They had left their accustomed haunts long ago: the Drydocks, the police force, various government departments. For the past three or four decades they had gathered here daily, without fail, watching the flimsy metal tables outside the Bombardier Bar disintegrate into rust beneath their bottles of Hopleaf or Blue Label. They had learnt the rhythms [...]
Part One Part Three Part Four Arrabella stared at the blank wall with growing frustration. She looked at the tramp, who was lying still on the sofa. His head was tilted back, his eyes were closed and his mouth was wide open. The golden crown he had been wearing had fallen onto the floor. For [...]
Part One The little boy with the blue balloon for a head bobbed across the orange line that was the end of the world, beyond which none had as yet dared venture. Pearl watched him go and wondered whether anyone would remember to tug the string that was his only hope of returning to earth, [...]
One day I lost something very small, and after that I just kept losing things: small change which I dumped into my back pocket; the ring I basically never took off my finger; a fork which I could have sworn was in my hand just a second before. I bit painfully, into thin air, my [...]
Read Part 1 Read Part 3 Read Part 4 Read Part 5 – Conclusion When the van finally stopped, Joey was roughly manhandled out the back and pushed over and over, until he was thrown onto a chair. Someone ripped the bag off his head, scratching his nose and forehead in the process. The room [...]
It was in the words of the peanut that he pledged allegiance. That and the grapefruit. His pantheon was varied, and he intended to keep on adding as the weave of life grew more complex. His shrines were housed in the basement. Him being only 13 years of age, and bound to his parent’s law [...]
Halfway between Basel and Trieste all the passengers felt a brief but sickening jolt, as if the train had broken free of the rails and was careening through the air in an ill-fated dash at escape. For a single suspended moment they all held their breath, waiting for the inevitable crash, the shuddering metal. As [...]
The Schlock team have been working tirelessly over the past week on its second quarterly edition – The Malta issue, hitting the web on June 5th with an eclectic mix of writing in and about the tiny limestone isle which is home to its key contributors. International readers needn’t be shy, however, as the writing [...]
Part One Part Two Seconds stretched out so it seemed as though an hour had passed since he had spoken. The old man leaned forward, one blood covered hand steadying himself against the chipboard partition. Silence filled the room, it coiled around her. Arrabella felt herself move backwards. She took three involuntary steps towards the [...]
Taken from Demons of the Maltese Islands by Lady Alfreda Frankswealth (1963) Written accounts of this entity are sparse, which of course only makes the case more interesting for its peculiarity. Traditionally, the Shrieking Satan, or ix-Xitan Wer?ieq as the locals call it, is believed to be a dark entity which sporadically appears outside the [...]
