Verbiage (aka ‘Sex, Drugs and Politics’)

“I hate the party conference,” she says stroking my chest hair, her face blushed with the afterglow of our long but frantic session of love making. “This pledge, that pledge. Headlines, spin, bullshit. No wonder the public don’t believe in us anymore. It’s all just words, an overabundance of meaningless words…”
“Verbiage,” [...]

Edify (aka ‘Down In The Garden’)

“Mummy, where did baby come from?”
Jessica smiled. She had been wondering, ever since she had fallen pregnant again, when Troy would start to ask these kind of questions. He had always been an inquisitive young boy and, even though he had only just turned six, she considered now was as good a time as any [...]

Numismatics (aka ‘Blood Dollar’)

1.
He had devoted the last thirty years to seeking it out, sacrificing a wife and family in the process. Most considered him insane; that his quest was based upon a myth. It just simply did not exist.
But Jackson Foulds-King never gave up believing.
And now here it was before his very eyes.
“The Blood Dollar,” he marvelled, [...]

Scion (aka ‘Scion Industries’)

“So why did you invite me here?” asked Huda, a hint of suspicion in her dark eyes.
JC smiled. “The board were becoming concerned about negative media coverage of the work we undertake here. By opening the doors of Scion Industries to a journalist we hope to allay the many misconceptions that have arisen about us [...]

Undulate (aka ‘The Night The Earth Moved’)

“Just another day at most, darling Belle, and we’ll be able to start our new life together,” said Frederick Elliot, running a steady hand through her blonde curls.
Belle smiled and stared dreamily at the cabin’s exquisitely decorated ceiling. “I still can’t believe it’s happening. I’m scared it’s all a dream and I am going to [...]

Benefience (aka ‘For Whom The Bells Toll’)

When the rectory doorbell chimed for the fourth time that day, Vicar Wainwright sighed and feared the worst.
“Mrs Roundsbottom, I suspected it might be you, again,” he said, his smile as feigned as it was strained. “What can I being do for you this time?”
“On the contrary Vicar!” shrilled the rotund Mrs Roundsbottom. “It’s rather [...]

Plaintive (aka ‘A Merciless Mistress’)

Despite the night’s fervour and the beads of sweat that glisten upon my wrinkled skin, like exposed minerals upon the surface of an old quarry, I shiver and pull the damp sheets about myself.
At first I thought it was the night breeze, baying through the darkness, but then I recognise the soft, mournful sound that [...]