Welcome to Minas Morgul. All Here is Shadow and Death. Prithee, Stay Awhile. We have cake.

2
News

It was dark when John got home, and the flat felt barely warmer than the late winter air outside. The building’s heating still wasn’t fixed, so he switched on the small halogen heater he’d picked up after the last time the system had broken down. People didn’t complain so much about the amount of time it took for things to be repaired anymore. They didn’t complain because they knew it wasn’t going to get any better, and they had more important things to worry about.

His shift at… Continue

Ok, this is the big one: the novel I'm writing. This is still a work in progress, so it's likely to change at some point...



1
Patient Zero

“All right. It’s been half an hour. I think we should call it. Is everyone in agreement?” Dr Morriston looked quickly around the room, noting sombre responses from the other doctors and the nurses. Only Dr Hazard, who was still performing chest compressions, did not reply. “John,” said Dr Morriston softly, “it’s over. You can stop now.” For a few s… Continue

In agony of spirit I uttered aloud a howl such as had never before escaped my throat. How could I retain my sanity at this news? What were my family to unleash – what poison were my descendants to introduce to the world? I could not bear the thoughts that came crowding in upon me, and I sobbed and shrieked like a stricken animal.

But then my shrieks stopped sharply as my throat in alarm closed tight upon them. Some new shock arrested my whole body, though in my distracted state I did not at fir… Continue

Many years passed, and the boundaries between my dreams and waking life all but disappeared. All my time was spent in a state of utter consciousness, experiencing, learning, living. I was barely even aware of the transition between my two conditions any more. All that distinguished them was that in one I did not learn as much, and was often bored and frustrated; while in the other, my desperate intellectual and emotional hunger was at last sated, and I felt alive, mentally as well as physically.… Continue

I am called a murderer. Because of what I have done I am certain to be executed, yet my actions were in truth the only sane response to what I have learned. The doctors say I am mad – that the experiences and knowledge of which I speak are borne of insanity. They do not believe me when I say that if I am mad, it is a consequence rather than a cause. They point to the fact that I had not allowed myself to sleep for twelve days prior to my so-called crimes, and to the various drugs I have taken, a… Continue