A collection of fourteen short stories, published by Propolis in Autumn 2025

 

Winter. East Anglia. Natural and Unnatural.

 

‘He couldn’t stop himself looking up at the ceiling, where a spill of light was beginning to stream down towards him. Tendrils of sparkling colours extended, dripping softly, as fine as thread. He looked in wonder as the patterns settled across the desk and down his arms, shimmering with a living quality he didn’t want to disturb. The reds and yellows were sleeping, they shouldn’t be roused, because beneath them he sensed a layer that was dangerous and mistrustful. He stretched his fingers into the light, guiding the colours this way and that, watching them react to his skin with a quivering glimmer. Then, as he moved his arms, the drips of light began to shed their vibrancy, and he saw his hands had turned grey and lifeless as the hidden layer rose up around him like a thick liquid shadow. He looked up towards the roof, anxious, but the stream of colour had already sealed itself off. In its place was a dark rent in the wood that he thought he could climb through if it grew any darker.’