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Fiction - Off To See The Wild West Show Part 15 (1886: Hull, Yorkshire) By Frank Beill
	An echoing boom was coming from down deep in the bowels of the ship. Something somewhere was being repaired. The cabin was too warm and I couldn't get to sleep. I took a look through what had become my personal window on the world: the porthole above my bunk. The lights of a town twinkled like pale stars on the shimmering mirror of the narrow waters Read more...

Fiction - Welcome To Hellville - Part 13 By Rich Mills
	From: "audioally" To: "Black Star" Subject: BASF C90 tape transcribed and identified Date: 28 Nov 2040 12:09:06 Hello there, Thanks for the opportunity to investigate the origins of the BASF C90 tape that you forwarded onto me. As I understand you found this in an open box with other items, it hasn't been too badly damaged by the elements and Read more...

Fiction - Welcome To Hellville - Part 12 By Rich Mills
	"Whoa, I think I'm gonna be sick." Alan spoke the words out loud for the captive audience of one. Days of wine and roaches had taken their toll, numb now becoming a commonplace emotional placebo in uninvited preferences to those of active and creative thought processes. Clearing his head while reviewing the short dopey ramblings he'd so Read more...

Fiction - Off To See The Wild West Show Part 14 (1886: Hull, Yorkshire) By Frank Beill
	Daylight broke through the darkness like the show's arc lamps. I was back in my orphanage bed but where were George's cold feet? What were those mounds on the floor wrapped in blankets? A sniff of dank air reminded me where I was. I pulled the warm blanket around my shoulders and scrambled up on my bunk to look through the porthole. Beyond a narrow stretch of water were Read more...

Fiction - Zero and the Neighbours Part 1 - Demo version 0.1 By Joe Hakim
	Frank was one of the regulars. From the first day I started dealing poker on the tables, Frank was there. To look at, he was your typical moody old man - old in the Father Christmas sense - white hair, a huge white beard and a round gut that hung out of his shirt and over his belt. You could imagine him sat in a grotto in the bottom of Princes Quay with some mewling Read more...

Fiction - Welcome To Hellville - Part 11 By Rich Mills
	I don't know how to explain this, or if there is anything to explain. Something happened last night, but I'm not quite sure what it was, or what it means. If anything! All I can do is document it. I've been up a couple of nights, working, writing, digging through more of Alan's files. I fell asleep at some point I think, had this sharply vivid dream. Read more...

Fiction - Welcome To Hellville - Part 10 By Rich Mills
	Full ashtray, dry mouth and thoughts connected with his inordinate hunger were momentarily sidetracked by a juggling jester, the sight of which threw him off the long-winded path he'd set out on. He picked himself up, dusted himself off and looked back from whence he came. Blocking his way, being directly in front of him, as usual stood Read more...

Fiction - Off To See The Wild West Show Part 13 (1886: Hull, Yorkshire) By Frank Beill
	The custom of the Wild West Show was to camp alongside the place where it performed but this didn't happen in Hull. For one thing there wasn't enough space at the football ground but mainly it was because the stay was to be brief. Some of the performers like Buffalo Bill himself stayed in hotels in the town. My people (this was how I thought of them now) and the cowboys lodged Read more...

Fiction - Just like Eddie by Bob Spence
	I don't know exactly when I got into it but there you are. Like most lads, I suppose it was the thought of being Bristol's answer to Elvis that was some kind of inspiration. Yes that was always there in the back of my mind, but the accent never sounded quite right to be fair. Anyway. The South Deans Village Youth Club was a right place back then and we used Read more...

Fiction - Off To See The Wild West Show Part 12 (1886: Hull, Yorkshire) By Frank Beill
	Only warriors shared the glow of Red Shirt's campfire and so I was led away to join the tribe's women and children sitting around their own fires. I was starting a new life but my feelings were different from my first day in the orphanage. It was just as much a step into the unknown, maybe more but the situation wasn't the same. Today it was my decision. For the first time in my life Read more...

Fiction - Off To See The Wild West Show Part 11 (1886: Hull, Yorkshire) By Frank Beill
	We waited standing back to back, hoping this would give us some protection. The tribesmen slowly circled us, just as they would when attacking a wagon train of settlers on its way to California. Well, this is what my novel said they did. Occasionally, a warrior would prod one of us. One snatched a hair from George's head before rushing back within the group to display his strange booty. Read more...

Fiction - The Wall by Darren Sant
	Sometimes your best is just not enough. Panic stricken and panting I arrive. There it is, a fucking huge wall. An obstacle blocking my progress. A visible representation of all that I can't achieve. Nervously I look behind me. I lash out at it, kicking and punching but to no avail. It is rock solid. I jump but find it too high. I take a running jump Read more...

Fiction - Divine by Blair Ashworth
	"Mein Führer? Mein Führer?" The old man in the long grey coat was bent over the body slumped in the chair. "Give it a few more seconds, Henry," said the doctor. "Do you speak any German? It might lessen the shock." No, Henry didn't speak any German and he didn't much care about any shocks he might deliver. Behind the heavy oak chair, Read more...

Fiction - Off To See The Wild West Show Part 10 (1886: Hull, Yorkshire) By Frank Beill
	'So how are we gonna get in?' George kicked a loose stone across the street. 'We've got to circle the camp and look for a weakness in their defences. That's what Buffalo Bill would do.' I was not certain what my hero would do, but I thought my scheme had the right sound to it. 'Aye, but it's Buffalo Bill we're wanting to attack. Read more...

Fiction - Welcome To Hellville - Part 9 By Rich Mills
	The analysis of the VHS tapes have come back. Keith reports back that indeed one of the tapes did contain episodes of He-Man, along with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Inspector Gadget and Battle of the Planets. Be worth something to an animaphile out there. I will stick it on eBuy-GUM, the online Global Underground Marketplace. Read more...

Fiction - Scissors, Paper, Stone! By Bob Spence
	The Lord Nelson was your typical run-down seventies pub. The decor was in disarray, with half a mind to venerate the Royal Navy's biggest hero or to catch the eye of the potential clientele with the latest fashion. In this manner it achieved neither. Mickey was the prototype glass collector for every Read more...

Fiction - Off To See The Wild West Show Part 9 (1886: Hull, Yorkshire) By Frank Beill
	'Not seen nowt like it!' George was sitting on his favourite seat - the kitchen doorstep. 'Them horses was wonderful.' Dinner was over and most of my stew was inside him as well as his own double portion. 'But it was me father.' I was not listening and stamped my foot. Read more...

Fiction - Drowning, Swimming By Joe Hakim
	Keith sat and stared at his wife, who was holding his daughter and staring at the 28" Philips Widescreen TV situated in the corner of his house, on his laminate floor, flanked at either side by his Sony sound system and his X-Box. He was sweating and his head was throbbing - the general effects of the weekend Read more...

Fiction - Any Instructions? By Denis Price
	It wasn't the first time he'd missed the bus. From the Mess to the monitoring hangar was only a quarter of a mile walk, something he relished during the central European summer as the airbase had been carved out of heavily wooded countryside teeming with wildlife. Read more...

Fiction - Off To See The Wild West Show Part 8 (1886: Hull, Yorkshire) By Frank Beill
	Morning assembly in the hall and once again the Master's voice rang around the rafters. 'Ten children will be selected by Mr Jason from his class, ten by Mr Childs and ten by Mr Rodgers.' All hope died with these words. There was no chance of Jolly Rodgers selecting his 'little brown friend' for anything - except for Read more...

Fiction - Welcome To Hellville - Part 8 By Rich Mills
	Alan carelessly tossed the apple core in the bin next to his computer. Constructed in a moment of sheer mindless boredom, the waste-paper bin was an amalgam of newspaper strips and PVA glue, coated in a thick yellowing layer of varnish. Stuck to the outside, sandwiched in between the Read more...

Fiction - Kat Out of the Bag Chapter Ten By Steve Rudd
	As the sun rose, so did my spirits. The men before me were all aged and seemingly wise. You could just tell that all three of them had been born in this valley, and had all lived and worked there ever since. If any, or all, of them genuinely believed in a heaven, then it wouldn't be an, other-worldly place delighted by harp-twanging angels. Read more...

Fiction - Off To See The Wild West Show Part 7 (1886: Hull, Yorkshire) By Frank Beill
	The answer to my question came much sooner than expected and from an unexpected source. Before suppertime there was a surprise visitor to the orphanage. Mr John Thorne provided most of the money to set up the Hull Sailors' Children's Orphanage. He was a shipbroker, although I didn't have a clue as to what shipbroker was or did. Read more...

Fiction - Off To See The Wild West Show Part 6 (1886: Hull, Yorkshire) By Frank Beill
	Two years passed and the routine of the orphanage became my life; that is until one dinnertime -that's how we always referred to our midday mealtime. It was Tuesday and Tuesdays meant Mrs G's special meat soup with huge doorsteps of crusty bread to dip in it. There was always lots of meat - though she never said what kind - and large chunks of potato and carrot. Read more...

Fiction - Welcome To Hellville - Part 7 By Rich Mills
	I've pulled more stuff from the box-o-stuff. I now know that it belonged to someone called Alan Miro. It seems he was a student in Hellville over the end of last century. I've found diary entries, half finished essays, random rantings, emails, and all manner of fragmented files and documents that give me Read more...

Fiction - Second Chances by Nick Quantrill
	Available now, Second Chances is a crime fiction novella set in Hull that is already attracting praise from readers. Influenced by crime fiction heavyweights Ian Rankin and Hull's Robert Edric, Second Chances is set to be a great success. For a taster, see the extract reproduced below, only available Read more...

Fiction - Off To See The Wild West Show Part 5 (1886: Hull, Yorkshire) By Frank Beill
	Maybe I'm making things sound as though my new life was intolerable - especially when Jolly Rodgers was around - but the Hull Sailors' Children's Orphanage was not a prison. There were some good times too, especially when our school day was over and our duties were done. In the main we were required to keep the buildings Read more...

Fiction - Off To See The Wild West Show Part 4 (1886: Hull, Yorkshire) By Frank Beill
	My first morning in the orphanage was also the first at my new school and I was in for more surprises. Unfortunately, they were not all pleasant ones. George led me into our classroom, which was just like the one at my old school. The schoolmaster's high-legged desk dominated the front of the room while behind on the wall Read more...

Fiction - Off To See The Wild West Show Part 3 (1886: Hull, Yorkshire) By Frank Beill
	'Master Smyle! You have to take off all your clothes to have a bath!' The thick Scots accent of Mr Rodgers boomed in my ear. This man became the bane of my life. 'Jolly Rodgers' we children called him but the nickname came from the pirate flag - not from his sense of humour, if indeed he possessed one. Read more...

Fiction - Off To See The Wild West Show Part 2 (1886: Hull, Yorkshire) By Frank Beill
	'Let's have a look at you, boy.' Old Stoney stared down at me through the wire spectacles perched on the end of his nose. We were alone in his office on the other side of the little window. I was still the block of wood and he was still deciding what to make from it. Read more...

Fiction - Invasion By Bob Spence
	Moody just couldn't stop scratching. His shirt was far too stiff at the edge of the collar and the coarse material was driving him to distraction. You could also say that Moody was distracted anyway. He was waiting for a letter from his fiancee and there was none. Read more...

Fiction - Welcome To Hellville - Part 6 By Rich Mills
	Alan relaxed back from the machine and letting his head flop backwards, closed his eyes, and stared into the void at the back of his eyelids. Opening his eyes and raising his head back up to its correct position, he panned the room. Two demijohns Read more...

Fiction - Off To See The Wild West Show Part 1 (1886: Hull, Yorkshire) By Frank Beill
	Six steps up. All I could see was an entrance and no way back out again. I was only ten years old when Grandmother dragged me up the stone steps into the orphanage. 'They'll take good care of you, Sammy,' she said. I wanted to believe there was a tear Read more...