Shorts 5
Gemma rose from sleep, sliding through levels to reach the top like a drowning swimmer. Or sinner she thought.
Reaching out she felt along the covers, “bump” ribs, then a shoulder, then ….nothing.
Crocodile Bridge
Genre: Horror
Billy felt the sting of the slap just before his head rocked back, making him cry out in pain.
‘Boys don’t cry’ his father shouted into his face, spittle flecked across his cheek but he dared not wipe it away.
‘Are you a girl?’ Billy shook his head, pinching himself to stop the tears that threatened to fall.
‘No.’
‘No what?’
‘No sir.’
His father sneered at him, ‘Now get your ass to the shop and bring my tobacco. Don’t dawdle and make sure it’s the right one.’ …
Shorts 4
Genre: Horror
Mother ghost returns night after night, the legend says. An old woman in a wispy, charcoal dress, hands clenched around a black rose. She moves dreamlike through the house, searching each room. Her cries grow in intensity and sadness with each empty room, she calls her babies in a ghostlike wail.
‘Callie? Andrew darling? Beth?’
Her voice halts in the kitchen, she sees them. They turn towards her and smile. They merge into a ghostly soup, crying.
4 ghosts enter the basement through the door. Leaving silence behind.
Mother will return tomorrow and again look for her children.
Mother
Genre: Drama
Shocked I stare at the pee strip.
‘Two lines means I’m pregnant.’ I look again and again. It doesn’t change. My heart’s in my mouth, this wasn’t planned. In fact, it wasn’t even on the horizon of my life plans.
‘Shit…how?’ Absently tapping the test against the basin, I remember something about antibiotics and their effect on the pill. I should have been more careful. It’s now too late. For a brief second, I consider keeping quiet and getting rid of it, but if Andy found out… No, I couldn’t do it. Besides I will grow to love the idea and the baby. Won’t I?…