It all happened so fast. Eli grabbed the dog by the scruff of the neck and the animal wilted into submission at once, whimpering. Olivia lay in the grass, still and silent. Imogen hung back, not daring to look. "Is she -" her voice wavered. Without touch, taste or smell, events were passing unstoppably before her, like a nightmare she couldn't wake from. She couldn't hold back the tide of dread over-topping her composure....

Olivia, despite warnings from her mother, intended to carry out as much of the redecorating as she could by herself, and had decided to try her hand at stripping the wallpaper in the guest bedroom. This latest flurry of activity fascinated the cats: several of them overcame their misgivings about Olivia enough to stalk and harass the falling curls of paper, coming over to rub against her legs when her work ran on into fee...

Olivia woke to slippery blood on her thighs, her nightdress clinging. She got up, the cradle of leaden pain between her hips making her slow and clumsy as she stripped the sheets to see that she'd bled through to the mattress. This was not an auspicious start to her plans. Even before entering the house, she'd noticed the weathered and cracked paintwork, the slates missing from the roof, that broken window in one of the r...

Twilight had surrendered to the full dark of night before Olivia remembered to call her mum and let her know that the funeral had proceeded without incident (mostly) and that she was settling in. "Don't forget it's only a couple of weeks before you start at the library," said her mum. "I haven't forgotten." "It's a good job for you, and I don't want you wearing yourself out over all this business with Auntie Imogen's hous...

A black cat almost tripped Olivia before she'd even crossed the threshold, winding around her shins in enthusiastic greeting, no doubt hoping for food. Auntie Imogen had always collected cats. China cats, to begin with. Cloth cats, carved wooden cats, cats of every workable material. Later on, after her mother's death had closely coincided with the death of the family cat, and the last of the small band of servants who'd...

As the mourners filed into the pews, Olivia shuffled in amongst them, head down and focused on reaching her seat. She jumped when she felt a tap at her elbow, and looked round to find a small, pale young woman leaning over the back of the pew from the row behind her. She was perhaps a couple of years younger than Olivia, wearing a pretty black dress and resting a lacy black parasol on the back of Olivia's pew. Olivia didn...

Great soft snowdrifts of white roses filled the church. It looked more like a wedding than a funeral, made worse by the fact that on the morning of the big day, Imogen had found her clothes transformed into a wedding dress without her consent. She could only guess it stemmed from some embarrassing corner of her subconscious, and she grumbled to herself as she talked back and forth between the pews, peeling off the long la...

Dear diary,I am dead! And working through a medium, hence this dreadful handwriting. The girl is very young The pale wisp of a girl holding the pen stopped, sitting back from the writing desk. "I'm not that young," she said. Her voice, light, and chirping like a bird's, didn't help her case. "I'm just not used to this." She pushed back the unruly black curls of her hair and folded her arms. "You needn't be rude about my h...

Everybody's gone out againEveryone has left me hereAlone am I to trudge on throughThoughts and lonely fearThey know not what they play withA composite soul of dreadIf only someone welcomed meAs if they were one of the deadOh, but what's this?Yet another being is hereCome closer, dear friendCome closer, have no fearWhy you appear to be fineWould you like a peek inside my mind?A long forgotten wastelandBarren and to malice ...

Two thousand years ago There was a woman of exceptional beauty, So exceptional, the legend goes, That whenever she looked At her reflection in a pond, The fish would forget how to swim, And sink down into the darkness. Two thousand years later, I have forgotten how to live, Crushed by a vision of her ghost.

In the darkness of the night, a young child's voice could be heard. He was whimpering softly to himself behind an old wooden door. Endless tears stained his black and blue cheeks, soaking through his once-favorite Sticker Man sheets. He gripped the soft, plush material, piercing the flesh of the mattress with his nails as the screams he bottled up for so long, running past his lips with their venom began to seep through h...

I love drunk writing because I say things I’d never say sober. I go home early from work because I feel like hell, nothing contagious, don’t worry, you won’t get sick . . . it’s just that monthly woman thing that makes me tired and cranky and pathetic, but beer and tequila makes everything feel alright. Have you ever tried Patron chased by a Blue Moon or two, yea . . . all my worries have faded into a blur of numbness, ye...

This is just a small part of the story Play Things, I hope you enjoy... As I play with my old dolly I hear the front-door downstairs creek open. I climb swiftly to my feet and walk down the hall to see whom is in my home. My eyes find a family, the family looks happy! With a happy mommy smiling lovingly at her husband and three children, the daddy is looking about my house, the two teens look bored and the little girl hug...

Once again she had awoken late, which was unlike her, and in her dressing gown and slippers, surveyed her living room, surprised at what she saw. It wasn’t as she knew it, and what she was used to. It was different. It was tidy. Margaret Hayes was 65, and had lived on her own for twenty-one years. She looked at the spotless carpet, the polished ornaments on all shelves, and could detect an odour of marine scented air fres...

If I could be a ghostWithout being deadJust could exit my bodyLeave it waiting in bed If I could be a ghostWhere would I goWho whould I visitAnd.. would she know? If I could be a ghostI would find the placeNo matter how farAnd kiss her sweet face If I could be a ghostI think I'd be sadEven though I just kissed herWould she know that I had? If I could be a ghostI would wish I could stayThat my body would waitAnd not wither...