have fun. I'll drop writers notes in the comments section as always so look out for those and happy reading!~ MenoetesAuthors Note: Hello Dearest Reader. Menoetes here. This place was different though, it was dark and dank. It looked like it had just rained, but there wasn’t a cloud for miles, the street was covered in trash, and the beautiful women were replaced by homeless men and garbage cans, bottles of dry liquor, and bloody tampons. The air had a pungent sweet smell, like fruit.I looked up at the street sign, to see if I had the right street, it said “Lonely St.” but it was different, it was scratched up and covered in graffiti. It now read “Spook City. Still it waswarm, comfortable, and suited me fine. I was perfectly happy there withmy books, music and cat!My cat; Simba was a magnificent black tom with a white front and paws.He was scared of nothing and had seen off all rivals in the street. Iwas therefore surprised, one evening, late in November, to hear Simbapawing and the door and meowing pitifully. As soon as I let him in herushed upstairs and cowered under my bed. Try as I might I could notcoax him out. Wondering what it could have been. "Stefania hurried in behind him before he slammed the door shut. Heglanced at her for a second before he shouted, "What the fuck are wegoing to do?" I have no idea," Stefania replied, equally clueless about how tohandle the situation that had rapidly taken shape around them."We can't keep pretending to be each other." It's going to come out eventually," Stefania acknowledged."We have to tell her!" And then what?" Stefania asked."She'll probably fire us for making her look like an idiot,".