The crimson petals blushed and cowed their heads as the seductive darkness of night swept over them. Beneath their blanket of thorns she stirred - a bride whose wedding day had never come. Each year, she rose and, with fingers reduced to brittle bones, she clawed herself from her grave. Each year she’d stalk the darkened streets, drawn to the doors of young women soon to be wed: compelled to depri...

The mud had baked hard in the morning sun creating a hard, smooth outer shell. But now, in the cool of the evening, she cool feel the comforting warmth in her carapace dissipate. It was this that prompted her to move, to wiggle, to stretch her thin limbs to their capacity, till her clay armour cracked and the cool evening air crept over her.

Slowly, so as not to risk injury, she climbed from the ...

The mud had baked hard in the morning sun creating a hard, smooth outer shell. But now, in the cool of the evening, she cool feel the comforting warmth in her carapace dissipate. It was this that prompted her to move, to wiggle, to stretch her thin limbs to their capacity, till her clay armour cracked and the cool evening air crept over her.

Slowly, so as not to risk injury, she climbed from the ...

She’s not “away”.

She is not “sleeping”.

If she were,

why are we weeping?

No, in truth

I know she’s dead.

From the pain

that’s in my head.

This agony,

that’s eating me,

Tradition states

it’s plain to see.

So platitudes

are fine and well

but please admit

that this is hell....

Their weren't tears when I was told.

Not at first.

First there was the shock, then the pain, then

nothing.

How could you die? You were eternal.

Creeping towards a century and steady

on your feet (for the most part).

I won’t come close to that achievement.

You cried when you heard my voice.

I was scared the memory of yours

would fade. I’m glad I was wrong.

The phone closed a distance I could not....

Stop.

Just for the moment let me see

you as you were meant to be.

In that space before life joined us

Stop. let me see.

My pain has started in this time.

We have stopped you are not mine.

Instead you are but one day colder.

Leaving me a vacant shoulder.

And there, in darkness, where I sit

he has come to challenge it.

To force me to the light of day

and ensure that I keep on this way.

Stop.

Now ...

I think I just met the happiest person in the world!

She wasn’t rich and nor was she particularly pretty. She wasn’t athletic or gifted. She was divorced. She was me.

I believed when I met you that you made me the happiest person in the world ‘cause, fuck it, I loved you! You took my breath away. You were handsome, and funny, and kind, and smart, and playful, and I thought you were fucking perfe...

The blood pounded in his ears - an echoing drumbeat for hell’s soldiers. The pressure in his head pushed at his eyes till his vision blurred and distorted. A dizzying agony of shapes and confusion moved before him but looking was a pain that could be avoided. He squeezed closed his eyes in a feeble attempt to ease the throbbing in his temples. The ticking of his pulse counted down the moments of c...

The pounding in my ears echoed as I ran. From above me the thick, acrid blood rained down from the wounded beast. Its eight, heaving legs strained against death. It was not desperate to fight, it was programmed to. A deep, inexplicable urge to consume and destroy drove the creature forwards.

Beneath its broken towering body I ran. My feet pounding into the blood soaked earth that glowed faintly b...