The room was huge, floored in black and white tiles and roofed in vaulting plasterwork dangled with glittering crystal chandeliers. Some of the pillared walls led to alcoves and other rooms, some were faced with mirrors polished to a perfect sheen. In the air hung the sound of a bubbling stream, and the smell and […]
The fluorescent lighting and sterile linoleum of the fast food restaurant was neutral ground. They were a chain store, up and down the strip. Five hundred miles dotted liberally with the squat, square buildings selling sugar and fat and two hundred million people eager to stuff it down their throats. With replacement organs cheaper every […]
I love Bookfest.
Out of the endless white and grey, a speck appeared. It blossomed into a line and steadily grew until it seemed to tower above them. Peter had begun to wonder if they would ever reach it when the boat stopped with a dull clang and unseated him. He flailed for purchase and found himself holding […]
“She was born for the theatre. To tread the boards, skirting the crisp edge of the spotlight; to take them to places they could not fathom without her. And, somehow, the green cellophane would fade into sunlight through the branches, and the painted backdrops would dissolve, leaving the haze of mountains in the distance and […]
“I wish these damn lights would change,” I muttered. Looking in either direction there was nothing on the road save the regular circles of light thrown from the street lamps. The red glow cast over the dash changed to green and I was on the accelerator like a shot. “Traditionally, you get two more wishes,” […]
“You’re late,” she said. She kicked a bucket towards him. “Start bailing.” Peter took a minute to absorb his surroundings. He sat in the bow of a small rowboat of unpainted, untreated wood. From what he could see the hull wasn’t even caulked. The horizon was a straight, unbroken line on all sides: grey above, […]
“So you hunt ghosts, then?” I asked. “I don’t believe in ghosts,” he replied. “That is,” I admitted, “refreshingly frank for a person running a business called ‘GhostAway’.” He laughed. “It’s not exactly my usual spiel, no, but I’m not going to lie to an old friend.” “So it’s a hoax?” I looked around the […]
He loved rain that he didn’t have to be out in. This is not to say he only enjoyed rain from behind windows or under rooftops. Getting wet because there was no other choice in getting from A to B was irksome; sitting cold and wet in an office all day because of a forgotten […]
They sat. Close, but not touching. Not speaking; not in words. They could each feel the other’s warmth, smell the scent of the other’s skin, and that was enough, for now. They breathed in time: one in, one out; one out, one in. The din of the world was muted; its pace was slowed. It […]