The Waiting Half

Jimmy Cole imports cheap clothes and thinks he understands the cost of wanting things. In Cebu, he meets Marisol: clever, attentive, beautiful, and carrying an old story he is too charmed to hear. When he brings her to London, she slips easily into his warehouse, his flat, and his lonely life. But at night, something separates. A flying hunger moves across the rooftops, reaching through skylights and locked rooms, while a waiting body stands vulnerable in the dark. As deaths spread and love turns to fear, Jimmy learns that folklore is not superstition but warning. A tragic modern Manananggal tale about migration, desire, exploitation, and the parts of a person love refuses to see.

THE DAMP ASCENSION

In “The Call of the Codfather,” the Children of Thalassor, a declining cult, meet covertly beneath a fish bar, struggling to invoke their drowned god, Thalassor. When reluctant scion Billy Pike returns for a funeral, he inadvertently unleashes chaos but ultimately negotiates a system for both the god and his family, transforming their absurdity into manageable governance. The story blends comedy, cosmic horror, and familial ties.

THE LEDGER OF BENEVOLENT ASCENSION

When independent accountant H. B. Carrow is hired to examine the books of a charitable occult religion, he expects hidden income, improper deductions, and perhaps a little clerical fraud. Instead, he finds a devotional pyramid scheme built on grief, debt, and human collateral. Lower-tier believers fund the comfort of trustees while being reduced, line by line, into assets, arrears, and final distributions. Told through forensic reports, interviews, and dry professional horror, The Ledger of Benevolent Ascension turns accountancy into cosmic dread, exposing a church whose worst crimes are not hidden off the books, but balanced perfectly within them all along.

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Chapter Eleven: The Route Archive The Route Archive was not a depot. That was the first useful disappointment. Mark had expected buses. Leah had expected buses. Caz had expected something…

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Chapter Eight: Public Interest Judith Vale chose the bus station. This disappointed everyone. Leah had expected a courthouse, a newspaper office, a church, perhaps some half-forgotten municipal chamber where oaths…

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Chapter Five: The Authority Above The ambulance did not go to hospital. That was the first twist, though Lydia did not learn it until later. At the time she was…