By: everylittlething Lex felt the bitter air squeeze his throat as he watched the electric night far above him. The party was in full swing behind him and he turned his back on the light and attempted to shut out the noise. The smell of woodsmoke relaxed him. Someone had an open fire. How cosy that…
Category: Archive
Welcome to The Shiver Vaults: archived posts, from 2009 to 2018, still published on the ShiverWriggle website. The vast majority of archived posts are no longer published on the ShiverWriggle website. If you’re looking for something specific that you can’t find here, get in touch.
Cuckoo
By: everylittlething The small child stopped as she caught sight of a vehicle parked in front of her home. It wasn’t her father’s car. It wasn’t her aunt’s. In fact it was quite different from anything she had seen before – either with or without wheels. She knew that she should have been home earlier. She…
Peer Pressure
By: Hugin Marguerite looked down at the cake in front of her. It was about six centimetres tall with a diameter of around twenty centimetres, cloaked in thick, rich butter-cream with a thin drizzle of syrupy jam across some of the top. All of these things Marguerite loved, but here they were on a fruit and nut…
Violet
By: everylittlething Violetta Clarice Persephone Berringham-Jones was aware that she could never be in films. There was not a great deal to recommend her for such a career. Her mother had told her so. She looked into the mirror regularly to see if things might have changed. They didn’t change much. Violetta came from…
Wildflower
By: everylittlething The young man stood on the moss which covered the path to his new home. It felt supportive and warm. This whole experience felt warm and safe. After months of negotiating and double checking and signing and organising people, now he felt truly safe. Maybe the house was in dire need of…
Butterfly
By: everylittlething Jenny stared at the stunningly beautiful woman sitting opposite. She seemed to be in another world – of a different time. Verdum, verdum, verdum . . . the train was pulled rhythmically through the May morning. Steady cows and their wondering calves accepted this intrusion of their peace and stability. “They can’t…
A Recipe for Peace
By: Hugin The first fall of snowflakes in Winter, The soft warmth of the Summer sun, The first fruit to be picked in Autumn, The cobweb perfectly spun. The skipping firstborn lamb of the Spring, The first carol at Christmastide, The first note of a bird’s sweet love song, Winter’s first Snowdrop espied. The…
Kingfisher
By: everylittlething Polly watched as the little bird zipped through the trees in front of the car. The trees had been planted when her two children were tiny and it seemed special to her that this king of fishers was using them as camouflage to get from the pond to the river. How useful…
I Know Him Not
By: Hugin I had known him long ago. Too long ago to think of now – in truth it was a lifetime ago. I had laughed with him, drank with him, travelled with him… he had always been there. But paths split and fork to form different directions that must be followed and now……
The Day the Scarecrow Moved
By: Dr E.W. Gordon I was walking along, thinking of nothing in particular. It was an odd day but I couldn’t pinpoint why, things just seemed somehow out of balance. The sun was high yet the temperature was unseasonably chilly. I was flanked by a vicious pincer movement of arable boredom. Even the hedges…