Author S. K. Nicholas

x and i: a novel

a journal for damned lovers vol 1-3

  • Blush Response

    Through the legs of the horses and over the backs of the bumbling badgers, the fox frees himself from the slippery clutches of the muddy rivers wrapping around his feet. Leaping high into the air, it’s as if the laws of gravity don’t apply to him, and like a helium balloon, he rises over the Read more

  • Sink Them Deep

    There’s a chance the static might’ve come from the bolts of lightning shooting into the ground, their electric arms spraying the sweat of gods over the organic circus below. Then again, it might also have been the product of a generator powering the many rides of the funfair as it buzzes unseen like bees in Read more

  • Sea of Grass and Mud

    Holding tightly onto the neck of the fox the same way she does her father when he gives her piggybacks around the living room of their apartment, she kicks her feet and screeches like a banshee. The fox is bewildered yet not disturbed, for the little girl has given him the energy to keep going—her Read more

  • Sniffs and Snorts

    With her fingers digging into his wet body, Gretchen sets herself down on the fox’s back. The horses, seemingly hellbent on chasing the night into the mouth of oblivion, disappear among the moving trees ahead. The fox, small as he is, gallops so fast that Gretchen has to wrap her arms around his neck to Read more

  • The Trees

    The fox had never spoken to the trees, nor had the trees ever spoken to him. He knew they could talk, though, for he often heard them calling as they swept through the fields in the dead of night. To whom they were calling, he couldn’t say. Perhaps it was to other trees the same Read more

  • Buttercups and Dreams

    Although to begin with, she only saw the Ferris wheel towering over the trees in the distance, the glow of the moon now illuminates an entire funfair of flashing lights blinking to the beat of a strange new rhythm. The rhythm, due to its cosmic nature, is one she has no way of deciphering. Yet, Read more

  • Tiny but Massive

    Gretchen breathes in the steam from the fox’s nose. The fox, with its wet coat of fur glistening like oil, does the same to hers, and in both their lungs, the universe bubbles like a pan of boiling milk. The bubbles, tiny but massive, escape through their nostrils and drip down their chins to be Read more

  • Nose Against Nose

    Mesmerised by the slow spinning of the wheel, Gretchen wishes to speak, but the words don’t come. They’re in the back of her throat somewhere, formed and precise, and yet try as she might, they won’t venture out. All she can do is gaze at the structure that at this moment seems to her to Read more

  • Brain Fog

    With Gretchen’s eyes dazzled by the sight of this strange and wonderful apparition, the fox continues to stare at her with what resembles a smile on its whiskery face. It doesn’t need to look at the wheel. It’s seen it before. Turning with aged precision, the paint of its metal frame appears new and yet Read more

  • A Wild Din

    As the ground shakes and the fox tilts its head to one side, Gretchen does the same. Passing either side of them with as much force as the storm, the animals surge through the grass like the swishing blade of a scythe, a scythe brandished by a skeleton wearing a black cloak. The Grim Reaper? Read more