Liz Churchill

He’s racing to catch up with his mum when he spots leopard skin between the wheelie-bins. It’s well past his bedtime, well into the meat of the evening but curiosity stops him dead. The shape is roaring softly, red talons scuffing against the plastic. He looks down, sees toes trapped, heels raked up on spikes. Her head is dipped.

Sensing him, she spits then turns, retching, recovering. Their eyes meet and he clocks her expression – alarmed, caught. A bell rings between them. Last Monday, she called him wild and sat him in the naughty corner. 

Liz Churchill is a new writer based in Birmingham, UK. She has a short story in ‘Unmute’ an ebook anthology published by Comma Press. She has been longlisted several times in the Retreat West monthly micro fiction competition and reached the final 50 for the Brick Lane Bookshop Short Story Prize 2020. She can be found on Twitter as: @LillabetRose