The shadow of the cloud slipping down the hillside reminded me of the chemise sweeping her hips; the pink tinge of the horizon, her modest compliance. The bright glossy red of the burgeoning hawthorn berries reprised both her lipstick and the stain upon the sheets; the gentle shower, shared tears.

Derryman Perry McDaid is currently fiction editor with Liquid Imagination and on the board of silverpen.org. Widely published, his poems, stories, reviews and articles have appeared in diverse and international magazines, anthologies, and websites. A prize-winner with short stories, poetry, and articles, the Irishman’s work can be found both in hard copy and online. He lives with his family beneath the mostly misty Donegal Hills, walking back roads where he can inhale the mystic inspiration of long-dead bards and druids to concoct the weird, wonderful, and downright disturbing.