When two friends hear a commotion in their mysterious new neighbor's apartment, they go to check, only to find the door open, and the apartment completely empty...well, almost empty. Genre: Mystery, Fantasy

Excerpt:The only object in the entire apartment was lying on the tiled kitchen floor. Broken into several pieces. A mug. I could make out a design on one of the larger shards. An eye. A wide open eye, just staring. I felt the hairs on my neck rise. I blinked. A liquid that looked like pink-orange milk was spattered across the tile, as if it spilled from the mug as the mug fell. Had we just walked into a crime scene?

The Wheel of Fiction Turns. What did it land on this time?Each Season 9 story follows a theme chosen by the Wheel of Fiction. Thirteen spokes. Eight are the themes from previous seasons. One is "Turn Again." One is a wild card. And three are covered in question marks and will be revealed when the wheel lands on them. See a story trailer and a (satisfying) video of the wheel turning here: Stranded in Shadow This episode landed on PROMPTS. The prompt I used to inspire this story was a long one. The writer is given a paragraph that starts a story, and challenged to continue and finish it. I read the whole prompt out in the episode's outro. Prompt Source: 500 Creative Prompts (Publisher: Piccadilly Inc.) Find more stories and episodes that revisit previous stories here: Year of Prompts.

MERCH!Interested in merch, like mugs and notebooks, featuring my artwork?Please visit my Store page for info on where you can buy: STORYFEATHER STORE

The Store page also has sign-up forms for my two email newsletters: Storyfeather Gazette (if you'd like to keep up with the fiction I create)

Fictioneer's Field Guide (if you'd like writing tips and guidance from me) Choose what you want. (Either way, you're choosing high jinks.)

MY FIRST BOOK (yay)Ever wonder how I've gotten all these hundreds of stories written? I have a method. You can learn it in my book called Fictioneer's Field Guide: A Game Plan for Writing Short Stories. It's now available from Amazon as an eBook, paperback, and hardcover. You can also get there from my Store page: STORYFEATHER STORE

Music:"Under the mask" by NICHOLAS JEUDY (Intro)"Reloaded" by NICHOLAS JEUDY (Outro)"Abstract Vision #5" by ANDREW SITKOV (Outro)

Music by NICHOLAS JEUDY (Dark Fantasy Studio)"Trojan horse""Negociation""DNA""As it happenned""Master""Reloaded""Mindhunter""The deal""Secret agent""Virtual reality""Men in black""Doubts""Under the mask" All tracks are part of a music and sound effects bundles I purchased from Humble Bundle and sourced from GameDev Market. Music by Nicholas Jeudy and Andrew Sitkov is licensed from GameDev MarketSound effects from AudioJungle, GameDevMarket, and Soundly (through Hindenburg)Changes made to the musical tracks? Just cropping of some to align with my narration.

Find more music by Nicholas Jeudy and Andrew Sitkov at gamedevmarket.net Find more stories by Nila at storyfeather.com

Episode Art Description:Digital drawing. View down a stairwell, where a person with long hair sits within a shadow with knees drawn up and hands clasped around the left leg. The person is glancing up the stairs. A pool of glowing pink-orange liquid collects on the highest visible stair, trickling down the stairs along the hazy border of the shadow. A door is partly visible at the bottom of the stairs. Watermark of "Storyfeather" along top step.