I always dreamed of going on a Voyage of Discovery...  tall ships, thousands of miles at sea, discovering worlds of untold beauty, filled with exotic people who were as interested in my life as I was in theirs.  My life.  Huh.  Get real, Jodie - who'd be interested in me?  I go to school, do my homework, watch TV. Nothing interesting ever happens to dull old me.  Oh, except did I say I'm adopted?  They're lovely people - Dan and Mellie. …

Kris was already half way up his street before he noticed anything weird. He pulled his earphones out and hitched his school bag higher on his shoulder. Why was there nobody else around? Usually when he got home from school his road was pretty busy. There should at least have been one or two people who’d got off the bus with him. But there was nobody.

He walked more quickly,…

Darren slotted the bejewelled key into the wardrobe’s brass key. It turned in the slot with a sharp schnick. The door swung easily, though the hinges were old and rusted.

‘Those hinges are old and rusted,’ said Darren.

‘Yes,’ agreed Liam. ‘And yet the door swung easily.’…

When he had woken up, Ben was convinced today would be a magical day.  Now he was on his way to school - not very magical, admittedly, but it was a crisp autumnal morning and Ben and magic was very much in the air.  He couldn’t resist kicking mounds of fallen leaves that nestled along the path.  A particularly large pile caught his attention and he booted them in a spectacular golden-brown leafy rainbow.  The wind caught them and spiralled…

The house at the end of the street looked quite ordinary, at first glance. It had four windows, each wearing fussy net curtains, a sturdy blue front door and flower-filled hanging baskets on either side of the porch. The number thirteen glittered in the morning sunlight. If it hadn’t been for the two stone lions at the edge of the driveway, I might have continued on my way to school and never noticed anything unusual at…

All I did was go downstairs to get myself a glass of water. It was dark outside and there was no traffic, so I suppose it must have been about 4 o'clock in the morning. 

I'm often awake at strange hours. Mum says it's because I spend too much time staring at computer screens. She may be right, but the point I'm trying to make is that I wasn't scared, or even worried. I hadn't…

The morning light faded away as if a thick black cloud had drifted in front of the sun.  A sudden cold wind brought an unexpected chill, but a change in the weather wasn’t the cause.  High in the sky, the moon was about to block out the sun.  Oliver knew that he shouldn’t stare at the solar eclipse with unprotected eyes but the sight was awesome and strange.  Just before the eclipse became total, sunshine glared from one side of the sun,…

I hated my new school. The feeling was mutual. Everyone said I thought I was better than them, just because I was from London.  I didn’t think I was better. I just didn’t want to be there. To call Dark Hollow the middle of nowhere would be doing it a favour. It was the edge of nowhere. If a packet of crisps fell off the shelf in the village shop it would make the news.…

When Lord Pinkforth came down to breakfast on Friday morning, he was surprised to find a dead body lying on the morning room floor.

The body was that of an elderly woman in a pink dress and a blue hat with a feather in it. There was no blood, nor any marks on her that he could see. Nor was there any sign of a murder weapon – no lead piping left beside her, not even a note…

It took Kellie some time to work out what was unusual about the panel of buttons. Let's face it, you don't get into a hotel lift expecting anything out of the ordinary. That's what hotels are. Ordinary. Only this one wasn't. Kellie's parents were in room 1302, on the thirteenth floor. That was the problem, there wasn't one, a thirteenth floor, that is. No matter how Kellie searched she couldn't see the button. Finally, a member of the hotel…

It seems unbelievable now that as Holly and I walked back from school that day we were actually talking about how boring our family was. Our parents were still together, apparently neither happy nor unhappy, both leaving for work at eight every morning, never home later than six. Our house looked like something out of an advert, with its neutral colours, plump cushions, clear surfaces, and sparkling kitchen floor.…

Nearly Christmas Day. Outside Appleyard Cottage, snow falls, sculpting the fields, and its bitterly cold.  

Not that the dead care. In the tiny cottage, a set of bodies. A family, at various angles. Some lie more natural than others. Atop the pile, the mother. Her husband is below her. His arm made it between the wooden beams far enough to clasp her hand before she…

Cameron was playing on his computer when the letterbox rattled.  Mum and Dad had taken Kelly out to buy new school shoes.  He was in the house alone.

        “Funny,” he said to himself.  “There isn’t usually any post on a Sunday.”

        Setting his laptop aside, he padded downstairs in his socks to retrieve the…

Mikey’s Ride.

Mikey was quite scared of skateboards but if he told the other boys at Pikeham Juniors they’d all laugh at him. So when everyone else went off to the park with their boards he made some excuse about helping his Dad fix the car. It sounded better than helping Mum. He never expected to be actually forced into having a skateboard. …

“Get off, you varmints. I’ll tell your mother on you, if you come round here again.”

Carly wobbled Bob’s. “Come on. He might turn dangerous.” Everybody said he was getting worse.

Bob pulled away.  “Naw. He’s too daft to hurt anybody.”

Carly wasn’t so…

I thought it was a risk worth taking. I was late. I didn't want to get put in detention again. That was why I took the shortcut through the churchyard. That was why I was running and not taking any notice of what was happening around me. At first I thought the dark figure up ahead must be the vicar, angry that I was disturbing the peace of the sacred ground, but this was no holy man. It wasn't a man at all. It wasn't a woman either, nor any…

If I told you, you would probably say it was a blessing. But you have no idea. It's a curse way beyond the meaning of the word.

People always think they want to know the future. They think life is brighter over the horizon.

But when I tell you what I've seen...when I tell you what tomorrow actually…

NO TIME TO HANG

Mohinder had absolutely no problem with hanging upside down. It was something he enjoyed doing when he was younger. The blood rushing to his head would always make him dizzy and he would inevitably flip back to his feet, wobble, and fall down.

Except now he couldn’t because somebody had…

The city sleeps tonight;

A great beast slumbers in its lair.

It sighs with the smoke of factories

Like breath on a Winter’s morning.

It snores with the rumble of trains and…

The Barber of Seville Street

He wraps the cape around me

The opposite way to that of a superhero

Superman uses his to fly

Mine will just catch hair…