The day I regret most now (not yesterday, not a year ago; I was happy then) was the day I found Kuroi bara – the black rose. Whenever I breathed in its perfume of iron and sweet flesh, I heard the earth’s heartbeat, its pulsing veins, and felt its thirst for dark blood. I sliced through men’s necks with joy, my cupped sticky hands feeding my dark master. Now my knife is caressing your throat, and a single drop of your beautiful red blood emerges, sings of life, and I understand. I had been fooled. Please live, Akio-san and forgive me.
PATRICK TEN BRINK
Patrick lives and works in Belgium for an environmental NGO and writes fiction before work and on days off.
He is married and has two children.
He grew up in Germany,Australia, Japan, and England where he studied Physics and Philosophy at Bristol University.
He lived in Paris and Mexico City, where he studied French and Mexican Literature.
His fiction has been published in the US, Canada, and Belgium.
His short story Amelia Borgiotti was published by Coffin Bell journal, and The Carp and the Magpie by Night Picnic Press; his flash fiction includes Ersatz in 101 Words and My Secret will come out summer 2023 in Beyond Words; his poem Koyasan Cemetery appeared in Maya’s Micros – The Closed Eye Open and Zen Garden, Kyoto in Dreamers Creative Writing 2018 Haiku Competition and the Dreamers Year 1 Anthology. He is a member of the Writers Workshop in Brussels and was a co-chair of the Brussels Writers Circle and editor of their anthology The Circle, A Brussels Anthology.
He is a freelance journalist for Travel Tomorrow focusing on art reviews. He is almost ready to seek representation for his seventeenth century ghost novel, The Death and Life of Amelia Borgiotti.