These floors, original to the house, have witnessed the turn of two centuries. The shoe concealed beneath them is older. Laces replaced, sole thrice mended, the shoe still bears the impression of the big toe that for years pressed against the worn upper. Now, it rests mateless between floor joists, a curiosity for spiders and […]
The night the first trace appeared on the sanatorium’s tile, Matthew was returning from checking that the infirmary wing was closed. At first glance, the tile was nothing special: a simple continuation of the floor that the nurses, the Prior, and the various patients disdained underfoot. However, for Matthew, it became the object of an […]
Granny always says not to drink from the well, she reckons it’s got the taint about it. She shakes her head disapprovingly whenever we’re close. “Never should’ve placed dead bodies so close to the Lord’s water,” she says, making her tut-tut sound, and the sign of the cross. Great Uncle Raymond is the nearest dead […]
I’m a face in the rain. A sketch of shadows under streetlight. Mostly I’m a memory, a ghost of myself. Adam was my name. It’s confusing, but every time I even the score for us, I grow stronger. Isn’t that why I’m here, standing outside the restaurant, born of tears and blood? I’m the shadow […]
Seventeen today. On an untouched stretch of the central coast, under a fog-blotted sky, seventeen girls take long, graceless strides across the beach and into the ocean. Bare feet sinking into sparkling sand, ankles roped with seaweed, hands instinctively reaching out again and again as they brace themselves with every stumble. The water froths, salivating […]
If there’s one thing my mother taught me, it’s to take responsibility for my actions. When something breaks, take responsibility. When there’s not enough time, take responsibility. When someone else fucks up, still take responsibility. Whether or not the end result was my fault didn’t matter. If I had a stake in the situation, then […]
It’s Saint Hook’s Eve, but this year nobody from my village has brought gifts. I am the only one on the beach. The only one watching the light-house where the Sisters once hived, the broken pale rock of it. I told Papa I’d be back in an hour, pretending to myself and him that I’m […]
Two figures are on screen. The first is an older man, thick-set in a linen jacket and chinos, prominent chin beneath a sardonically angled mouth and thick grey hair combed horizontal across his scalp. He sits in a cavernous armchair on the left of the camera shot. The other, facing him, is a woman, at […]
The broker knew it was going to be that kind of Lunday morning when the duchess was chattering away before she’d even gotten her wide skirts through the shop doorway. There was an upcoming event at the castle, the duchess declared while shaking dust from her hem, so very rare and so very important that […]
When they turned onto the narrow track leading to the cottage, Mary felt an odd lurching sensation within her chest, as if her heart had shuddered, or perhaps stuttered on a single beat. “There it is,” said Tom. “Just up ahead.” She peered through the windscreen, squinting her eyes against the oncoming twilight, and just […]
