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Denouement
When seventeen-year-old Thom Goode takes his own life, he finds himself in a special kind of purgatory for suicides: living in a house with three others, all of whom have been given a task to complete before they can proceed to heaven. But despite its idyllic facade, Thom soon learns that the afterlife is just as limited by human imperfection as was life. To finally find peace, happiness, and connection with others, Thom and those he meets must confront what most haunts them.
To read the story, click the links—all of them. And if you get lost, use the map.
For Lu
May you always be knee-deep in lavender fields.
©2014 Jesse Jayne Rutherford. All rights reserved.
No part of this story may be copied, pasted, or used in any way without the express written permission of the author.
All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblances to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Acknowledgements:
Thanks to Kerry McKay, David Moreau, and Pat Yeakley for reading earlier drafts of this story and providing feedback on story structure and functionality—not easy to do before this site was programmed and you were working off of a Word doc with HTML hyperlinks plus a photo of a tangled mess of an information architecture that I had drawn on my wall. I appreciate you being game for tromping around in the weeds.
Deepest love and gratitude to my parents and stepmom, sister, and kids for their love and support in all forms while working on this story. Whether it was making meals or listening to an artistic crisis, your support and kindness have been indispensable in helping me.
Frit
When Lydia’s boyfriend is killed just as they finish building their new cabin, she slowly loses her mind. A therapeutic trip to visit an old friend is more than her fragile psyche can bear, and she loses the ability to distinguish strangers from those she knows and trusts.
For the delightful Miss P.
©2012, 2014 Jesse Jayne Rutherford. All rights reserved.
First edition published at http://frit.herokuapp.com/.
Second edition published at Fraxtory.com/Frit
No part of this story may be copied, pasted, or used in any way without the express written permission of the author.
All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblances to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Many thanks to Jeremy Franz for programming the original version of this story as a favor to me. Because of your help, I have had a sturdy stepping-stone to Fraxtory.com and a means of sharing my work in the meantime.
Thank you to Kathy Nickerson, whose mentorship in psychology has been indispensable in creation of character emotions, and made possible the writing of this psychological thriller. Thanks to Troy Duncan, who helped with firefighting details.
Except for the ending, this story is based very closely on one of the most vivid nightmares I’ve ever had, and I scrambled to write the whole thing in three weeks, before I forgot it. This happened during what was a very nightmare-worthy time in my life, and my parents, sister, and kids saw me through to the other side of hell. I love you very much.
The Flower Wars
Imagine that the Aztec (Nawa) empire had never been defeated. Now fast-forward 500+ years to the present day…
Weetzy, an imperial warrior, is wounded in a mysterious “flower war” and discharged from the military. Suffering from PTSD, physically disfigured, and ashamed that he has failed the gods, he struggles to find his place as a civilian in a war-obsessed society. He crosses paths with Leeltick, a young slave girl. She serves the emperor’s daughter and is made an accomplice to a string of heinous crimes against the empire. When faced with terrible choices, both Weetzy and Leeltick are caught between what the gods say is right…and what the empire says is law.
Click the links to read the story in any order you want.
Foul Water | Clear Water | Mictlan: The Underworld I | Mictlan: The Underworld II | This Star Rises | That Star Falls | Their Guns Are in Their Hearts | His Gun Is in His Heart | Iztak’s Secret I | Iztak’s Secret II | A Small Imperial Oversight I | A Small Imperial Oversight II | I Am Weetzylopochly I | I Am Weetzylopochly II |
The Wrong Warrior | The Warrior Wrong | Weetzy’s Pyramid I | Weetzy’s Pyramid II | Jetsam | Flotsam | An Ugly Scene I | An Ugly Scene II | The Broken Body | The Broken Spirit | Weetzy Shoots One | Weetzy Shoots Two | The Turquoise Mask I | The Turquoise Mask II |
Glass on the Floor I | Glass on the Floor II | The Jaguar | The Hummingbird | The Court I | The Court II | The First Task | The First Question | One Man Down | Two Men Down | The Priestess’s First Heart | The Priestess’s Last Heart | The Demon Gate | The New Demon | Warriors Wanted I | Warriors Wanted II
Dedication, Acknowledgements, Anglicized Terms, and Other Matter
©2014 – 2016 Jesse Jayne Rutherford. All rights reserved.
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