Unexplained by Amber Massie-Blomfield

Amber Massie-Blomfield draws a portrait of an urban life haunted.

The umbrellas are removed from the stand and hidden. Her sister’s picture, the one in the silver frame, shatters, and for weeks shards of glass turn up where they shouldn’t, in people’s beds, in the cutlery drawer. Her mum’s windows are left wide open in the middle of winter, her expensive perfume bottles found in pieces on the concrete far below.

Read the story after the jump.

High By Night by Les Rolt

A buddy of mine’s getting married, and he’s having his bachelor party in Vegas. I figured I’d stop by my old home town first – stop over just for tonight then head on to the City of Sin in the morning. It’s this plan that has led me here, to a 24hr diner on the side of a busy highway.

Having a life that straddles the Atlantic can cause problems. You remember the country like a past lover, but friends are harder to keep hold of. Read more in Les Rolt’s short story, High By Night.

Say Cheese by Amber Massie-Blomfield

Today we have some short fiction from the fantastic new writer Amber Massie-Blomfield. Say Cheese brings a snapshot of a couple unveiled from both sides of the lens.

He keeps watching her. Her stomach fills with butterflies, because there’s something almost frightening, letting herself be looked at like this. She doesn’t catch his eye. She lets the warm air lift the glowing strands, flying out about her in a halo. It will be a mess.

Read the story after the jump

Two Tales: Komal Verma

Today is an auspicious day for Annexe as it marks the first prose addition to what was previously the Two Poems series. You can still divide the two if you are that way inclined; Two Tales and Two Poems will still have their own categories, but if you’re an all-encompassing lexiphile you can click on the Two Texts category to get both in one delightful bundle.

The first author to read some prose for you is the exception Komal Verma. We spoke to Komal a little while ago about her upcoming novel The Sword and The Scion. Ever the versatile  writer, Komal also crafts stories in a more bitesize length. Today she is reading her short piece The Warning and an extract from Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities.

The Warning – Komal Verma

Cities & Desire – Italo Calvino

More about both works after the jump

Transmission by Charlotte Rumsey

In Transmission, Charlotte Rumsey brings us a sombre vision of insomnia, solitude and secret messages.

 I started to drive up here because I couldn‘t sleep. I’d forgotten how thick the silence can get, in the suburbs…

Read the story after the jump.

Lady Sword Swallower by Nick Murray

You might have heard that Annexe editor, Nick Murray, also does a little writing of his own. Here’s one of his short stories. It was published earlier this year in Inc. Magazine #3. The reader is the magician Lee Warren.

The fantastic illustration is by the Brighton based illustrator and fellow writer, Hannah Bailey.

Sickness – A Short Story by Nick Murray

Sickness – by Nick Murray

Todays tale comes from in-house. This is a story by our very own Annexe Editor, Nick Murray. (The illustration is his too.)

The sickness had left her emaciated. Before, she had been made plump and ruddy by the joys of life, always outside feeling the sunshine trickle through orchard leaves. Very quickly she became a sagging mass of skin and sores. The energy had left her bones and on its way, took the fullness of her body with it.