Southern Starr Originals

The Reluctant Hero’s Path Reggie Hargrove had always believed in one thing: heroes were best left to other people. The kind with swords and brave hearts. Not people like him, who preferred reading about legends while sipping tea. So when a royal summons arrived, demanding he trek across the kingdom to recover a mystical Relic, Reggie immediately started looking for excuses, but …

The Hanging That Wouldn’t Happen The sun was just beginning to sink beneath the dusty horizon when Sheriff Amos Traynor stood at the edge of Red Hollow’s gallows, staring down at the noose that had claimed many a life before. He was used to the weight of justice—he’d handed out his fair share of sentences. But today was different. Today, …

“Between the Cracks“ The jump wasn’t supposed to take long. Kai counted the seconds out of habit. Three to stabilize, five for the pressure behind the eyes to fade, and ten for the world to finish deciding what it wanted to be. When he reached twelve that was when he knew something was wrong. The air around him refused to …

“The Devil Stayed Two Nights” The wind didn’t blow into Red Hollow, it arrived like it had somewhere else it meant to be… but decided to stop here first. Old Man Wilkes said the wind had a way of changing when trouble was close. Not in speed, not in sound, but in personality. Like the air itself stopped being part …

The light in the cabin should have been out. Winter had settled in early that year, the kind that pressed close to the walls and made the firewood disappear faster than expected. The cabin sat alone at the edge of the woods, far enough from town that no one would notice a thing unless they were looking for it. No …

The man arrived on a Wednesday, which was already a bad sign. Red Hollow never liked Wednesdays. Too close to Sunday to feel clean, too far from payday to feel hopeful. Folks noticed him right away because he didn’t look lost—he looked like he’d been here before. He wore a dark coat dusted white with road powder and a hat …

A Winterbound Chronicles Tale The North Pole always listened. It listened to the ring of hammers in the workshop, the hum of conveyor belts, the soft clatter of toy trains finding their tracks. It listened to laughter, to bells, to the steady rhythm of a place that had learned over centuries how to hold joy without dropping it. Tonight, the …

The snow came late to Red Hollow, as it always did. By the time it finally fell, most folks had already accepted that Christmas would be dry and brown again, another December of cold wind and dust instead of white wonder. But on Christmas Eve, just after sundown, the sky darkened in a way that felt different. Jacob Crowley felt …

The Fire That Would Not Go Out The fire should have gone out hours ago. Eldrin knew this because he had fed it no fresh wood since sunset. The last of the dry kindling had burned down to coals, and the wind that crept through the mountain pass should have finished the rest before midnight. Fires did not last on …