Killer
Connor smiled…. “Ye made a mistake, lad. A dire one, I’m afraid. Ye ran into a fella like me. Too bad for you.
“We have police business with this young man. Unfortunately, we’re going to have to ask you to leave.”
Santa's Gift
Ricky stood in the snow with one sneaker untied and his backpack hanging far too low on his back. His breath misted in the frigid December air. He shook, but not from the cold. His mother taught him to layer up, making it almost impossible to catch a chill.
No, his shivers were from fear. A fear he had every year. But this year was going to be different.
The Wooden Door (3)
Martha took Lamar’s hand. “This gang warfare is senseless. It will get you nowhere,” she said. Then she took Paulie’s hand. “Don’t you understand that if you beat Lamar and his boys, there will always be someone else waiting to take you on. The battle will never end.”
The Wooden Door (1)
The old wooden door was a sentry protecting those inside.
Dead Man’s Hill
What appeared to be a man, hovered over a smoldering fire smoking a cigarette. His bony purple fingers tightly gripping a rectangular bottle.
Jingle Bell
The bell jingled over the door. Frankie looked up. His apron stained with dried blood. A cleaver in his right hand and the limp leg of a of a recently slaughtered lamb in his other.
A Green Bottle Fly Takes Stock of His Life
This yard is fantastic. There’s never a shortage of poo. Piles of poo everywhere. Look! There’s one! And another over there! And another! Oh, boy, how long has this one been here? Poo doesn’t go rotten does it? Nah, of course not!
Without Honors
It’d been 5 days since the assembly fuck-up. The house was like a morgue. Nobody’d talked to nobody. I worked as much overtime as they threw at me just to stay away.
Chapter Forty-Nine
Mickey turned and raised his eyebrows to him. “She smokes.” He inhaled from the depths of his belly, smiling, closing his eyes. “Smell that? What you think she does with those ashes?”
![[EXCERPT] Gorski and The Goat](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/579fa3912994ca0eff850271/1508634349438-SXP8FPQTBSDWWUQR18T3/Goat.png)
[EXCERPT] Gorski and The Goat
On a urine-stained olive green cot in the back room of Rosalda’s Cantina in Ciudad Juarez, I came to. Blacked out. Again. A smell I couldn’t quite put a finger on. Rank breath, a muffled gurgle and what felt like whiskers. I hope not our hostess, or worse, one of her chicas.
The Truth Will Set You Free...
Here it comes, kid. For some time upcoming, you'll pass those places and moments when things were shiny and wonderful but the patina of betrayal will be right there to make each one bittersweet. Sonofabitch, I hate this part.
The Foley Artiste
She wanted to be lusted after, to be prey to the kind of men who fetishized her. She understood that kind of power over men. Her husband was not susceptible to that sort of control and, she imagined he might not be even if his eyes functioned.
The Dumbass Tree
The tree loved the woman but even more than the woman
The tree loved the idea of being in love.
What the tree didn't know
Because trees were long on roots but fucking short on brains
Was that woman only loved two things:
Herself and immediate gratification.
The Perils of Outer Space
Captain Jason Blue had been floating in space for nearly ten hours. He was going to asphyxiate in his suit in a matter of minutes.
Collateral Damage Group Session
“I just don't want to lose what little bit of myself I still have pursuing something that will only leave me with nothing in the end."
Finding Geena
When someone tells a lie like this for so long to so many people, the lie becomes a habit and habits become addiction.
The Campfire Rule
Intense self indulgence is rarely very different from intense self destruction. It’s just a slower version of it. Unless you’re in Vegas and then the two are roughly equivalent.
The Minotaur and the Mermaid
Carl knew better than to fall for a Mermaid. Notoriously fickle and prone to deception, Mermaids had a viciousness only equalled by their beauty.
The Chameleon
"OK. Calm down," responded Davis. "This is a classic John Hughes kind of dilemma. You're dating three different women. You like each one equally but for different reasons. Let's really make a Nick Hornsby list and see who you see yourself with in, say, seven years.
Grizzly
He lied there, the beast breathing slowly, and wondered what happened? Where was his wife? Did she do this to him? Why?
Her fury, her hurt, her fear and shame was pure focus. She dug deeper into her legs. The blood began to run down her thighs, soaking through her dress and forming a small puddle in the pew.