The scrump

Issue nine: fiction by Gemma Church

Apr 24, 2026

∙ Paid

I cannot tell you how thrilled we are to share this delicious, wicked, and enchanting short story by Gemma Church. The tale considers the humble apple and how it frees one woman, instead of poisoning her.

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William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Temptation, 1880 (details) 🎨 — Detail of *Temptation* (1880) by William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825–1905).

In the crush of the throng, I imagine myself an apple in the cider press, wrung free of any goodness to give the men a throatful of pleasure. Sweat pools in my elbow crease as I cling to my sister Megan’s forearm, but she yanks it free. ‘We spoke of this,’ she snaps. ‘It’s best we say our goodbyes now.’

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A guest post by

Gemma Church

Gemma Church is a sci-fi and fantasy writer. With two physics degrees, she also works as a science writer, mainly telling people about quantum computing. She also has a diploma in creative writing from Cambridge University and a Countdown teapot.