A Confrontation in the Lobby

'Now open the door before I open it with you,' Tony Valleri said in a brutalist form of monotone to the porter who stood by the entrance to Krisnial's hotel. The crime boss had a bluntness lain upon his every inflection implying to anyone in his vicinity that they were about to become a statistic. … Continue reading A Confrontation in the Lobby →

Following Through a Crowd pt.2

They were following me... I had seen them, watching me from the café, their hollow eyes like knives both silent and patient, they had regarded me for no more than a second, but it was a look that held the weight of an anvil within its intent. The shopping centre was cold, it was nearly … Continue reading Following Through a Crowd pt.2 →

Following through a crowd pt.1

I hate crowds and it is the Christmas rush that brings out the worst in them.People forget how to walk, they stand in the middle of an aisle gawking at their phones or staring vacantly into some over-tinseled display; It's a wall of calendars not an art gallery, grab the first one you see and … Continue reading Following through a crowd pt.1 →

A Crossroads

An old man sat alone at a crossroad and pondered existence. The day was long and in seeing the sun begin its retreat beyond the horizon's low clouds the old man knew that he would no longer make it home. He had walked this road many times in his life, growing as he travelled and … Continue reading A Crossroads →

Stand Off

It was chaos. A skillet of boiling tomatoes popped and voicelessly cried out for a stir as the otherwise silent room built into a futher tension. The kitchen bench, now scattered with flour and the shards of broken crockery, began to run slick with olive oil as the punctured tin leaked freely and spread out … Continue reading Stand Off →

The Polite Way to Fight with Knives

Tensions were high. Tenison, by definition, usually alluded to a state of elevated drama, but today this suspense seemed as though a new level of dramatic *oomf* had been tentatively poured into a glass and then hurled into oncoming traffic. ‘What if I were to place this knife so far up your arse that you … Continue reading The Polite Way to Fight with Knives →

The Night of Thorns

‘I intend to make these lowly sprouts see the error of their ways through the medium of superior firepower,’ Langley the daffodil storde forward with purpose and obstinately barked at the gathered council.Tensions had been high since the attempted coup and the ever dogged garden media had since been sent aflutter with talk of a … Continue reading The Night of Thorns →

Andy deHands

‘Ya got any oil barkeep?’ ‘Um, oil?’ asked the bartender, somewhat thrown by this incredibly odd request.Taking a moment to run the question over again in his mind, he attempted to discern the state of his new patron approaching the bar from the shadows, almost slinking from movement to movement like a bead of molasses … Continue reading Andy deHands →

Life Within Small Things

This was his hammer, it’s probably older than he was. Steel always seems to dull after long enough, something about age that always changes things, rusts things: the sea air out here on the coast weathering life. This dull brown hammer has so much more life than most of his other possessions: its head, flecked … Continue reading Life Within Small Things →

The Importance of Loss

It was a childhood toy, a small bear so loved and so worn, bought long ago by your mother, my wife. You were too young then, too young to see how she fretted over this bear while standing outside the toy store, a bundled ball of pride and anxiousness, wanting to find the perfect bear … Continue reading The Importance of Loss →