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The Casket of Fictional Delights

Brooches Podcasts Stories

Chestnuts for my Sweet

by Alyson Faye

Flash Fiction Thought-provoking, Unsettling

Ravenous, we split them open. They lie naked, exposed. They’ve already been ripped off the branch, then tortured by burning, finally brown bagged. Greedily we devour them. Pete and me, warming our hands first. We tongue test the heat of their crunchy guts. We’re laughing, together. Pete can’t resist, he chucks one at me. It catches my cheek. Makes the hidden bruise there flare. I wince, but giggle, as I return his fire. I didn’t expect a bull’s eye. Not at my first attempt. I got him in one, on his left temple. He went down hard, with a look of surprise on his face. Blood trickles into his eye. He does not blink. He was lucky. I always knew what was coming. Just never always knew the when. I sob and say to anyone who’ll listen, ‘It was just a silly game. That’s all.’

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About Alyson Faye

Alyson lives in West Yorkshire, UK with her husband, teen son and rescue animals. Her fiction and poetry has been published in a range of anthologies, (Diabolica Britannica/Daughters of Darkness) on the Horror Tree, several Siren's Call editions, in Page and Spine, by Demain Press (The Lost Girl/Night of the Rider), in Trickster’s Treats 4, on Sylvia e zine and The World of Myth. Last year she had stories out with Kandisha Press, Space and Time's July magazine and Brigid’s Gate Press’, Were-Tales anthology. Her work has been read on BBC Radio, local radio, on several podcasts (Ladies of Horror and The Night's End) and placed in several competitions. She works as an editor for a UK indie press and tutors. She swims, sings and is often to be found roaming the moor with her Lab cross, Roxy.

Alyson Tweets @AlysonFaye2

She co-runs the indie horror press, Black Angel, with Stephanie Ellis Black Angel Press

Alyson has an Amazon Page

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3 responses to “Chestnuts for my Sweet”

  • Ruth Middleton says:
    November 22, 2014 at 8:16 am

    Wonderfully written. I felt the chestnut, leaving her hands, the fading bruises of a woman beaten and yet alive enough to take advantage of the moment. The shock of love and romance turning to violence, the clever use of language and pace to build up an everyday situation and to quickly turn it on its head – very skilled. I liked this a great deal. Hope to read more from this author.

    Reply
    • Joanna Sterling says:
      November 22, 2014 at 7:55 pm

      Thank you for your comment.

      Reply
  • Kathleen Bhattacharyya says:
    November 25, 2014 at 3:23 pm

    All human emotion in a dozen lines. Brilliant!

    Reply

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Text & stories © Joanna Sterling 2022
Stories © various authors
Editing by Joanna Sterling & Alyson Faye
Audio by Menna Bonsels
Brooch photography by Mark Colliton
Other photography by Rosie Marks
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