Sam and Bobby were walking along the seafront when they saw the man, crouched over the rocks. He wore green boots and a long coat with big pockets. The boys ...
Can you believe we’re in Paris? You asked, and I chuckled, shutting my eyes, sparkles of glitter shooting across my lids. Honking horns beeped through the background noise of our ...
My mother would describe her gynecological problems to strangers. I would be trying on a pair of jeans, and I would hear “womb” or “spasm” over the curtain.
...
You need to stay here. This is not for you. You have the best of him now. There are other ways to say goodbye, this is not it.
...
Every day, at sunrise, he tells her he loves her. The words slip through his lips like honey, still heavy and full with her kisses
...
‘When Miguelín was three years old, a demon possessed him, but nobody noticed because the unclean creature didn’t force the little boy to do cruel things, to speak in a ...
‘At first I didn’t miss the girls. I used to get jealous of the way they were treated special, and that they got to go places with the uncles … ...
‘For as long as she could remember Penny had her bag packed ready, just in case. It just made good sense. ‘ A girl dreams of escape but who will ...
‘We gather our clothes and move from the tall oak groves to the sleek grassy slope and sit cross-legged, arching our spines and letting our long straight hair settle into ...
‘He doesn’t watch the clock. That’s not how he was made. He picks up the telephone and dials round his regional reps. They’ve nothing to report that they hadn’t already ...
‘It was one of them electric cigs. Not the oddest curio Mab’s brought in, I thought. Until I took a long, hefty drag and inhaled every particle of dust the ...
Desire, sexual tension and violence conspire to frustrate one couple’s relationship in this edgy little tale from Ian Shine.
...
“You should have stayed at home today, not be in a car with the heater on, waiting in a layby for your spare phone to ring. You should have remembered ...
“Mine and Rebecca’s love was born under a cloud of MDMA and that’s where it stayed for 75 days. Not that she’s figured that out yet.”
...
“For the thousandth time, well before first light, you walk the ancient track through the forest, the place where you and Spike used to come nearly every weekend when you ...
“A calm face on a pillow with reddened hair tucked back. The boy aims for the eye behind its plum casing and slams the hand down, once, cracking through orbital ...
“Oh how I love thee. Let me count the ways: seven milligrams, fourteen milligrams, twenty-one milligrams…” Love, addiction, obsession and nicotine patches collide in this sinister little tale by Ewan ...
“This morning Donna’s life fell down. She was at the shop when it happened, the corner shop run by the Chowdry family”
...
“And high in the sky Orion the hunter wakes up and discovers his belt is gone.” Two children encounter Orion’s belt and play unaware that above them, the giant ...
“The sight of them makes me shrink away from my window, draping the curtain around me for protection.”
...
