Every Saturday evening at eight o’clock, a child’s pale face appeared at a third floor window. The glass opened and the child would begin to drop crisps, one by one, into the street. The rats who lived in the street were highly religious. Their priest told them that God lived in the sky, behind a … Continue reading CRISPS by Rod Riesco

All you think about is eating brains. For 202 days your bloodshot eyes followed my scalp. You, growling “braaaains!”Disease gave the kiss of death and resuscitated you. We were fizzing with love when the world was overcome, our relationship as fresh and exciting as a present only partway unwrapped.A fleck of spittle landed on your … Continue reading TAKE MY HEART by Alice Lawson

K says we’re like the inverse of a romantic comedy. Sometimes he comes out with shit like this. We go to the cinema to see a rerun of When Harry Met Sally and make out at the back. When Sally fakes her orgasm K fakes an orgasm too but then he tells me he wasn’t … Continue reading KNIGHT AND DAY by Drew Gummerson

The Anaglypta curled at the corner like a dead insect. I chewed a hangnail at the side of my thumb. “Don’t bite your nails,” Mam barked. I started, marvelling at Mam’s ability to see round corners as she scrubbed with the sugar soap. The hangnail persisted, throbbing with tenderness. I wanted to bite out the … Continue reading THE DEAD BIT by Kay Cuthbertson

Priscilla is old. Priscilla was the best layer, reliable. Now she sits, looking across the fields. Once, Priscilla was in charge. She taught the youngsters all she knew, how to roost in the indulgent nesting boxes, not the practical perches, how to mess up their own beds. Now she sits, looking across the winter fields. … Continue reading TOP OF THE PECKING ORDER by Maggie Sinclair

They call her. She hears them and her cheeks burn hot. She inches a flimsy Glowwhitened net up with trembling forefinger and peers at number eleven. Hedge needs a trim. Broken light fixed at thirteen—finally. Three's gate needs rehanging. Compost all over the drive at seven. Blinds still closed at nine, and the bin's not … Continue reading CURTAIN TWITCHER by Heather D Haigh

My long-unworn swimsuit was baggy around the rear where the elastic had lost its stretch but it would do. Black and nondescript would hide me. Did I want to expose my wrinkles, lack of muscle tone and pockets of fat? A last-minute panic – I took a razor to some relevant bits of me, a … Continue reading THE TERRIFYING PROSPECT OF USING A SPA DAY GIFT VOUCHER by Linda Fawke

You know how it goes. How the shortest stories long to be understood, how they are secretive and open to interpretation, but always hide a meaning that longs to be unveiled. How you’re stuck with a wasted day, a wasted truth, a wasted cake, a birthday cake untasted you hope to give away, before the … Continue reading FOR FREE, BIRTHDAY CAKE, UNTASTED by Mileva Anastasiadou