Snow everywhere.  Smooth, crisp snow covers the garden like freshly laundered Egyptian cotton on a huge bed, and I watch from the window – this window where I have sat for so long now, watching, just watching – as the harsh wind whips up the soft surface flakes and whirls them around with blizzard-like ferocity. … Continue reading THE BIRDS AND THE BEES by James Harvey (1st place, Flash, Aug22)

It is five years, two months and one day ago, and I am meeting her for the first time. We are talking and she is getting closer, closer, closer… We are in her bedroom. I am watching her unravel beneath me and trying to hold her in one piece, but she is shattered glass. She … Continue reading PARASITE by Sarah Byard (2nd place, Flash Aug22)

Another letter from school. I handed it over to Mum and looked at the stains on the kitchen floor. When she had finished reading she said I had to control my anger.  ‘Where are your listening ears?’ I’m ten not five. I didn’t say this I just mumbled ‘sorry,’ before hurrying to my bedroom. Then … Continue reading COLOURING ROSES by Anita Goodfellow (3rd place, Flash Aug22)

The Man picks at the wallpaper. He wants to get underneath it, to bring the whole lot off in one.'I thought you might like …'A mug appears.'Thank you,' the Man says, still looking at the wall.'Do you think you should …?’ his son says, ‘I mean … the new people … ''The new people are … Continue reading THE WALL by Mandy Wheeler (1st place, Flash May22)

Caroline Richardson hasn’t moved for seven years. Today is her thirteenth birthday, but she’s still only five years old. When it rains, she’s beneath the puddles she would have liked to jump in. When the sun shines, it can’t reach her face to warm it. She can’t gather the conkers and chestnuts that fall above … Continue reading THE SEVEN YEAR SPELL by Rowan Evans (2nd place, Flash May22)

There are five discrete stages of decomposition that summarise post-mortem physiochemical changes. For the entomologist, there’s a predictable succession of arthropods. Orders Diptera (true flies) and Coleoptera (beetles) provide the families most valuable to medico-legal investigations. --- Seminar Speaker Notes: 1. Fresh StageFamilies: Calliphoridae, Sarcophagidae Following death there’s a cascade of processes: Pallor, Algor, Rigor … Continue reading POST MORTEM: THE PROLIFERATION OF LIFE AFTER DEATH by JP Relph (3rd place, Flash May22)

It’s a yellow Friday and I’m about to finish when I see a man in the closest aisle, prodding different packets of biscuits. His mask is the right colour and his boots have elements of December in them. He picks Bourbons and comes straight to my till. I slap on my customer grin. ‘Your smile … Continue reading LONELINESS IS BEIGE AND TASTES OF MUSHROOMS by Emma J Myatt (1st place, Flash Feb22)

Maisie Gibbins went to make banana bread and discovered that a mouse had shit in her flour. “The wee fucking bastard, it never has! Jesus, can’t I have anything to myself?” She looked at it mournfully. She was hungry and craving something sweet, but there was nothing in the house save the ingredients for banana … Continue reading TIM’ROUS BEASTIE by Charlotte Mitchell (2nd place, Flash Feb22)