Author: Lauren Thomas

She laid the table for four. Her husband, her daughter, and the imaginary friend. It had gone on for years. She had read all of the books on how to gently transition out of this phase. And yet Jenny remained a constant at their table. “Jenny joining us again?” He leaned against the doorframe, his…

Erin Mackay’s mother once told her that she had a face that carried shadows. As a child she had imagined her face filled like a basket with the ones that she had accumulated over the day, jostling each other as they danced across her cheekbones. She would stare in the mirror, twisting her face to…

She sat at the piano and looked at the keys without really understanding them. They shone beneath the lamp that hung overhead. She swayed in the chair to watch the light dance across them. “Press one, Amelie. See what happens.” She pressed a heavy key down and giggled as the note rang out. * Seventy six…

They had laughed together through the hardest times. Through embarrassment, through heartbreak, through grief. Despite it all, they could laugh. But a crack had broken through their friendship. Life’s path had taken them in three different directions, and despite this the final destination was still at each other’s throats. They had disagreed on the meaning…

They came over the hill at the mercy of the wilderness. Their bodies were bruised and their spirits had abandoned them in disgust. Alongside them walked the devils who carried hatred, pride and cruelty upon their backs, ready to share these preternatural torments with the men they accompanied. The corrupt practices of man throughout the…

“Hello?” That heart-lurch that accompanies the late night phone call. The flicker-fast disaster movie that plays across your mind as you think about which character may have met an untimely end. Your mother calling to say that your father’s heart has finally given out. Your father calling to say that your mother has had a…

“Mumma! Look!” Her gaze followed the short outstretched arm and saw the small cluster of snowdrops that had pushed its way through fallen leaves alongside moss thickened rocks. “Goodness! Shall we have a closer look?” They crouched down together, and she watched as her daughter pressed her nose to a bud and sniffed theatrically. “Can…

“Do I have any running shoes?” “Check the cupboard under the stairs.” Dread filled his stomach. He hated that cupboard. The little horror shop full of past failures. The cycling cleats that saw him topple into the elderly woman at the bus stop. The water shoes that spent more time on his feet in the…

“The hanged man.” “What does that mean? She looked up at her through eyes made lazy with heavy make up. “It’s not quite what you think it is. You simply need to let something go. What are you holding on to Megan?” Her job. Her habits. Her relationships. The past. “Nothing. Well, I mean, not…

“Happy Twix…” Her uncle held up a hand. “No thank you. You know I despise a portmanteau.” Walking into the dining room she saw he had placed himself at the head of the table where she had been sitting. She sat next to her cousin instead and smiled conspiratorially. “How was your motel last night?”…