Almost 500 people entered Grazia’s First Chapter competition in association with the Women’s Prize For Fiction – and while coronavirus restrictions delayed the usual celebrations, our winner, Abigail Moss, was announced on October 19 in a virtual ceremony.
It always starts this way, the tentative shuffle towards the edge. You stand and stare. Lateritious, brick red. Ferruginous, the colour of rust. Dare yourself to stare a little longer. Kermes, a red dye derived from beetles. Just a little longer. Haematic. You lean forward while pushing your weight back, see the spiny edges of a hardy desert shrub clinging to a rocky outcrop beneath you. Step away when the primal pull becomes too strong. When your fingertips get that vertigo tingle.
His voice, his lies, come to you through the darkness sometimes. An imagined sound, of course, but for a moment, enough to make you sit up in bed, fumble for a lamp, stare around you with your heart pounding. This isn’t real. You repeat your mantra. This isn’t real. You left, you escaped. They can’t follow you here.
Other members of the group have spoken out in support of The Collective. Twenty-year old John Barnes described the commune as ‘a utopia, a beautiful place’. However, experts have expressed concerns over the group. “Celeste, as I said to you, I’ve had the children 3 times this week already. Your toy boy can wait. If I don’t get this contract out to the client today I might lose the project. I can’t lose this client.”
Bella had loved Henry from moment her parents brought him from the hospital, but this made her feel particularly close to her little brother.But perhaps not without a break or two. This she had to do. Last year, she was not tall nor old enough to ride the roller coaster, and the funfair only came around once a year. She was tall for her age. Her classmates were not allowed on when they tried a couple of days ago. That was a nice thing about having a mum who used to be a model.
The machines whirred into gear and she could feel herself being pulled back to the Base. She had so many questions that needed answering. But the only one that mattered was: How could she go back there? But that was against Cardinal Rule Two: you cannot go to the same place twice.I tried to get her to stop, but she was hooked on it like a drug and I let her go one more time. It was the possibility of the truth; always another time to try, another place. ‘I’ll find proof,’ she said. ‘For her.
WomensPrize Congratulations on your win, Abigail, and to runners-up Sun Hee and Laura as well. It's quite an accomplishment to have your work chosen from among 500+ entries! It was interesting to read the different versions each writer came up with, and they all made me want to read more!
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