Fleur wonders how Erika would respond to this news. Erika is not sympathetic to Fleur’s desire to sleep with men, and treats her with open contempt for this. Fleur had been invited to spend New Years Eve with Erika. When Fleur told her she had been invited to the bar with Yahya, Nathaniel, Joss and… Continue reading Bad Decisions, pt.2 by Emily Simpson
"Look at the clouds." "Clouds, really?" "Yes, there they are." "Sure." "Why can't you trust me?" The woman asked, anxiously. "I trust you." "You never like anything that I like," said the woman, bitterly. The man raised his brows and stood up heavily. Without uttering anything, he strode straight to the window where the woman… Continue reading The Curtain and The Clouds by Divyank Jain
Joss’s phone rings. The notification glows 'Fleur', which surprises him. The vibrations rock into his hand and he taps the green circle to answer. “Hey,” he says. He can hear her breath first, deep and slow. Then there’s the low rush of the night; cars pass, electricity hums. Her voice shakes. “Something’s happened, can you… Continue reading Bad Decisions, pt. 1 by Emily Simpson
I ask him what he likes to do. He tells me that he likes to kayak with his dad. He tells me he lives with his parents. He says he puts a good portion of his cheque every week towards his student loans and that they will be paid off soon. I tell him that… Continue reading Where the Gutter Flowers Wilt, pt.2 by Kyle Summerall
The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.H.P. Lovecraft, ‘Supernatural Horror in Literature’ http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/essays/shil.aspx Now we have the obligatory Lovecraft quote out of the way, we can get on with figuring out what the hell horror really is. At least I… Continue reading What is Horror? | Guest Article by Gavin Gardiner
“What did you want again?” Ceri half-shouted down the phone. She was queuing in a cramped café in the bustling heart of Paddington Train Station, winding her way around the tables and chairs like a conga line in slow motion until she reached the counter. Cherry, her wife of two-and-a-half years, had grown bored of… Continue reading Biggest Fan, pt. 12 by Heather Taylor
Cut up, was the body was on the sofa. Where it had been left. Its leg was bent at the knee and turned slightly outwards. An ankle dangled over the edge of the seat, the arch of a bare foot just grazing the fibres of the carpet. There were tights that started at the hem… Continue reading Cut by Abi Silverthorne
Summer rain blankets the windshield, turning the parking lot into a canvas of mottled lights. I could never paint something so beautiful in its normality. Even if I had the time and the kind of thick paint that you couldn’t get at Walmart. The kind that came in the tubes with a screw off cap… Continue reading Where the Gutter Flowers Wilt, pt. 1 by Kyle Summerall
Huddled in the bathroom with the door firmly locked and checked four times, was Aaron. He had to find some form of peace from his newest reason to keep on smiling—little twin toddlers that were as inquisitive as they come—and their irritable mother. Of course, he loved her, only he seldom got time to himself… Continue reading Biggest Fan, pt. 11 by Heather Taylor
The world ended on a Sunday. Sunday 18th of July, 2028. 10:37am. It’s ironic if you think about it: a big bang created the Earth and all the creatures that live on it; four and a half billion years later those same creatures develop a big bang of their own and destroy their beautiful home.… Continue reading The Kimberley by Debi Savage | Shortlisted Entry Short Story Competition 2020
