Try two short stories from This Is... the Poisoned Chalice: Wanted or At the Cafe Nervous - or sample the stories below:

'The dog killer, ' said The Jinx, a stern protective twang to his voice. 'Let's get him.'... I stood up and Szuta was staring right at me, just staring, going, 'Mother of god, Mother of god' over and over again in his horror flick voice. Tears were streaming down his face. Bastard, he was psyching himself up to get me and I wasn't hanging around to get chopped up or chucked off the roof. I let off a massive yell that stretched in my throat, imitating one of The Jinx;s battle yodels. Szuta recoiled with his hands up. I took off across the grass to the others, prickly heat up my neck, frosty water trickling down the inside of my jeans.

- from The Room by Ashley Stokes

Issue 2: This Is |The Poisoned Chalice

Coming soon: This Is |Apple
(late summer)

This is |Haunting
(autumn)

This Is |Ice and Fire
(winter)

He took them from many different angles - crossed at the ankles, side by side from above, over the edge of the bed as she lay back, from the soles of her feet facing the camera like Mantegna's painting of sleeping guards by Christ's tomb. He picked his favourite ones from the negatives and had larger prints made.

from Feetby Jiffy Sandison

She was swimming strongly underwater, her long hair trailing behind, tresses as fine as rippling, red weeds. Her tanned body was pale in the darkness of the shadowed pool, a white mermaid darting above the brown stones below. She surged to the surface, laughing and shaking her hair free of water. She turned to face him, lazily swimming on her back. "God, it's so cold it's beautiful. Come in!"

from A Little Death by Bernard Moss