Cracked

When the hospitals ran out of space, they made makeshift wards in the parking lots. Semi-sheltered and multi-tiered, the concrete relics were the last dreary thing one saw before leaving Earth. Not much different from the gray, fractured skies outside, but little remained to be a good memory by that point, anyway. My job was … Continue reading Cracked

Memo

Originator: Macrofungi Una Receiver: Macrofungi Tertia The body is stranger than we imagined. It is isolated, alone, and so very small. Its inner processes are convoluted and complex, but not unlike our own. There are microbacteria here, too, and water—though it is predominantly fouled with other cells and matter. It appears to obtain food via … Continue reading Memo

Flash

National Flash Fiction Day UK had its 10th Anniversary on 26th June. As part of the celebration, I attended a virtual workshop with Farhana Khalique and Anita Goveas, two brilliant flash writers, who talked about using "imagery, structures and titles to develop layers" in flash fiction. Subsequently, I had a go at some of the … Continue reading Flash

Letting a Wild Thing Grow

A year went by without Rupert mentioning anything, but that didn’t mean he stopped thinking about it. You saw the references in his every move. In his hobby, his obsession, most especially. “That’s the last of them, I think,” he’d said, laying golden roses on the kitchen table. You’d looked out the window to the … Continue reading Letting a Wild Thing Grow

Scruff

I am who I am, and nobody is going to tell me otherwise. I’m sitting in my favourite crabapple tree by the garden wall, watching the birds freak out about their visitor (me) and the clouds scud about while the sun tries to peek through. It’s spring; the sun’s losing this battle. I bat my … Continue reading Scruff