I stare down at the woman beneath me. Her luminous, almost opalescent skin, now faded to a hollow grey. Her hair fans around her like the halo of a fallen angel. Her once vibrant eyes, now vacant, haunting. The glistening tears that cascade down her cheeks, seem to possess one burning question.

_Why_?

I have taken what isn’t mine. I am a liar, a thief, a tyrant.

For each tremulous, frenzied ki...

The long, meandering queue stretches beyond them like the River Nile. She can feel Eva’s quick, small slippery palm escaping from her own prying, desperate grasp. Her own fingers clutch, but falter. It’s too late. The echoing moment of calm that has passed between them only seconds ago, shatters.

“Mummy!” Eva’s voice rings out like an alarm bell and Kara’s heart falters, squeezes with that famili...

“She’s not who she says she is!” I scream, my voice punctuating the silence like hailstones.

I probably haven’t picked the right moment for an emotional revelation. But I learned something, thirty minutes ago in that bathroom stall.

This probably isn’t what my brother anticipated when he tapped his champagne flute to announce the proclamation of speeches. The high-pitched yelp that comes from m...

With the wind rushing against my cheeks, I plug my trusty staff into the ground and allow it to carry me higher up the steep rockery. My bones ache for the memories of what they used to be, the power they used to have.

But that is all I am now, a hollow memory, a faint echo of the man that came before.

It is as magnificent as they said. The winding limestone peaks around me, tell intricate stor...

I confess, sometimes my mind

Is a poison, like a snake that

Twists in a snare, hissing and

Spitting that cruel, cutting venom.

I confess, that sometimes the

Thoughts pull me under, like a

Hungry tide, and I admit,

sometimes I forget how to swim.

I confess, that I often lose my

Way, and I hurt the ones that

I love, because the fire inside me

Scorches those that come too close.

I confess, ho...

“Do you remember what I said, Piper?” I kneel down to my sister’s height, my long, oversized anorak grazing the sodden grass. The waves hiss as they surge against the rocks below, each time growing more and more ferocious, mirroring the darkening skies above.

Finally, Piper nods. Her vibrant, ocean blue eyes look up into mine with such fierce love and unwavering trust, that I almost stop, I almos...

Twisted and gnarled beneath the

Damp, heavy earth, they stretch

Like claws, spread like a plague,

Seizing and squeezing the life

Out of anything in its path.

“This is mine now,” it says, “and I’ll take

Every inch of it. As I sprout into

A sapling, I’ll drink up every inch of

Light and water, and I’ll soar towards

The clouds like a rocket and leave

You festering in my growing shadow.”

(5 min w...

“You don’t understand how it feels,

To have your heart so plainly snapped

In two, by the very man who pieced

It together and made it glow.”

How can you say that? I do. I do.

My heart is shattered by what I

Have done, you gave me so much

Love and I have failed you.

“Why does a full heart need more?

Why wasn’t my love enough for

You, for us? You’ve torn my life to

Shreds and I’m lost in darkne...

Sophia looked in horror at the abandoned bottles, littering every square metre of the house like overgrown confetti. She waded through the debris that was now her home, and every single room told the same, solemn story.

The stale stretch of beer and pungent marijuana slithered through the house and curled around her nostrils.

No matter how much she longed for this to be a tragic break in, the...

If there’s one true marvel in this world, it is the spellbinding magic of stars, filled with so much beauty and endless wonder. They captivate with their blossoming light, twinkle like hidden gems dotted beyond the horizon. Every beaming diamond that shimmers in the great beyond, is a miracle, a true symbol of hope.

It’s the space between them that frightens me, and I find myself trapped there of...