Author: Lauren Thomas

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…

As the darkness descended upon the room like an unkindness of ravens, she knew that her time had come. She knew it from the fluttering of her heartbeat, from the liquid feeling rolling in her stomach and from the pain in her leg that had deadened to an incessant buzz. Most of all, she knew…

The genie had granted her three wishes, and she had already used two. Why had she wished for a smaller nose? It was too small for her face now, her eyes looking lost and unsupported. And why had she used the other one to ask to be an influencer? Now all the comments on social…

He could see into the past. Even at his young age he knew better than to tell people. Grown ups talked behind their hands when children were different. His dad collected coins, and whenever he let him hold them, he could see the lives of everyone who had held them before him. At first it…

“Where did you go?” “Upstairs. To get my glasses.” “Are you trying to be funny?” “I’m not telling a joke.” They looked at each other, him in the doorway with his glasses in his hand, and she on the armchair with grey shadows carved beneath her eyes. “You’ve been gone for three days.” ‘I’ve been…

She loved the way snow set the slate of her life clean. The way it covered every imperfection and deadened every sound. Her neglected garden became a soft blanket that hid weeds and brambles and bounced fresh winter sunlight onto her skin. Her heavy footsteps and the sound of her mother’s voice telling her to…