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Mandy watched her date over the rim of a martini glass. His eyes were slightly squinted, taking in the expensive electronic equipment, the furniture, and the extensive DVD and CD collection. “Sebastian—that’s his name, isn’t it?” Mandy asked herself. Oh well, Sebastian or Sinbad or whoever he was looked like a predator casing her possessions, and that’s what she liked [...]
Paul was satiated with Mardi Gras: the wild clamor of laughter, the jazz music, the heavy layers of gold, green, and purple beads swinging from bodies crowding the booby balconies, and, most of all, the vast portions of oysters, crayfish, gumbo, beer and Hurricanes he had forced into a rebellious stomach. Paul slid from the bed and stumbled to the [...]
They didn’t thrill him anymore: the high wire acts, the trapeze artists, the lion tamer tempting death. Nothing about the circus got his juices flowing. The man left in mid-show, walking out into the windy, autumn night. “Where the hell are Bradbury’s October People anyhow?” the man asked out loud with a laugh. ABOUT THE AUTHOR BLOG Timothy C. Hobbs [...]
It was raining the day the circus came to town. I remember crying, afraid my father wouldn’t take me because of the weather. But we did go, and by the time The Greatest Show On Earth started, the rain had stopped and the sky outside the Big Top had cleared. All the acts were great: the animals, the acrobatic and [...]
The boxes removed from the attic days ago were littered across the living room floor opened but not emptied. The strings of lights, the tinsel icicles, the plastic wreaths, the ceramic Santa and snowman for the fireplace mantel, and the imitation tree lay in wait, but all he could do was sit in the gloomy room and stare at them [...]
The year long hibernation was over. Hunger reverberated through its body as it began to awaken amid the moldy earth, the dust, and the darkness. The high point of Halloween for the residents of Hico, Texas was the one night opening of Gus Peterson’s barn, an event started years ago. The building was dilapidated and not used other than on [...]
At two in the morning Carl’s Pit Grill was lively with customers. Halloween officially ended at midnight, but you’d never know it by the crowd of costumed adults shoveling down fried or scrambled eggs, toast, hash browns, and coffee. Every character from Harry Potter to the Hunchback could be found enjoying the post revelry. Dolores had only a couple of [...]
“It has to be removed. It’s rotten.” Eric Sparrow stood in his son’s bedroom door. “For goodness sake, Jacob, it stinks like The Farmer’s Market dumpster in here.” Jacob lay on his side on the bottom mattress of the bunk bed. He was facing the wall. Eric saw a discarded Famous Monsters of Filmland on the floor. On the bedside [...]
It was too hot for Halloween. Mitchell was certain the days were cooler in October when he was in elementary school in 1950′s central Texas. He remembered the thrill of trick or treating, the clouds shaping themselves into witches and goblins, and a yellow moon grinning down sardonically in the cool night air. The cool night air, not tonight’s humid [...]
The vampire strolled down the nursing home hallway. He wore a fuchsia polo shirt and tan khakis. A pair of brown loafers covered his bare feet. His alabaster skin gleamed under the dimmed lights, his pale beautiful face markedly outlined in a cave of black hair falling loosely to his shoulders. Most of the aged and infirm residents were deep [...]
“The demolition crew found the corpse, right?” Detective Mike Brandon asked his partner. It was almost seven pm. “No,” Mason Phelps answered, glancing at the paperwork spread out on his desk. “Remember how the city started sending crews in to make sure a condemned house was empty of any living thing?” Mike grinned. “Yeah. That raccoon family got wiped out [...]
For Alice to stop at a yard sale was a rare event, but there was something that appealed to her about the old house down the street with the estate sale sign in the front yard. She got out of her car and milled with the scant customers there, coming upon the most remarkable phonograph sitting on a mahogany table. [...]
The pain dulled after the fifth tequila shot. “Mas tequila,” Parker ordered. A skinny cadaverous faced bartender poured another shot. “What brings the senor to Guanajuato? The mummies?” “Mummies?” Parker asked. “Si, The Museum of the Mummies.” Parker shook his head no. “It’s a secret,” he whispered. “I’m on the run.” Parker held a finger to his lips. “Ssshhh. Parker [...]
Cottonwood, Texas 1890 The soulful cry of a whippoorwill floated on the wind. Lonnie sighed in his sleep and reached across to hold his wife only to find a vacant, cold spot. Lonnie opened his eyes. A figure holding a candle approached. “Paw Paw’s outside,” Lonnie’s ten-year-old son Jacob said. Lonnie slid from under the covers and pulled a robe [...]
She pulled the van by the curb and assessed the modest, frame home. The yard was covered by weeds and wild flowers with thin traces of Bermuda grass. “It’s hard to find someone to deliver meals to Mr. Adams,” the supervisor at Meals on Wheels had explained. “He has leprosy, but it’s not contagious. It came from research on mutant [...]
WARNING THIS SHORT STORY CONTAINS ADULT THEMES The aged car coughed and sputtered as it climbed the hill and passed through the cemetery gates. Headlight beams flowed eerily over rising ground fog and the well-kept headstones. The car continued forward until it reached the cemetery’s older section where the graves were no longer attended; the families of those buried [...]
I got a lot grief from my friends about not dating. I was a sophomore in high school, and between trying to keep my grades up and helping on the ranch, I didn’t really have time to worry about the fairer sex. My mom and dad ran a sheep ranch, which added to my friends’ ammunition for date jokes. “Hell, [...]
During summer break, I took a job working in our city cemetery. I mowed the grass, trimmed around headstones, and pruned. It was a hot that year, so I asked the caretaker if I could work until noon, then come back after seven p.m. He said it was A okay with him as long as I got the job done. [...]
The first things Tom saw when he regained consciousness were the strand of rope used to bind his hands and the black hood that had covered his head. So Ogre had really done it. Shot Tom execution style. Ogre. First time Tom met the hulking killer he thought Ogre’s face looked like a slab of meat. Tom reached behind his [...]
Delbert Caruso was a natural born horndog. When he started elementary school, people called the principal and complained Delbert was chasing their daughters around the playground trying to play doctor. By the time he was sixteen, Delbert had chipped teeth, a squashed nose, and broken knuckles from fights over girls. He was even stabbed in the leg once by a [...]
They walked across the frozen landscape just as the two suns were rising, both mounting discs a pale blue with swirling fragments of scarlet, both distant, this season being the planet’s furthest from its suns. The moving figures were those of a man and a woman. Their tall, slender forms were clad in heavy hooded robes. They each toted long [...]
“I thought I was finished.” The memory of the icy waves was still alive and terrifying. Even though covered in blankets and near a fire, Donavan couldn’t stop shaking. “Then I saw your light,” Donavan said to the old, bearded face above him. “Was it you who pulled me from the water?” The lighthouse keeper shook his head. “Not me, [...]
Entomology Professor John Baker was working late at the college when the stranger arrived. “Are you the butterfly man?” “You frightened me,” John said stunned. “Professor Baker is it?” The man in the doorway looked old. His spine was severely curved; his clothes tattered. “I’m Professor Baker, but security shouldn’t have admitted you this late.” An arm appeared offering a [...]
Uncle Pete’s a taxidermist. He learnt how down in the city afore he moved back home with me, Ma and Pa, and Granny here in the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. I found his hobby fascinatin’. All that wire, clay, glass eyes, and wood for dummies just drew me in straight away. I’ve learnt a lot from him. As you [...]
Temple, Texas 1958 It was Thomas’s habit to read to his invalid grandmother after he got home from school. His deceased grandfather had once owned acres of fertile farmland, but over time sold sections to the encroaching city limits, ultimately leaving only one large field, the field separating Thomas’ home from his grandparents, the field Thomas crossed to see his [...]
The woman woke up and felt the empty space next to her on the bed. There was no clock in the room, but she could tell by the lack of noise in the Fuhrerbunker that it must be the dead of night. As she rose and went toward the door, a low growl came from under the bed. She glanced [...]
Samuel called him about the Indian ruins: those away from the older, picked-over places. “They’re great, man, untouched. My uncle said they were protected, but if you go at night the security is slack, especially, if you’ve got a bottle to share with the guard.” Samuel was a night orderly where James had done his residency. ‘Crazy Horse’ Sammie was [...]
Chestnuts roasting on an open fire . . . “Merry Christmas by Johnny Mathis. What a lovely album. And so soothing.” The flat was warm and cozy. The cold Christmas Eve night held in check by the blooming fire from the small, efficient fireplace. The old couple sat next to each other on the deep cushioned couch. She lay her [...]
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