Season 2, Episode 29: It Was Supposed To Be a Joke

A impressionist image of a figure walking down a curved tunnel of trees. Across the top in yellow block caps, "DRABBLETOBER".

Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober Season 2. This is episode 29 for Wednesday the twenty-ninth of October, 2025.

It Was Supposed To Be a Joke

by Elizabeth Guilt

Typical slow Thursday, and a short man slunk up to the counter. 

"I'm here about the poster."

Great. Steven's latest hobby is designing ornate prank - obviously prank - flyers.

"Oh? Need a unicorn groomed, do you?"

"No. I want to part-exchange my kraken. Do you remove the old one when you deliver?"

"Seriously?"

"Mine's useless. Sluggish, pale, tentacles scarred to buggery."

"It's not..."

"Can't charge tourists a few grand to slay a beast that won't fight."

"Slay?"

"They all think they're Sir Galahad. None of 'em survived so far, but.."

"You killed..."

"I need a new kraken. What are your terms?"

Recently, I was walking through Sheffield with friends and we saw a shop-window advert offering money off what the internet calls "a very well-known brand of rectangular backpack". Someone misread it, and thus the part-exchange kraken was born.

Season 2, Episode 28: The Lady of the Floor

A impressionist image of a figure walking down a curved tunnel of trees. Across the top in yellow block caps, "DRABBLETOBER".

Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober Season 2. This is episode 28 for Tuesday the twenty-eighth of October, 2025.

The Lady of the Floor

by Elizabeth Guilt

I opened the vacpack of mineral oil, and thumbed a smear across the floor.

"Lady."

Conversation stopped. My new teammates burst out laughing. 

"What?"

"You don't..."

"He still thinks..."

The foreman leaned over. "Look, kid. We're adults, building..." he gestured around the hangar, "space shuttles. We run the tightest shop floor in the western galaxy. We don't believe in fairies. We don't pour libations for imaginary gods."

I straightened up. "I've seen..."

"You've seen older apprentices playing tricks. Holoprojections. Cheap effects."

I fell to my knees, clapping hands over my ears. The Lady of the Floor would have no mercy.

Season 2, Episode 27: All Medical Staff Should Be Briefed In Local Legends

A impressionist image of a figure walking down a curved tunnel of trees. Across the top in yellow block caps, "DRABBLETOBER".

Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober Season 2. This is episode 27 for Monday the twenty-seventh of October, 2025.

All Medical Staff Should Be Briefed In Local Legends

by Elizabeth Guilt

Helen had her coat on when the junior tapped on her door.

"Doctor? Sorry. The little girl... Her broken legs... They're..."

"They're what?"

"They're... Mending. In huge solid lumps."

"Where was she found?"

"Romsdal somewhere, her injuries..."

"Where exactly?"

"I don't know, maybe Trolldalen?"

Helen ran to the ward. 

"Stop treatment immediately!" 

She brushed aside colleagues, and held out a shaking hand. 

"I'll take you home."

The patient slid out of bed, knees making grinding noises as she limped.

Helen coaxed her into the car and, later, watched her swarm straight up the rocks, back to her father's stony court.

Trolldalen is a real place in Norway - it means "the troll valley". I visited this summer, and it's beautiful. As far as I'm aware, though, baby trolls being mistaken for human children there is just something I made up.

Season 2, Episode 26: Making a Myth

A impressionist image of a figure walking down a curved tunnel of trees. Across the top in yellow block caps, "DRABBLETOBER".

Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober Season 2. This is episode 26 for Sunday the twenty-sixth of October, 2025.

Making a Myth

by Elizabeth Guilt

Mara sits where she's told, and the engineer places the cap on her newly-shaved head. He tinkers briefly, and they all come swaying sinuously to life. The cap's sensors read tiny movements in Mara's scalp muscles, track signals from her optic nerve. When she looks left, so do the snakes. When she smiles, the snakes relax; when she frowns, they rear.

"Woah,' says the engineer. "That works really good! I'll take it off..."

"No.'

He reaches for the cap, and seventy snakes bare their fangs.

He knows they're not real. But Mara's snarl, haloed with furious snakes, freezes him rigid.

Season 2, Episode 25: Oooh, Look, Breadcrumbs!

A impressionist image of a figure walking down a curved tunnel of trees. Across the top in yellow block caps, "DRABBLETOBER".

Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober Season 2. This is episode 25 for Saturday the twenty-fifth of October, 2025.

Oooh, Look, Breadcrumbs!

by Elizabeth Guilt

I was jamming my earbud back in when the world stopped.

His cloak was grey, mostly, with a greasy green-purple sheen. His boney face was pointed. In his hand, a sharp... Well, I didn't want to think about that. 

"You're lucky," he said, voice softly bubbling. 

"Lucky?" My bike lay crushed under a taxi, one wheel spinning gently.

"You're in my kingdom: the City of London. You can choose: oblivion, or a second, tiny life."

Some choice. "Doesn't everyone choose life?"

His head bobbed. The world span behind me, buildings loomed taller.

I strutted away to peck with my flock.

Season 2, Episode 24: Day's Orders

A impressionist image of a figure walking down a curved tunnel of trees. Across the top in yellow block caps, "DRABBLETOBER".

Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober Season 2. This is episode 24 for Friday the twenty-fourth of October, 2025.

Day’s Orders

by Elizabeth Guilt

"Sir!"

"What's that?"

"Sir, Duty Shitehawk reporting for orders, Sir!"

"More like it. Roost easy."

"Sir."

"Today's roster: harbour wall. Principal lookout, ten till three. Keep your eyes peeled, we've had reports of Morris dancers in the area. Our intel says there should be a line of them wearing dark colours around noon. Strafe at will. 

"Three till five, surprise chip inspections. Toddlers have been underrepped recently, so try to take your samples from them.

"Final hour, unnecessary screaming. All clear?"

"Clear as sand."

"Less of your beak! For that, two early shifts: jumping up and down on roof tiles."

My family invariably refers to seagulls as shitehawks.

You're not allowed to register boats with names that might be considered offensive, but when I was little there was a boat registered in Whitby harbour called Shy Talk. It's still one of my favourite boat names.

Season 2, Episode 23: Ice Cubs

A impressionist image of a figure walking down a curved tunnel of trees. Across the top in yellow block caps, "DRABBLETOBER".

Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober Season 2. This is episode 23 for Thursday the twenty-third of October, 2025.

Ice Cubs

by Elizabeth Guilt

Ice cubs crawled from the bay this morning. It's been a decade - we used to see them most years.

We've set up the perimeter. People will ignore it. Ice cubs are not bears - but they're not not bears, either. They glitter, like diamonds. They're really cute.

Scientists are the worst, all "pushing boundaries" and "furthering knowledge". Last time, one approached the cubs. Things were brief and very, very red.

The ice cubs will leave in a week or so. My grandfather always said they climb into the mountains and become glaciers. 

Perhaps they do. We don't need to know everything.

Season 2, Episode 22: Same Old, Same Old

A impressionist image of a figure walking down a curved tunnel of trees. Across the top in yellow block caps, "DRABBLETOBER".

Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober Season 2. This is episode 22 for Wednesday the twenty-second of October, 2025.

Same Old, Same Old

by Elizabeth Guilt

Trudy wakes up on her birthday, and groans. Fifty! She makes her morning tea, and wonders how this happened. Fifty? She's never been to Venice. Never ridden a motorbike. Never eaten alfalfa sprouts.

What even is an alfalfa sprout? An hour later she is deep in articles about home sprouting, wondering whether she still has those old Mason jars and whether she would really need mesh lids. Some people recommended cotton instead...

Trudy slams her laptop shut. This. This is how it happened. She digs out the number she saved, months ago, and calls it. She books a motorbike lesson.

When, in the far future, schoolkids write essays about the decline of civilisation in the mid twenty-first century, I can't help feeling that our almost ubiquitous ability to waste time on the internet is going to be right up there in the "causes" section.

But for the record, I quite like alfalfa sprouts.

Season 2, Episode 21: The Light of Your Life

A impressionist image of a figure walking down a curved tunnel of trees. Across the top in yellow block caps, "DRABBLETOBER".

Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober Season 2. This is episode 21 for Tuesday the twenty-first of October, 2025.

The Light of Your life

by Elizabeth Guilt

I only remember two things from visiting my Auntie: her beautiful lamp and the way my uncle would sit, inert, mouth constantly twitching. A stroke, I guess, but no-one told kids anything back then.

Benny visited the day after I discovered Auntie left me the lamp.

"How does it work?"

"Dunno. I tried a candle, it turned the glass black. Coffee?"

"Please."

Minutes later, he had it shining.

"Wow, that's..."

Benny stared fixedly ahead, lips mumbling soundlessly.

Just like my uncle.

When I smashed the lamp, the glow leaked back into him.

Within minutes, he'd recovered enough to start screaming.

Season 2, Episode 20: Small God

A impressionist image of a figure walking down a curved tunnel of trees. Across the top in yellow block caps, "DRABBLETOBER".

Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober Season 2. This is episode 20 for Monday the twentieth of October, 2025.

Small God

by Elizabeth Guilt

The thing you remember about him isn't how he died. It isn't his bass-playing - did he play bass? - or his failed businesses. It certainly isn't the three lawsuits that were pending when his car spun off the road and over the cliff.

You remember the photograph of him, the one that won all the awards.

He holds his bare arms aloft, lasers glancing off his dark skin, dreadlocks swirling around him. You can almost feel the pounding beat, the roar of the crowd.

He stands; a warrior on the speaker stack.

Indomitable.

Powerful.

And that's what you will always remember.

Human memory is a weird and capricious thing. I find it fascinating the way we can sometimes latch onto a single image of a person, or an event, and forget almost every other detail.

Season 2, Episode 19: The Way Forward Is Back

A impressionist image of a figure walking down a curved tunnel of trees. Across the top in yellow block caps, "DRABBLETOBER".

Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober Season 2. This is episode 19 for Sunday the nineteenth of October, 2025.

The Way Forward Is Back

by Elizabeth Guilt

The man stalks around, wand in hand. He stops and throws his arms wide.

"Here! I sense a foul presence."

Kimberley stares at her feet. She doesn't feel foul.

She leaves before the man has lit his candles. It was her house, once, but she's not welcome now.

Outside is bright, and noisy. She winces. It's been so long since she left the room where she was murdered.

She drifts, clinging to the shade of alleyways, following a half-forgotten route to somewhere safe, comforting.

She flies through concrete walls and settles into the quiet dark of the abandoned school library.

As you may know from previous episodes, when it comes to classic scare stories I'm usually Team Monster all the way. I do worry about where ghosts go when they get exorcised.

Season 2, Episode 18: Journey To A New You

A impressionist image of a figure walking down a curved tunnel of trees. Across the top in yellow block caps, "DRABBLETOBER".

Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober Season 2. This is episode 18 for Saturday the eighteenth of October, 2025.

Journey To a New You

by Elizabeth Guilt

The train screams in, and she grips her ticket. Passengers crane to read the station sign. It says Discombobulate. Only one person stumbles off, giggling, and the platform-crowd surges aboard.

Doors hiss closed. Her stomach drops as they shoot into sunshine, gliding round bends, wheels springy over complicated junctions.

She reads the name of the next station, Unfurling , and wonders if she likes it. There is no map. People alight, others swirl into the carriage. The stations roll by: Brilliant. Lightning. Indolence . At each she wonders: is this mine?

The train halts at Inspiration. She knows. This is her stop.

Season 2, Episode 17: The Long Viewing

A impressionist image of a figure walking down a curved tunnel of trees. Across the top in yellow block caps, "DRABBLETOBER".

Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober Season 2. This is episode 17 for Friday the seventeenth of October, 2025.

The Long Viewing

by Elizabeth Guilt

"I'm freezing."

"Yeah."

"And my feet are soaked. Can you light a fire?"

"Not in wet woodland, in a foot of snow. No."

"But you're outdoorsy, don't you have waterproof matches or something?"

"Sure, when I know I'm going hiking. Today, I've got some gum, a paperclip, and a slimline volume of Seamus Heaney."

"Poetry? Were you trying to impress a girl?"

"Shut up."

"Anyway, I'm freezing."

"So, turn round. Go back to that shitty flatshare in Croydon."

"No way! This is an adventure. One thing, though."

"What?"

"Do you think the estate agent is still waiting outside that wardrobe?"

Season 2, Episode 16: Two Recipes Found in my Grandmother's Cupboard After Her Death, South Coast of Cornwall, England

A impressionist image of a figure walking down a curved tunnel of trees. Across the top in yellow block caps, "DRABBLETOBER".

Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober Season 2. This is episode 16 for Thursday the sixteenth of October, 2025.

Two Recipes Found in my Grandmother's Cupboard After Her Death, South Coast of Cornwall, England

by Elizabeth Guilt

The Lighthouse

One measure of good brandy. If unavailable, substitute whisky. But not rum. Never rum.

Add chopped fruit - strawberries if you can find them. Or raspberries. They will have had enough of lime juice.

Raise to the light. Let it shine, so that the glow will call them home.

Swirl, and serve.

The Siren

As above, but omit the fruit.

Add instead honey, all sweetness, and sing to them from the darkest cliff. Comb out your hair, until your reflection gleams in the surface.

Double the brandy, if you want them to abandon their senses.

Serve.

On the rocks.

Today is the sixteenth, so I thought we'd mark the halfway-point of Drabbletober with a slightly unusual drabble. Let me know what your favourite story is so far!

Season 2, Episode 15: You Do What You Have To To Get By

A impressionist image of a figure walking down a curved tunnel of trees. Across the top in yellow block caps, "DRABBLETOBER".

Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober Season 2. This is episode 15 for Wednesday the fifteenth of October, 2025.

You Do What You Have To To Get By

by Elizabeth Guilt

Bella put the remains of the ham in the cellar, and tidied crumbs from the table. Life was easier, now, and she was grateful.

The man who came to the door had a kind smile, but guilty eyes.

"Anthony?"

"Don't you remember me?"

"You left years ago. The money ran out. I almost starved."

He looked round the room - modest, but comfortable - and his face fell.

"Oh, Bella, you didn't... Did you hate me that much?"

"Don't be foolish. You know the Grey Merchants don't buy unhappiness. My memories of you were the only valuable thing I had to sell."

Season 2, Episode 14: What Fools These Mortals Be

A impressionist image of a figure walking down a curved tunnel of trees. Across the top in yellow block caps, "DRABBLETOBER".

Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober Season 2. This is episode 14 for Tuesday the fourteenth of October, 2025.

What Fools These Mortals Be

by Elizabeth Guilt

Hersh's eyelids flutter, hands clenching and twisting. Hersh is - allegedly - the best, a hot-shot consultant, but it's been hours since he passed wetware security and jammed cables into his spine.

And the systems are still down. Heda checks, repeatedly, feeling like he's missing something.

"Hey... new boy. Err... Ike? Get coffee."

Down at street-level, Ike hugs himself and grins. He's grinned like that since he teased sabre-tooth tigers, since he baited centurions. He throws away the name Ike. He grinned before people gave him names.

"You know the best bit?" he asks the barista. "These days, no-one believes I exist.'

Season 2, Episode 13: Grandmother's Legacy

A impressionist image of a figure walking down a curved tunnel of trees. Across the top in yellow block caps, "DRABBLETOBER".

Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober Season 2. This is episode 13 for Monday the thirteenth of October, 2025.

Grandmother’s Legacy

by Elizabeth Guilt

"Should get a few for the table..."

"Think that might be Chippendale..."

The lump in Amy's throat swells. She hides, where she always did, in the dining room - though they'll be in here soon enough, bickering over the silver.

She opens the cabinet, and smiles through tears. Forks - a dozen large, a dozen small - nestle in rows. Amy strokes their blue velvet, enjoying their beautiful orderliness. The way she always did. She admires the polished knives, then slides the panel to reveal soup spoons - and an envelope.

"Darling Amy,

I know you will find this..."

She hugs the letter tightly.

Season 2, Episode 12: It’s Not Just About Your DNA

A impressionist image of a figure walking down a curved tunnel of trees. Across the top in yellow block caps, "DRABBLETOBER".

Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober Season 2. This is episode 12 for Sunday the twelfth of October, 2025.

It’s Not Just About Your DNA

by Elizabeth Guilt

I peer into the shaving mirror. That spot's got larger; it's now an angry red dash across my forehead. I poke at it. The skin breaks, with a thin, hard glint.

This used to happen to Dad. A bar fight, he said. Someone shoved him headfirst into a stack of pint jugs. Years later, when I was born, splinters of glass were still working their way out.

They always said I was my father's son. I have his quick temper, his broad fists.

The tiny scratch of glass falls into the sink. I wash it away, just like he did.

Little splinters of this story are true. When I was a kid, glass really did come out of my Dad's forehead occasionally. He's the nicest man in the world, and he ended up with a faceful of glass in a car accident. One of the things he passed on to me is a lifelong belief in seatbelts.

Season 2, Episode 11: The Eater of Secrets

A impressionist image of a figure walking down a curved tunnel of trees. Across the top in yellow block caps, "DRABBLETOBER".

Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober Season 2. This is episode 11 for Saturday the eleventh of October, 2025.

The Eater of Secrets

by Elizabeth Guilt

Mrs Tindall makes them stay behind, because no-one will admit breaking the window. When Hannah gets home the house is shaking.

Her mum slumps, despairing. "I've nothing left. You go up."

Hannah climbs the attic stairs, slowly, and whispers through the hatch.

"Jamie kicked his football through the window."

Now everyone will know about Jamie. She's used to the guilt.

The shaking doesn't stop. She tries again.

"Lily isn't really Sarah's friend."

Everything shakes so hard the roof screeches.

"When Daddy's working late, he actually goes to Auntie Helen's."

The house settles immediately. From the kitchen comes a single scream.

Season 2, Episode 10: I'm Bigger Than You

A impressionist image of a figure walking down a curved tunnel of trees. Across the top in yellow block caps, "DRABBLETOBER".

Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober Season 2. This is episode 10 for Friday the tenth of October, 2025.

I’m Bigger Than You

by Elizabeth Guilt

As a kid, it was always her brother. The threat was explicit - and followed up with physical demonstrations.

The same threat hid, discreetly, behind her teachers' words. Later, it threaded through drunken conversations in bars, in unwanted offers of help or a lift home.

She sits in the boardroom, and feels it oozing - again, still - from the investors, from the chairman, even from the junior insurance guy. She clinches the deal anyway. She wins. It doesn't help. She is so tired.

She books the appointments: bone expansion, femur and spine extensions, muscle bulking. Under "goals", she writes impossibly high numbers.

In my day job, I work in a very male-dominated environment. I'm also very lucky: I have smart colleagues who don't make this an issue. But despite - in this country - decades of legislation, equality is not a done deal. My hot take is that size and physical strength is a big part of this.