The machine man stumbles by me through the frozen desert dust. I look at his face of steel and glass and it meets my gaze with a lifeless stare. Their old minds turn violent from time to time and their kind is ten times stronger than a man, but I do not fear it. I feel only pity. The machine man is demented and broken,…
The Last Pair
The rumble of the Dwarf Probe detaching from the HavenCraft shook the station so hard that Piper fell to her knees and thought that the walls and floor would crumble from the force. With the tremor ended, however, she got to her feet and felt a simultaneous sense of relief and terror with the weight of what she just did. She had walked around, exploring…
Initiation
Jack Boucher’s feet had been hurting since about an hour. The ache climbed up in painful stabs towards his calves and then his knees. His brow was sweating despite the iciness in the air, yet his body was cold. It had been hours since he had seen another living being, leave alone a fellow man. The heavy fog handicapped his vision considerably, and tiny droplets…
Second Sight
“Why are you so sad today Lily?” Jennifer Jones stared deeply into her daughter’s eyes as they ate breakfast. There was something mournful about the way Lily investigated her orange juice. “You haven’t lost Rufus again, have you?” Lily shook her head, pointing solemnly toward the teddy bear waiting in the hallway. “Well, what-ever is the matter?” Jennifer sighed, rubbing a hand over the tense…
An Evening Spaceage Travesty
Nice. Was the only thought on my mind after the few seconds my pod went silent in the diamond-covered cosmos. Aligned between dozens of other personal transports that floated above, below, and beside me. All of our capsules’ windows faced towards the projected show stage. Earlier was better than later, and I had wrangled a position far better than the strangers around me. With lights…
The Haze
There was a haze in the distance, down in the valley. That’s not unusual, at that time of day, at that time of year. The temperature falls quickly in the afternoon and gossamer threads of mist form lower down. Sure enough, as I descended past bare rock ribs and winter-brown clumps of bracken, I entered that haze, a Pernod of thickening fog. As I continued,…
Ghost Stories
The park is forty minutes’ walk, but I do it in twenty-five, hands dug deep in my pockets to escape the chill. The darkness is as thick as soup, but enough light filters down from the thin sliver of moon to show me the way. I cannot help but creep, the moment demands it, despite my certainty that my journey is a foolish one and…
A Blind And Terrible Thing
The Sunny Side Up stunk of french fries and menu mildew. Early risers filled the rustic diner with hikers eager for hotcakes, cheese grits and the Bravocado special. A pair of veteran waitresses sped amid tables, checking the wall clock between orders. In an hour the seats would be empty. This was the last place to get a bite before driving into the Hitchiti nature…
The Painter, the Wife and the Critic
The painter threw down his brushes in disgust. He stepped back to examine the canvas. Everyone said his talent was self-evident. So what was missing? His latest work was a portrait of an old family friend who was also his agent. Stefan had commissioned the work himself as he found it hard to see the artist struggle to make a living. From a young age…
Dark Matter (2020 Vol 2)
Dark Matter (2020 Vol 2), May 2020 publication, a new collection of Horror and Fantasy stories which themes explore the dark vicissitudes of the mind, reality, society, earth and beyond. The long collection features: “The Horror Within” by Jacob Belanger, a writer from Canada “Eden” by Felix Nicholls, a writer from Australia “Kieran’s Jellyfish” by Ian Douglas “Solstice” by Marcus Konma, a writer from the US “From…
14th April 1992
The clock struck four. It was 14th April 1992; the day my first child, Jessica was born. My husband was away for a medical emergency in Naypyidaw, and would not be back home for three more days. I laid in bed with extreme discomfort in a blue plastic gown, with IV drips painfully piercing through both my hands. Out of the blue, a loud scream perforated through my ears. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up and my heart skipped a beat. I sat up in my bed and confusingly looked at the other patients in my ward. Over the next few seconds, the screams got even louder; it felt as if someone was yelling into the speakers. My eardrums started hurting and being the nosy person that I was, I got up from my bed to investigate the noise.
