Callum Wootton

Leyre g

Deni Dyx

Sean King

Diana Tobey

Benjamin Chandler

Sam Becker

English

Seven thousand tonnes of snow. Bitter frost. I had to trek miles forwards for even a glimpse of light in this frozen over, barren wasteland.

It was very cold, I was tired of walking and seeing more darkness than light. While I was walking, a tree branch fell on my head and I fall down on the snowy ground.

"As if the night couldn't get any worse..", you try to say to no one in particular. You rub the sore spot on your head and feel a bit of blood running down your fingers and onto the snow. Overall, fine. Just some blood. Better be on my way before the weather eats me up whole.

That’s when the murder of crows appears. Circling just above your reach, cawing and occasionally diving at you. You can shoo away individual birds, but you can’t stop them all. Your break into a trot with your arms over your head. “It can’t get worse” you whisper.

Just then, the murder of crows swarm together above you, blotting out the sun. A sudden shower pelts at you from above. What’s this? A thunderstorm? No, a literal sh*tstorm. “I must have been a traitor in my past life, I can’t believe I have to deal with this sh*t.”

Your jacket, trousers, head & neck become polka-dotted with white & black crow droppings. Glimpsing your reflection in a window you think, "I look like a doo-doo leopard." Inspiration hits & you rush home to write "Poo Cats", the 1st in a series of heart-warming children's books.

The Night of the Doodoo Leopard

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Emily J

An impassable force lied between me and the artifact. Neurograth, the Golem of Gold.

I’d been searching for Jimmy Redbeard’s lost treasure for half my life. Traveling up and down the coast following clues and dead ends. The Golem of Gold was finally within my reach but first I had to face my worst fear: squirrels. Hundreds of them.

At a distance, they looked more like tarantulas than squirrels. Red fur, dusted with sand, undulating around the rocks and seaweed, all but barricading the mouth to the cavern. "It had to be squirrels," I thought to myself, feeling queasy. I had to think of a diversion, but what?

Then it hit me like an oversized toblerone bar! One pocket of my rucksack was completely full of mixed nuts. That could draw the horde or murder squirrels away. There was just one problem…

I had promised to give those nuts to Dee Zachowski. She needed them for her one woman show, "Dee's Nuts", which was opening that night in a new black box theatre on Division. Perhaps she won't miss one nut, I thought, & tossed a cashew at the squirrel. It gobbled it greedily.

Dee’s Nuts went down as the greatest tragedy in the history of theater. It turned out that Dee’s finale was an elaborate magic trick where she attempted to escape from a vat being filled with 1000s of nuts. The final nut was to trigger an escape hatch. What could have happened?

Squirrel Nuts Clip Her

Michael Stiehl

The deafening roar of a man being launched across a field by a singular punch was familiar, yet shocking.

“Not again”, I thought, then flipped on my bullhorn. “Sir! Just because the moon’s low gravity gives you superhero-like powers doesn’t mean you’re allowed to assault citizens of the Lunar Republic!” Then I thought to myself “bloody tourists from Earth!”

There just had to be a better job in the Lunar Republic. Starting off in shuttle gate security was one thing, but to still be here two years later? Other than the occasional drunken tourist, nothing exciting ever happens… Suddenly I noticed something new across the pod.

It started with cacophonous musical instruments and the rhythmic thump of marching. As the sounds came into focus I could make out the looping melody of a calliope, a brass section and huge base drum. Slowly the sea of tourists parted and I saw my worst nightmare; space clowns.

At the head of the space clown army was Fleep Florp the Annihilator. Many a world had suffered under his cream pie bombardments and seltzer-blasting armies. No one died from his attacks, but he left his victims annoyed & messy. He'd covered my homeworld with an infinite hanky.

And that was his biggest blunder. As soon as he touched down we airlifted two of the four hanky corners and made a giant burrito out of Fleep. By the time we injected refried beans, he and his clowns were begging for mercy. That day the galaxy took a circus-sized sigh of relief.

Moon Clown Town

Zoe Becker

Jerry glanced down at the photograph in his hand, then back up again at the woman sitting alone at the back of the cafe.

He couldn't believe what his doctor had texted him, at such an inconvenient time. During a conversation, with the woman he dreamt of.

All at once a blinding light coursed through the space. Jerry and the woman froze. And then a creature appeared, seemingly from the air itself.

It had long, spinning tentacles that made them wretch. Demonic, red eyes that terrified them. A thirst for blood... One that was about to be quenched.

Callum Wootton
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