Author: Lauren Thomas

His hair was white blonde, the colour of bleached bones. She wondered if it had always been that shade or whether the shock of the impact had forced the colour out. The sunburn on his cheeks made him look vividly alive, so long as she ignored the dark, sticky pool beneath his skull. “What happened…

She thought of all the authors who had died with stories still untold on their tongues. How they had fallen into an eternal sleep with devils of envy dancing on their bones, with the odious names of witches muffled by the earth and with the bloody noise of a thousand plagues left to fester alongside…

“The fog is disappearing.” She had been tracking it since childhood. She liked how it softened the edges of everything, how it held and kept secrets. She liked how it made her routine walks unfamiliar. But it was appearing less and less, like a friend who rarely visited. It was the reason she had moved…

The sand moves beneath her feet, two pairs of socks feeling tight against her boots. “It’ll be worth it, I promise.” He holds her hand, thick gloves muffling each other’s touch. They’ve left the turkey cooking. “Just 5 more minutes, then we’ll go back.” His breath fogs, droplets in his beard. He smiles and the…

The mice were most definitely stirring. They had laid traps. Tried to lace pieces of cheese. They had even adopted a cat that preferred to chase the baubles from the tree. And still they lay there, night after night, hearing them in the walls until the winter sunlight sliced through the darkness. “What are we…

The Button sisters have secrets. These are not the kind of secrets that travel through school halls, causing flame-red embarrassment before they become yesterday’s news in favour or something better, more damaging. The Button sisters have secrets that could make people cross the road when they saw them. That could make people question everything they…

Louise rolled her shoulders back, hitched up her skirt and lifted her bag, ready to begin a new life. He had tried to break her heart, her spirit, her neck, but he couldn’t hurt her any more. A fresh bruise was blooming against her cheek, her dress was spattered with blood, and her feet would…

She knew she couldn’t stay much longer. Soon someone would notice that she was missing. Stepping backwards, she stumbled over loose stone and glass, landing heavily on a pile of rubble. A bolt of pain flew up her arm and she cried out, the echo of her voice sounding lonely as it reverberated through the…

“What are you waiting for?” “A plane.” He looked around and a nervous laugh slipped from his mouth. “Well obviously. Which one?” She glanced at him without seeing him. “I’ll know when I see it.” He shifted in his chair. “Right. Okay.” The silence between them was thick despite the general clamour of the airport.…

He felt it before he heard it, rumbling beneath his feet and making his back teeth vibrate. His palms were slick with sweat and when he tried to call to Rob his throat constricted around the words. Instead he caught his friend’s eye and as the rush of noise started to close in he could…