He only sees her sometimes. Maybe once or twice a year, if that, and only then when he’s caught off guard. When, preoccupied with exhaustion or the grim necessities of survival, she slips his mind for a moment that allows… Continue Reading
Iggy was a curious rock, expelled from an adventurous planet to travel to an unknown new world, Earth. The journey was long. Rocks make ideal interstellar travelers; they have no need of support equipment and bear the boredom well. Iggy… Continue Reading
“Tell me,” said Anthony, spitting out the words through gritted teeth. He had just returned from a night of carousing to find his workroom immaculately clean, free of all the accumulated stains and spillage, with every book and scrap of… Continue Reading
The allure of the exotic locale is what drew me in. I had torn the advertisement out of a technology magazine where it was very much out of place and out of time. I stashed it in the top drawer… Continue Reading
for Gael Queuing… a particularly British habit. So orderly. So polite. So not Hilary. Hilary wasn’t one to queue. Not if she could avoid it. She put it down to being half-Austrian. She had neither the time nor the inclination.… Continue Reading
The day of the funeral, it fails to rain. It would be easier to bear if the sky wept with us. Instead, sunlight and warmth touch every corner of our mountains, flicker on every tree leaf, fill each breeze. A… Continue Reading
The Mother marched her son past the kettles and toasters. “I’m returning him,” she told the sales assistant. “This child is not suitable.” The boy fidgeted with the buttons on his school blazer, lip trembling. “Stop fiddling, Jeremy!” The Mother… Continue Reading
The princess stands at the window, her palms pressed against the glass. She is watching a knight approach the tower door far below her and is admiring the way that he walks. Each step is silent and precise so as… Continue Reading
If she went back over her logs she might be able to say when Oliver changed, from a hundred and two centimetres and brown hair and big knees, to a hundred and sixty-two centimetres and white hair and wobbly legs.… Continue Reading
Four ranks wide, thirty deep. He could feel the fear of every one of them. Feel it crawling up his back, pressing through the seams of his armor, working through every gasket and seal. It wouldn’t last long, a mayfly… Continue Reading