Threads that Bind

Play the hand you’re dealt, the saying went, but George Vale never put much stock in that. Fate had dealt him an awful hand, and he didn’t have a play to make, never had. Scrawny, with bland, unattractive features, he’d been ignored by his father, bullied at school, and pushed aside by the go-getters in…

Jess rolled another piece of bread into a hard pellet, placed it between thumb and forefinger and took aim. The shot was accurate and the startled pigeons sudden panic sent the whole flock into the air. Moments later, they returned to eating the crumbs as if nothing had happened. “Stupid birds,” she said under her breath as she prepared another pellet. “Why do you torment them?”  She shrugged…

Pierce watched the shards of colour knife over the surface of the table as he pushed and prodded his glass through puddles of spilt beer. The prismatic hues at odds with the cracked varnish and beer-stained wood. Light and dark. Two sides of a coin. A chance meeting. Fate. Bollocks. “Hi, Pierce, thought I’d find…

Pleasure and pain became polarizing points of light in Richard Tomey’s darkness. With nothing else to do, he focused upon them, concentrating his mind on those soft touches, the slaps and the punches; they illuminated his life as much as the voices. And those voices were everywhere. “Why bother locking the door Tony, he ain’t…