Month: October 2024

Dine – a Dune Parody – by Martyn

Published by Martyn Winters on October 29, 2024

I’m aware that my previous effort might be too schoolboyish, so I’ve written something else. This is an attempt at parodying Dune. Let me know what you think. Mart

PS. I’ve edited it down to 849 words.

The banquet was singular in its magnificence. It wound around corners, crossed planetary horizons, and hosted everyone with even a scintilla of regard in the Atreides court of Caladan. But it was not without its ambiguities. For the Atreides were about to depart Caladan, the very basis of their burgeoning power, for lands unknown.

“More beer,” demanded Gurney Halleck, his beard and grinning teeth vying for attention in a large face covered with enough scars to simultaneously attest to his bravery and underpin the notion his skill as a swordsman had been a steep learning curve.

A gravy new world by Martyn

Published by Martyn Winters on October 24, 2024

I’ve chosen “Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.” It’s a bit potty humour, so I have my doubts. A Gravy New World Chapter 1. A SQUAT grey building of only thirty-four stories. Over the main entrance the words GRUMP TOWERS NY, and, in a shield, the motto MAKE AMERICA WHITE AGAIN. The small room on the ground floor faced towards the north. Not that the solitary occupant would know it, for this room lacked windows of any kind, just a ceiling ventilator. And a can of deodorising spray. The light bulb has expired, which is a metaphor for the willingness…

The shock. By Zin

Published by Zin Shandi on October 23, 2024

“Adora pleaded with Leen, her voice trembling. ‘Please, don’t take that leap. I promise, if you stay with me, I’ll share the real story of Nyros—how he twists your will and coerces you into obedience just to keep you here.” Leen’s eyes widened as she absorbed Adora’s words, disbelief how Adora knew all these news while the truth was washing over her. “Where have you been, you daft girl? I stood here, longing to catch a glimpse of you wandering the castle halls. Remember all those secret passages I showed you before Nyros pulled you away from me? And now, you’ve left me behind?”

Adora’s heart raced at the hurt in Leen’s voice. “But… my lady,” she stammered, desperation creeping in. “How could I abandon you? I was watching from the shadows, and every time I saw you, it shattered me. You looked so weary, so hopeless, ensnared in a haze of those dreadful potions they fed you without your knowledge.”

The Cuckoo – Additional scenes to slot in various places. By Janet

Published by Janet Johnson on October 22, 2024

No. 1

“Two eggs over easy, bacon, sausage and coffee,” Anna says, placing the plate of food in front of a large, bristly-faced trucker before slopping coffee into a chipped white mug.

“You could try to provide service with a smile like it says,” the man replies, pointing to a poster on the diner wall.

“Above my pay grade,” Anna retorts tersely, leaving the man slathering blood-red ketchup on his breakfast.

It’s a quiet, drizzly, grey morning with few customers, and Anna keeps herself busy at the counter, careful to avoid Denny, the restaurant owner come chef. Delores has called in sick again, so there is no safety in numbers today. The diner clock ticks loudly, time passing very slowly, her boredom only disturbed by the sound of the door opening.

“Coffee and a stack to go, darlin’,” a young man with bright green eyes and a dark blue boiler suit says, throwing her a cheeky wink.

“I’m not your darlin’ or anyone else’s, for that matter,” Anna replies coldly.

“Soooorry, only being friendly. Keep your shirt on!”

Anna pours the coffee roughly into a polystyrene cup in front of him, deliberately spilling some over the side. It wasn’t what he’d said that had annoyed her; it was the fact that now she had to go into the kitchen and Denny. The double doors flap back and forth as she enters, the waft of bacon and burnt eggs assaulting her nostrils and the acrid smoke from burnt fat stinging her eyes. Denny emerges from the fat mist, a grubby, greasy version of the Pillsbury Doughboy of the 70s, sweat beading his brow, black hair combed over to conceal his balding head. You work for me, I own you, is Denny’s creed.

“A stack to go,” Anna says quickly, edging her way backwards towards the safety of the diner, but Denny is too quick for her. He corners her like a lion corners a gazelle. She smells him before she feels him come in for the kill, grease mingled with body odour. He leers at her, his stinking breath hot on her neck. She freezes, and he relishes in her discomfort as he slips his podgy hand up her skirt. He knows she can’t say anything, the shifts are long, but the pay isn’t bad, and she’s got rent to pay. She hates him.

Agatha and William – An Attic chapter. By Sandra

Published by Sandra Lloyd Lewis on October 22, 2024

The sun was so deliciously warm on her skin, that she sighed with pleasure and flopped back onto the picnic blanket. She took a deep drag on her cigarette, and listened drowsily to children playing, their shouts and screams thankfully far off; the kick of a football and the drone of a plane on its way somewhere even hotter than this park. She was lulled to the edge of sleep, but then giggled and Mandy, joining in, said ‘What?’

‘It just hit me. Ooooh I’m sooo chilled right now.’

Mandy laughed and slumped beside her ‘If your mum could see you now.’

Agatha snorted, ‘Fucking hell she’d have kittens.’ She picked up another cube of their special carrot cake, ‘Cheers Mum! Cheers Dad!’ and stuffed it into her mouth, closing her eyes in bliss.

Haven 2 and Fang v1.6 – by Jason

Published by Jason Davies-Redgrave on October 22, 2024

*Scene: The Youngling joining with the Artefact*

The sun’s light was pale and thin, it flattened the cityscape, smudging any hint of definition in to bland greyness. From their vantage point above the scant, bitter clouds The Brother and The Sister rode the icy winds. They both welcomed the peace that the strong, clean currents brought, and a sweet calm took refuge in their hearts. To be any closer to the ground would have meant exposure to the fetid air, the dirt and the noise. They would have been drenched in the overlapping, syncopated beats of the myriad people and their squawking, filling The Fang with taught, prickly anxiety. From this vantage point they could survey the whole city with peaceful and a watchful eye.

A flock of gulls wheeled and circled below the Sister, rising up from one of the back alleys where the birds had screeched and argued with each other over discarded scraps. The Sister watched her brother drinking in the clean air, for the first time since this hunt had begun, he looked at ease; more like his old self, from the time before hope had turned sour. She recalled their earlier days surfing the massive, curling gravity swells, surrounded by their kin. Feeling the adagio of the cosmic rhythms unfurl around them like a series of great waves breaking over them, one after another. She smiled and rolled over in the cleansing winds.

Dark Sun: The Dawn of Earth’s Twilight by Martyn

Published by Martyn Winters on October 21, 2024

Chapter 2: Part 1. The Founders

As Tenvoice Desire made first dayfood behind the soft-fence surrounding the Zheek science mission’s compound, he listened to the morning cries of the flying creatures inhabiting the forest in which they pitched their laboratory and marvelled at the wealth of diversity their small expedition brought to fruition. In less than a Long Thought (8 x 10^7 orbits), his companions transformed the flora and fauna of their study world, elevating ferociously mindless, land-dwelling plate-backs into semi-intelligent avians, who were doppelgangers of the Zheek’s own evolutionary precursors, and carpeted the floor of the world with brightly coloured flowers. He hopped from foot to foot, joy spreading through his hearts, as their children zipped and zoomed through the canopy, chirping and cawing their delight at being alive.

“You look happy,” mate Timeless Wanderer said. She was leader of their clade, and the visionary mind behind their project to re-establish the slowly dying Zheek as the galaxy’s pre-eminent species. He glanced up from his preparations and noticed her back feathers were flat and the two red patches near the intersection of her hard-lips and wattle were vivid. She was in a mood to mate, albeit fruitlessly.

This is the end by Zin

Published by Zin Shandi on October 2, 2024

Her hands reached up, pleading for mercy from God, as tears dripped onto the heavy bedsheet, creating a pool on the floor. In the silent room, her silent screams echoed as her trembling lips whispered, “Yes, I’ve wrapped my feelings and gifted them to the universe, embracing the unknown. I don’t know how much damage I can repair in this heart, but I know I am ascending with no hope for the present or the future.”

Suddenly, the laughter of her two children filled the air, their innocence a stark contrast to her turmoil. Leen realized that her children saw life as pure as their hearts. She wondered, “Who am I to destroy their perfect world? Who am I to tell them that I have to leave the only familiar place for them? No, I’ve had my share of distractions in this world. I’ve had those who prophetically worked day and night, torturing me. No, let my birds be free from pain. I couldn’t save myself, but I will be their savior.” She said this while bearing the weight of the world on her shoulders to balance her children’s lives.

The Attic: A chapter. By Sandra

Published by Sandra Lloyd Lewis on October 1, 2024

Agatha brought the food from stove to table, laying the plates on the bare wood. The room was plain, with the wooden walls of the self-built house unadorned by paint, or decoration, except for the Christ figure on his cross, looking down sombrely upon the family gathered for their repast. Now the only sounds were the occasional clatter of cutlery on the plates and the chewing of food.

At the head of the table, William ate in precise movements, cutting the meat into small chunks and chewing until it was well masticated. He looked at his family from under lowering brows. Agatha ate as he did, she had learned to appreciate what food the Lord gave, as had all his flock.

The children were young and yet to fully understand this precept, and he watched Joesph as he pushed his green beans around the plate. Agatha had seen too; he saw her look of concern. Well, the boy would have to learn that waste was not tolerated.

Join Me? By Jason

Published by Jason Davies-Redgrave on October 1, 2024

Join me?

Like a bewildered shoal, the words emanating from the Artefact swam round and round in her head.

When the Youngling had first reached out and touched the alien object, she had experienced everything. In a single second, she saw the majestic wash of space and time, it was as if she were watching the motion of an atom from inside the atom. Dizzying. Infinite. Incomprehensible. Terrifying in its beauty and complexity. A vast endless ocean, with new and stranger tides, chaos and maelstroms, reefs and shallows and storms and uncharted depths. It sparkled like fresh stardust and raged like a clamour of broken harpies.