Lawrence stood sadly looking at the report. The front cover was laminated and embossed. "Financial projections 2008- 09."
He flicked through the twenty pages of writing, all separated neatly into sections.
"Help me?..I'm drowning?..help me?..I'm drowning?..help me?..I'm drowning"
Even the same amount of dots in between each statement. He sighed and walked back to his office. Opening the filing cabinet he placed the report in the bulging folder marked "Elizabeth Smith - Sickness absence reports."
He pushed the drawer closed and locked it, flicking the lights off carelessly as he left the office.
Fall into the Shadows
by Joleen Kuyper
Fall into the shadows,
Submit to their might,
Their arms will caress you,
Even as they bite.
Forget all the warnings,
Whatever you've been told,
For all that they're dangerous,
They're a sight to behold.
Be entranced by their beauty,
Those immortal eyes,
Allow them to take you,
You are their prize.
Now live among them,
Share their hunger and feasts,
Be one of those mythical,
Magical beasts.
You are part of the shadows,
A true ancient clan,
All living forever,
Since this world began.
So watch from the darkness,
As the world lives in light,
Its blood shall sustain you,
All through the night.
From a Journal Found in the Dark
by E.J. Tett
I ate spiders. I think that's the thing that makes me shiver the most, remembering the feel of them in my mouth or a leg hanging over my lips. I had to be quick with the spiders. Sometimes I'd grab them and hurry them towards my mouth but they were gone already, escaped from the cracks between my fingers.
I dreamt of escape myself, over and over, finding a way out, a crack wide enough for me to squeeze through.
Light filtered in from way above and the stalactites cast shadows like prison bars across the stony ground.
I'd shouted of course, soon after the accident. I shouted until I couldn't shout anymore. I used to wonder if anybody realised I was missing, and then I would wonder if anybody believed I was still alive.
Like I said, I ate spiders. And frogs sometimes, little pale things that caught my eye in the gloom.
When it rained I could catch water that fell from cracks above. When it didn't rain I would lick slime from the rocks. It wasn't so bad. After a while you stop caring.
I tried climbing out, several times, but even when I'd climbed as far as I could go it still wasn't far enough. There was no way out. I fell once and hit my head. I have no idea how long I was out cold for. There is no time down in the cave.
I'd tried digging too. I'd dig until my nails ripped and my hands bled. I moved rocks for days, just the small ones, the ones I could lift. I moved them but more would fall and fill the gaps. It was hopeless, but I didn't give up hope. I couldn't. If I didn't have hope then I didn't have anything to live for, and I didn't want to die.
I ate spiders and frogs and translucent bugs and thin, spindly plants. I licked slime off rocks and I cried into the dark.
I didn't speak. Sometimes it was dark for days and I would sit and hug my knees and stare widely at nothing. It's easy to imagine things in the dark. I didn't speak because I was scared of hearing a reply. There could have been monsters down there with me, ghosts, creatures lost...
I wrote stories, when there was enough light, and I escaped for a time, absorbed in my land of make believe. I remember once that the nib of my pencil broke and I wept as if my mother had died.
The rocks were good to me then. I smashed them against one another until I broke one and made a jagged edge that I could sharpen my pencil with. Even the memory makes me smile; I don't think I've ever been that happy in my life.
I ate spiders. But I would imagine them to be something else. Berries, mostly, it was easiest to think of them like that because they popped between my teeth.
Every day I dreamt of escape. Every night. I live in fantasy now and so I write this as if I am free.
Under the Lake
by Jo Robertson
I saw the hand in the lake
And I stared.
Followed it with my eyes,
as it waved
I watched as it broke the surface
In silent waves.
Then sunk into the frozen darkness,
still, I watched
Hours, hours later I sat
Shivering with cold.
Waiting to see the hand again,
breaking the surface
When darkness fell it was there again
Ripples dancing slowly.
Blackened fingers beckoned me in,
to the lake
Now I lay in the freezing water
Deep and black.
I can see friends searching for me but
I can't scream.
The hands hold me in the dark
Under the surface.
And I writhe and fight but nothing escapes,
nothing but ripples.
Author Bios
Jo Robertson really hates writing bios. Some things she enjoys more are horror movies, tormenting random people in bars with her karaoke efforts, wearing black and sitting around on the sofa with her sister drinking wine. She skilfully disguises her creative side in her day to day work, choosing to release it stealthily at home by writing with varying degrees of success, and painting with almost an exclusive lack of success. She is mildly addicted to changing her hair colour and was once approached in a Parisian bar by the owner of a burlesque agency enquiring whether she would like to earn money by spinning around nude in a giant champagne glass. She is currently still considering this offer.
Joleen Kuyper has been writing stories and poems for a long time but it's only in recent years she has been using a computer to do so. This was a very fortunate development for her, as Joleen's handwriting is more difficult to decipher than most types of hieroglyphic - usually even she can't read it. Her imagination tends to get carried away sometimes, so she relies on long evenings with lots of red wine to help keep her grounded. Her husband, dogs and cats have learned to live with her strange ways, although she suspects this may be because she's a good cook. On occasion, she also enjoys painting purple streaks in her hair and wearing shoes with really big heels even though she's already quite tall.
E.J. Tett is the author of The Kingdom of Malinas, a young adult fantasy novel that contains neither wizards nor vampires, but does have a really big dragon and lots of sword fights. She would like to point out that she does not enjoy wine, cooks very badly, and has never been asked to dance nude in Paris, though she has done a photo shoot involving a camel... in Somerset.
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