Di had savage eyes, blue and clear as rain. She had a heart nobody could easily step out of. Rumor was that she shed her opaque skin in the ladies’ restroom and that the new one, before exposure glazed it,…

I poke and jab at the boy’s teeth, scraping hard on the enamel. Stop squirming, you horrible little sod. The overhead light doesn’t blind me from the look of pure hate in his eyes. With my back turned to his…

Moxie, a stray collie, chases a bouncing balloon between parked cars. The balloon is red, not that she knows. The both of them are like children bounding and splashing in the puddles. She clamps her teeth around the end of…

I am told with a variety of hand signals the nursing shark is not dangerous. But the lithe blue-grey body swaying sinuously through the water instils panic. Its mouth hangs open with an overbite that is far from comical. Pinking…

Police have released a CCTV image of a man they would like to interview in connection with the disappearance of Caroline Marshall, the estate agent who was last seen in Bristol more than eight months ago. I pull out my…

When I arrive at her room, she’s sitting at the table, grey head in hands, her opal ring winking at me like a ghoul’s eye. Her bony shoulders are hunched beneath her dressing gown. I tuck her tag in and…

Baxter had let them down, so Baxter got it. He got it in the head. A solid dry branch. I can still see the dry bark and dead wood exploding outwards like a fragmented halo: perhaps a tooth or two…

‘There’s this thing he does,’ I say. She doesn’t let me finish. ‘Yeah, you told me already.’ But I ignore her, because in my head, it’s started already. I can see him. Smell him. Taste him. Early morning, the air…

You are having second thoughts, but it is too late now. The panel lights in the lift are slowly rising, taking you ever closer. You have to go through with it. There’s no turning back. A ping sounds and the…

When I was eleven years old I killed my sister. Of course, she’s fine now. The rainy October day my sister was born, Grandma dragged me to the hospital. My ladybird umbrella pitter-pattered water behind me as I navigated the…

After making Dan’s breakfast, Fina tackles laundry while he gets ready for work. Becca drapes herself on a chair and drinks strong black coffee. Fina has read up on the teenage brain, so she knows what not to expect from…

The smell of chemically burnt skin and screams wake me up. I look out my bedroom window and see three people getting smaller and smaller as they run away, mom seeping out of the glass shed. Find a glass repair…