“So, who’s going to die today?” I ask as I carefully clean the blades, my victims staring up at me from the dirt.

Wilting in the face of the shears, I begin to cut them; a brown leaf here, a dead flower there. Sometimes I use my hands and rip them right out at the root.

It’s a fun ritual we share, my plants and I, wondering who is next going to die....

“We’re here about a robbery. Are you the owners?”

Carl stepped forward nervously “I am, yes. That’s just, he’s… my assistant.” He gestured at Norris, who was enthusiastically polishing the jewels they’d been stashing in bags only minutes ago. _Too_ enthusiastically, he realised.

The officers seemed to be thinking the same thing. “Right, can you walk us through what happened here?” said the tall...

“It must be the wind.”

“The wind?!” Daryl replied incredulously, for he considered himself quite the amateur meteorologist. “How would the wind have done that?”

“I don’t know. Blown it or something.” John shrugged his shoulders, as if it was impossible to embellish this explanation any further.

“You think the _wind_, picked up old Gregory’s house, and put it on top of a cliff, undamaged?”

“We...

The sound was deafening. A roar, falling and rising, sending white foam crashing against the shore.

Even standing away from the waves, he could feel the spray against his face, smell the salt on his skin. He felt sticky.

The afternoon sun beat down on him, draining him of energy, making him lethargic, tired, weary. He wanted to lie down and let the Great Ocean wash him away.

But he had not co...

A darkness, full of hope and possibility; the birthplace of dreams, bearing all the world’s wishes in its embrace....

My heart stops. I’m barely breathing as she starts to make her way across the room.

“Honestly Mary… I was starting to think you’d never figure it out.”

“Who- How do you know my name?” I stutter breathlessly, bumping into a frozen couple mid-make out behind me.

“You don’t remember me?” She croons, the corners of her mouth pick up in a feline smile, as she plucks a martini right out of the outst...

Her eyes were swollen shut, her throat scratchy and her bladder extremely full. Those were Sarah’s first thoughts upon waking, as the crushing weight of reality settled on her anew.

She decided the bladder needed sorting first, but with her eyes still partially closed, her shins found every piece of sharp furniture on the way to the bathroom.

As she relieved herself, she tried to recall the eve...

After legging it out of practice, I narrowly avoided disaster on the bus home. With every bump and turn I was whacked by some tall guy’s obnoxious guitar case, each jab setting off whatever crazy fizzling feeling had made the beakers explode in chemistry. I got off two stops early because the itching under my skin had become unbearable and it felt like I was about to implode. And I’m not having TH...

“Hand it over, now!”

“No!” Cries my desperate 4 year old, my phone clasped in her tiny vice-like grip.

The loud buzzing sends panic through my veins, urging me to reach across the table and yank the phone to my ear.

“Tim, hi! How can I help?” I chirp cheerfully, ignoring that it’s Saturday morning and he’s calling on my personal phone. “Of course, no problem! I’ll send it over now. Anything el…...

I’m awoken by the sound of Mother’s hacking cough reverberating down the empty halls. I reach her bedside quickly, braving the dampness of the mid winter air. Her features are gaunt and contorted with pain, as her teeth chatter from the room’s chill.

I stoke the dying embers in the fire, and turn my attention to the bowl of tepid water by her bedside. Soaking a cotton rag, I gently dab at her fev...