When The Mist Clears

…drove along, making the routine, daily drive home from the office. He was mulling over what to have for tea. It would be something sent in, that was for sure. He had earned a takeaway after a rubbish day at work. It was a toss up between a curry with all the sides and garlic naan, or a kebab the size of a roll of carpet. He turned the car-radio volume up and sang along with the rock radio…

By Chris Platt

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Bound

Trigger warning: includes scenes of captivity and violence

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…and she had been broken repeatedly. The scars a testament to her time here, being held by this thing. She would rather not think of him as a man. It was a thing, horrid and scared just like her. He came in the night and she could see the sun starting to fade through the small glazed over…

By Wil R.P. McCarthy

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A Narrow Perspective

…left shiny streaks as nine-year-old Gracie Price read the data sheet. The type-written page attached to the cage with duct tape, told the life story of Ziggy, the brown puppy curled up and shaking in the corner. Ziggy was from a puppy mill and when he was not adopted as were all of his litter mates, he was left at the…

By Dresdin Fear

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Escaped

…rain was falling heavily. It was like driving through a thick curtain of water. He eased off the accelerator a little. Had to be careful driving on wild nights like these. The las thing you’d want is to have an accident or breakdown. You just want to be at home on these stormy nights. The thwack-thwack of the windscreen wipers was hypnotic. He stared out into the glow of the headlights. The rain sounded like white noise…

By Chris Platt

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Why I Called Phibi By Her Full Name

…my mother sent me to school, her only child, before the age of 7 years like other children in South Africa, it was if in a hurry to re-collect herself as a childless woman. She said I was smart boy and ahead of my age, and in her words, ‘You’re wasting time at crèche,’ which meant money. But I was frail and little. And I walked like I was wet. In a genuine sense of this expression: my school uniform wore…

By Tshepo S. Molebatsi

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Oh, How We've Changed

…told me he climbed to the top of a tree one day to see over the forest at the edge of the farm. He said what he saw was quite strange. Everything was reversed. People were dragged by their shadows, books vocalized their stories; you didn’t have to read them, pets took the human they owned for strolls. and…

By Dresden Fear

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