If only more parenting books thought to mention signs of demonic possession. Perhaps Graham should’ve realised something was amiss, though he’d been pulled a dozen ways trying to balance mourning the loss of his wife, looking after his newborn son, and learning how to run a household solo. All with the looming deadline of his paternity leave running out.

Mary’s death had been a shock. Her pregnan...

Whirrrr bump whir bump thump

I’m trying. I’m trying really hard.

“Find joy”, they say. “Embrace whimsy”. “Seek out positive emotions”.

So here I am. Sitting in a bumper car, trying to recapture the glee and aimless joy which came so naturally as a child.

My friends are laughing all around. Some trying to turn this into a wacky team game. The others treating it like gladiatorial combat.

Then ther...

It was hours after the last school bus, yet Jimmy-Jims wasn’t home. Teddy finally left his post at the window and crawled under the bed to snuggle against Lurk, who wrapped a comforting scaly arm around the distraught stuffy and mumbled reassurances.

After another anxious, dusty age a whisper came. “Hello? Can you hear me?”

“Hello?” Teddy crawled to peep out. “Who’s there?”

The voice wasn’t JJ,...

Agatha had always sworn she’d never do this. That she wouldn’t be the one to steal away the last scrap of family her brother had. Yet, here she was. Her possessions crammed into a battered backpack and her final goodbye left on the mat in an envelope recycled from the last utility bill.

How depressing, that after so many years resenting her parents she took after them.

No, that wasn’t fair to mo...

“Ok! See you soon!” Maggie trilled into her phone, then the moment the call ended her face contorted with panic and she sprinted into the kitchen, where her husband was humming along with the radio and leisurely washing lunch dishes. “ANDREW!”

He jumped and looked up, his full name alerting him that this was an emergency. “What’s wrong-”

“My parents are visiting!”

“Oh? When-”

“They’re at the town ...

If I’d known it was Gory’s bag I never woulda opened it. That guy’s the meanest, scariest hoodlum this town’s ever seen. Also the best Rabble Runner ever. Since he took charge the other gangs have clear moved out.

Maybe I shouldn’t have opened that bag even thinking it was Tom’s. But Gory had been pressuring me to “prove myself”, like he might kick me out. I CAN'T lose the Rabblers. I’d be dog-m...

When Lucy declared she was giving up on dating, her friends were entirely sympathetic. They all understood where she was coming from; it often felt pointless, hopeless even, especially online dating. Many of them had made similar declarations in the past, and some still held to it.

Lucy’s renewed interest in robotics didn’t strike them as odd either… at first.

But when her increasingly low conta...

She’s so lucky. PERFECTLY perfect. Ugh. With her swanlike grace and golden hair and sapphire eyes. Even now we’re both grown she’s still half a head taller than me. And far more beautiful, nobody lets me forget that.

Mother always fusses to make sure DARLING Susan’s clothes fit perfectly, with flattering cuts and colouring chosen to exactly complement. Then when they’re handed down to ME she bare...

“And how do you know the deceased, Ms Collins?” The solicitor’s tone was that sort of precise, distant politeness which probably took half a semester of drilling to get right, and made Beatrice second-guess whether the appraising stare was habitual or whether she was rousing suspicion.

Let’s be honest, even if they weren’t suspicious of her the moment she walked in the door, they were about to be....

Even running a small pub in a small town, Ian had seen all sorts. But he’d never had anyone storm in sporting full evening wear at lunchtime. And them being four feet tall with glowing butterfly-esk wings was also novel.

The pub was empty except for the elderly bridge club, who like him could only stare in baffled concern as the fairy walked to the bar, hopped up on a stool, and shakily declared ...