Ghosts of Fire Sneak Peak! The Vagaries of Eloise Stanton by M. Pax #SpecFic

“The Vagaries of Eloise Stanton” by M. Pax. Lucy’s family disappeared when she was a child, lost in a world of mirror. No one believed her, yet the reflections of her family’s faces haunt her, plead with her for rescue. On the verge of at last being reunited, Lucy must battle the cruel woman, who isn’t quite human, standing as a barrier between the two realms.

If this experiment didn’t succeed, I would lose all trace of my sister. I’d never find my family again.

Electric purple flames, which didn’t burn when touched, framed the mirror in front of me and from it, a hand that shouldn’t be reached out and grabbed my wrist, squeezing it bloodless, pulling me to the glass. Missing for fifteen years, my little sister was finally in my grasp. My heart drummed, and my pulse sizzled.

“Jenny, come home.” My tears splashed onto fingers unchanged from the last time I had seen them—the nails decorated with little daisies and the knuckles pudgy with eternal youth. Caressing her palm with my cheek, I inhaled the familiar scents of sunshine, grass, and bubble gum.

“Is it really you?” I asked.

Her reflection mixed with mine. My image remained mum, and although she appeared exactly like me with the same mahogany waves, round cheeks, and gray eyes, she wasn’t me. The me in the mirror glanced behind her, licking her lips, movements I hadn’t made. Whispers tickled my ears and verged on clarity before ebbing away into a muddied hum—the same noise as when my family had vanished.

Fighting with Jenny’s unrelenting grip, I tugged at her over and over. She wouldn’t budge from the glass.

“Help me.” I bit my lower lip and knotted my brow. “Jenny, please.”

The murmurs spiked then stopped, replaced by a pocket of silence so hushed the universe certainly held its breath. The mirror me dissolved into a young girl with long, light hair and laughing eyes. Jenny.

I hadn’t laughed since the day I lost my family. Fifteen years of rain had fallen on Seattle since, yet my sister hadn’t aged. Her lips pouted so earnestly.


Ghosts of Fire is coming in October!