Tuesday evening. A quarter past eight. It’s dark out. As the train eases out of the main station, the interior of the carriage reflects in the window. I’m right at the front of the train, my back to the driver’s cabin. There aren’t many people in this carriage, since most can’t be bothered to walk the full length of the platform. Nevertheless, I have two people in close proximity. On my left, next to the aisle, is a man d...

It seemed a peculiarly old-fashioned way to go about things. These days you expect everything to be distributed digitally, hard copy a thing of the past, though the envelope was delivered in a modern enough way, by courier service, even if driving up in a big van early in the evening to deliver nothing more than an envelope seemed a bit ODD.The sender was unknown to me. I took the envelope with me into the kitchen, where...

I was actually quite relieved to be given a room of my own. The ward I’d been on following my operation had been a depressing place. There’d been three other men there, none of whom made great conversation partners. One of them was three-quarters deaf and had apparently left his ear trumpet at home. Just as you’d dozed off, you could rely on one of the nurses bellowing out loud about the need for him to take his medicatio...

Dear Cuck.As always, it was very kind of you to lend me your wife for the night, and equally unwise.Still, by now you know more or less how my mind works, so you really only have yourself to blame. Or rather, since you know how my mind works, I can only assume that you approve. I’m taking the opportunity to write this while your wife is upstairs sleeping. That way you will know all about what she’s been up to before she g...

Maybe you think being a male stripper is a glamorous job. Maybe the very job title conjures up images of Chippendales and a hall full of excitable females, maybe even those videos with a room full of women eager to gobble your cock. It’s not really like that, at least not if you’re a one man band, like me. Fitness is paramount, with a regimented diet plan and enough nutritional supplements to enable you to pull a plough....

Thank you for responding so promptly to our offer. We hereby cordially invite you to our special Three Rooms Experience. Please expect a representative to call on you at 7 pm this evening.That was all. There was nothing to identify the sender of the text message; number withheld. Anthea felt a thrill run through her body. She didn’t feel afraid, even though it was all very mysterious. If anything she was surprised that th...

Professor Evans stood at his window, looking down on the students milling about below. It was shocking the way young girls dressed these days. Well, they were young women, he supposed, at least in law, but he could never think of anyone under 25 as a proper adult, certainly not given the way they behaved.There was one now, with cut-off jeans transformed into something so short he could just about make out the southernmost...

Dimly I awake.Slowly regaining some semblance of consciousness, a shudder runs through my body at the realisation that I have no idea where I am. I don’t know what time it is. I don’t know how long I’ve been asleep. I don’t know if it’s still night, or if it’s light.Nor can I find out.That’s the rule. One of the rules. I must not remove the blindfold until I am given permission to do so. I could remove it; my hands are fr...

The man twisted the business card between his fingers with a terrible sensation in the pit of his stomach, like waves crashing against the rock he’d always considered his marriage to be; erosive powers eating away at it. He was in a car, his wife’s car. He’d only borrowed it because his own needed repair work. Forgetting for a moment that it wasn’t his car, he’d stuck his hand into the pocket in the door, and instead of a...

It was when the taxi continued along the Ring Road instead of taking the left turn to the area where she lived that Tess started to feel worried.“Excuse me,” she said. “I think you missed the turning.”“What turning?” the cabbie replied. “You didn’t really think I was taking you home, did you?”That was the second shock, but the third shock made her lose her breath. It came when Tess looked in the driver’s rear-view mirror...

The street was still, silent, unnaturally silent for a night like this. Chloe’s perpetual gum-chewing worked in tandem with the sound of Samantha’s heels. “So where are we going?” Samantha asked.“Through here,” Chloe said.It was a narrow passageway, and at the end of it they came out onto a park, situated on the south side of the canal. On the other side of the water was the town centre, where the real nightlife took plac...

“You coming to the party later?”“Maybe,” Sam said casually. “I haven’t decided yet.”His sister, Melinda, shrugged. “Then maybe we’ll see each other later.”“Yeah.”Sam watched as his sister turned and left the room, leaving a waft of scent behind her. He waited until he heard the front door slam before leaving his room, crossing the hallway and watching through a window as she strolled down the road. He felt a little nervou...

Mary frowned, staring at her day planner. Under the day’s date there was one entry, “AUDITION 1 P.M.”. It was unmistakably her own handwriting, she just couldn’t remember writing it. Audition? What possible audition could that be? Occasionally she had gone in for amateur dramatics, but there was nothing of that nature on the go now.She grabbed a pen and crossed the entry out, using, strong, hard strokes that practically w...

It wasn’t until Jeanette was sitting in her boss’ car on her way to his house that she began to become worried that there might be something in this nonsense about the magical figurine.To be sure she’d noticed Geoff’s eyes raking her all over all day, but it had been a busy day, with not much time to reflect. Now she was wondering how it was that she’d chosen to dress as she had today, in a skirt a couple of inches shorte...

Natalie turned the padded brown envelope in her hands, the one that had arrived by mail that day. There was no sender on it, but her name was printed on the plain white label on the front. Somehow she sensed it was weird.“Just open it,” her sister, Jeanette, told her. “It’s hardly likely to be a bomb, is it?”So Natalie tore open the packaging, sticking her hand inside and bringing out a small figurine in a sealed plastic...