A pair of friendly transients, a dead Santa Claus, a torn sack of presents, and an alley on Christmas Eve. An urban odd couple of religious zealots hopped up on cocaine and hellbent on revenge. Two lovers and a tearful final goodbye. A man's descent into hell and his attempt to save the woman he loves. A hurricane, an albino infant, a desperate country woman, a hoodoo midwife, a Grand Wizard of the KKK, and a man named Justice. A father still mourning the loss of his son spends the night on the Hollywood Walk of Fame when the Santa Ana winds blow. A post-apocalyptic world, a young man's lucid dream, and the doctor who falls for him. And a chilling tale of two brothers at constant odds until a moment of anger changes their relationship. Dystopian, contemporary, romantic, Southern, dramatic, gothic, fantastic, strange: all describe the short fiction collected here.