WAR, PETER AND OTHER THINGS.  SEPTEMBER, 1945 During the war, Peter had incurred the most gruel of fatal attacks: a seven-bullet and bomb rupture on his left leg. He had been sent home and had the leg amputated.  A week after the surgery, his wife, Anna, had lost the fight…

Katsu’s airy house was roughly sealed against the night winds. Bundles of cedar needles were pushed into wall cracks and layers of rice mats strewn along a raised wooden floor. The breezes sought crannies and loose shingles anyway, as the valley whistled with restless spirits looking for a place to…

Mabel waited in the corridor crumpled on the floor, as crumpled as the taffeta of her wedding dress. She pressed her back against the wall for certainty, wanting to merge with the wood. Rivulets streamed down her cheeks onto her netted veil. She stared ahead at the wallpaper’s print, fixated…

Jimmy Brandt loved the first fold. He knew from that seam if it was going to drift left or fly straight. And the first step, always, always, always, was right down the middle. Creasing the sheet of clean paper lengthwise. Carefully aligning the corners of the sheet before using his…

The rope pulled at Calypso’s waist. She staggered then stumbled as she clawed her way up the hill with Phoebe tied below. They had been searching for Alawisha, their younger sister, since her disappearance the day before. Hunger, thirst, and fatigue were ignored as panic pushed them to the edge…

The first time she ran into her old-self she was home for the weekend.  The day had started with a burning smell. Standing outside the station, Abby was finishing a cigarette when she smelt her mistake. Her training kicked in. She dropped the stub, shaking her fingers before sucking the…

All hail the true one, as the true one hails us. May the society be pleased to receive the enclosed selection of notes from one Dr Smiley, ‘ae Greate Lovere Of Winnes’, as presented from her diaries. As we all know, diary-keeping was, in the early years of the Ascendance.…