Author name: Alyssa Monroe

On a tous déjà vécu ce moment où l’on se demande, en posant un sac de vêtements dans un point […]

Two stubborn leaves, one yellowing at the edge, the flower spike long gone, leaning over the windowsill like it had

Fifteen minutes later, nothing. Her perfume had vanished into the hum of the espresso machine and the smell of toasted

The heating’s on low, a grey January afternoon hanging over the street, and he’s half listening to a podcast about

Then a black curve breaks the surface. Another. A tight cluster of dorsal fins moves along the ice, like a

A young woman leans towards the mirror, dark circles prominent, voice whispering that she’s “so over eye bags”. She dips

On the hob, a pot of tomato sauce bubbled, deep red and slightly angry, spitting to the rhythm of a

Not the dull glint of a stone, not a bottle, but a dense, quiet shine that made everyone fall silent.

A thin, silent curve of scales slipping between the flower pots, gone before the adult brain has even processed the

She’d scrolled the menu ten times, picked her outfit days before, imagined the first sip of wine like a tiny

Same words, two different mouths. One friend read my message out loud with a calm, almost warm tone. The other

Your mind jumps straight to the email you didn’t answer, the laundry in the machine, the meeting you’re not prepared

The first thing you hear is the slow breath of twenty strangers trying to be calm. The second is the

The sky is still a soft grey when the first kettle clicks in the kitchen and the fridge light blinks

The physio didn’t even look up from her tablet when she said it: “Your deep core isn’t firing.” I was