On the Outs

An elderly former celebrity seeks to disappear quietly and leave a great deal of mystery surrounding his absence. As he attempts to carefully sever all of his ties, he realizes that there are more things that he cares about than he thought. Also, there are plenty of people with a vested interest in his continued existence or at least a degree of curiosity regarding his increasingly peculiar behavior as he sets up his disappearance. He realizes that he doesn’t necessarily want to disappear, but by that point, his elaborate plan is so far under way that to end it would do more damage to the people that he has now realized he loves than him sticking around would.

One Child Left Behind

Beth works hard as the nanny for the one child of a wealthy single mother.  When the mother disappears, suspicions abound that Beth may be responsible.  But Beth suspects that for reasons she can’t fathom, the mother is attempting to shirk responsibilities for the child by leaving him with Beth.  Now she is torn between solving the mystery and vindicating herself or accepting her assigned fate and caring for the child as if it was her own.

Unforgiving Day

            Christina begins to investigate when she realizes that a member of her family has gone missing every five years on Thanksgiving day, especially when evidence points to her as the next victim.  Her friends try to protect her, but sure enough, on Turkey day an Illuminati-like secret society takes her away.  Her friends band together to hunt her down as the Organization does a blood test and then subjects her to a series of weird rituals.

            The friends catch up with Christina in a massive underground temple and manage to interrupt what is about to be a human sacrifice, probably involving some sort of Cornucopia-esque soul vacuuming device.  The Organization isn’t just angry; they’re terrified, and as zombie Native Americans rise from the ground, armed with their animal spirit familiars, it becomes very clear why.  The sacrifice of a Pilgrim descendant to the spirits of the long betrayed Indian tribe has finally gone unfulfilled.

            So Christina finds herself the desired victim of two warring groups, the high tech but cult-ish Pilgrims and the undead Indians, in a battle that leaks out of the temple, and into the streets where it disrupts the small town equivalent of a Macy’s day parade.  And in order to escape and end the war, Christina must either sacrifice herself or find some way to make peace between the two parties, and this time the chiefs won’t be duped by a few strings of glass beads.