The sea itself is many miles away but close enough for her to hear it calling. On any other night, she would very much like to have paid it a visit, for the ocean had a way of making her feel small yet precious. In its presence, she was a mere grain of sand on… Read more

Having never been allowed to roam the outside world in her young life, there was so much of the town she lived in that Gretchen didn’t recognise. She certainly didn’t recognise it flying above the streets late at night with the wind and rain distorting her features as if they were made of plasticine. Squinting… Read more

With one half of her sat in the comfort of a toasty apartment clutching a melting chocolate cookie, the other is battling the elements as the wind and rain show no sign of diminishing. As they throw her about like a ragdoll, the Gretchen flying like Peter Pan grits her teeth and braves the elements… Read more

Sunday morning seeps into existence. Another hangover. Another new haircut. My tongue is swollen from too many shots of flaming Sambuca. The woman on TV reading the news has a chipped front tooth that’s kinda cute, but I can see straight through her. Dog Kaput. Much masturbation derived from stillborn pleasure. My liver is shrunk.… Read more

It’s rainy. Blustery. The roads we’ve known since we were kids are as wet as gravestones that will one day become our forever home. The leaves that fall on our drunken heads then slip and slide across our shoes, and the grass that hides on the horizon squeaks like frightened mice. When I move inside… Read more

With the rain lashing down against her limbs, she floats with her hands pressed against the window, calling to the girl inside the apartment. The girl doesn’t hear, however, and merely continues to sit before the glowing logs, tilting her head as if listening to some faraway sound. For a second, Gretchen is tempted to… Read more

Inching closer to the heater, the winding roads in her mind became streaks of fire in the sky, like those left behind by sparklers waved around on Bonfire Night or the fireworks that accompanied them, cutting through the heavens like a knife. Closer and closer still, the heat washed over her in waves—like the waves… Read more

Wiggling those scorched toes of hers the way she wiggles like a caterpillar in her dreams, the light of the fire sends her into a trance. Like the headlights of an approaching car, the two logs glare at her like eyes, beady at first and then as bright and as whole as sibling moons. Occasionally,… Read more

Nibbling the cookie like a hamster, Gretchen banishes the pain of never having her own Christmas tree by focusing on how good the cookie tastes. It tastes good indeed, and her smile is as wide as the thread of time that passes between the two versions of her that exist in these pages. It’s a… Read more