Dark Fiction and Rimes

Supernatural and uncanny short-stories, old school, plus a few scattered poems of the night side.

Cherry

Bourtree and Broom

Extracts from the kirk-session book of Pitfoglum: June 23, 1691: Because of the scandal of rumouring that the late minister of this parish is not...
Cherry

Deep and Crisp and Even (Conclusion)

When he heard about this he went and set the house on fire and grimly watched the whole lot perish: wife and bairns and the bloody Hanoverian dogs...
Cherry

Dreckly (Part One)

McLaurin Rowe glanced at the new email and misunderstood its single word. His disbelief did not diminish after opening and closing it several times...
Cherry

Dreckly (Part Two)

There must have been an intervention of much needed sleep again, but this muddied the waters between the memory of what was seen with his friend,...

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions: Q: Can you tell me where I am and what I am doing here? A: There is unfortunately no definitive answer to this question,...
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Cherry

Hoodie

When the lights flickered as the train entered rough country all the boys in the carriage howled raucously. The regulars on the local service either...

Sentinel

I do not like the thing outside, the way it stands and never hides, the way it breathes and how it sighs, that darker brother by its side. I hate its...
Cherry

The Second Move

She lived at number six, though of course the need for numbers was now superfluous. He opened the bothersome small white gate, knocked, and waited...

War Footing

Hatches not battened down, but thrown open. More than this beginning: sinister gate that guards hatred swinging dangerously on its hinges, creaking...

When The Mad Moon Woke

When the mad moon woke, so did the wolf in the wood, singing, beware and hear my howl, I lure all lost ones to my jowls. All who wander out tonight,...
Cherry

The Square Woodie

There is nothing better I like, when I am behaving myself at least, than exploring undiscovered woodland. Almost better than being there is seeing...
Cherry

Two Wee Men

This happened years ago, so there’s no good going back to check the ‘facts’ if you felt inclined to do so. I won’t tell you much anyway, except for...

The Roadside Floral Memorial Committee (PART ONE)

Here was the mock joke doing the rounds of the council. Nobody laughed, but they all knew what it referred to: Rows of impacted faces, plasticene...

The Roadside Floral Memorial Committee (Part Two)

Henry thought hard about it and concluded: why not? He still had access to a council pool car. His comings and goings were absolutely unregulated. He...
Cherry

Granny Ower The Green (Part One)

For most of its history Gulan was as much a neglected idea as an actual place. One Victorian eccentric said the name of this humble fishing village...
Cherry

Granny Ower The Green (Part Two)

He would say no more, but a couple of days later she wheedled further information from one of the labourers, who seemed a bit more forthcoming (on...
Cherry

Granny Ower The Green (Part Three)

She considered this for a second, then said vehemently, ‘I don’t want to go to the bastard’s funeral.’ ‘No one would expect that. Why don’t you come...
Cherry

Granny Ower The Green (Part Four)

Tiny shrugged. She wondered if he had just lost interest or if there was something else involved, or just collusion between two individuals who had a...
Cherry

The Plettie (Part One)

Instead of consigning the old postcard to the bin, where it should have went, Larry Henderson brooded over it from the moment it fell from the pages...
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Cherry

The Plettie (Part Two)

A change came into the play of the children on the landings after that night. Some knowledge crept into their collective consciousness, an antidote...
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4 X 4 (Part One)

Avowed enemy of ostentation that he was, Killin’s reflexes had always been triggered by the smallest things and the return to Bristol lowered his...

4 X 4 (Conclusion)

His translation to the new environment however was unsuccessful. No sooner had the policemen deposited him and hastily retreated than the man...

Second Favourite Place

His saving grace (which didn’t save him in the end) was that he would never complain; never mumbled at the wastage in his limbs at the beginning of...
Cherry

Two-By-Two, Hurrah!

For want of other entertainment, he used to look out of the screen into the great nothingness ahead and manipulate the stray remnants of celestial...

A Ghost Is Born

Early in the morning, light yawns on the counterpane, warning or warming? Away, a bird regrets being first to break pre dawn darkness before dawn. It...

The Loch

The trio were a distinguished, if understated group, and no one of them would have had the crassness to voice their own merits. They had been brought...
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My Little Bomb

My little bomb has a song in its heart, hiding under his bench in the park, dreaming of musicals after dark. My sweet bomb don’t go tick-tock, but...
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Cherry

Green Man

What you thought a living halo of ivy amid the woodwork, was sandstone carved at a dizzy cathedral height, laureate head disgorging greenery, still...

A Ghost Is Born

I am a gasp of wind which wants to beg admittance, having no ambition but to be inside, where she waits, her who can see what is not there and stares...
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The Coracle Oracle

Uncalled for, after he’d gone, his boat made its rudderless journey home. Just big enough for him alone, a bobbing empty shell from which the kernel...
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Cherry

The Crone

I heard the crone with the besom before dawn every morning, idly in action on the hill , sweeping without hope the red gold copper tide of autumn...
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The Old Way

It is not where I lead, it is where you follow, these paths seem to say. Not me talking, but the wind I bend in sympathy with, like that holly, like...

Salamander, Ex

I heard that you had retired from the fire, Salamander. Where have you gone and what have you been? What do you do when you can’t go out - by which I...
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After the Thaw

Killing me, this coming back to life. The tissue softens, ice disengages from flesh, though taut sinews are still brittle, muscles do not un-tense. I...
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Cherry

Let's Get the Scissors

Let’s get the scissors, said Marie, and cut out shapes that can never be. We’ll build kites that hate to fly and undo clouds in the confetti sky. Let...
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Why I Never Woke (Sleeping Beauty Speaks)

It is not a kiss I'm waiting for. Something less. The palace is deserted, servants dead. When heroes came to break the spell, the threat of...

Worse Than Elephants

There are things worse than elephants in this room. Unseen they may be, but nevertheless manifestly here. Beasts with belaboured breathing taking up...
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This Wood

What is the good of all this wood and what's to be done with it now the men are gone and the crowd dispersed? Set it ablaze on this barren hill and...
Cherry

Black Dog On The Skyline

Black dog on the skyline ridge in the flat grey afternoon, soundless in the hills going south. Padfoot mimicking the walker on the gravel path at the...
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The Princes of the Dark Ages At The Sea Side (Part Two)

THE BEACH WARDEN AND CNUT. 'So I says to him: "K-Nutty, or whatever you call yourself, you can't just show up with your horde and trample all over...
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Cherry

A Remembered Summons

Post took longer to arrive in those black-and-white days decades ago. The Royal Mail had to fight through packs of wolves across the 'Here Be Dragons...
Cherry

Monster Mine

Monster am I, worse than any who are red in tooth and claw. Unworried by bell, book or candle, I will not be banished, exorcised or worried into...

Dwindlings in the Crysalis

I will not enter this pod which promises rebirth. Nothing worse than being recycled by accident, going to sleep quietly and ending up as compost. No-...
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Cherry

Orkil the Poet On His Landing In Skye

Strange the ways of sea going men upon landing, hopes sharp as steel we brought to the natives, fierce the feeling on new land to win beneath our...
Cherry

Arctic Coats

We will wear our arctic coats for one last time, climbing to the top of the world that is all white and each direction is south. Winter forever...