It started like normal. Making eyes across the crowded beach hut bar at the guy in the half-unbuttoned white cotton shirt that fits like he owns the brand. Approach. Smalltalk. Banter. Innocent brushes. A drink on his dime. Shots on mine. He's wearing tinted designer shades, because Bali. I don't discover his eye colour until we're doing the vertical mambo against the back of my rented apartment door, tearing at clothes a...

The blood drains into my skull and dizziness swirls, heels high above me resting against the wall of my editor’s office. “Can I stand yet?” “No! Not until you appreciate the world from a fresh perspective.” From my headstand, Gary appears slightly crazed, fingers laced on the desk above his head, eyeballs where his chin should be. “If I stay like this much longer, you’ll be finding yourself a new bestselling romance autho...

Have you ever sat inside an anechoic chamber? Just staring at the jagged peaks, troughs and asymmetrical recesses carved into foot-thick, off-white foam on all six surfaces? The irregular shapes scatter sound in all directions except yours, absorbing everything. And I mean everything. Not even my quickening breaths bounce back. The result is… eerie. Isolating. Downright oppressive. The claustrophobic nothingness swamps ev...

“I can explain,” he pleaded, though it came out more like, “I cah eshlaih,” with his mouth stretched around the barrel of my shotgun. I raised my eyebrows, dark rage bubbling inside. “Explain?!” I spat. “Oh, this ought to be good. Let me guess, you came round to balance the books, tripped on the rug, your clothes fell off, and you landed in my miraculously naked wife?” Bryce held up his hands and shook his head against th...

At first I barely felt the bullet pierce the low-slung cocktail dress and enter my heart. It seemed impossible to consider death real, despite the warning minutes earlier from the mysterious lady with the black eye shadow alongside me. I always thought I'd have more time. Guess everyone does. My demise only registered when I caught sight of the spatter of red – my red – peppering his shirt as he tucked the gun away, butto...

In retrospect, it wasn't the wisest final sentence to yell at my boyfriend as I kicked him out of the flat: "If I ever see you or that…" I floundered for the right word, "hussy again, I'll kill you both." The front door slammed behind him, a whirlwind of disturbed particles danced in his wake, illuminated by the nearby desk lamp. They began to settle as his footsteps receded, my shaking hand pressed hard against the back...