It's now three days since the other brought me my last meal. I know it's three days because I've checked through the door flap six times, once each morning and evening, but the tray I pushed out on Sunday night is still there. Or rather it isn't any more, I pulled it back in this morning. There were a few grains of rice still stuck to the plate, plastered to the unhealthy-looking gravy stain. I picked them off and chewed them slowly one by one, washing them down with water. At least I have an unlimited supply of tap water. One can survive for a long time on water.

December 2014's edition of Long Story, Short Journal is a Kafkaesque psychological puzzler: 'What Happened at Alamein', with a photo courtesy Curtis Poe. Readers are brought inside the attic hideaway of a recluse who has seemingly been abandoned by his minder, who is also his twin brother. Author Robert Grossmith has published one print novel 'The Empire of Lights' with Hamish Hamilton, as well as two e-novels. CLICK HERE TO READ 'WHAT HAPPENED AT ALAMEIN.'