Tag Archive for: Pauline Yates

Fallen Angels

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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

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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

 

Dressed to Kill

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by Pauline Yates

 

“Zip me up?”

Macy stands with her back to me wearing a new dress. The exotic fabric gives her curves like Sandra’s. Have I cheated on my wife for so long I’ve forgotten how alluring she can be?

I slide up the zipper but imagine unzipping Sandra’s dress and kissing the butterfly tattoo above her left breast.

Aroused, I kiss Macy’s neck. “When did you buy this?”

“I made it myself.” Turning around, she smoothes her hands over material so translucent she appears naked. “What do you think?”

My heart stops. Above a real left breast is a butterfly tattoo.

Pauline Yates

Pauline Yates enjoys finding the light in the dark, but sometimes she just can’t. And sometimes, she doesn’t want to. Links to her published stories can be found at https://paulineyates.com/

 

Pauline Yates

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Pauline Yates is a horror and science fiction author with publications in Australia and abroad, including her award-winning debut novel, Memories Don’t Lie.

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Twice the Pleasure

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by Pauline Yates

 

I love how my lover slides his mouth down the woman’s neck. How he pauses near her jugular vein, warming his lips with heat from her racing heart. He nips her skin, teasing, her involuntary moan at the pleasure he inflicts sets fire to my cold heart. When he’s finished with her, his lips will tease me in places we share with nobody.

He glances at me, gaze sultry. “Would you like to share?”

“No need.” I sink my fangs into the neck of the man in my arms.

I’ll kiss the blood off my lover’s lips after we feed.

Pauline Yates

Pauline Yates is an Australian author of horror and speculative fiction. Her short stories appear with Midnight Echo, Metaphorosis, Redwood Press, plus others, as well as several anthologies including Mondi Incantanti, published by Riflessi di Luce Lunare (RiLL), Italy. Links to Pauline’s stories can be found at https://paulineyates.com/

 

PUNK

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Punk—steampunk, cyberpunk, biopunk, dieselpunk—stories where technology is the main focus.

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Eldritch & Ether

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Beautiful, heartfelt poetry from international poets

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The Greatest Show on Earth

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by Pauline Yates

 

Teaching a monkey how to strike a match was a clever trick. It required the use of electric shocks to his fingers, but when he lights the ring of fire for the Bengal tigers to jump through, the crowd applauds me as the greatest animal trainer in the circus’s history.

However, I underestimated the monkey’s cleverness. He can also wield a whip. Biting it from my hand, he directs one tiger to herd me from the left, another from the right. The third tiger crouches beyond the flaming ring, mouth open, fangs dripping saliva, waiting for my leap of death.

Pauline Yates

Pauline Yates is an Australian author of horror and speculative fiction. Her short stories appear with Midnight Echo, Metaphorosis, Redwood Press, plus others, as well as several anthologies including Mondi Incantanti, published by Riflessi di Luce Lunare (RiLL), Italy. Links to Pauline’s stories can be found at https://paulineyates.com/

 

Naughty and Nice

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by Pauline Yates

 

On Christmas morning, I wake to find a blonde and a brunette, naked as newborn babes, asleep in our bed. They fit the description written on my husband’s Christmas wish list. He wished for a threesome—without me.

Wondering if Santa granted my Christmas wish, I hurry downstairs to the Christmas tree. I clap my hands with joy. My husband is impaled on the trunk, with red baubles jammed in his eyes, his intestines strung out like tinsel, and his Christmas wish list shoved up his…

Nice. Serves him right; unfaithful bastard. I must send Santa a thank you note.

Pauline Yates

Queensland author, Pauline Yates enjoys writing horror and speculative fiction but can’t resist injecting a dash of dark humour to brighten her bleak worlds. Her stories appear in multiple publications and she is the winner to the 2020 AHWA short story competition.
Website: paulineyates.com

Kuntilanak

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by Pauline Yates

 

Drunk on Samsu, I muddle the warning about a white-dressed woman with long, lank hair. Who said that? The bartender? No, a Malaysian beggar; a story for a coin, he said as I staggered home.

A generous man, I obliged, and learned about the mythical Kuntilanak, a vengeful female spirit who lures unsuspecting men and feasts on their organs, her wickedness driven by the stillborn soul she cannot birth. “She reeks of frangipani. Smell that boy, you run, run…” I shuddered. ‘Twas a good story.

Continuing, I meet a woman, lost, alone. I stop to help; her frangipani-perfume is irresistible…

Pauline Yates

Queensland writer, Pauline Yates, loves to explore the dark side of humanity through her writing. Her stories appear in multiple publications and anthologies and she is the winner to the 2020 AHWA short story competition.

Website: paulineyates.com