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Plucking a lump of hair from the torso of the fox, she grins and places it in the front pocket of her nightie. Yelping in pain, the fox snaps back its head and bares its teeth. For a second, it thinks about giving the girl a nip, but it’s not angry for long as the Read more
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As Gretchen screams at the thunder and intermittent flashes of lightning, the fox leaps from the shoulders of the belligerent badger. Landing with a squishy thud in a sea of gloopy, flowing mud, it scurries through the wet stalks of grass, hissing and spitting at things unseen. Running her fingers through the fox’s fur with Read more
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Taking her deeper into the field of long, tall grass on the back of the grumbling badger, the fox licks the rain as it soaks those rushing to the light. For a moment, Gretchen feels as if she’s in a western. Certainly a movie of some kind. One with a chase scene in—a thriller like Read more
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A smoke beneath the stars and time is frozen like a billion cold hearts chasing dollars and cents and I wish I could be warm and sometimes I am but not very often. Perhaps I could drive an ice cream truck. Perhaps I could work in a guitar store and cut all the strings because Read more
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With the fox’s thick fur tickling her nose, Gretchen sniffs and sneezes in fits. Beyond the smell reminding her of the leaves she keeps pressed between the pages of her secret books, she catches the scent of many tiny creatures. Mites. Fleas. Perhaps others the same as her, shrunken to near impossibly small sizes, but Read more
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In a previous life, I was a b-movie actor from the turn of the century. Bulimic. Moderate good looks. Big dope fiend. An abused abuser with a penchant for girls as thin as those pink wafer snacks you get at parties. I ate a whole pack of them once at Christmas and was sick in Read more
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As the animals roll like waves of sea and grass, Gretchen buries her face in the coat of fur belonging to a fox. The fox promptly screams, but not out of fear. Rather, its screams are that of excitement, for the fox has never before felt the touch of one unlike itself. Wagging its tail Read more
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At first, she thinks she sees only horses, but when she swoops down low to the ground, the picture that’s painted for her is both startlingly beautiful and haunting. In the tall grass that bends and twists in the wicked wind, she sees not only rushing horses but an assortment of small animals in the Read more
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As the streets and buildings diminish, the storm whips her good and proper. To the gods, and those below, she’s almost invisible, but to Gretchen, the fury of her own momentum rages with as much force as the storm. Perhaps even more, for now she’s shooting like a star, and shining brighter than any force on earth. Read more
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The roads beneath her sink into the earth, and the buildings she doesn’t recognise tumble as if made of stale bread turned soggy by the rain. Life is down there, continuing its descent into a slow malaise, but the reason for her flying so high isn’t to witness this. No. Not this time. Not tonight. Read more
Author S. K. Nicholas 