The Singing Worlds—Novel Extract An hour before first light, Zeth rises, dresses without a lantern, packs his bag, and brews a flask of...

The Ambulance I’m not that skeleton they found. I’m not the pile of naked branches in which children have built their second homes. I...

Grande Luca Chapter One I received a phone call. It was a local to home number, an English number. However, I was in Portovenere, where...

Attendance Allowance My father’s rented bungalow squats quietly on a row of identical buildings. The bushes are taller than the window...

At the End of the Phone She picks up. The voice asks her what she’s eaten, is she okay, how many steps were taken to the bus, was it cold...

What Stays Under There is a feeling of weightlessness in lying here, of floating in the ether. I often only feel the texture of the wood...

Maple PROLOGUE The first sound Missy Miller could remember was the gunshot. You’d think that a ten-year-old would remember other sounds...

Western Dawn 1 ‘The Inquisition send you?’ he asks, scraping the red poker out of a black brazier. You say nothing. The end of a scrawny...

Song of the bug Segmented tankman with glass-noodle legs, we never stop questioning O monk’s louse, monkey-peas peasie-bug, doodlebug...

The Last Days of Narash I was on the way back to Narash when he arrived. We were returning from the fields, my sister Mereth and I. In...

The Scots Valkyrie The psych ward was far too quiet. Asta edged towards one of the doors. Through the window she saw a patient, a young...

Proud Titania 5 The front door to the apartment flew open, thumping the wall of Iris’s hallway as she slipped in behind her mother....

What the Fire Gave Me They’re coming for me in the morning. I’ve got some time until then, I’d judge it five or six hours by the light....

The Birds that are Caught After the opera Matthew knew he had to find a way of seeing Valentina again. Tom gave him the opportunity. A...

your brown leather boots (that i know you own because i saw them in a picture) have been on my mind for days scuffed leather stuffed with...

KEYS You can’t Breathe. Speak. Think. Moving too fast. Not getting anywhere. Lightning hits. Jolts. Spasm. Puppet body. You hear them...

Divine It’s a beautiful afternoon; let’s rest a while. We can perch on the edge of this bell tower and watch the wash of the city beneath...

A Rose from Dust ‘Bless me, Father, for I have sinned. My last confession was in 1803, whenas I was a novitiate at The Convent of the...

Until We Arrive PART ONE, CHAPTER III ‘Oh Nance, are ya sick?’ Nancy was crouched on the floor between the two narrow beds, her back to...

Heart of My Enemy Dad told me that if I ever saw a man in uniform I should run back to our basement. The soldier was only five feet ahead...