You awake.

You feel your heart drum back to life as the hum of biomachinery stirs you from extended torpor. Synapses fire, unuse to the ad-hoc biomechanical augments now stapled to your nervous system.

Enhanced aural interfaces pick up the sound of your quickening heart rate. The embedded monitors in your left retina display an increase in cortisol levels. You are now acutely aware that somethin...

With bated breath,

His audience waits captive.

Attention unwavering,

He refuses to meet their gaze.

_‘Ugh’_ A sigh.

_Don’t lose heart_.

This is the moment. __

Tell them how you really feel_._

__

_It’s now or never._

_It’s do or die._

__

_‘I uhh, left something in my car.’_

__

He chose die....

_He’s staring back at me._

Dumped. Fired. Evicted. All in the span of one month. The beginning of a downward spiral that has lead me here—hiding in a rundown pub’s bathroom after close, thankful the staff aren’t paid enough to bother checking the stalls before locking up.

_It’s just me and him now._

From the grime covered floor wet with mold and piss I stare at my would-be reflection. The mirro...

Overcast shadows

The staccato beat of rain

Black gives way to blue...

Monday to Friday. 8am on the dot. I have a font row seat to the world’s most exclusive concert.

She’s sat across from me, phone out and earbuds in.

Our walk to the train station is filled with quiet conversation but on the commute she likes having time for herself — not that I mind though, I’m quite fond of the view.

I see her smirk. Eyes closed and lips upturned in anticipation. A glance tel...

Striking red on black

Vibrant hues that draw the eye

Warn to stay away...

Black bubbles over

Pockets of air fade away

The abyss takes me...

I close my eyes and I am free. The dull noise of existence quiets as the lights grow dim. On the edge of consciousness I feel the weight of expectation lift and all that is me ceases to be.

In sleep I find the comfort of death without the commitment....

It all started with the old cars hidden in the woods. Mangled automotive machinery lay strewn amongst the trees, their once shiny surfaces now bare metal stained rust red.

A pile of scraps was all anyone ever thought of it. It lay undisturbed, stowed out of sight in the woods on the outskirts of town. Sometimes a weekend handyman playing at mechanic will go digging around for a salvageable spare ...

Blackened blue knuckles bear the scars of labor. His palm like stone, callused by years of service. In his gaze, an icy weariness borne of experiences unknown to the youth before him.

Yet in his touch, a warmth that refuses to fade.

His hand is firm but never heavy, one that bears consideration for the apprentices under his tutelage. It is shaped by the words denied to him by experience, the wo...