“The chairman wants to bring him back. I heard his speech. He wants Wayfarer resurrected.”
The Queen of Worms let out a low gasp and held one arm to her chest. “No, I can’t allow it. He’ll go after Espe. Espe is growing stronger every day, but he’s not able to protect himself against his father, even if his father is weakened. I need to defend my son.” She turned her head to face Kattar. “Will you help me? This is the exit you’ve been searching for and you have no reason to go back. You’ll lose your mind here, that’s what you want isn’t it? Not to think anymore? In time, you’ll go to sleep; no memory, no awareness, no feeling. I can put Wayfarer back in his box, at least for a while. The world needs a break from his impulses.”
Kattar shook his head violently and glanced back at the outhouse. Could he really go back? Take the shitter to Anna, risk his EXIT, this anaesthetising wonderland? The Queen’s words could be that of the traitor, the desperate exiled. But they sounded true.
“I’m without indemnity here,” she said, “as it’s not necessary. Everything is cushion, anodyne and reflection. Nothing will ever be new. Wayfarer will wreck the place below if he’s dragged back to it. His rage will not be satisfied by the tower, or constrained by it now. That city beneath your tired feet will fall, he’ll swallow it up and use the vomit to rape the world. I might be able to soothe him, just a little, just enough. If you go back to the woman who travels to you, there will be nothing but doom for you anyway. You could save her if you stay here and let me go.”
“If you are right about her, about Anna, then stolen time with her is all that matters. I’ve been coasting for so long, learning my life by rote, at the mercy of the instruction of others. I was directed to pull a trigger, and I complied unquestioningly. I have no initiative—I’ve been pathetic and cosseted, wilfully ignorant, shepherded up this tower. It’s too easy.”
The Queen sighed and crumpled into her cushion, deflated. “Well, perhaps all is for the best. This place has all you desire, remember that. Don’t give it up lightly. Don’t be rash, Kattar.”
The outhouse.
If I stay here all that will be is my voice.
“If I stay here all that will be is my voice.”
If I stay here all that will be is my voice.
And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystaclass="underline" and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind.
I tell you: one must still have chaos in one, to give birth to a dancing star. I tell you: ye have still chaos in you.
Alas! There cometh the time when man will no longer give birth to any star. Alas! There cometh the time of the most despicable man, who can no longer despise himself.
Lo! I show you THE LAST MAN.
Cardboard Wall Empire releases
A mysterious young girl emerges from the woods. Alone, she wanders into the life of David. David is wrestling with an unsatisfactory existence and searching for a sense of purpose. He decides to look out for the girl but soon discovers she may not be all she seems.
Together they decide to seek out a place of safety, away from a world that could misunderstand their relationship. They journey through the fringe landscape of the outskirts, the rundown and forgotten. As their troubles come to the surface events take a turn that will have life-changing consequences for the both of them.
anemogram is about a young girl and the power that is given to her. A story driven by the inner worlds of its characters, the surreal and dreamlike fuse with the mundanity of the everyday, inviting the reader to take as much as they bring.
In Hilligoss, a tired man searches for a son, a flamingo enthrals the night, and fireworks light up the lost. In these stories and more, Rusticles offers a meandering tour through backroads bathed in half light, where shadows play along the verges and whispers of the past assault daydreams of the present. Walk the worn pathways of Hilligoss.
Set during an oil crisis-induced war in South America, Out Black Spot tells the story of Juan and his twin brother Matias as they fight to stay alive in the hopes of one day returning to their home, and normality. Juan is a poet, but since the death of his wife, he can’t seem to recapture the same creativity he used to pour into his work. Carrying a dark secret that threatens to destroy his life, he fights every day to win the war around him, and the one in his own head. Can he forgive himself and make it out alive, or will his inability to escape the past destroy him? Matías' wife Octavia is in a civilian holding in Paraguay’s capital, Asuncion, trying to forge a new life with her son. When the Pombero, a malevolent spirit, comes to visit them, their brief period of calm is brought abruptly to an end, and she must make a difficult decision: offer the Pombero a live sacrifice, or let him take the twins instead. Out Black Spot considers the lengths we will go to in order to protect our loved ones, find new energy sources or even change the past.
The characters in these stories live in disconnected worlds, inside their own heads, trying to create meaning for themselves. In Dead Cats on Motorways, a father tries to work out if the family cat has been run over before his son comes home. In The London Bus, an ordinary woman gives in to her compulsion to vie for the attention of apathetic bus passengers, going to deeper and darker lengths each time. The Badass London Ex-Bitches and the Case of the Creepy Revenge Porn Guy is the story of three women who band together to find out who put their naked photos online. These stories and more are about what goes wrong when we fail to communicate.
Rude Vile Pigs is a satirical black comedy set in the city of Sadwhitepeopledrinking, and follows the antics of Jim Joy, a middle-aged alcoholic who accidentally creates a religion dedicated to selfishness. Recently divorced, depressed and living in a squalid flat, Jim realises that his newfound mobility and complete lack of shame can lead him to new exciting depths, doing whatever he wants and encouraging the same of others. Through his alcohol-fuelled misadventures, Jim is about to discover what happens when a society gives in to its basest impulses.
LOOK OUT FOR MORE CARDBOARD Wall Empire releases soon
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THANK YOU TO MOLD
You rule.
FOR MF
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