If you are not old enough to read this, don’t.

I know! I know! Yes, I know that this theme has been worked to death but I thought I’d try my hand at it too.

She looked up as she began to play the guitar in earnest. There was about ten people in the area and no one was paying her any attention. She concentrated on what she was doing. First she played four of her more challenging Spanish pieces. Angel looked up and there were more people and they were closer to her, but seemed disinterested in what she was doing.

Melanie E.

A pair of short pieces I thought up last night. They could go many places- or nowhere at all. It's all up to your imagination to fill in the details I've left out.

---

I Carry On

I look out the window, my forehead leaning against the cold glass, trying to see her. I let out a deep, troubled sigh as I search for her. She’s got to be out there somewhere, but how in the hell am I supposed to find her?

I ponder going out there after her, searching for her, never resting until I find her… but I know that I can not. Four weeks after my surgery, the flesh is most definitely too weak no matter how willing the spirit.

Shay Lefae, faced with a deadly illness, is thrown into a world of magic, murder, and intrigue.

It was about a week before my 13th birthday. Having come home from work unexpectedly, the Ogre---who was what passed for a masculine role model in my life---had decided to take one final stab at "making a man out of me" before writing me off forever as a hopeless little bitch...

"What the hell you cryin' for? You're a boy, nothing's gonna change that! What's that you're coverin' with your hand, huh? You think putting on a damn dress changes anything? Do you? Answer me, goddamn it!"

I stood there shivering, feeling horribly vulnerable. By now I didn't know what I was or what could change what. I was sobbing, trying to nod my head yes and shake it no at the same time.

"For God's sake Sam, that's enough! Let him get dressed."

"No, I want him to say it first! What are you?"

"I'm a boy," I blubbered.

"That's a start. Now put some damn trousers on and come with me."

In a drizzle of slushy snow I was marched across the yard to the shed, where I was forced to take part in a grotesque and humiliating ritual of destruction. This was the heart of darkness...

If you really found a D'jinn's lamp what kinds of wishes would you make?

"What does Shufflebottom's dad do?"

"What else, Susie - iguzzabout purrinipsifowk."

"Come again."

"Iguzzabout purrinipsifowk. He's a reet clever mon - as my granddad would say."

"Jeffrey!"

"Yes, chuck."

"Stop it!"

Susie and Jeffrey 25 - 31 by Jamie Hayworth

"Hang on love, I'll pull you out," shouted a man standing on the side of the quay about 5 metres above me.

"Leave me alone, I don't want to be rescued," I shouted back and prepared to push the float away.