"We're not fucking this heist up, this time... dumbass." I glared at Jimmy. "I'm not!" "Then hurry the fuck up." "Yeah, we need this!" Sirus cracked open the safe, using the bank manager. Last time two of their crew had to sacrifice themselves after Jimmy ruined everything not paying attention to the guard, who called the cops. They had to take hostages, knocked them out, and switched clothes with them, while two good mem...

He squeezed his eyes tight and placed his palm over his ear in a vain attempt to shut out the noise that felt like a hammer blow to his brain each time it ricocheted into the bedroom. He lay in his bed, in the darkness, facing the window, the warmth of the duvet cocooning him like a caterpillar. Rain lashed the window, and thunder rumbled away in the distance, but the shed door continued to bang away in the wind, and his...

  The rain outside only made her isolation more draconian.  She had been placed under house arrest by her country’s vicious dictator, Klaus Heinrich, after she had attempted to pass military secrets to the enemy.  Her homeland had been at war for four years with neighboring Mueslichstan.  She had watched as their leader had imprisoned and murdered thousands of her fellow citizens.  She had not liked what she had seen. Sve...

When he pulled up his Honda Civic in the village, he noticed that there seemed to be an air of trepidation, of suspicion. It would not have surprised him if the locals were watching him from behind their curtains. Especially with him being a total stranger, and the first time he had ever been there, or been so far out of his area. As a reporter for the Lincoln Chronicle, he had been sent here to investigate the ongoing st...

As the wind carved its way swiftly across the sand and rocks of the Wirral side of the River Dee, seagulls tried desperately to maintain some sort of stability as they circled in the air, and a few dogs that were out still played and jumped around as though not affected. One of those dogs, ‘Baron’, a three-year-old border-collie sniffed around the rocks and pebbles for nothing in particular, its owner near the shoreline,...

The book on speaking Italian was of no interest to him, despite looking at it with apparent interest. He was in fact, surreptitiously looking through the shelves of books in the library at the computers where he had a good view of what people were looking at on the internet or just in general. Michael Booth was 62 years of age, and looked quite a few years older. He had grey, wavy hair, and was fairly plump. His belt was...

It was brilliant. In fact, it was genius. He surprised himself at just how great his idea actually was, and it led him to ponder whether or not all great ideas came from the murky depths of a mind fuelled by alcohol. He was fast on the way to becoming drunk, as he certainly wasn’t sober. Did all great philosophers and inventors get their ideas from the shadowy realms of the subconscious? he wondered, presented to them in...

What would you do, if you found a time-machine? Yes, that's right. You would keep it for yourself, which is exactly what Geoffrey Maitland did up in the far north of Scotland, when he was recceing a walk from Shegra to Keoldale across the rocky mountainous regions where it was easy to get lost.  Well, it wasn't exactly a machine, more of a swirling void. Trouble was, he was an experienced hiker and rambler of thirty plus...

Monday   Ron leaned back in his chair, resting the back against the side of the station. An old rusty yellow and green pickup truck was making its way down the highway in his direction. He unscrewed the top of his Snapple bottle and drank a deep draught of the amber mango iced tea therein. The truck approached. It did not slow. The fine mist of dust stirred up by the tires of passing vehicles left a residue on everything...

Immortality. That was the reward, that was the promise, and he knew it was his. Soon he would live forever. Nobody would have taken it seriously. Nobody who thought rationally that is. He knew that should he have told anybody of this belief, then they would either have laughed at him, or politely made their excuses and left. Yet, he was convinced that it would happen, and soon he would no longer fear death. Kenneth Ambros...

As they drove away, the expression on their faces darkened and became serious. In the rear-view mirror, they watched as the Riordan country stately home slowly became smaller, until a turn on the path took it from their sight.  The party continued there, but other people had left, and some were getting ready to leave as Mr and Mrs Stockton approached the open gates to leave the estate.  “Why didn’t you stick up for me?” s...

Gus attended the county fair for some well earned leisure time and an afternoon filled with relaxed thoughts. He was a recent retiree from his career as a U.S. Postoffice mail sorter. He had spent long, painstaking hours accurately sorting mail, and packages into slots and trains of canvas-bags. He took personal pride getting every address precisely sorted to expedite delivery. He once got a commendation from the Postmast...

I can't believe the cheek of him, bold as anything, staring out at me with his stupid face. Well, there's no way I'm putting up with this. No way. I've never liked him, never trusted him. He's smarmy and sly, and now here he is, a face on a poster outside the small Shaftsbury theatre, in the town where I live. He's appearing in a pantomime in a kid's play for God's sake. This man killed an old woman in a drunken hit and r...

The letter-box slammed shut, the sound reverberating throughout the road, and inside the houses in the vicinity. Geoff Howell turned and stalked back along the path to the gate, not bothering to close it behind him. He walked to the next house, angrily posting their mail, and rummaging in his bag for more.  He was 46 years old, lived alone in a third floor flat, was five feet six inches tall, and sported jet black wavy ha...

My name is Dominic Melvyn, and I am a criminal psychologist. Today, I am at a criminal medical institution where of five patients I was scheduled to meet, I have seen three of them. All the inmates are, I suppose insane. They are in here for their own good, kept away from society as they pose a danger. I am helping in their reformation, pointing them in the right direction until they are able to walk amongst the public as...