Stories by @holyfrickle

The Family Table

After the sudden passing of his father, Eli, a corporate office worker with no restaurant experience, reluctantly returns home to take over his father’s beloved family-owned Italian restaurant, Giovanni’s. Struggling to balance the weight of his father’s legacy with his own modern ideas, Eli faces the chaos of running the kitchen, managing quirky staff, and connecting with the tight-knit community. With the help of his father’s loyal crew—an eccentric sous chef, a no-nonsense pastry chef, and a wise-cracking waiter—Eli slowly learns the ropes. Through laughter, heartache, and a few burned lasagnas, Eli discovers that the true essence of the restaurant isn’t just in the food, but in the bonds it creates. As he brings new life to the family business, Eli finds a deeper understanding of his father’s legacy and his own path to healing and belonging

Papers, Please.

In the winter of 1982, Anton Grebov, a quiet factory worker in the oppressive state of Arstotzka, is reassigned by government lottery to serve as an immigration inspector at a newly opened border checkpoint. What begins as a monotonous job — checking passports, verifying documents, and stamping approvals — quickly unravels into a daily test of loyalty, morality, and survival. As the regime tightens control, rules change without warning, and the line outside grows longer with desperate refugees, smugglers, spies, and innocents fleeing violence. Some offer bribes. Others bring secrets. A few might be terrorists. Ezic, a shadowy revolutionary group, reaches out to Anton with cryptic messages and dangerous choices. His every decision is monitored. His mistakes are punished. His family — a sick daughter, a fragile wife — relies on his paycheck, even as the cost of obedience grows unbearable. With the fate of strangers in his hands and his own family’s safety hanging by a thread, Anton must decide what kind of man he is: a loyal servant of the state, a silent rebel, or something in between. Every stamp is a sentence. Every choice has a price. Glory to Arstotzka.

The Loyalist

In the early days of the Empire, Senator Luthen Kai uncovers a hidden directive buried deep within Imperial legislation—evidence of a secret weapons project and a conspiracy to erase dissent from within the Senate. As allies vanish and the truth is buried under propaganda, Kai is branded a traitor. Now hunted by Imperial intelligence, he must decide how far he’ll go to defend the Republic he once served—before his voice is silenced forever.

The Ashes of Light

A lone private investigator — an ex-Imperial security officer turned fixer — is hired to find a missing child rumored to be Force-sensitive. As he digs deeper, he uncovers a conspiracy: criminal factions are trafficking Force-sensitive beings, selling them to cults, rogue Jedi, and worse. The deeper he goes, the more his own haunted past starts to unravel. He used to help erase Jedi records. Now, he’s chasing a ghost in a galaxy that no longer believes in them.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show

When their car breaks down during a storm, uptight couple Brad and Janet seek shelter in the remote estate of Dr. Frank-N-Furter — a brilliant, genderfluid scientist-artist who’s built a secret world of pleasure, performance, and genetic engineering. As Frank unveils his latest creation — the ideal man, Rocky — Brad and Janet are pulled into a seductive spiral of identity, obsession, and power. In this hypermodern reimagining, The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Rewired trades aliens for ambition and spotlights the human drive to rewrite desire, no matter the cost.