Author S. K. Nicholas

There’s a light rain falling, and you have beads of water clinging to your upper lip. Did this water come from a rainforest? Did it once swirl in the bellies of frogs sat upon giant leaves next to tribes worshipping gods with tempers as volatile as a thunderous sky? Before that, was it clinging to Read more

On our way back to your mum’s, evening creeps and the fog blankets the town like a billowing bedsheet. Somewhere above us, fireworks are picking at the hidden heavens, and although we can’t see them, we can hear their endings, loud yet distant. Walking for miles down lanes I traversed as a kid, I remember Read more

Stumbling about, you shoved the Big Mac in your mouth like you hadn’t eaten in a week. The two of us were drunk, you slightly more than I. We had ordered chips and a drink along with our burgers not long after we left the pub, but you threw yours at a speeding taxi after Read more

I bought her this bar of chocolate. It wasn’t anything fancy, just a nice gesture, y’know. Something to show I cared. Anyway, unlike me, who eats a sweet treat as soon as it’s in my grubby mitts, she put it in a box under her side of the bed, saving it for later. The box Read more

There was a video of some sort. A stream. On the internet. A woman, cooking. Exotic it was. Both the food she was handling and herself. As the light fizzed upon her olive skin, she beamed and whipped her bowl of eggs and flour—the enthusiasm oozing out of her like sweat. Everything was so well Read more

I usually wake for work dead-on 4 am. The second the alarm stirs me, I leave the bed and go for a piss then head into the kitchen. I have a strict regime I abide by. There are twelve minutes. Twelve minutes from when I open my eyes to when I have to leave the Read more

The bath was too hot. It burnt my dipping toes, so I had to let some water go down the plughole and top it up with cold. I think I have arthritis in the big toe on my right foot. It hurts when I walk, but not too much. Not enough to bother a doctor Read more

Surrounded by leaves, the branches of the trees reach down and disturb my hair. I hate them for it, and yet at every opportunity, I kiss their bark as if I were kissing her. Closing my eyes, I see her mouth; her lips are as sugary as donuts. The expensive ones. Krispy Kremes. On her Read more

There’s a spider in the wine glass by the sink. I won’t go anywhere near it. I’ll drink straight from the bottle instead and save on the washing up. She’s upstairs, sleeping. She has work in the morning and went to bed early. It’s snowing. Not heavy or anything, but there’s magic in the air Read more