Cracked marble floors, extinguished candles Hanging from the ceiling, a chandelier dangles Shattered mirrors, withered paintings Dust coats the ornate wood carvings Take a seat amongst the wreckage Play to the phantoms a melodic message Let your music reverberate throughout the room May the lonely ones rise from their tombs Strings fill the abandoned chamber One by one, they rise from their eternal slumber A shiver creeps...
Playing truant was always appealing. Always. Two nine-year-olds deep into their school days would always know better than what adults told them. Your years in school were not the best days of your life, and you don’t need to attend classes to get clever to get good jobs. They knew it all, so didn’t need to bother attending, and why do maths lessons and cross-country runs when it was much more appealing to play on railways...
The vacant, old house at the end of the lane beckons me. They always do - the dilapidated and forgotten. There is an appeal others overlook. Unable to resist its quietness, I settle in, deciding to call this place home. The wind blows through the window cracks, but it doesn't bother me. Oddly, I feel comforted in the chilled corners of the room - a warm welcome of sorts. Dust adorns the mantel. Cobwebs decorate the bland...
Hartland Quay, North Devon. A place of absolute beauty. On a sunny summers day, with the tide gently splashing over the rocks, it is hard to imagine anything but a tranquil, restful scene. At low tide, however, there is much evidence of the destruction that can be wreaked by the ever-powerful ocean. It was on one such day that I found myself driving through the narrow streets of Hartland village. I hadn't been here for ma...
"Are you there, my dear Eloise?" she called out to the shadows. She waited in still silence, hanging on hope. Her pulse grew as the wind picked up, rattling the windows. She spun around, searching for a figure in the darkness. Wood creaked underneath her as she stepped closer. "I still think of you, my dear Eloise. The way your hair tangles in the wind, the way you squint when you're upset, the softness of your lips..." s...
I wrote this before but now its more real more real than ever before the white mist came by one night and scared me right to the core I gulped hard and fear gripped me as the mist went to and fro and before it changed direction I ducked down way below I looked back up to see it go and then flip around and come back the hairs on my neck stood out outside the night so black Then all of a sudden it changed direction an...
“Where the hell are all the forks?” John grumbled from the kitchen, not for the first time. “Emily takes them,” said El from the dinner table. “No I don’t!” wailed Em. El turned to her Dad. “Emily takes them and she hides them,” she said. “This is between her and me,” said John. “No need to get involved.” Sensing a temporary victory, Em added, “And quit calling me Emily!” John shushed them both and continued making breakf...
I never jerk awake. I open my eyes and listen before I move. Without going into the reasons why I forced myself as a young boy, to not be afraid of noises in the dark. My door was always closed and I never slept with a nightlight. I relish the dark. As I lay there, my head still on the pillow, my mind was trying to replay why I woke up. The room was dark. The only light in the room came from a small digital alarm clock wi...
Dad was at work. Mom was at the grocery store. Her sister Em was at a friend’s house. El sat on her bed, playing with her kitten, Shadow. El had a feather on a string, and tossed it out like a fishing line for Shadow to chase. Something sounded from outside the room. Shadow jumped off the bed at once, his attention no longer on the feather. He bolted out of the room and took a sharp turn into the hallway. El followed him...
A year went by, the seasons marching on in their uncompromising way. Imogen had relinquished the house utterly to her niece. It held nothing of the old life except memories grown too painful. Olivia worked hard to build a new life out of it, but progress, as always, was slow. Imogen might be gone, but there remained other ghosts to appease. Moving too much of the furniture at once resulted in chairlegs scratched and fraye...
At the crossroads two women stood, silhouetted against the lavender and cream of the day's end. The moon lurked somewhere deep in the veils of black branches. Down the hill, Reverend Milton was putting a heavy chain and padlock on the churchyard gate, the sound carrying clear in the quiet. Olivia grimaced at their exposed location. It had to be here, at the crossroads. "Verity!" she hissed. "Go and keep a lookout. Please,...
The ringing of the telephone dragged Olivia from the borderlands of sleep and she answered with a growled "Who is it?" A crackling pause, then: "Libby, is that you?" The voice on the other end of the line was faint, obscured, familiar from a lifetime ago. "This handwriting is near illegible, dreadful low class scribble..." the words choked off into tears. "Auntie Imogen?" Imogen gave a shaky sigh, composing herself. "I've...
I'll never forgive you! Olivia woke with a start, alone in the ruined living room. Still no Imogen. Perhaps the loss of Eli had been the push she needed to move on to a happier place, though that thought rang hollow. More likely she'd retreated somewhere more private to grieve over the hole that Olivia had torn in her world, and she would be back any minute, unforgiving and furious with grief. Olivia decided not to wait t...
When Eli arrived, moonrise was still far enough away that Olivia barely felt any hint of the oncoming change. Verity had curled up with her book again, Imogen with a magazine (the pages being easier for her to handle) and Olivia sat down with one of her notebooks to review the beginnings of something she'd started writing some time ago. She couldn't focus. She sat with her notebook on her lap and the pen in her hand, star...
The next month, just as Olivia was on her way to catch the train to Peter's Cross, Grace came running up behind her. "Long time no see," said Grace, her bright smile as false as the red of her lipstick. She made an exaggerated point of noticing Olivia's overnight bag, ready for the full moon. "Where are you off to, then?" Olivia hesitated, lies not coming easily to her. "I..." "You should come and visit the farm again," G...
