As the animals gathered in the garden and the snow fell the way it did in the movies, X asked him to go fetch them both a drink. Something to warm their bellies. Something a little naughty. Grinning at him with sullen red-rimmed eyes, he held her face in his hand before leaning forward and kissing her on the forehead. As he disappeared downstairs wrapped in his dressing gown, she peeked out the window. The animals were looking at her with the music of her song still in their ears. There were so many sets of whiskers twinkling beneath her, twinkling whiskers in a sea of wide eyes and white fur, and they had all come for her. Waving at them again, they responded in kind. The foxes yelped and the dogs barked. The cats meowed and the rats screeched, screeched so that the magpies in the trees crowed like the crows who were eyeing up the toads that were pretending to be like the frogs that were chasing after the slithering snakes who were creepy but kind. The badgers were growling, not nastily, it was just their way, and as they did so, the guinea pigs jumped into the air before splashing into the soft snow at the feet of the crowing crows, and just like that a gust of wind came and carried all their animals cries high into the sky. Mixed together, it sounded like the voice of God, or something similar. As she howled at them like a wolf, they howled back, and when she wiped her eyes, they gazed and gazed waiting for more of her song. Appearing through the door, he came in with two mugs filled with tea and brandy. More so brandy. Sitting down next to her, he passed one into her hands and kissed her forehead again. Knocking back a mouthful of the good stuff, she scrunched up her face and then blew out her cheeks. The noises coming from inside of her made the animals tilt their heads. Wiggling her toes, she cried tears from her bloodshot eyes and smiled at him. He smiled back, and when he drank from the cup of his own, he did exactly the same thing.

A Journal for Damned Lovers UK

A Journal for Damned Lovers US

Anthology UK / Anthology US