Tag: noir
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THE ASCENT OF A MAN
The room spun around him as he lurched to the bottom of the staircase. He swore it had been straight the last time he had been here, now it spiraled upwards, a seemingly insurmountable obstacle. With one hand he gripped the banister, the other held his side, failing to stem the flow of oozing blood.…
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P IS FOR PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
A STORY OF PERESTROIKA IN CZECHOSLOVAKIA (now the CZECH REPUBLIC) ‘My old friend,’ he greeted Phillips with an enthusiastic hug as he had always done. Phillips returned the gesture before resuming his seat. Přemysl took the seat opposite him. They sat facing out from the small coffee shack, looking at the pond and the green park…
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J IS FOR JYVÄSKYLÄ, FINLAND
A STORY OF JEOPARDY IN JYVÄSKYLÄ Jyväskylä is the Athens of Finland, so they say, due to its role as an educational centre. It was the name given to it in the The Kalevala, the epic poem of collected folk lore and songs by Elias Lönnrot that is considered the national epic of Finland. Juriitta was…
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EMBERS
Specks of dancing light floated through the dark sky, borne from the dying fire. There was no more firewood in the barren mountain landscape. It would not take long for the cold to achieve its conquest. Phillips had no choice but to move, to stay in the same place was to die. How much more…
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AFTERMATH
Pale skin made her standout. Too many heads turned in her direction. Assassinations make people suspicious. Years of civil war did that to a country. The heat was heavy and oppressive. The hotel, a ramshackle construction of tin roofs and wooden struts, teetering on collapse. The receptionist, red lips and false eyelashes, eyed her as…
Iain Kelly 