Unravel Read online

  Private Eye

  by J. Farrington

  The city has a disease, crime is an epidemic that’s gotten out of control. In the early days, I welcomed every new case, eager to make a name in the gumshoe circles. The go to guy when everything else had failed. I’ve seen it all. Murder out of rage, jealousy, lust. Guys who like all the wrong things, and women who know no boundaries.

  I’ve grown numb to the filth.

  There is one positive to living in a city filled to the brim with murderers, rapists and thieves though...

  When the urge to kill creeps in, most victims deserve it...

  J. FARRINGTON is an aspiring author from the West Midlands, UK. His genre of choice is horror; whether that be psychological, suspense, supernatural or straight up weird, he’ll give it a shot! He has loved writing from a young age but has only publicly been spreading his darker thoughts and sinister imagination via social platforms since 2018. If you would like to view his previous work, or merely lurk in the shadows...watching, you can keep up to date with future projects by spirit board or alternatively, the following;

  Twitter: @SurvivorTrench

  Reddit: TrenchChronicles

  Telling Evidence

  by Susanne Thomas

  Ryan stared at the cowering group of suspects who watched as one of their number was being handcuffed and taken away. “But, Sasha, how did you know it was her? The blood was all over everyone. They all said they saw nothing.”

  Detective Greene raised one eyebrow. “I was watching them while you were collecting evidence, and when that big table collapsed, and everyone jumped, I kept my eyes on them all from across the room. She licked the blood from her hands. After that and just a few questions in the interrogation room and she cracked like a pistachio.”

  SUSANNE THOMAS reads, writes, parents, and teaches from the windy west in Wyoming, and she loves fantasy, science fiction, speculative fiction, poetry, children’s books, science, coffee, and puns.

  Website: www.themightierpenn.com

  Facebook: SusanneThomasAuthor

  Big Moment

  by Andrew Anderson

  Charlie was first on the scene of the gruesome triple murder.

  A dirty alleyway, bloody fingerprints visible everywhere, and the murder weapon left behind; this would be an easy case to crack. This one might finally earn Charlie the promotion he’d sought—nay, deserved—for seventeen years. Passing the mess over to forensics, he went home.

  The next day, Chief Reynolds called him in to her office. Charlie sat down and leaned back smugly, awaiting the inevitable praise. He could feel that this was his big moment.

  Reynolds angrily leaned forward, yelling at him:

  “Why did you do it, Charlie?”

  ANDREW ANDERSON is a full-time civil servant, dabbling in writing music, poetry, screenplays and short stories in his limited spare time, when not working on building himself a fort made out of second-hand books. He lives in Bathgate, Scotland with his wife, two children and his dog.

  Twitter: @soorploom

  Leave No Trace

  by J. Farrington

  The key to getting away with murder is to leave no witnesses or evidence. I like to take the body out to a quiet spot, leave them in the driver’s seat and torch the vehicle. There’s something...beautiful about watching the flames lick the night sky.

  What you don’t want to do, is go back to the scene of the crime. I made that mistake this morning. Two hikers came across the smouldering remains of last night’s kill.

  I killed and torched them both.

  I couldn’t leave three bodies, so I did what I had to...

  I ate the evidence.

  J. FARRINGTON is an aspiring author from the West Midlands, UK. His genre of choice is horror; whether that be psychological, suspense, supernatural or straight up weird, he’ll give it a shot! He has loved writing from a young age but has only publicly been spreading his darker thoughts and sinister imagination via social platforms since 2018. If you would like to view his previous work, or merely lurk in the shadows...watching, you can keep up to date with future projects by spirit board or alternatively, the following;

  Twitter: @SurvivorTrench

  Reddit: TrenchChronicles

  Blood Sings to Blood

  by Zoey Xolton

  Caroline had spent weeks attaining the various herbs, tokens and the blood she needed to successfully scry for her husband. She knew he was no typical Missing Persons. The coven was involved, and she was going to prove it. Casting her spell, she dipped the crystal pendant in her Mother-in-Law’s blood and waited for it to locate its match.

  That night, she cautiously entered the abandoned warehouse. She hadn’t gone far when she was forced to choke back a sob. Her husband hung, limp and decaying, from an inverted cross, his blood staining the floor.

  “I knew it!” she cried.

  ZOEY XOLTON is an Australian Speculative Fiction writer, primarily of Dark Fantasy, Paranormal Romance and Horror. She is also a proud mother of two and is married to her soul mate. Outside of her family, writing is her greatest passion. She is especially fond of short fiction and is working on releasing her own themed collections in future.

  Website: www.zoeyxolton.com

  Not Alone

  by Pamela Jeffs

  I take the call myself. The woman gives me an address and no other information before she hangs up. Fifteen minutes later I’ve arrived at the abandoned farm. I find an open door with its key in the lock, a shotgun and blood on the veranda step.

  The door to the house stands ajar. A curtain hangs limp out the window. I push the door. It scrapes. Inside, I find a body on the floor in a pool of blood. I need to call it in. Out the door and toward the car. Then I notice the shotgun has disappeared.

  PAMELA JEFFS is a speculative fiction author living in Queensland, Australia with her husband and two daughters. She is a member of the Queensland Writers’ Centre and has had numerous short fiction pieces published in recent national and international anthologies. In 2017 and again in 2018, Pamela was nominated for an Australian Aurealis Award in the category of ‘Best Science Fiction Short Story’. Her debut collection titled ’Red Hour and Other Strange Tales’ was released in March 2018.

  Website: www.pamelajeffs.com

  Facebook: pamelajeffsauthor

  Spider

  by Andrew Anderson

  The Spider controlled a network of lost souls—a starving collection of vagrants; alone, vulnerable and under duress in a decaying city. A cluster of flies all caught in the same web, coerced into begging for your loose change and handing it all over to him.

  We placed an undercover man. He was found dead three days later behind a disused laundromat. We had to match the Spider at his own game.

  We became wasps, stinging and paralysing without mercy, to draw him up to the surface to defend his empire.

  Instead, this Spider shed his skin, vanishing without trace.

  ANDREW ANDERSON is a full-time civil servant, dabbling in writing music, poetry, screenplays and short stories in his limited spare time, when not working on building himself a fort made out of second-hand books. He lives in Bathgate, Scotland with his wife, two children and his dog.

  Twitter: @soorploom

  Unhinged

  by J.B. Wocoski

  Inspector Priper examined the mutilated corpse, he growled, “Only a totally pervert could do this!”

  Bloody handprints and footprints covered the murder scene. Following the bloody tracks from the murder scene to the car park, Priper realised that he was dealing with an inhuman butcher who deserved to die.

  Smudged handprints and bloody footprints lead him between the parked cars. Finally, he located a driver’s door covered in bloody handprints, he muttered to himself, “I’ve got you now!”

  As Priper reached for the door handle, he drew his gun; he realised his hands were bloody, it was his patrol car.

  JB WOCOSKI is the author and narrator of the shortstorypodcast.com
with three flash fiction short story books published in the last three years. He is currently working on book 4 “Short Story Podcast 2019.” He writes mostly science fiction, fantasy, and horror stories. He won the 2016 Little Tokyo Short Story Writing Contest with his short story “The Last Master of Go”

  Website: shortstorypodcast.com

  Home Security

  by Raven Corinn Carluk

  Tony slipped the gate open. These rich bastards really thought a lock could stop someone like him. But where there was an entire litter of rich bastard mop dogs on the line, nothing would stop him. He might get himself a whole half ounce of crank after this.

  An electric torch lit him up. “I was really hoping you’d come by tonight. Remus is quite hungry.”

  A dog the size of a pony stepped into the light, fangs bared but silent. Tony’s blood turned to ice, and meth-polluted senses froze completely.

  “Scrawny asshole like you should be finished by morning.”

  RAVEN CORINN CARLUK writes dark fantasy, paranormal romance, and anything else that catches her interest. She’s authored five novels, where she explores themes of love and acceptance. Her shorter pieces, usually from her darker side, can be found in Black Hare Press anthologies, at Detritus Online, and through Alban Lake Publishers.

  Twitter: @ravencorinn

  Website: RavenCorinnCarluk.Blogspot.Com

  Burning Passion

  by Zoey Xolton

  The junior P.I. paced the silent, still smouldering crypt. “I don’t understand it, Sir. There’s no evidence of holy water, no stakes, crosses, not even a trace of garlic.”

  The senior P.I shook his head, disenchanted with his subordinate’s powers of observation. “Dallas, look up,” he suggested.

  Dallas glanced up, his jaw falling open. “Sir, someone’s cut a hole in the stone!”

  “Quite right,” said Carmichael, looking to the stars above. “That there is a D.I.Y sunroof.”

  “The wall, Sir!”

  Suck on this, Miles. I saw you with her! read the message scrawled in red lipstick.

  “Ah, a coffin cheater.”

  ZOEY XOLTON is an Australian Speculative Fiction writer, primarily of Dark Fantasy, Paranormal Romance and Horror. She is also a proud mother of two and is married to her soul mate. Outside of her family, writing is her greatest passion. She is especially fond of short fiction and is working on releasing her own themed collections in future.

  Website: www.zoeyxolton.com

  Highway 109

  by Crystal L. Kirkham

  “Someone is trying to kill me! Please help! I’m on Highway 109. I’ve run out of gas.”

  “Can I have your name and an exact location?” the dispatch operator asked.

  “Please help me. They’re coming. I can see them!” She could hear the panic in his voice, and then he screamed. The line went dead, and all she could do was send the cops to check the highway, knowing it was probably too late.

  Hours later, they found an old battered truck on the side of the road and signs of a scuffle, but the man was never seen again.

  CRYSTAL L. KIRKHAM resides in a small hamlet west of Red Deer, Alberta. She’s an avid outdoors person, unrepentant coffee addict, part-time foodie, servant to a wonderful feline, and companion to two delightfully hilarious canines. She will neither confirm nor deny the rumours regarding the heart in a jar on her desk and the bottle of reader’s tears right next to it. Her paranormal urban fantasy series, Saints and Sinners, is available on Amazon and her YA Fantasy, Feathers and Fae will be released October 11, 2019, from Kyanite Publishing.

  Website: www.crystallkirkham.com

  Stolen Identity

  by J. Farrington

  I was never happy with my life growing up. The family I was born in to, the little backwater town I grew up in and the generic body I was forced to make do with.

  Well, not anymore.

  I saved every bit of allowance I had, did jobs around town for folk and eventually got the fuck out of Dodge.

  Sadly, that wasn’t enough.

  I’m finally happy now though! I realised what I had to do; to be happy I had to be someone else...

  Wearing someone else’s skin takes some getting used to, but I promise, it’s worth it.

  J. FARRINGTON is an aspiring author from the West Midlands, UK. His genre of choice is horror; whether that be psychological, suspense, supernatural or straight up weird, he’ll give it a shot! He has loved writing from a young age but has only publicly been spreading his darker thoughts and sinister imagination via social platforms since 2018. If you would like to view his previous work, or merely lurk in the shadows...watching, you can keep up to date with future projects by spirit board or alternatively, the following;

  Twitter: @SurvivorTrench

  Reddit: TrenchChronicles

  Duel

  by Nicola Currie

  She’s the perfect victim.

  He’s walking right into it.

  It’s been a while since my last kill. I’ll enjoy her.

  He’ll take me to an even twenty.

  She shows around hundreds of people every week.

  He doesn’t know the seller is laying fresh concrete in the basement, that he’ll never be found.

  No one will suspect me.

  No one will suspect me.

  I stroke the cord in my pocket, lusting after her pretty neck.

  The cool blade tucked into my waistband prickles my skin with anticipation as I slide it out.

  Something glints behind her back.

  He’s reaching for something.

  NICOLA CURRIE is 34, from Cambridge, UK where she works in educational publishing. She has published poetry in literary magazines, including Mslexia and Sarasvati, and has also completed her first novel, which was longlisted for the Bath Children’s Novel Award.

  Website: writeitandweep.home.blog

  Relief

  by Brandi Hicks

  Rebecca picked the drying blood out from under her fingernails with the carving knife. She could already see the red and blue lights coming down the street. He’d only been dead for about twenty minutes, but he was most definitely dead.

  He had come to her, once again, expecting her to just lie down and take it. She was ready this time though. He got a few good hits in, and she almost lost her grip on the knife, but her conviction held true. First, his groin; then, his throat. She thought she’d feel guilty, but she only felt relief.

  GROWING UP IN WEST Virginia, Brandi Hicks loved to have her nose in a book, her eyes toward the night sky and putting a pen to paper. Her imagination was always sparked by her grandfather and her mom taking her to new places and teaching her about the unusual. She loves fantasy, sci-fi, and learning about science and history. She has two beautiful children, and hopes to instill creativity and a love of reading in them. Finding new crafts to try keeps her busy when not playing with her kids or working.

  A Future, Lost

  by Aiki Flinthart

  “It’s unrepairable.” Shonnie tapped the smashed computer, fingering a cross dangling around her neck. “We can’t change course.”

  I gazed out at a sky meant to be brilliant with Alpha Carlotti’s welcoming glow. Instead, infinite dark emptiness swallowed our sleep-ship. Behind me lay serried ranks of shining sleep-tanks containing humanity’s finest, bravest. Now doomed.

  “Who?”

  “Hundreds have woken and slept again in the last century. Any of them.”

  “Why? Who would sabotage humanity’s hope of survival?” Earth was long-dead. We, her last chance.

  Shonnie’s eyes slid from mine. “Maybe someone thought we shouldn’t play God.”

  Her fingers stroked the crucifix.

  AIKI FLINTHART has had short stories shortlisted in the Aurealis awards and top-8 listed in the USA Writers of the Future competition, as well as published in various anthologies and e-mags. She has 11 published spec fic novels and has edited 2 short story anthologies. She regularly gives workshops o
n writing fight scenes at conventions. Lives in Brisbane. Does martial arts, archery, knife throwing and lute-playing.

  Website: www.aikiflinthart.com

  The Butcher

  by Rowanne S. Carberry

  A pool of blood congealed around the body. A knife sticking out of the back.

  D.I. Michael’s leans down, gloved hands about to prod the body.

  “Forensics hasn’t photographed that yet,” is shouted from across the car park.

  “Then get it photographed,” D.I. Michaels snarls.

  Scurrying over, the photographer snaps as many photos as they can.

  Finally given the all clear, he bends down, moves the head to get a better look at the face.

  Bile rises up in his throat as he sees the missing features, but he still manages to spot the one out of place black hair.

  ROWANNE S. CARBERRY was born in England in 1990, where she stills lives now with her cat Wolverine. Rowanne has always loved writing, and her first poem was published at the age of 15, but her ambition has always been to help people. Rowanne studied at the University of Sunderland where she completed combined honours of Psychology with Drama. Rowanne writes to offer others an escape. Although Rowanne writes in varied genres each story or poem she writes will often have a darkness to it, which helped coin her brand, Poisoned Quill Writing – Wicked words from a poisoned quill.