Metamorphosis:- a striking alteration in appearance, character, or circumstances. It is said that the eyes are the windows to the soul. For many, the eyes can tell a whole story on their own before even the beginnings of a word can be spoken. Eyes, they don’t lie … unless they want to and at that, they can then offer a deceptive sense of calm. A point came in the young life of a certain Derek Hanson when he took a look de...

No one can know any of what I’m about to tell, but still, I’m putting it out there. I can’t help myself, either in action or with placing dots out in the open where they can easily be connected if one were so inclined to link those dots together. Maybe I want to be caught; on some level, this must be true. If I am caught then I’m sure that’ll be that, I’ll be toast... Brown bread, either at the hands of my captures, the l...

Nicole's coughing woke Nigel and Ian. It was half seven in the morning and in a way, it was just as well that the three friends were awake. The owner of the shop doorway they had been sleeping in would be arriving soon to open for about eight and he has a severe dislike of the idea that his premises are being used in the manner that the three waking friends are using it. The coughing though, this is what was really worryi...

During the latter half of 1989 and on into the early months of 1990 some of the local football fields in the town of Watergate along with the river which flowed alongside, were given a makeover and transformed into a public park with lakes, a geezer and so on and this park opened to the public early in the summer of 1990. Across the street where Jennifer Langton lives in this park and on Wednesday night, January 14th, 200...

From the far side of the street, Nathan could see that the living room light of his apartment was on, but when he had left for work it had been quite bright so he knew that he had not accidentally left it on. He entered the estate grounds after keying in the security code to the pedestrian gate and watched as that apartment light went out before he could even get to the steps that lead up to the apartment door. His first...

Strange things do happen and more often than not they tend to happen to me. This is the telling of the kind of thing that does happen. Went into the bar of a nearby hotel one evening, met up with a few of the lads, had a few drinks, and watched the televised football. It was late in the year, quite nippy outside but after having a few pints it always doesn't seem to be quite as cold as it actually is. It was fairly dark a...

Once upon a time, many, many moons ago, a pretty young ballerina practised her dance alone though in more ways than one she was not alone. She began by holding a handrail and stretched for a moment or two, one leg at a time. The mirrored walls not only reflect her but almost, in her mind anyway, reflect an alternative self, an imaginary dance partner, an identical opposite, a mirrored twin. The music begins and builds slo...

Ralph never knew quite why he went into the Plaza hotel on that bright summer afternoon. He had passed by the place so many times without ever going inside and each time he did pass, his intrigue grew. The building almost seemed to call out to him. It was as if he was meant to go there and become a part of something, something big, bigger than him, bigger than his pet rabbit, bigger than his Ford Focus, and perhaps bigger...

One, two ... soon he'll be coming for you. There is a darkness with which we are becoming accustomed to, and it returns every once in a while whether we want it to return or not. No matter how often it comes, or how long it lasts, we never really get used to it at all, now do we?   Half-past six on the morning of Christmas Eve and Christine opens her eyes. Such an odd way to wake, just opening the eyes to stare at the dar...

What do weather people know? They predict the weather for a living and generally get it wrong more than they get it right. They have been predicting big snow in Castletown for the past four winters and no real amount of snow has stuck in that amount of time, well apart from the winter just gone that is. The winter before last it snowed for a couple of hours but it didn't last much more than that and when four days had pas...

The smell of freshly cut grass on a bright and warm summer’s day may sound like a nice thing to experience, but unfortunately for me it generally isn't. My hay fever gets so bad that medication to relieve its symptoms doesn't help me out all that much. Having just passed a field where the grass was still being cut has me sneezing uncontrollably. I am sure my red, itching, watery eyes have me looking smashingly well. Speak...

Chris wasn't where he should be. He should be at work, sitting at his desk, a place which is a ten minute walk from his home, but instead he is sitting on a bus travelling through a place he does not recognize. Chris has no recollection of how it is that he came to be where it is he is. In fact he cannot remember anything from after he woke up that morning up until this moment where he has just found himself sitting on a...

Annie Nevins has been working as a nurse in the same hospital for almost six years and in those six years she had never come across anything particularly strange, unusual or out of the ordinary, well that was or is until right at the end of one shift in particular. Having made her way into an elevator so she could then make her way out of that hospital she had been working in for almost six years to then begin the journey...

'Today we are gathered here to celebrate the life of Albert Patrick Hoffman ....' speaks a priest in the near empty church of St Martin's priory. A closed coffin stands angled before the steps which lead up to toward the altar and the small attending congregation sit up towards the front of the church taking positions either side of the main aisle. Albert had lived an unexciting and lonely life. Apart from one brother and...