Worthing Flash

Mother Halloween Camp is awful. No one likes me and they're all horrible, anyway. Dad's old RAF sleeping bag is enormous. I look more like Sherpa Tensing than a 12-year-old. Sometimes I think you must hate me. Also, that bite I received from the huge red centipede has taken root. This morning I woke up really early and found myself outside the tent. I must've wriggled outside during the night. Please collect me at 4pm by the woods. My shiny forcipules keep twitching and I'm worried I might start biting soon. Biting parents doesn't count. Regards Pinky   by Sukie Shinn

'Look at him sitting there so quietly. Honestly, he's a credit to you. He really is. What's he painting?' The little boy's face is fixed in concentration – his dark eyebrows furrowed with intent. 'Butterflies', his mum replies, pride swelling up within her chest. 'He's so talented. His watercolours are so realistic! How does he manage it?' Now standing next to the little boy, his mum's acquaintance notices the card from which he is copying and sees the pinned live butterfly - its powdery wings still vaguely fluttering. 'Adolf!', his mum calls. 'Show the nice lady how you do it.'  Sukie’s micro fiction has appeared in ‘Made in Shoreditch’ and ‘Memento Mori’. As well as scribing short (pretty dark) pieces of fiction, Sukie also writes and performs spoken word, as well as the occasional comedy character, in and around London. She won 2 nd  prize in the Open Pen poetry competition, has been longlisted for Flash 500 and the Bedford...