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Russell Boey

Russell Boey wrote Nineteen Seconds for his English 344 paper at the University of Auckland; it went on to win the under 25 category for the 2020 Sunday Star-Times Short Story Competition. His favourite genres are weird fiction and cosmic horror, which is the main reason that he decided to study astronomy. He has been writing since he was twelve, and while his dream is to write a novel about incomprehensible beings from beyond the stars, he figures that learning about them is the best thing to do while he works on it.

Nineteen Seconds © Dominion Day Carnival, 25 September 1907, by Fred Brockett. Purchased 1957. Te Papa (B.027793)2021 SummerT3STORIES

Nineteen Seconds

Clear. Sometimes I have this nightmare that I can breathe underwater. I don’t realise immediately. I hold my breath as the cold gnaws and I kick down. Below me his ankle circles in languid orbit, brushing on tangleweed. Deeper. Breath disappears with the last beams of light, but I don’t…
Russell Boey
February 15, 2021