A windchime played through a crackling speaker. Frozen leaves kicked by tiny feet. Vida’s quarry—her fucking quarry, as if it was going to run away—had a sound distinctive enough, persistent enough, that she knew it was there even in the imperfect shifting darkness outside the circle of her flashlight. She was almost sure this wasn’t […]
Birds are tricksters. Being small necessitates all kinds of wiles to survive but Corvidae, in all their glory as the raven, rook, jay, magpie, jackdaw, and crow have greater ambitions than that. They have a plan. I used to go into the garden with Dad and Pippa every morning, rain or shine, even on school […]
In the only photograph that I have of my mother, she is covered in blood. Her frizzy brown hair is flattened black with gore, her rosy cheeks now suffused with a redder hue. The only things spared from the Carrie-at-prom-night dousing are her brown eyes and white teeth; the former wide in terror, pupils expanding […]
Paulina was born coated in a film of creamed honey and a swarm of bees. When they flew out of her mother’s womb whirring like little clockwork toys; one stung the midwife’s upper lip but she didn’t complain. The last time she had seen a totem birth, she’d said to Paulina’s mother, was in 1972. […]
The crypt of St Bride’s is cold, colder than the air outside, and I welcome it, find it invigorating, for I did not sleep well, nor have I done since my return. Florie, long gone, chose last night to haunt my dreams. Her face and figure—not as I saw them that final occasion—were perfect and […]
I. Discovery I suppose I’m chasing the wildflowers. I first found them while digging for worms. It’s not very often an earthworm dies of old age, but this one called to me, bloated and weary, with its body caked in pollen and a belly full of decay. The soil was soft and moist to my […]
Esteuan sees the bent figure at dusk and thinks nothing of it. His day has been long, beginning before the sun brightened the sky, ending as the sun takes a last gasp and puts herself away for the night. Exhaustion bends his own broad shoulders against this darkening sky and he presumes it is another […]
From: x_ <pinedemon@x.x> To: Aly Duarte <alyalyoxenfree@gmail.com> December 18 2017 3:36 am Subject: The Pine Arch Collection —Play the attached video and you can see, almost from the start, that something isn’t right. But you don’t know what. A sort of—familiarity. The trees are gasping in the fog. All you can make out for two […]
PART ONE All we wanted to do was kill a clown. And not just once, either. I mean, one clown, sure, one would be enough, one would be plenty. But he was going to die all night. Dick’s ex was a nurse over at Idalou, and during their two years together, Dick had learned enough […]
When the walls are thin, every neighbour is a felon and a murderer. Police sirens scream every night, between twelve to three am. This nightly cacophony brings rise to speculations. Who will be robbed next? Who will be killed? Every night, you wonder if it’s going to be you. Tonight is the same. Tonight it […]
