A forceful jolt awakes me. In the moment before sleep pulls me into its embrace. I twitch. Fear the sudden weightlessness, as though I’m free-falling. There’s pressure on my chest as a noisome stench bleeds into the room. I taste the metallic tang of blood; as my tongue investigates the slick membrane now covering my teeth. I crack open an eyelid. Gnarled feet are planted on my chest in a gory frothing cavity. There’s a body hunched over me. Its limbs conjoin with my flesh like dripping candle wax. Long digits burrow into me as it suddenly screams into the night.
Ross Jeffery is a Bristol based writer and Executive Director of Books for STORGY Magazine. Ross has been published in print with STORGY Books, Ellipsis Zine 6, The Bath Flash Fiction Festival 2019, Project 13 Dark and Shlock Magazine. His work has also appeared in various online journals such as STORGY Magazine, About Magazine TX, Elephants Never, 101 Fiction, Ellipsis Zine, Soft Cartel and Idle Ink. Ross lives in Bristol with his wife (Anna) and two children (Eva and Sophie). You can follow him on Twitter here: @Ross1982 and visit his website here: writerrossjeffery.wordpress.com
His debut novella Juniper will be published by The Writing Collective in January 2020 and is currently available for digital pre-order from all Amazon stores – click here for UK store.