The party was in full swing a grand celebration in a warm home, as a group of familiar friends and acquaintances gathered for food and drink, music and laughter, waiting and watching for Time to reboot itself, and another year, to be born with the rising of the sun, instead of just a new day or week. It was here, at this mundane gathering, when he approached the Veiled Woman with a drink in his hand. “You have a tear in y...

Oh God, I want to get out of here," she moaned aloud to no one in particular. "Leave? Before the fireworks at midnight?" I, handsomely dressed in a black suit, slipped onto a barstool beside her. “Do I know you, sweetie?” She didn't turn towards me when she talked and nervously moved her clutch closer to her hourglass figure; my heart sank hearing the pills rattling inside their bottles that she kept hidden in her purse....

My sister Sally and I stood in our grandmother’s darkening living room staring at the wall. Staring at the painting to be exact. The Blue Boy by Thomas Gainsborough or as I referred to it Nightmare Fuel. Our mother used to send us to our grandmother Rose’s house every summer. We loved our grandmother, but we hated that painting. It hung above the TV directly across from the couch and the two chairs that bookended it. Ther...

A roaring wind battered the building. It whistled through the cracks of the ill-fitting single-glazed windows and pelted the glass with debris ripped from the poplars in the park beyond. Driving rain slammed against the rattling panes, and attacked the roof and walls. In a corner of the room, the steady plop, plop of water dripping into metal buckets picked up its tempo. Shivering, Lucy buttoned her cardigan and folded he...

In retrospect, it wasn't the wisest final sentence to yell at my boyfriend as I kicked him out of the flat: "If I ever see you or that…" I floundered for the right word, "hussy again, I'll kill you both." The front door slammed behind him, a whirlwind of disturbed particles danced in his wake, illuminated by the nearby desk lamp. They began to settle as his footsteps receded, my shaking hand pressed hard against the back...

The Road Not Traveled I know it’s an awful cliché, but it truly was a dark and stormy night. The rented car I was driving didn’t make it any easier, either, as the defroster didn’t work worth a damn. As a result, I was almost driving with one hand, and wiping the windshield – I mean “windscreen” – with the other most of the time. It seemed like such a nice idea to drive from Sligo to Donegal in the afternoon. An easy driv...

Prologue - The Fall Artanna stood quietly on a hill and watched the great tower of Tan Kolar fall. Around the collapsing structure, smoke and flames rose from the Night Lord’s palace. A battle raged outside the high walls of black stone as the tattered remnants of the Army of Night fought the forces of the Great Alliance. She knew that the Night Lord’s army, a horde of corpses and suits of empty armour animated by dark sp...

October 27th, 1814, and the wind blowing over the clouded northern moors had winter on its breath and darkness in its heart. Rustling over the heather, hissing through the bracken before moaning down the slopes of the natural bowl which couched the still waters of the small lake. The smooth surface of water heaved and tossed at the arrival of the devil’s wind, as the villagers called it. They knew it was the early herald...

“I really despise this couch. Everything about it. You need to get a new one, or I’ll stop coming to these little chats.” “Focus, Daniella,” the therapist’s voice is low and colorless, like a forced kind of calming. “You were going to tell me about that night in the village, please, let’s just stick to talking about what happened that night.” Daniella fidgets, her lithe frame squirming as if her tattoo-covered skin is cra...

“Hi, Mum!” “Jeannie! How lovely to hear from you. Where are you?” “I am on the motorway. I'm finally coming down to see you at last! I hope it's alright at such short notice.” Jeannie Powell had not seen her mother for nearly two years, not since before the Coronavirus pandemic had hit. The last eighteen months had been difficult. Her mum, Harriet, was just over eighty years old, and, whilst of sound mind, she suffered fr...

The office was empty when Jack came back from the archives. He could not hear any sounds or see anyone around. Jack frowned, then went into his private office and dropped the pile of files he had pulled on his desk. The clock on Jack’s desk phone showed eight-thirty. He found it odd that no one seemed to be in yet. Then again, most of his co-workers arrived between eight-thirty and nine so maybe that would change soon. Ja...

I have a strange tale for you, a very strange tale indeed. I almost don’t know where to start. I suppose the beginning may be a good idea. Firstly, I’m a writer. I write crime novels, perhaps you’ve read some of them. My name is Rambles, Verity Rambles. Oh dear, I’ve only just started and already I’m sounding like James Bond. Sadly I’m not; I’m just a writer. I’m a big fan of the nineteen-twenties. Most, if not all of my...

Dear Reader, Nobody believed our story. But the events I relate to you below really happened. It may seem fantastic, but they do say that truth is always stranger than fiction. You can make up your own mind — I only want to set the record straight before — well, you’ll see… Our journey started one inauspicious evening almost six years ago; the seven of us unaware, as we embarked on our incredible adventure, that nothing w...

The events that would end in the major’s death began to unfold long before Christmas Eve. This I know only retrospectively: until the moment the major was shot, none of us could have predicted it. One thing you learn during wartime – more than at any other period, perhaps – is that while you may sense an imminent threat, or shiver with foreboding, it is only afterwards the connections that contributed to an event become c...

Hi, folks.My name is Bruiser. I'm a little dachshund. I weigh in at five pounds soaking wet. I'm two years old. I'm adorable and playful.But enough about me. This story is about my human Mommy and Daddy.I was just sitting there eavesdropping under the coffee table as my humans had a conversation about my human Mommy and her doctor's appointment yesterday. Her doctor wanted her to go see an oncologist. I wondered what that...