Author S. K. Nicholas

x and i: a novel

a journal for damned lovers vol 1-3

Lucid

  • The Theban Alphabet

    I’ve been drinking, and so decide to put graffiti on her belly with red lipstick. Read about this thing called the Theban alphabet on Wikipedia, you see, but as I’m drunk, I make most of it up and scrawl away regardless. She doesn’t notice though. She’s too busy eating grapes. Got them from the Tesco… Read more

  • X Crosses the Great Divide

    As X spins in a gust of wind, the colours of the world snap themselves free from the shapes that contain them, and as a long, drawn-out cry escapes her throat, the force of it shatters all the windows of the store, sending shards of glass raining down on the shoppers and members of staff… Read more

  • A Slow Dance

    After collecting her bottle of wine and packet of pastry, X pays for them as if in a trance, not speaking or making eye contact with the person serving at the checkout. Outside, she looks over to her car but decides to have a cigarette. Standing there beneath a canopy at the entrance to the… Read more

  • Only the Few

    X watches the lovers remembering the warmth he’d once put in her belly. Warm so warm he had made her feel on so many nights when she’d felt on the verge of coming apart, and although at the time she’d put it down to the electric kicks of sex, she now realised it was something… Read more

  • Beneath Her Skin

    Sitting on the floor of the supermarket like a moody child, she looks up at the two ghosts as they stand before her, and in that moment, remembers just how in love she used to be. As those lips of his meet those belonging to that younger version of hers, she holds her breath and… Read more

  • Ghosts

    Driving with her eyes shut, she makes her way to a nearby supermarket. It’s not one she’s been in for years, but pulling into the carpark, she finds it exactly as it used to be, which reassures and agitates her at the same time for reasons she can’t quite explain. Parking up near the entrance,… Read more

  • The Mystery of a Smile

    On the sidewalk with the moon on her shoulder, X dances to music she’s not sure is real or imagined. As those passing her by give strange looks, she shifts from one foot to the other clicking her fingers and shaking her hips, and as the curls of her hair bounce behind her, she kicks… Read more

  • Moon Kisses

    The town flows about her, and yet she remains seated behind the steering wheel, crying at the thought of what once was, and what might never be again. With snot streaming from her nose, she wipes it with the back of her hand as two lovers walk by, looking at her with nervous glances. The… Read more

  • Rabbit in the Headlights

    As my hand gripped her bare thigh, her eyes dilated and she let go of the steering wheel. As the rain fell upon the windscreen, the vehicle hit the kerb mounting the sidewalk like a lurching drunk trying to find his way home. Reaching over her and pulling us back onto the road, she’d sunk… Read more

  • Blood & Sex & Miracle Sauce

    We left the bar and waltzed through unlit streets, licking our lips and sucking the taste of alcohol from our fingers not caring for anything other than the prospect of what we were going to do with each other once we got indoors. Not being able to control the urges another step, I’d taken her… Read more