I was running late for my own death. All the hire bikes were taken so I had to walk. Along the towpath to Angel, I peered into the canal, empty but for the congealed sludge at the bottom with the odd shopping trolley and hubcap emerging out of it. I imagined the canal suddenly filling up again and a narrow boat appearing that would take me out of this city prison and into the edgelands, all the way to Silva.
Read MoreI met a woman the other day. She stood still, hands stiff at her sides. The metalwork meant to serve as the skin was bright against the moonlight. Her feet, on the platform, perfectly aligned across from each other. Eyes settled in the tracks, as though she were taking in each line. The woman was curious. Curious in the way machines can be at times.
Read MoreIn my house, there is a mirror. It hangs on the wall above a disused fireplace in a room that is, more often than not, empty.
Read MoreEverywhere I went, there was a person. Nowhere in sight could I find an empty landscape, a clean sheet of grass, a skyline without a skyscraper. My car couldn’t take me away fast enough, as it grumbled all the way to Dartmoor.
Read MoreIt was a meek ‘hello’ from the sun that woke him up in the end. Eyes grittily opening, he peered around from his den of blankets and creases. Outside, beyond the curtain, lay a promise of a perfect picnic-blue sky. ‘Today’, he mused, hoped, ‘today will be.’
Read MorePersephone wandered into Hell accidentally. Stumbled, actually, her feet tripping over the entangled vines that clawed their way out of the pit, gasping for sunlight and redemption.
She stared into the void before her. The void stared back.
Read MoreDusty air whooshes around my skin. Lightspheres chase my sleeves, sending illumination slithering across sandstone. Why do I bother? Hope has become as intertwined with my body as my heart; to rip hope away would be to rip my veins away with it. But that hope is what pumps blood through me, so I can’t resist its commands.
Read MoreThe Mother ran the back of her hand across her cheek as she swayed in time with the music. The silver wedding band on her finger cooled her skin. She recoiled, the sharp iciness of the ring almost bursting her idyllic moment, but the music swept…
Read MoreI woke up and the first thing I saw was a mini blackboard on my windowsill, underneath which someone had scribbled a schedule of events from eight to eight for each day of the week. I reminded myself that I had written that timetable, not someone else. The chalk didn’t write it, nor a past version of myself that was somehow separate from my current being. Just me.
Read MoreIt was as if all time had slowed, slurred as your figure emerged from that crumbling doorway. Like an angel descending, you reached out your hand to pull me out from my own material despair. The flames licked at our feet, and I felt myself melt into your arms.
Read MoreDo you remember, dear, the autumn? We would read about humans and spirits and ghosts, letting our imagination run wild as we played make-believe. We’d pretend we were spirit detectives, solving cases involving beings of all kinds.
Read MoreFor reasons alien to him, everybody trusted Jesse. He had no desire to be anyone’s confidant. And yet this was what he so often became to his clients…
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