Tag Archive for: Pauline Yates

Aya’s Makami

/by

by Pauline Yates

Aya, the transfer student, acts nonchalant, but beneath her straight fringe, her enormous eyes glisten with new-school nerves, and she clutches a diary to her flat chest like a life support. Fool. That diary begs to be read. Especially by me.

I snatch the diary from her matchstick fingers. Flipping it open, I stare into the eyes of Makami. The divine protector looks into my heart, then gives a guttural roar and swallows me whole.

I’m not alone. Another bully hunkers in the beast’s belly, her round face whiter than a tsuki moon. Somewhere above us, savage teeth snap shut.

 

Pauline Yates

Pauline Yates, Australian author of the sci-fi action/adventure, Memories Don’t Lie. Writes dark stories. Loves bright sunrises.

Website: paulineyates.com

 

Memories Don’t Lie by Pauline Yates – Launches 11th March 2023

/by

I was a compulsive daydreamer growing up, and I turned that into a writing career. What could be better than doing the thing you love most?

Read more

Memories Don’t Lie by Pauline Yates

/by

Sarah Wilson’s journey takes a deadly turn when she uncovers secrets about her past, hidden deep in her mother’s memories, that threaten everything Sarah wants. They could cost her everything she holds dear—and her life.

Read more

Spooned

/by

by Pauline Yates

Beechwood Psychiatric Hospital’s new nurse has a head full of ideas, like “kindness begets kindness”, that sort of shit. I play along. I stop smacking my head against the wall when she asks me, politely, mind you, to take my pills. Now she lets me eat ice cream with a spoon. I want her to eat ice-cream, too, but she won’t…

won’t…

won’t…

And that makes my head hurt like the spoon scoops out my brain. So I make her eat. Eat, and eat, until all her ideas burst out of her head.

I scoop them up and swallow them, too.

 

Pauline Yates

Pauline Yates lives in Australia and writes horror and dark fiction.
Website: paulineyates.com

Pony for Christmas

/by
by Pauline Yates

 

My “ho’s” change to groans as I play the shopping mall Santa—my wife arrives with our granddaughter, Ester, and home-baked cookies for my tea break. I love Ester, but the cookies taste funny and belong in the bin.

Ester clambers onto my lap.

“What would you like for Christmas?” I ask.

She pouts. “A pony. Grandma’s making me wait until after she collects Grandpa’s life insurance, but I want one now.”

“Is she? Well, all good girls get their Christmas wish.”

And bad wives get a knife through the heart. I saw one on sale. I’ll get it gift-wrapped.”

 

Pauline Yates

Pauline Yates writes dark stories with a pen she pinched from the dead zone.

@midnightmuser1

 

First Person, Present Tense

/by
by Pauline Yates

 

Eager to try the new AI Book Writer app, I download the program and enable the wireless imagination transfer function.

“Welcome to Book Writer,” a computer simulated voice says. “Please imagine scenes for text conversion and click upload.”

I imagine the scenes in “Murder By Moonlight”, the crime novel I started but never finished, and click upload.

“Images received. Enabling text conversion. Error. Crime detected. First-degree murder, punishable by law.”

“It’s fiction, you dumb computer.”

“Commencing jury deliberation. Guilty verdict received. Downloading penalty.”

“What? Cancel!”

“Appeal denied. Dispensing penance.”

An electric shock fries my brain.

 The computer beeps. “Termination complete.”

 

Pauline Yates

Pauline Yates lives in Australia and writes horror and dark speculative fiction. Links to her publications can be found here: https://linktr.ee/paulineyates

 

The Devil’s Breath

/by
by Pauline Yates

 

Tossed onto a reef by a rogue wave, our pirate ship shudders, and a sickening crunch sounds our death knell. Salt burns my lungs when I gulp water, not air, then I’m back on board with my crew, peering through fog that reeks of sulphur.

“What’s that smell?”

“The Devil’s breath,” a crewmate says. “Collecting our plundering souls, he is.”

I clutch my ghostly chest. “He can take it. I never want to drown again.”

“Nay. Caught in a hell loop, I fear.” He points at the ocean. A wave swells, tossing the ship. “Brace yourself. We’re going down again.”

Pauline Yates

Pauline Yates lives in Australia and writes horror and dark speculative fiction. Links to her publications can be found here: https://linktr.ee/paulineyates

 

 

 

Drained

/by
by Pauline Yates

 

Desperate to stop the zombie apocalypse, the latest plague to afflict humanity, I draw my knife across Annie’s wrist and fill a bucket with her blood.

Annie sways. “Will it work?”

“It better or we’re dead.” Grabbing the bucket, I open the door and throw the blood over the advancing zombies. It’s an insane idea, but attracted to the blood, the zombies mistake their festering bodies for fresh flesh and rip themselves apart in a feeding frenzy.

“It worked,” I shout, euphoric. “Annie, they’re dead. Annie?”

Anne lies on the floor, white-faced and lifeless. No blood drips from her wrist.

Pauline Yates

Pauline Yates lives in Australia and writes horror and dark speculative fiction. Links to her publications can be found here: https://linktr.ee/paulineyates

 

 

Fallen Angels

/by
by  Pauline Yates

 

Mother heats the blade in the fire, but it’s the flap of monstrous wings that strikes fear into my heart.

“Will it hurt?” I whisper, scrutinizing her scarred face.

“Better to suffer a searing blade than endure the agony of being raped by a Fallen and bearing its unholy offspring. Did the Elder’s son tarnish your purity?”

“Yes. He was kind.”

“Pray his seed will also deter them. Hold still.”

She brands my cheek with the blade, ruining the beauty the Fallen desire. Biting my lip, I pray for a son so I won’t have to deface a daughter, too.

 

Pauline Yates

Pauline Yates lives in Queensland, Australia. She writes dark stories and loves bright sunrises.

https://linktr.ee/paulineyates

 

Gone Fishing

/by
by Pauline Yates

 

Oblivious to my predicament, Bob casts his fishing line into the marsh.

“Did you hear about that dodgy cosmetics factory,” he says. “They trialled a new hair colour on flamingos, but the birds reacted to the red dye and killed everyone. Then the birds escaped, can you believe it?”

“Ah, Bob?”

“Yeah?”

“A little help?”

I’m not sure if Bob will reach me in time, or even if he should try. A bright red flamingo eyeballs me from less than ten yards away. It’s a clever distraction. I don’t see the rest of the flock until they attack from behind.

Pauline Yates

Pauline Yates lives in Queensland, Australia. She writes dark stories and loves bright sunrises.

Website: https://linktr.ee/paulineyates