Silence: a seven letter word, made up of two syllables, rolling off the tongue, smooth and subtle. The height of the L carries the weight of the action; the sibilance echoes the shushing. Once said, it breaks its own command, and yet unsaid it goes unnoticed. Her life was silence, and silence was weak. It lacked power, it hid and cowered, it shrivelled and decomposed. Silence was useless and silen...

“Charlie? Do you want to play paramedics?” Charlie’s mum called through from the kitchen.

In the living room, surrounded by toy cars, building blocks, stuffed teddies and musical keyboards, Charlie climbed up from seated and walked over to his fancy dress corner. He picked up the toy stethoscope and fastened it around his skinny neck. The toys were brand new, unlike the rest of the room. The pai...

Slaved. That’s what she did, she slaved. Know what he did? Betrayed her.

For 24 years they’d been married. They were counting down the months for that 25th anniversary. She wanted to have a big bash; she envisioned silver balloons, silver icing, silver confetti and hopefully a blonde dye job to cover her silver. He, on the other hand, wanted to keep it a quiet affair.

After tonight, she wasn’t ...

Standing in her dated kitchen, with paint peeling off the wall, she is brought back to the notification on her phone. Yesterday, It wasn’t the nicest of days, she was rushing to get home, but the usual ping ping of the news programmes had warned of the man with the blue flower. She’d stopped, and read the bulletin, her mind forced back to all the reports of missing girls. It had been weeks of youn...

I’m a monster. Standing at the window of the ship, I watched the universe unfolding before me. Space was darker than I’d imagined, but the empty abyss seemed mockingly fitting as I started to contemplate what I’d done.

500 years ago I had sat in my kitchen, preparing myself for the voyage. The cat was on the windowsill, and for the life of me I could not recall his name now. It says a lot that t...

There is nothing worse than living in a light house when you can’t swim and you can’t row. Obviously, these were two factors no one considered when moving in.

We moved in 25 days ago, and I was 256 days old. I was able to crawl, I had two teeth and I had absolutely no say in the matter. My father was given the job opportunity, and we uprooted our lives in the city to embark upon an adventure man...

The room was cold and hostile. Two metal chairs sat on my side, and it didn’t matter how long I sat on mine, it wasn’t warming. The two men sat the other side. The white walls were scuffed, and I was trying very hard to ignore the red stain by foot.

Shaking, I looked at both men in turn.

“It was awful. Truly, truly awful.”

“We’ll need you to break each step of the story down for us, as best ...

She wasn’t the only one cursed that day, but due to her golden hair and waif-like looks she was the only one noticed whilst I whiled away the hours day after day still waiting for my prince to arrive. Ginger hair and spotty skin does not a princess make, so I’ve been told.

My parents also forgot to invite Maleficent to my christening. They also forgot to write her name on the list of 1000s due t...

‘Listen closely,’ it reads. ‘No matter what they’ve told you, I did not die in an accident. Someone came for me.’ And so the letter rambled on.

“Well, of course you didn’t, you daft bint,” I said out loud, crumbling Great Aunt Maud’s letter up into a ball. I stood in the newly built kitchen, tiles designed to my specification, paid for out of dear old Maud’s generous inheritance. Thanks Maud.

...

As the knife dug deeper into her rib cage, the crimson blood spread across the floor, like a river flowing to the sea. My hands were shaking as she took her final breath . Her body convulsed, her life exited her body, and I sat back against the wall, knife still protruding from her chest cavity.

Now I knew what a final breath sounded like. It wasn’t the rasping it’s so commonly described as. Her...