sin.dex

Asmodeus, a great king, strong and powerful, was supposed to have appeared with three heads (bull, man, ram). It had taken weeks to beg, borrow and steal the ingredients for the incense. It had taken days to obtain candles – real candles – from the undermarket: Unregistered products were forbidden by the Syndic.

Apparition

Edmund Jenkin was not an old man but he was weary and reaching the end of his resources. He had been waiting for his caller who was overdue by an hour and he was worried. The weather was bad but that was not what concerned him. What concerned him was that the time was bad, […]

The Cure

Eddie was a bright guy. I met him at college where he was studying literature and poetry and he had a real passion for it all. He had a gift with words and loved a well crafted phrase loaded with booby-trap cleverness.

Landslide Victory

Do you remember when you were a child? Alone and hungry and crying for a mother that was beyond hearing?

Magic Dragon

He was sitting untouched by the noise and movement around him, day-to-day face glued to his head, perfectly convincing. His hands moved over the keyboard, marionette appendages on strings of habit.

First Page

The House of Stories

I wrote this ten years ago (heavens!) as part of a Phantom of the Opera fan event. It’s a short piece of fiction set during the formative years of the eponymous character and is connected to the character of the novel as opposed to any of the movie or theatrical interpretations. It is also the […]

“You’re a shaman, Harry”

“I’m a — what?”

Misdialled

I like a nice hot shower to help me recover from a heavy night out, and last night had been one of the heaviest. It had been the birthday of the girlfriend of a friend of someone I worked with so naturally I wanted to help her celebrate. It would be rude not to. About […]

Journey

The pain is everywhere now. The cords are tight around my arms and my legs, the long cuts on my back from the scourge weep blood, but the pain is no longer confined to arms, or legs, or cuts. I am pain, a fire from head to toe flaring with every beat of my heart… or […]