SURREAL, SUPERNATURAL, PARANORMAL, TRANSCENDENTAL, UNCANNY?

The Axe: The desolate Australian outback is not a place to become stranded without water. Is it the stone axe which leads the desperate man to think he has been saved? Or is it all in his mind and is death creeping up silently?Alfredo: Is it possible to place a curse on a violin, a curse which will hunt down the members of just one family?

The Crossbow: The rice paddies of Lijiang, high in the mountains of Yunnan Province, hide a secret. Is the fear real, or only visible to those with the power to see?The Mist: The becalmed yacht drifts into a misty haze in the hour before dawn, gliding into the raging fires of an oily hell of wartime death and destruction. A wounded sailor in the water fights for his life. Is it now, today, the new millennium, or is it really the 24th May 1944?

The Bed: A marriage needs a bed. It needs more than just a mattress laid out on a bedroom floor. But will the old iron bed, a piece of junk spurned by everyone else, provide the rest and comfort that is so necessary to a marriage?

Short stories from the prize-winning author of The Crying Stones.