Friday 22 March 2013

The first step


   “Do not be afraid. Come and see.”

   And I wanted to: I truly did.
   I wanted to follow that voice and observe those remarkable eyes wherever they looked. I was certain - then as now - that they would lead me to a life wholly unlike my own; to a future as different from my expectations as could be and perhaps to a world remade. One without my present pain, darkness and despair.
    It might be that they’d lead instead to chains and cutting and even to darkness redefined. Perhaps it would be both.
   I trod onto the first step.

Friday 8 March 2013

Posse comitatus


   “You can have my gun, Sheriff.
   Terms and conditions apply.”

   After three or four minutes of fruitless finger-prizing, my skin temperature must have registered and soon she was searching - also in vain - for a pulse.


   “Please hurry up your horrified realization of a dark new reality shtick because the children have no time left. I’m not your enemy; but the thing inside the basement with those kids is and if you don’t persuade their parents to invite me in, then your little town will soon be overrun with munchkins such as you’ve never imagined. Emphasis on the ‘munch.’ ”