Tag Archive for: Pauline Yates

First Person, Present Tense

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by Pauline Yates

 

Eager to try the new AI Book Writer app, I download the program and enable the wireless imagination transfer function.

“Welcome to Book Writer,” a computer simulated voice says. “Please imagine scenes for text conversion and click upload.”

I imagine the scenes in “Murder By Moonlight”, the crime novel I started but never finished, and click upload.

“Images received. Enabling text conversion. Error. Crime detected. First-degree murder, punishable by law.”

“It’s fiction, you dumb computer.”

“Commencing jury deliberation. Guilty verdict received. Downloading penalty.”

“What? Cancel!”

“Appeal denied. Dispensing penance.”

An electric shock fries my brain.

 The computer beeps. “Termination complete.”

 

Pauline Yates

Pauline Yates lives in Australia and writes horror and dark speculative fiction. Links to her publications can be found here: https://linktr.ee/paulineyates

 

The Devil’s Breath

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by Pauline Yates

 

Tossed onto a reef by a rogue wave, our pirate ship shudders, and a sickening crunch sounds our death knell. Salt burns my lungs when I gulp water, not air, then I’m back on board with my crew, peering through fog that reeks of sulphur.

“What’s that smell?”

“The Devil’s breath,” a crewmate says. “Collecting our plundering souls, he is.”

I clutch my ghostly chest. “He can take it. I never want to drown again.”

“Nay. Caught in a hell loop, I fear.” He points at the ocean. A wave swells, tossing the ship. “Brace yourself. We’re going down again.”

Pauline Yates

Pauline Yates lives in Australia and writes horror and dark speculative fiction. Links to her publications can be found here: https://linktr.ee/paulineyates

 

 

 

Drained

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by Pauline Yates

 

Desperate to stop the zombie apocalypse, the latest plague to afflict humanity, I draw my knife across Annie’s wrist and fill a bucket with her blood.

Annie sways. “Will it work?”

“It better or we’re dead.” Grabbing the bucket, I open the door and throw the blood over the advancing zombies. It’s an insane idea, but attracted to the blood, the zombies mistake their festering bodies for fresh flesh and rip themselves apart in a feeding frenzy.

“It worked,” I shout, euphoric. “Annie, they’re dead. Annie?”

Anne lies on the floor, white-faced and lifeless. No blood drips from her wrist.

Pauline Yates

Pauline Yates lives in Australia and writes horror and dark speculative fiction. Links to her publications can be found here: https://linktr.ee/paulineyates

 

 

Fallen Angels

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by  Pauline Yates

 

Mother heats the blade in the fire, but it’s the flap of monstrous wings that strikes fear into my heart.

“Will it hurt?” I whisper, scrutinizing her scarred face.

“Better to suffer a searing blade than endure the agony of being raped by a Fallen and bearing its unholy offspring. Did the Elder’s son tarnish your purity?”

“Yes. He was kind.”

“Pray his seed will also deter them. Hold still.”

She brands my cheek with the blade, ruining the beauty the Fallen desire. Biting my lip, I pray for a son so I won’t have to deface a daughter, too.

 

Pauline Yates

Pauline Yates lives in Queensland, Australia. She writes dark stories and loves bright sunrises.

https://linktr.ee/paulineyates

 

Gone Fishing

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by Pauline Yates

 

Oblivious to my predicament, Bob casts his fishing line into the marsh.

“Did you hear about that dodgy cosmetics factory,” he says. “They trialled a new hair colour on flamingos, but the birds reacted to the red dye and killed everyone. Then the birds escaped, can you believe it?”

“Ah, Bob?”

“Yeah?”

“A little help?”

I’m not sure if Bob will reach me in time, or even if he should try. A bright red flamingo eyeballs me from less than ten yards away. It’s a clever distraction. I don’t see the rest of the flock until they attack from behind.

Pauline Yates

Pauline Yates lives in Queensland, Australia. She writes dark stories and loves bright sunrises.

Website: https://linktr.ee/paulineyates

 

Dressed to Kill

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by Pauline Yates

 

“Zip me up?”

Macy stands with her back to me wearing a new dress. The exotic fabric gives her curves like Sandra’s. Have I cheated on my wife for so long I’ve forgotten how alluring she can be?

I slide up the zipper but imagine unzipping Sandra’s dress and kissing the butterfly tattoo above her left breast.

Aroused, I kiss Macy’s neck. “When did you buy this?”

“I made it myself.” Turning around, she smoothes her hands over material so translucent she appears naked. “What do you think?”

My heart stops. Above a real left breast is a butterfly tattoo.

Pauline Yates

Pauline Yates enjoys finding the light in the dark, but sometimes she just can’t. And sometimes, she doesn’t want to. Links to her published stories can be found at https://paulineyates.com/

 

Pauline Yates

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Pauline Yates is a horror and science fiction author with publications in Australia and abroad, including her award-winning debut novel, Memories Don’t Lie.

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Twice the Pleasure

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by Pauline Yates

 

I love how my lover slides his mouth down the woman’s neck. How he pauses near her jugular vein, warming his lips with heat from her racing heart. He nips her skin, teasing, her involuntary moan at the pleasure he inflicts sets fire to my cold heart. When he’s finished with her, his lips will tease me in places we share with nobody.

He glances at me, gaze sultry. “Would you like to share?”

“No need.” I sink my fangs into the neck of the man in my arms.

I’ll kiss the blood off my lover’s lips after we feed.

Pauline Yates

Pauline Yates is an Australian author of horror and speculative fiction. Her short stories appear with Midnight Echo, Metaphorosis, Redwood Press, plus others, as well as several anthologies including Mondi Incantanti, published by Riflessi di Luce Lunare (RiLL), Italy. Links to Pauline’s stories can be found at https://paulineyates.com/

 

The Connections We Keep by Pauline Yates

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Step into a world where the ties that bind—love, family, and memory—twist into something far more chilling, and discover what really lurks in the shadows of human connection.

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PUNK

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Punk—steampunk, cyberpunk, biopunk, dieselpunk—stories where technology is the main focus.

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