There were many reasons Theodore Butlins found himself in the air conditioning shaft of the Grand Hotel Circa Bar & Casino, all of them entirely legitimate.

You see, on this particular Saturday evening, Theodore was seeking a place to rest his weary head, having broken down at the side of the road some miles outside of town. The Grand Hotel Circa Bar & Casino (which was in truth not all that gran...

Truly, in that moment, I couldn’t have asked for a better honeymoon. Feeling the weight of his hand in mine, the warmth of the sun beating down on us, everything felt right in the world. We’d found our peace, at last.

I allowed my thoughts to grow indulgent, as we stood in the sea foam, eyes closed to the dawn horizon. I’d come to love this man, against my better judgment, I was sure. But in this...

Sarah rushed down the high street, her huddled frame reflecting starkly in the darkened shop windows. Even the greengrocers had closed by now; she’d stayed too long, listening to Mrs Clough’s endless prattling on about her vegetable garden and the wreckage it was wrought last time a storm this bad blew in.

She picked up the pace, skidding along the frosty paths with only the howling relentless wi...

“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...