“I love you,” he said; soppy, stupid, dumbstruck, loveblind.
“I don’t really care,” she said. She flicked her hair and considered her nails. For a moment, she wondered how much she spent at her salon in an average year. Was she, as she grew older, spending more on cosmetic improvements?
“Ha… but don’t say that, my love. [...]
EnvironMentalists
Condensation trickled down the bus windows. Heaving commuters jostled with depressed welfare recipients. The bus lurched to dodge a gull, then a tramp digging in a bin.
“You ignore that,” said the old lady. Her companion, a man in his forties, seemed to be hugging himself. His dilapidated suit would once have been an object of [...]
By Me:
Alpha
Concrete is no sort of pillow for a man. Waking up on concrete is indicative of a failure- a failure to adequately care for the self. When Edward Hooper awoke one morning with his face touching concrete, he wasn’t sensible enough to recognize this ominous sign.
He roused slowly, his brain stumbling into recognition of [...]
In the second of Words By Me’s guest fiction series, we have a micro-story about love, honour, destiny and how one man defeated the empire with his inspirational poetry. Not really – it’s about London Road, an area of Brighton that has a drug problem.
London Road is Burning Down
By Hibert Sturmond
In the park, shirtless men [...]
This little gem was submitted by Evengeline Hose.
Warning: the following story contains graphic imagery, horrific animal abuse, rude words and scenes of terminal peril. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!
Smacking Cracking
I’m smacking Julia’s chicken’s face into a wall, because she hasn’t laid eggs for weeks. I’ve been craving eggs, craving protein, raving hungry, starving hungry, denied [...]
“You lucky bastard!” someone screamed. Loud music bounced bodies. Occasionally a drunken reveller would spill out of the front door and onto the front step. This ordinary semi-detached council house had never held so many people or been the focus of so much delight.
Lamb
“Maybe… you should just leave,” said Calvin. Rain lashed the car. He flicked the windscreen wipers on for two swishes, even though they were parked.
“But they’re everything I have!” said Leanne, clearly distressed. She’d been distressed for hours now, and Calvin was tired.
“It’s kind of dumb though…the whole thing. And you’ve been saying you hate [...]