The Edge

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NOTE: These stories are
intended for a mature audience.

Luminations Archives
by
Rick Silva 

2006 - Revelations

Chester Hall was just another unemployed techie geek, scrounging for whatever work he could find in the little New Hampshire town where he?d grown up. Six months of job-hunting right out of college had gotten him nowhere. So he?d found himself back in his childhood bedroom, fighting with his Dad about dirty dishes in the sink or leaving the lights on, while he tutored old ladies who?d been told they needed to learn Word or Powerpoint. Occasionally the temp agency would call with something, and he?d do data entry for a couple of weeks until the he became eligible to be hired on permanent, at which point he?d inevitably be let go.

He had started to consider a pretty wide range of future career options from burger-flipper to pizza delivery guy, and he would have considered joining the army if not for the whole war thing. Being a private investigator, however, that was one he?d never given a moment?s thought to. But things change. Hired on to help out with tech support for an ex-cop who chased down bail jumpers and spied on cheating spouses, Chess Hall found himself taking the cases that his boss turned down. The ones who were a little bit? off. The obsessive, the delusional, the paranoid. And the ones who just seemed that way because no one took the time to really listen.

Chess has his own practice now, and he?s established something of a reputation. He?s making a living shedding light on the little shadows that touch the lives around him, but he?s beginning to find that if you stare into the shadows often enough, they start to stare back. 

01 - Pulp
02 - Chase
03 - House
04 - Foundation
05 - Antiquarian
06 - Murder
07 - Bloodsucker
08 - Safehouse, Part One
09 - Safehouse, Part Two
10 - Questions
11 - Hearing
12 - First Night 

2007 - Consequences

Nancy Matteo was just another geek girl with a dream, living in a tiny apartment cluttered with the books that she loved, working a minimum wage job. She had plans to expand her fledgling antique book business into something beyond the trickle of extra income that she collected from online auctions, but dreams have a way of getting pushed aside in favor of making the next rent check. But good fortune came Nancy's way in the form of an unexpected benefactor, a private detective who she'd helped out on a case once suddenly came up with the money to back the store that Nancy had always dreamed of owning? And the money was offered on a no-questions-asked basis. Nancy's benefactor even had a suggestion to help her stock her business: a valuable collection of occult and paranormal books that were about to go up for sale. So Nancy set about making arrangements to follow her dream, only occasionally stopping to remind herself that this is the way that horror stories often begin. And Nancy Matteo knows horror stories very well. Knowing them is part of her job.

13 - Chechaquo
14 - Curiosity
15 - Opening
16 - Assasssination
17 - Easter
18 - Sleuth
19 - Runes
20 - Feast
21 - Elimination, Part One
22 - Elimination, Part Two
23 - Solstice
24 - An Accounting

2008 - Retribution

College campuses can be full of mysteries, especially in the eyes of a new freshman. But Katy McCormick is no stranger to mysteries. She spent her high school years working for private investigator Chester Hall, and along the way, Katy made enemies and she saw close friends end up hurt or worse. Now Katy is on her own, and that's just fine with her. She plans on taking the fight to her enemies, and Chess Hall conveniently left her with the resources to do just that. But when those campus mysteries begin to present themselves, Katy finds that it might not be so easy to keep her crusade against old enemies from spilling over to her new life and her new friends. And as she tries to find some kind of balance, the clues that Katy is following begin to point toward a future shattered by gunfire and a tragedy that just might be all too inevitable.

25 - Entry
26 - Podcast
27 - Conversations
28 - Crossing
29 - Chains
30 - Misdirection
31 - Signing
32 - Date
33 - Escalation
34 - Moments
35 - Intervention, Part One
36 - Intervention, Part Two 

2009 - Compromises

Chester Hall is in a world of trouble. He's got an expired private investigator's license and a district attorney breathing down his neck. He's lost friends and he's made enemies, and all he really wants to do is to find someplace to start over. And Chester Hall has another problem, one that he can't run from. He has a ghost living inside his head, and she's got revenge on her mind. Or rather, on his mind. With the clues to the mystery scattered across the country and back through the years, Chess Hall is on the road looking for the answers and tracking down the people responsible for the brutal murder of Mattie Ives. He has her voice in his head guiding the investigation, and he's hoping that when every clue has been uncovered, maybe Mattie's ghost can finally rest in peace. But Mattie has her own agenda, and peace has no part in it.

37 - Subprime
38 - List
39 - Exorcisms
40 - Falls
41 - Connections
42 - Curve
43 - Motel
44 - Isolation, Part One
45 - Isolation, Part Two
46 - Desert
47 - Sand
48 - How It Ends

Photo by Rick Silva, copyright 2006