Sheere felt the cold touch of snow on her cheeks and opened her eyes. Her brother Ben was cradling her, gently stroking her face.
'What's this, Ben?'
'It's snow,' he replied. 'It's snowing over Calcutta.'
The girl's face lit up for a moment.
'Have I ever told you what my dream is?'
'To see snow... [continue to read »]
And that sudden image of vulnerability, which Ben glimpsed for only a few seconds, seemed more horrifying than any of the previous incarnations of the tormented spectre, because in that image, in that face consumed by pain and fire, Ben could no longer see the spirit of a murderer, only the sad... [continue to read »]
The evanescent silhouette of a woman swathed in spectral light slowly bent over the bed in which Ben was sleeping. Each time, I struggled to keep my eyes open and thought I could see the lady stroking my friend's face in a maternal way. (...)
I always imagined that the vision I saw was the... [continue to read »]
As for me, there's not much to tell. Just call me Ian. I had only one dream, and it was a modest one: to study medicine and become a doctor. Fate was good to me and I was granted that wish. [continue to read »]
That same day, I'll return to the Gare du Nord station and take a train to Normandy, just as I did ten years ago. I know you'll be waiting for me and that I'll recognise you among the crowd, as I would even if a thousand years had passed. I've known that for a long time now. [continue to read »]
She walked in the direction of the voice. Gradually, her eyes made out the outline of a person sitting in an armchair. Lazarus. But there was something odd about his face. Simone stopped.
'It's a mask,' he said.
'Why?' she asked. The calm she had experienced earlier was rapidly abandoning her... [continue to read »]
'What is this thing? What is it we've seen?' asked Ismael.
Lazarus looked at him intently.
'It's me... That thing you've seen is me...' [continue to read »]
She gazed at the undersea fauna until she had to come up for air.
'Keep doing that and you'll grow a tail, like a mermaid,' said Ismael.
She winked at him, then kissed him in the dim light.
'Perhaps I already am a mermaid,' she whispered, swimming further inside the cave. [continue to read »]
It's ours, it is the ink of our pact. You placed inside me your initial, which I awaited intact. I will give it a body and a name. [continue to read »]
We spent the rest of the journey in silence. When I got home I went straight up to the flat, took a long hot shower and swallowed four aspirins. Then I lowered the blinds and, hugging a pillow that smelled of Bea, fell asleep like the idiot I was, wondering where she was - that woman for whom I... [continue to read »]