“It’s not personal - it’s business. And everything is business.” That’s the first thing he said to me when I arrived on the 50th floor. I was newly recruited and wet behind the ears. Not fresh out of college, but this was my second job. My first one was as personal assistant to the director of a small corporation; it wasn’t anything to brag about, but I chose my springboard well. As soon as my two...

It falls out of the tree one day - a little pink blob with a furry cap, two grey sacs for eyes, dandelion puffs speckled here and there like tiny wishes and a yellow-rimmed mouth open wide with a red-desperate hunger. It falls into a pile of leaves and writhes there, wriggles in the leaves, its neck extending here and there perceiving the song but not receiving its promise. It lies there and your ...

I had always been afraid of the dark since I was young; I didn’t fear the creatures living under my bed (they never bothered me) but I hated the shadow that lurked around me after Mum went to bed. I hated his weight upon me, his phantom hands all over my body and, most of all, I hated feeling his acid breath drifting down the neck of my nightgown. ...