Tom jumped and all that remained were the boots.

Our pa made us kids wear boots many sizes too small all the time. Even in the scorching sun we'd have them on, blistering our bare feet, twisting toes out of shape, uncut nails growing under. No-one was ever allowed to remove them or there would be trouble.

Whenever I recall that image of boots on the shore I'm so envious. Tom is free. Somewhere. Maybe he swam to the other side and is now having a fantastic life. Or maybe he's dead. He would be in heaven if that was...

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She'd always come running when I called especially on the beach after a thunderstorm collecting amber. Knowing that I'd get worried because of the deep rockpools. As this was a different time, after the apocalypse, it was the other way around, she called out to me, worried that as an aging scavenger I'd come to harm on the shoreline each morning.

Keira, my beautiful grand daughter wanted me safe, home in front of the fire reading a newspaper, instead saw me beaten with fatigue, stumbling around the barren landscape hunting for food.

I love her.

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As he said it he turned his back to the others and crossed his arms in front of his chest. Come on! said Tim, you have to come with us or else we´ll lose the bet. Hep turned back to face his friends and took a deep breath. Ok, just this once and only for 5 minutes. The 4 boys turned to face the imposing old house that lay in front of them. Dormant for years, they had all heard the terrible rumours of what had happened there many years previously, when the Kellys had lived there. Jed went first....

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Whitechapel 1888. There was blood on my pillow again this morning when I awoke. My landlady has already been asking too many questions. It is time I moved to another residence.

I am looking forward to reading the newspapers today to gather the latest opinion on the terror in their midst. My good friends have been spreading rumours in many quarters so there have been a myriad of possible suspects, including those in very high places. The police are far too stupid to know where to look. I take especial delight in fooling Inspector Abberline, who should never have been...

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The argument that had started before they left the house – before, even, they had learned that they would have to leave the house at all – continued as they drove. Jacob gripped the steering wheel with white knuckled hands, channelling his anger into the car instead of out at his wife, Barbara.

Barbara sat next to him, seething silently, her own hand wrapped together, her own knuckles just as white as her husband’s. One would soon break the deadlock, but neither wanted to be the first. The air was heavy with upset.

Jacob broke first. “You still not speaking...

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Once, in Beijing, a young girl in a red gown huddled in a doorway. It was not that she was frightened - no, fear was something she found rather useless - but because she knew with an unshakeable certainty that if she wandered onto the street, she would be eaten by a vampire.

The house beyond the doorway was no better, on account of there being a ghost lurking inside, the type that would drip ectoplasm on her most horribly before devouring her soul.

This girl, then, was at an impasse. She could neither proceed nor retreat. Go out, the...

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"Send it back," he said, his mouth shaped like a cruel stink.

"Why, whatsa matter with it?" I laughed.

"It's not a twist, that's a wedge. I didn't ask for a goddamn wedge. This is not an ice tea."

The busboy removed the drink, soon replacing it with another.

"Are you goddamn kidding me? This is the same thing. Do you know what a twist is?"

"Yeah," said the busboy, "it's what my fate has suddenly taken."

And he drank it down. Wedge and all.

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Leaving was the easiest decision to make, and the hardest action to take. That's what she kept telling herself as she drove through the beckoning water drops falling down both inside and out. She could hardly see but knew it was the right thing to do. There's no way she could stay, he hated her for what she was, what she had achieved. It wasn't her fault he resented her for wanting to do what was right.

Crash - and it all was over. Her last thought was her baby and how she would make a great mum, visions of...

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It's 2.35 pm now and Mary is sitting in the room. She is bored and restless. She has been restless for most days. She misses the one person who has changed her life drastically.

Mary was always the girl who is eager, fun loving and very much in love with life. She loves the wind in her hair, the pleasant birds chirping in the window. She is easy to be around with.

But this time of day, she was restless.It is not about the heat of the sunny day or the humidity of the weather. She misses someone. She is...

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Bombs were the last thing on his mind.

Everyone was hiding under desks, wary of the slightest sound whereas he was wondering how soon before people registered the change in him.

They might be in shock and forget. But what if they didn't? Would he have to convince the survivors they were hallucinating?

Crouching in under the lower shelve in the store cupboard Jack could feel his ears growing and wings strain against his shirt. It wouldn't be long before his faerie body would be a giveaway, hopefully the others would have been rescued by then and he could stay...

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