Today is the day Winnie the Pooh’s creator, A.A. Miller, was born.

Like Pooh. teddy bears can be a cute source of comfort – or conflict.

Some things are meant to be contained

🧸🔒🕊️

That bear. Tousled brown hair that reeked of alcohol, scattered over the floor. The source of intermittent, needless angst in the Lee family for decades. SIbling rivalry. Accusations of bias.

It had been discussed forever, and divided a home it shouldn’t have. It was never just a toy. 

A brown polar bear.

Ben Lee finally had enough of drama, petty trifles, and discomfiting sarcasm.

Without anyone’s consent or reopening arguments, Ben carried the bear with the care needed to handle a pipe bomb. He placed it in the storeroom, under lock and key. 

Without explanation or thought for any nuclear fallout.

The home responded at once, with a peace that arrived almost too quickly.

But Peace became a permanent resident in the Lee family. Old tensions faded, blending into the white walls of the home. And the Lee family welcomed Him.

Silence doused the Lee dinner table. But it wasn’t the silence of tension or dissent.

It was ordered quiet, one not fused with family drama. 

Cecila, Ben’s sister, nudged him quietly. “Those two – ” she tipped her head surreptitiously to their parents – “would have split if that grizzly wasn’t in storage.”

The brown teddy had been the vessel of conflict and chaos. It bore the words that were blades and power it never should have wielded.

Ben nodded, watching his parents exchange huge servings of chicken and prawns. 

The bear’s angst remained contained, its symbolism undeserving of space.

Removal wasn’t disposal – it was care. Peace hadn’t come from complete understanding – perhaps it never would.

But distance had ended debate. Choice had invited its presence.

🧸🔒🕊️

Original story of Michelle Liew-Kwek Tsui-Lin. AI tags are coincidental.

If you like this story, do join me on Patreon! Buy this blog a coffee — it keeps the words flowing and the lights Your kind donation via Paypal would be greatly appreciated!

Please find a book of my horror microfiction, Echoes in the Dark, free for download here.

Envy may linger, but it does not decide what enters.

🌑🚪

Before Envy comes –

🌑🚪

Your chest stretches, 

A little taut.

You start to watch someone’s hundreds –

And his naughts –

Against your own. 

Little signs, not failures,

To note. 

🌑🚪

Then pause. 

Your life

Needs no ruler

Against his length. 

His shadow does not close

Your door.

🌑🚪

Call his name. 

Note the length 

Of your own shadow-

Long enough.

No need

To compete.

🌑🚪

His shadow

Does not rise

To conquer.

Does not grab

Your gain.

Give thanks. 

🌑🚪

Envy’s shadow

Persists.

But your door

Can close

And lock.

Your shadow –

Not perfectly aligned-

But formed. 

🌑🚪

Original poem by Michelle Liew Tsui-Lin. AI tags are coincidental

If you like this story, do join me on Patreon! Buy this blog a coffee — it keeps the words flowing and the lights Your kind donation via Paypal would be greatly appreciated!

Please find a book of my horror microfiction, Echoes in the Dark, free for download here.

Today is the International Day of Nothing…when we mark the necessity of a little silence.

Emptiness and space are as important as thought.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder. We need space.

Nothing is on the ascendant.

🕯️⬛🕰️⬛🕯️

An empty house, a quiet street,

Where no birds flew and the wind failed to greet

The clocks did pause, its ticks unsure

The world held its breath, the stillness queer.

🕯️⬛🕰️⬛🕯️

Shadows stayed, a touch too long

Visions looming by eye’s edge

Its soul empty, bareness strong

Its cold breath cuts, a razor’s blade.

🕯️⬛🕰️⬛🕯️

Its quiet surges, wraps and swallows

A chair, now gone, a lamp now blown

Its hunger triumphs, a new gallow 

Nothing ascends its blackened throne.

🕯️⬛🕰️⬛🕯️

When the day was finally done

Blackness stayed, the light now gone

Nothing’s soul had triumphed – won

A well-deserved, though unseen throne.

🕯️⬛🕰️⬛🕯️

Original poem by Michelle Liew Tsui-Lin. AI tags are coincidental.

If you like this story, do join me on Patreon! Buy this blog a coffee — it keeps the words flowing and the lights Your kind donation via Paypal would be greatly appreciated!

Please find a book of my horror microfiction, Echoes in the Dark, free for download here.

Sometimes, restraint is the loudest truth.

💻⌛📝🤔🕊️🌊⚖️

At 10:45 p.m., Mavis reread the email for the umpteenth time. Every word bore truth. Events and witness statements. The credit unfairly claimed, the bribes stealthily offered, apologies that were never extended. Her cursor hovered; she changed her mind and saved the incriminating draft.

At work, tension dominated the air. An audit. An email, sent erroneously. Its words exposed his stealthy deeds. His pale face, brows furrowed by months of truths finally revealed.

Mavis purged the email. Truth had spoken. But timing mattered. Another draft, sent from another computer, and not hers. Sometimes, truth swam in the waves of circumstance.

💻⌛📝🤔🕊️🌊⚖️

Original drabble by Michelle Liew Tsui-Lin. AI tags are coincidental.

If you like this story, do join me on Patreon! Buy this blog a coffee — it keeps the words flowing and the lights Your kind donation via Paypal would be greatly appreciated!

Please find a book of my horror microfiction, Echoes in the Dark, free for download here.

We cannot decide when the bus comes – only how we wait. 

🌫️🚌🌙👤❄️💡🌧️

Ponderous, at the bus stop all ignore

Mind going over faint lights;

Little cracks in the cement surface.

My breath fogs the air ,

Covering timetable edges

Tapping thrice

Frigid metal

Of rails.

🌫️🚌🌙👤❄️💡🌧️

A light afar flickers

Thrice, in tandem

With approaching feet

Even marches pause,

Shimmer

In a puddle.

🌫️🚌🌙👤❄️💡🌧️

Too late.

The bus -a figment.

The street waits, still. 

The clicks

Of the flickering light

Echo.

Cannot be paused.

🌫️🚌🌙👤❄️💡🌧️

I get up

Still tapping thrice

But faintly.

My breath fogs –

And lingers.

But i stay 

Present.

Calm.

In its cloud.

🌫️🚌🌙👤❄️💡🌧️

If you like this story, do join me on Patreon! Buy this blog a coffee — it keeps the words flowing and the lights Your kind donation via Paypal would be greatly appreciated!

Please find a book of my horror microfiction, Echoes in the Dark, free for download here.