The room was stifling as only the rooms of the dying are. Unable to keep himself warm, as his body broke down, the central heating was ratcheted up. The lights were dimmed as though he were sleeping peacefully, as opposed to someone who had headed into a losing battle and had been struck with a mortal wound now struggling to live. I sat by his bed watching every rasping breath hoping it would b...

The panic hadn’t set in but the tears had. Her bottom lip quavering as the shock of discovering the note on the empty pillow and what it said sunk in. They were going to kill her baby. Rip her limbs from her body; gauge out her eyes; horrific torture, unless she gave them what they wanted. But she wasn’t sure she could find all they were looking for and so many conditions. Why so many? And w...

But I shielded it with my hand and it burned up again to light me along the dark passage. I had no idea how long I’d been here in the underground. It can’t have been too long if my candle still burned; but time had stretched and warped and flowed out of recognition. Drafts flickered the flame which I had to keep protecting, tantalisingly hinting of escape to back above ground, but looking fo...