All Stories, General Fiction

When Pain Grew a Beard by Rania Hellal

It’s been almost a month now since she first became acquainted with pain.

When she’d first glanced at him, half dazed under the strong pull of morphine, she knew straight away, even then, that she would never forget that face.

It was the face of a young man; Plump at the cheeks and lips and sharp at the jaws.  Round and soft where one would expect it to be, yet angular in all the right places.

A perfectly balanced face, she thought.

However, it was the eyes –or rather the lack of them- that grabbed her attention, almost by the throat.

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All Stories, General Fiction

World Tilting at Bedtime by Katya Lee

By the time my mother mentions falling, I let the drone of her voice fade to the unawake part of my mind. Her words are a steady hum, punctuated by rattling breaths and muffled snorts as she clears the tangy scent of antiseptic from her nostrils. If I let my gaze drift away from her paper-white figure on the hospital bed, I can pretend that I’m alone. In my peripherals, she blends into the monotony, clear and soft as water. The only thing that moves is her mouth, but her ramblings are like static – barely present, and even more unintelligible when I focus on them.

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All Stories, General Fiction

Summer Nightsweats by Shane O’Neill

Three months have passed since the death of my wife. It has been a long summer, hot and unbearable. My only solace is knowing that it will be my last. I sweat incessantly. Others thrive in the sickly heat. Oh, that the rain would rinse the smiles from their faces. I keep my ghastly body hidden from the outside. Sometimes I cough. Recently more and more. But I rarely dwell on this. Hacking out a thick wad I get on with my business of living and dying. It is all I know.

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