unfiction. unleashed
Furlough
A young couple travel to a ruined town, about a hundred miles from the front, to share a picnic amidst the shattered houses and shops. They find a grassy spot beneath a tree, near a stone stoop that used to lead to a large timber house. The house was been iced, and is inaccessible; the [...]
The Door
Abdul Al Ba’ith moved swiftly along the corridor, his apprentice Zakkariya and a gaggle of nervous, chattering household staff scurrying along in his wake. As he arrived at the chamber a phalanx of guards parted in front of him, revealing the Gilded Cage. Abruptly he came to a halt, as his retinue filtered into the [...]
The difficulty II
He had dropped the book in the commotion outside the court. At least, that is where he thought it had happened. A scrum of journalists and cameramen had enveloped them as they were leaving, and he had dropped his bag, spilling it’s contents. He was sure at the time that he had got everything; now [...]
The difficulty
I dropped the book. There were too many people, moving too fast in too many directions. It was a mess. Someone knocked my arm and I dropped the book.
At the kitchen table
She paused for a coffee at ten-fifteen. Emma was at day-care, Robby was playing quietly for a change, and like many mothers she was skilled at seizing unexpected opportunities to stop, however fleeting. She was in a world of stillness, the sun picking out floating motes of dust, wheeling slowly above the kitchen table. She [...]
The Inaugural
The Kingswood had been sitting there rusting for thirty-two years. It still had police markings visible on its doors, and the blue plastic of the rooftop lights was discernible under the dust. He scratched at it with his thumbnail, dust so thick it was almost soil. He wanted to smell its interior, to crack open [...]
An idea
I have an idea for a novel. I am not going to tell you much about that idea, because it would probably ‘break’ it. Yes, ideas can be brittle, and the idea for a novel is more brittle than most. You may not have noticed but I didn’t call it an idea for a story, [...]
Chapter 1.1: The Problem
A thousand enemies outside the house is better than one within – Traditional Proverb Abdul al Ba’ith Okmed took up his pen and prepared to write, knowing it would lead to his death. As the Housekeeper, in light of what had occurred he needed to lodge a thorough incident report just after sunrise. This report [...]
