Reality — FICTION

Canvas

You’re sitting on an armchair, a mug of tea beside you, your child on your lap. She’s holding a book. She keeps asking where you got it from. You don’t recognise it.

Before you, a blank expanse stretches out, bleak and never ending. There’s nothing in sight that can jog your memory, because there’s nothing in sight. At all. It’s just empty and barren, devoid of anything whatsoever, just you and nothing, just you in nothing, and if you’re the only thing left doesn’t that make you nothing, too?

‘Dad?’ She’s looking at you with big eyes, waiting. As you turn to look at her, you notice something at your side. Something that can make the nothing go away.

Anna YoungLauren WalshApril 2, 2024fiction, reflections, Reality

The Ophelia Complex

Perfect

/ˈpəːfɪkt/

Having all the required or desirable elements, qualities, or characteristics; as good as it is possible to be.

Amelie Dowson-SnowNigella MarxMarch 27, 2024Reality

Purgatory

Life is exhausting.

That was all she could think as she paced along the desolate seafront, the wind and rain at her back, the steady hum of nature disturbed only by distant groups of drunk men shouting nonsense to each other. The late autumn night was as peaceful as it was distracting, both allowing her to relax and find comfort, and offering enough background noise to block out all the emotions she was too scared to feel, let alone express. She knew this wasn’t the safest place to be, but at least it wasn’t there. Being there was too much right now.

Erin WardGuest UserMarch 12, 2024Reality, reflections

Blue Medicine

I was sick when I stole Dad’s headache medicine. I’d had the Thursday and Friday off with a fever but now that it was Monday, Dad had suggested I was fine to go back to school. Mum had nodded, finishing a bottle of wine.

Ben BlackwellTalia BuntingFebruary 21, 2024Reality

Reality Check

Jasper was finding it hard to tell illusion from reality.

Some things were easier than others. The dog definitely didn’t have twenty-two tails, and the sofa didn’t grow wings and flap around the room every evening. And of course, the microwave didn’t have a mouth, so how could it talk to him?

Abigail BarrowKatherine GilbertFebruary 2, 2024Reality

Home Improvements

They had been a happy family for many years. There was an uncle who lived in a dark cupboard: he didn’t wear clothes anymore and walked about on all fours. His eyes had turned inwards from not needing to see for so long, so when he looked at you there was no iris, only a lens of grey albumen. The only time he saw the sun was on his weekly walk to the playground, leashed: so he couldn’t attack the mothers.

Charlie PriceJack TicknerOctober 18, 2023Reality