Farewell Mariner, Goodbye Teenager by Lucy Vanderstelt-Gu (15) Memphis Elke spent a great deal of his time exploring the intricate threads of his mind; delving into the unknown realms of imagination. He was neither introvert nor extrovert, but an articulate, perceptive ginger-haired boy with a dimple in his chin and freckles sprinkled across his pale cheeks. […]
Home, Where Birds Won’t Fly by Lauren Pearce (17) Chernobyl was only the name of a small power station north-west of Kiev when my parents left the Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union. Up until the winter of 1984, they have lived perilously close to what is now known as the ‘zone of exclusion’ in […]
Hope Rose by Stacey Malacari (22) From the sky, they looked like two phantom snakes, fossilised and phallic, silently sliding across the earth. At ground level they were a set of solemn marching girls, smoke blurring their faces and covering their hoods with ash. Laced with the aftertaste of pornographic slaughter, the air was enough to […]
Red by Rebecca Howden (24) They’re crazy, these girls who want to get married. Look at them all in their white lace, drowning in silk and tulle and crepe de chine. They buy our magazine and before they know it they’re crying like it matters over whether their bridesmaids should wear lilies or orchids in their […]
Distance is Relative by Rafael SW When the spaceship hit the house three streets away, Jericho’s mother turned to God. He arrived at the dinner table like an absentee father, rubbing his hands together slowly. She even started talking to him again, a habit she hadn’t surfaced since the early stages of the divorce. All of […]
Nugent by Michael Blake (23) This is Nugent, and nobody lives here. In the metres between the town-name signs, at the base of the bowl of hills, there is nothing but a stout hall and a locked church with a broken organ and a house and a shed racing each other into the ground. […]
His Belief Did you know that tinned food was available 30 years before the invention of the tin-opener? In much the same spirit, my feelings for Avery Whitbread exploded into being long, long before Avery had any idea that I existed. I straightened my bodysuit nervously, the dragon embroidered across the silvery cloth reacting with […]
Schizophrenia Young genius Lucius Dalworthy climbed from his Subterranean Tunneller, straightened his top hat, and strode into the underground chamber. ‘Surrender!’ he cried. ‘There is no escape for you now!’ Standing amid the steam and dust, Cressida Mandeville – his equally young and equally brilliant arch-enemy – raised an eyebrow. ‘That’s odd. I was just […]
Bottled Feelings Did you know that tinned food was available 30 years before the invention of the tin-opener? In much the same spirit, my feelings for Avery Whitbread exploded into being long, long before Avery had any idea that I existed. So there she was, standing by the door to the classroom with her friends, […]
The Swarms I wasn’t certain what had attracted the plague of creatures, but it probably had something to do with my aunt’s ancient recipe book. I flipped to the faded black cover and looked at the title: ‘Curses for the Apocalypse,’ I read. ‘Maybe I shouldn’t have messed with this after all.’ I watched as […]
