Whatever was up there was ripping furiously at the attic floor, scratching and clawing its way through the wood. Outside, the wind screeched and howled and hurled itself against the glass, as if it too was trying to force its way into my bedroom. The darkness seemed to close in. It wrapped around...
Smoke trailed from his blackened nails. The T-shirt he was wearing split down the back as the boy’s frame filled out. A jagged row of blood-red spikes tore through his skin along the length of his spine. He hurled back his head and screamed, spewing fire in a mushroom cloud above him. As one, the...
His heart thudded in his chest like a bongo drum made of terror as he frantically tried to put as much distance between himself and the shed as he possibly could. Were the men still inside? More importantly, had they heard him? One thing was for certain: he wasn’t sticking around to find out. Wit...
I was on my back on Marion’s couch, a blanket covering me from my feet to my chest. The room was draped in shadow, with only the dim light of the flames flickering in the fireplace to ease the gloom. In the half-darkness it took me a few seconds to realise I wasn’t alone. Over by the shuttered wi...
It danced in the air like a swarm of tiny agitated insects. I was sticking as close to Ameena as I could. For maybe the first time ever, she was taking her time, testing each step before putting her full weight on it, in case it should crumble beneath her. Upstairs the same threadbare carpet cove...
They surged in their hundreds through a hole in reality itself, filling the church with the thunder of their wings. Ameena pulled me down behind a pew as Billy took cover behind the one across the aisle. The crows were a dark tornado around us, squawking and cawing as they circled the inside of t...
The wind whipped at me, pressing against me like a hand against my chest. The tail lights of the silver car in front grew steadily larger – two glowing red eyes in the faint January daylight, rushing up to meet us. ‘Slow down,’ Billy cried. I didn’t. Instead I shifted my weight and nudged the han...
They were coiled in knots, each one loosely wrapped round the others. I turned away and doubled over. The handful of crisps I’d eaten landed with a faint splat on the filthy floor. The glass of the five other tubes was just as dirty, and – mercifully – just as difficult to see through. I didn’t w...
Beneath him, the floor seemed determined to shake him awake. Gradually, the sound of sand faded and he was able to pick out other noises. The roaring of a car engine. The low muttering of a male voice. The unsteady crashing of his own heart. But he was only vaguely aware of them all at best. They...