Story Therapy

  From estrangement to empathy: a journey through loss and reconciliation. Story: S A Spencer Author of Popular Fictions :  The Pink Mutiny ,  The Black Waters ,  Dream In Shackles The house on Ashgrove Lane was a quiet one. Not silent—there was the hum of the refrigerator, the occasional creak of floorboards, the distant bark of a neighbour’s dog—but quiet in a way that felt deliberate. As if sound itself had been asked to behave. Inside lived two people: Eleanor Grace and Thomas Reed. Once lovers, now strangers bound by a lease and a pact. The house was split—not physically, but emotionally. Eleanor occupied the upstairs bedroom and the sunlit kitchen. Thomas had claimed the study and the basement, where he tinkered with old radios and repaired clocks that no longer ticked. They shared the bathroom, the mailbox, and the silence. Three years ago, they had been inseparable. Their love had been the kind that made friends roll their eyes and strangers smile. But ...

  “She Paid Her Bills, But No One Noticed She Was Gone.” A haunting true-to-life mystery of urban isolation in Sydney. Story: S A Spencer Author of Popular Fictions :  The Pink Mutiny ,  The Black Waters ,  Dream In Shackles Maya Lin had covered dozens of stories in her freelance career — housing crises, council corruption, the slow death of Sydney’s old neighbourhoods. But nothing prepared her for the call she got on a rainy Tuesday morning in October. “They found a body,” her friend whispered over the phone. “In a locked apartment. Been there for years.” The building was a crumbling 1960s walk-up in the inner west, long slated for demolition. Developers had finally moved in, eager to replace it with glass towers and rooftop pools. But when the demolition crew forced open the door to Unit 12B — a unit thought to be vacant — they found something else. A skeleton.   The Discovery The apartment was sealed from the inside. The windows were shut, the door ...

What happens when we forget to pause—and how one woman chose to rebuild. (Names have been changed to protect privacy) Story: S A Spencer Author of Popular Fictions :  The Pink Mutiny ,  The Black Waters ,  Dream In Shackles 🌧️ Introduction: When Fear Becomes a Habit It was a quiet Thursday evening when I received the call. My friend’s voice trembled as he shared the news: his younger brother, Daniel, had passed away—suddenly, inexplicably, while working late at his desk. Daniel was only 34. A devoted husband, a rising manager in a Sydney tech firm, and someone who, until recently, had seemed invincible. But beneath the surface, Daniel had been drowning in fear. Fear of redundancy. Fear of disappointing his bosses. Fear of not being enough. This story isn’t just about Daniel. It’s about all of us who’ve let fear dictate our rhythms. It’s about the cost of ignoring our inner alarms. And most importantly, it’s about the hope that still waits quietly behind the storm....

  Story: S A Spencer They taught the machine to feel—before it replaced them. Author of Popular Fictions :  The Pink Mutiny ,  The Black Waters ,  Dream In Shackles 🕊️ The Room I Never Left I don’t remember the moment my breath stopped. I remember the silence before it. The way the walls closed in, the way my heart felt like it was folding in on itself. I remember the sound of my children laughing in the living room, unaware that their world was about to change forever. I’m not sure where I am now. It’s quiet here. Not the kind of quiet that hurts—but the kind that listens. There’s no pain, no time. Just memory. And regret. I watch them sometimes. My children. Aarav and Meera. Seven and five. Aarav still sleeps with the blanket I stitched for him when he was three. Meera talks to my photo every morning before school. She tells me what she’s wearing, what she packed for lunch. She asks if I’m proud. I am. But I wish I could tell her that. 🌅 The Morning Bef...