Happy Friday everyone! Here’s a little story I wrote, hope you like it!
Love Bites by Adam Wright
The zombies were dead. The doors were bolted. I fell in love.
She sat across from me, a light cut on her forehead. Red blood trickled down her face in tiny droplets. Her hair was short. It doesn’t pay to have long hair when undead creatures grab at it. At one time it was dirty blonde. We’d been through a lot together. I was a wall street broker and she was my barista. We’d met each other day after day for years. I didn’t know her name and she always misspelled mine. In the end it didn’t matter.
We knew the drill. Get inside, barricade yourself. Clear the area if any were left. Check for wounds. Scratches hurt but would heal. Bites were the end. Once bitten, there was only one end. I would prefer a bullet to the head over becoming one of those things. She agreed.
When you go out into the world amongst diseased and desiccated corpses, there is a smell. It hangs there like rotted meat swarmed by maggots. Most of the world smells that way now. So even as we run together, sweat and body odor rising into our nostrils, the human smell of it is all you want to cling to. The aliveness of the other person. It’s comforting even when you know your life could end at any moment. You’d do anything to protect that one other living thing next to you.
We learned to trust each other. She saved my life on the day of the outbreak. I was lucky enough to be at the front of the line and she grabbed my hand and rushed us to the exit. We evaded the mass of undead. We hid in sewers and raided grocery stores. I found weapons. We both learned to shoot. I still prefer the aluminum bat.
I knew enough to get a campfire started on that first day. We soon learned that was a bad idea. We still do it when we’re locked indoors and can make sure no light is let in. You can’t fall asleep though or the fire will take you.
We’ve done everything right for as long as we can. We have survived. I’ve tried not to fall in love. When you get close to someone it’s a weakness. I have seen couples come and go. Usually one ends up shooting the other. It’s good to have a partner. Bad to be in love.
If I was going to fall in love with anyone in my life it would have been her. We didn’t know each other well but she was always kind. I tipped well. I didn’t want love to begin with but now I had the worst kind of love. A dangerous love.
The real problem? I didn’t love her for her body, her kind soul, or her good deeds. I loved her for her brains. The bite didn’t even sting anymore.
Without saying a word, I passed her the gun and closed my eyes.
Happy Friday everyone! Here’s a little story I wrote, hope you like it!
Totality
During the eclipse I saw my life flash before my eyes. Jennifer held my hand, her soft fingers interlaced with mine. We were both a little breathless after climbing up the hill to get to the best vantage point in the neighborhood. She was not just an amateur astronomer, she was about to earn her doctorate in the science. But her eyes still lit up at the idea of an eclipse. And she wanted to spend it with me.
We had set out folding chairs, filled our thermos up with hot cocoa, layered up in our warmest winter jackets and waited for the early evening when the eclipse was predicted. A total eclipse of the sun this time. As she explained to me the vast distances between us, the moon, and the sun from the moon, I couldn’t help feeling her passion. It was the way I felt about her.
For about the millionth time she reminded me not to look directly at the sun. I had no plans to do so. We looked through our eclipse glasses and they reminded me of watching a 3D movie. There were plenty of other couples and families around us. I thought briefly of what it would be like when we had kids.
Then she gripped my arm and gave a little gasp.
“First contact,” she said.
I thought of Star Trek. But then I realized she meant the eclipse was happening.
It seemed like forever as the sun dimmed and the black shadow of the moon grew. I started to feel a pit in my stomach grow. There was something unsettling about it to me.
Eventually she whispered in my ear, “Second contact, Isn’t this exciting?”
I nodded but I felt as if I was becoming weightless. A strange smell wafted into my nose. It was a smell of rot and decay.
Her hand gripped mine tighter and suddenly it didn’t feel like her young, soft skin. It was hard bone. I tried to look at the eclipse, fearing what I would see beside me.
When a rattly whisper came again from my right side, the voice sounded like Jennifer’s grandmother.
“Totality.”
Suddenly I was spinning. I closed my eyes against the total darkness.
When I opened them I remembered where I am now. In this hospital. In this bed where they bring me pills. They tell me it will make me better but they are liars.
I know what happened on the day of the eclipse. The moment it was over, just as Jennifer said, “Fourth contact” I bent down on one knee and brought out the ring. She said yes.
The smell of decay had been my own from this very bed. Foul and filthy. I hate it. The feeling of unease was my mind telling me I was about to come back to this hell of a reality.
On that day, when I felt myself spin I saw the two of us married, we had five children, she became famous and I became an accountant. That’s what I thought would happen. In reality, she did become famous, at least, among academics. She wrote several books. I became an office drone for a tech company. We only had two kids.
But that memory of the eclipse, the things I saw that moment? They felt more real than anything I experienced.
Now, it’s cruel. I am there. There with my Jennifer, about to relive the most important thing in my life, with my love. I see it, I feel it. But then a man in scrubs snaps his fingers at me and says, “Hello Mr. Sinclair, how are we today?”
I’m confused. I don’t know who he is or where I am for a moment. He is not Jennifer and as far as how I am? I tell him. “I’m shit today. Who are you?”
He tells me but I don’t remember him five minutes later. My children come to me. Sometimes, I think Patty is Jennifer. At least, that’s what they tell me. I only know that day, that moment. The eclipse. If I can get back there to that moment, I could do it all over again with her. Perfect, the way it was.
They shove applesauce at me on a tray. The lights are bright. Like looking at the sun. Jennifer would not approve. The bony skeleton hand I feel when I remember that day is my own. I wake up holding my own hand, thinking it’s Jennifer. She’s been gone for so long.
I want to be out on the grass with her again. Full of life and youth and possibility. Waking up and seeing that your love is gone, you are old, and there are strangers everywhere? It’s hell. It’s a nightmare. I just want to rest. I want to see Jennifer again. There is only that moment for me. That moment, that day, her amber eyes tearing up. Her kiss on my lips. That’s the moment I want forever. And I keep getting it, only to come back here. To find an old man in an old body with a confused mind at the end of his life. A well lived life but one this old man can’t remember. I feel about as far from my youth as the moon is from the sun. But I can remember the eclipse.
As I grow irritated and sleepy once again, I see Jennifer’s young face. I feel her hand grip mine. She places glasses on my eyes so I can see the eclipse. I hear the words again.
“First contact. Second contact. Isn’t this exciting? Totality.” My nerves are on edge, my stomach is spinning. I’m about to ask the most important question of my life.
“Fourth contact.”
“Will you marry me?”
As my eyes darken for what might be the last time I hear her voice. I always hear her voice. She says, “Yes. In totality.”
Happy Friday everyone! Hope you all are having a good week. Here’s a little story I wrote, hope you like it!
New Year, New… Me?
When I awoke in the new year I looked in the mirror. I wish I had not done that. There were warning signs. In the dark of the room where I woke, my feet pressed against a footboard on a bed too small for my body. I wasn’t sure why but my fingers felt… thinner. And longer. It was a room I was familiar with. One I’d been in many times. My friend Pete must have given up his bed for me. I didn’t recall drinking the night before but I had no clear memory of it either.
I was wearing button up flannel pajamas. I have never, in my life, worn flannel anything. And I was wearing a… ring? A gold band. Oh shit. Did I get so hammered I got married last night? I rubbed my chin to find no beard. A bit of stubble but no beard. Whatever happened couldn’t have been good.
I walked into the bathroom. I took a deep breath, trying to keep it together. Then I turned on the light. Pete’s face looked back at me in the mirror. I stumbled backwards and hit my head. Pete’s head I guess. It still hurt me though. If I was in Pete’s body, where was Pete?
I’m a relatively cool headed person. I keep it together when everyone else loses it in board meetings. I knew the first thing to do here was to stay calm. I got dressed, wearing clothes from Pete’s closet, socks from his dresser, and I put on Pete’s shoes. No one saw me leave Pete’s house.
I walked three houses down to my house. It’s a big yellow house with white trim. I should’ve repainted it a decade ago. I realized I didn’t have my key but it didn’t matter. As I walked up to it, a woman I have never seen walked out, a toddler in hand.
“Can I help you?” she asked.
“Just wondering if this is for sale?” I figured my quick thinking would cover any awkwardness.
“Pete, you’re joking. We talked about this at length last night. Bad enough Rosey keeps trying to get me to sell. At least she’s an agent. Aren’t you like a stockbroker or something?”
“Mutual funds.” I muttered. I knew that’s what Pete did. We’d been best friends since third freaking grade.
“Right. Well anyway the answer is still no and I’ve got to get the kiddo to daycare so if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be off.”
In a daze, I just moved aside. If I was Pete, and someone else lived in my house, where was I? Who was I?
I waited around, sitting on the pavement for hours outside of Pete’s house. I watched for signs of myself coming or going from anywhere. Nothing.
As the sun went down and the air got cooler, I decided to head back into Pete’s house. I knew his wife would be back soon. Every year she spent New Years Eve with her mother and came back late the next day. I didn’t know what I would do when I saw her. How could I explain to her where Pete had gone? Anything I tried would sound out of this world, put me in an institution, crazy. But her husband was… Well, I didn’t know where the real Pete was.
When I did see Rosey, the last thing I expected happened. She walked up to me, her brunette hair tied in a bun, her hands full of luggage, and her chestnut brown eyes staring at me, and she gave me the most passionate, loving kiss.
Confession time. I’ve been in love with Rosey since before Pete even met her. I introduced the two of them. I never stood in Pete’s way because, well, Pete does love her, and he’s a good man. Was? I’m not sure.
When Rosey pulled away, I opened my mouth to try to say something. To find some way to explain. But suddenly, it was like I was Pete. I could remember everything Pete had done with Rosey. I remembered the scent of the perfume she used on our wedding day. Pete’s wedding day. I remembered the first time I made her laugh so hard she snorted. It was Pete telling the joke but it was now, my memory, from Pete’s point of view. There was the time the two of us went white water rafting and I fell overboard and Rosey just laughed as I struggled to swim back to the boat. I still found it embarrassing but Rosey thought it was hilarious. I should say, Pete found it embarrassing, but he was somehow me.
It took only a few moments for me to feel like I was Pete. But there has always been this small part of me that knows I am not. I had all of Pete’s memories, knowledge and skills. The next day, I went to Pete’s work and did Pete’s job.
Through the years I looked for myself. There was no record of my mother or father. I went to all of the addresses I had lived in. Even the college dorms but there was never any mention of me.
I grew old with Rosey. We had children together. I’ve tried a couple of times to explain this situation to her but it never makes any sense. Pete’s gone, yet Pete is me. And I’m, well I guess I’m here.
I can’t complain much. Rosey is the best person I know and my life has been full of bliss and wonder. But where the hell is Pete? I hope he’s okay but somehow I don’t think he is. Every year I wake up on New Years Day thinking this is the year it will switch back. It’ll snap me back to reality and I’ll lose Rosey but gain Pete.
But so far, since that first year, it’s always been New year… new me. Maybe next year. Who knows?
Hello all! Last February I participated in the Storytelling Collective’s Flash Fiction challenge. As a result, one of my stories is in their collection, In a Flash Volume II. The details for how/where to purchase are below. Don’t just grab it to support me though, there are over 40 writers who contributed so you’re sure to find something you like! This challenge is always a blast and this year it was themed on J. R. R. Tolkien inspired prompts. But there is far more than fantasy in these pages. Just about every genre you can imagine shows up. It’s a great read!
All of the stories are short so it’s perfect for a bedtime read each night.
You can get a digital copy, a softcover, or both. Prices range from $4.99 – $14.98 depending on what version you purchase.
If you are more into poetry, there is also a newly published book called COLLECTIVE VERSES Vol 4. I did not contribute to this but if you love poetry I highly recommend grabbing a copy.
Happy Friday everyone! Hope you all are having a good week. Here’s a little story I wrote, hope you like it!
At Death’s Door by Adam wright
Dee sat at her desk, laptop in front of her, warm coffee in hand and logged into the system. She worked her way through the myriad of safety and security protocols to enter the system. Putting in passwords when prompted, authenticating when needed, and feeling like this would never end, she barely registered Gary walking into her office.
Gary stood there in his slim fit suit, simple black tie and clean cut hair and cleared his throat. Dee ignored him. She opened her inbox and saw the backlog of work she had to do. Overdue on more projects than she cared to count, she knew answering Gary would delay things further.
Gary knocked three times, the sound echoing in the little office. He wasn’t going away anytime soon. Dee noticed a slip of pink paper in his hand and had the sudden realization that this conversation was about to get serious.
“What do you want, Gary? I’m pretty busy. As always.”
“It’s not what I want. It’s from upstairs. We need to talk.”
Shit. Anything from upstairs was a pain. Hell, anything from downstairs was a pain also. But you can’t just ignore the orders from above, even if the messenger here was the most annoying person in the whole damn office.
“I’m listening. What do they want?” Dee tried to keep her focus on the laptop but her ears began echoing in her head, the sounds of the outside world trying to crash in on her.
“First off, you have to know, Dee… if I can call you Dee… this isn’t from me.”
“Obviously. You already said it’s from upstairs.”
Gary’s hand shook as he stuck out the paper towards Dee. She didn’t take it.
“Okay, so just, please remember, I like you. It’s bad news but I don’t want it this way, they do. There’s nothing I can do to change their minds. They’re letting you go.”
Dee resisted the impulse to throw her coffee at Gary. She knew that would accomplish nothing. This was the time for a rational adult conversation.
“What does that mean exactly? Letting me go? Do they have any idea how important what I do is?”
Gary scratched at his collar but kept the pink slip in his hand.
“Look… it means what it sounds like. You don’t work here anymore. Your services are no longer needed. In fact, it is kind of unclear what you do. You show up here every day, same time, same coffee in hand. You log in, you go through an inbox and then what? What exactly happens at that point?”
Dee let out a long sigh. Explaining this to Gary would be impossible. Explaining to those upstairs was nearly impossible too. That didn’t mean her services were not absolutely essential.
“Trust me. Without my services things are going to get… messy. There’ll be a lot of clean up nobody wants. I’m happy to sit here and do my job. I like my job. I’m not bothering anyone else. I just do my thing, wait for the annual check in, and move on with my life. What’s wrong with that?”
Gary crossed his arms, a sure sign he was losing patience. He set the pink slip of paper on Dee’s desk. She didn’t touch it.
“You’re not making any forward progress. Where’s your ambition? Where are your career goals? I mean, you’ve been doing the same thing day in and day out forever. It’s time for a change. It’ll be good for you. Good for all of us. We all need a change. Now’s the time for you to change too.”
Dee rocked back in her swivel chair and took in a deep breath.
“Gary, you have to just trust me on this. If I am gone, this place is going to have issues. Real issues. The people upstairs, and the people downstairs, are going to have to get involved. No one wants that, do they?”
Gary’s expression changed to one of feigned sympathy. Dee didn’t know why the people upstairs were such cowards. They should at least have had the guts to get rid of her themselves.
“I don’t have any choice here, Dee. I can help you pack up. Hell, I’ll buy you an iced latte on the way out. Don’t make me call security. Please?”
“Have they said I have done a bad job? Violated any rules?”
“No.”
“Then what ground do they have to stand on?”
Gary suppressed a small laugh.
“You know they never have been the type to stand on firm ground. But it’s orders. I have to carry out orders. Can’t you just go peacefully?”
Dee clutched her coffee and stood up. She grabbed her gray wool coat and her red leather purse and looked Gary in the eyes.
“I’m not doing anything that isn’t peaceful. I’m just telling you, this is a mistake. And it’s going to be costly. But, as you say, orders are orders. I’ll get my stuff and go. Just remember this: When you all want to bring me back in and ask me to clean up the whole mess, the answer is no.”
Her dignity intact, Dee walked out of the office and onto the street. All she had to do was wait. She was at a busy intersection where cars flew past, bikers made their way precariously in the bike lanes, and pedestrians jostled past one another.
Twenty minutes later, it happened. A Ford Mustang hit a tan SUV in the intersection, a bicyclist caught between them. A head on collision, one that left no room for doubt about the fate of the bicyclist. Except, Dee no longer had a job. There was nothing she could do. The bicyclist stood, a piece of metal jutting out of his chest. It should have impaled him to death. He screamed in agony. There was still nothing Dee could do. He was going to be the first of many to meet such a fate. Reluctantly, she walked away, feeling the cool breeze on her face.
She walked the earth in those later days, watching all the pain go around, never able to end it. She wanted to help. But death was out of a job.
Happy Friday folks! We don’t always know where inspiration comes from but sometimes we know the people who inspired us, even if they don’t know us. That’s what my story Inspiration is all about. I hope you enjoy it!
Inspiration by Adam wright
The store was poorly lit and Michael had to squint to see the titles on the graphic novels. He had walked past the aisles of men and women in capes, past the independent titles with questionable black and white art on the covers, and past the titles aimed at the really young kids littered with shiny ponies and round faced cartoon characters. He had made it to the bargain bins where you could get up to twenty comics for two dollars or fifty for five. The place where throw away stories went to die a quiet death but were afforded a last ditch opportunity to be discovered by someone who just needs one more issue to complete a collection. Michael wasn’t much of a fan of collectors.
When he was a kid, comics were seen as disposable. You read it, then you tossed it out, tore it up to line the bottom of a bird cage or used to wrap a gift. No one thought these things would ever be worth a damn. Hell, most of the people reading them didn’t think they were that spectacular to begin with. But time makes some things more valuable and some things less so. Michael, looking at his wrinkled hands as he thumbed through the pages and wondered which category he fell into. He decided it didn’t matter.
There was one good thing about the bargain bins. It meant that kids who had hardly any money could buy something to get themselves hooked on good stories. And Michael had to admit there were plenty of good stories out there. It was unpredictable what would hook a kid into loving a story. Sometimes it was as simple as a character that had a certain look, sometimes it was the drama of what happened in the story, or the nefarious villain that seemed so undefeatable to a young mind.
Michael spent a few minutes going through the bins when he discovered something he hadn’t expected. Right in front of him, in his hands, was an issue with his name on it. But not as the creator as he had expected. Michael thought about all those years with ink stained hands, painstakingly working at creating a picture. The pictures never quite looked like what he had in his head. Then came the dialogue. If the pictures were easy for him, it’s the words that killed him. He would spend hours sometimes just trying to make the ridiculous sound plausible. And finally the cover. That was the best part, the most fun part. He could do whatever he wanted and half the time it didn’t even have to relate to the story inside. The cover is what sold the thing.
This comic though, titled Michael Aarons: The Unsung Hero of Comics, had his own face on the cover. In it, he was standing next to a red brick wall. There was a street sign in the corner that marked the intersection of Cleveland St. and Grover Ave. It was where he spent most of his working life. He recognized it as a picture that was taken of him many years ago. The cover had a few things wrong. The wall was in a washed out sepia tone and he had one foot up, knee bent, his heel resting against the wall in a James Dean-like pose. That wall was always a bright and cheerful red, and Michael had never stood that way in his life. The artist must have altered the pose to “give it more action” as Michael himself used to say.
Michael took the comic out of the bin and pulled it out of the plastic in one quick movement. Collectors would have hated him if they had seen him do it. He opened the book, and licked his finger prior to flipping through the pages. Collectors would have hated that too.
Inside he found scenes from his own life. He saw his first wife and his second. The hair color on Gina was a deeper red than it should have been but it was close. He read how he was a pioneer in his field. Michael didn’t think that. They paid him to make funny books. That’s what they used to call them even when nothing was funny in them, and he did it for the pay. It didn’t amount to a lot of money but it was enough to buy a house with. It wasn’t enough to pay the alimony though, which is why he had to resort to some of the more questionable pulp novels he had cranked out. Those he never put his real name on but there were people who suspected it was him.
He didn’t really see much difference between the novels and the comics. Heroes sold and so did sex. If people wanted to buy it, all the better for Michael. He hadn’t ever thought of a biographical comic before. That was a new one to him. And one about his own life.
They put in all the things he had done professionally, like using the panels like a camera, doing an entire story from a first person point of view visually for the first time ever. They showed how he had intertwined his comics with other stories he had written, making them have what they called a shared universe. He just did it as a way to keep himself from getting bored.
What they left in was interesting but what they left out surprised him. There was no mention of his alcoholism. He didn’t see the years of himself drinking, virtually throwing away his relationship with his own son. Missing were the moments in his life where he had told fans that he couldn’t stand them. Missing was the lawsuit brought against him by his own publishers for not delivering on time. Missing was so much of his life but you could only fit a certain amount in the pages of a comic.
He stuffed the book back in its plastic, grabbed a stack of other books to buy without looking at them, then went up to the counter. The clerk was a young woman with purple hair wearing one of those air pod things in her ear. Michael assumed she was listening to music which was just fine with him. She barely looked up as she ran the issues through the scanner. Michael laid out his ten bucks, gave her a nod and went outside.
Just for an experiment, he leaned against the wall like the cover had him. It was awkward and uncomfortable and he hated it. There was a green trash can next to him. He tossed the comic of his life into it and walked away. He passed a young girl on the way, holding a crisp ten dollar bill in her hand.
Michael had long since driven away when the girl recognized his picture on the cover of a comic book.
She tucked it under her arm, hoping to find an incredible story. She wasn’t disappointed.
Wishing all of you the happiest of Fridays! I wrote another short little story called Too Quiet. I hope you enjoy it!
Too Quiet by Adam Wright
The sky was an open blue expanse only marred by the occasional wisp of clouds. Brandon wiped the sweat from his brow. He gripped the hilt of his sword automatically, ready to draw at the first sign of trouble. His brother walked next to him, a soldier already tested in battle, James was a slayer of kings and often thirsted for blood.
“Keep your eyes sharp in your head, you never know what’ll come from man or heaven,” James said.
“You expect trouble?”
“Nothing we can’t handle. Still, I don’t like the look of the sky. Not enough there.”
Brandon had no idea what James meant by that so he kept walking. After an hour they crested a hill, the tall grass up to their knees billowing against them. James held his hands up and Brandon halted.
“Listen. Do you hear that?” James asked.
“I hear nothing.” Brandon gripped his sword once more all the same.
“Exactly. It’s too quiet. I don’t like it.”
They continued their march through the day only stopping for short breaks to eat a bit of dried fruit and cheese. Further on Brandon remembered some bread he had stuffed in his bag and ate greedily. James didn’t notice.
“There’s no wind,” James said.
“What’s your point?”
“Could be nothing. Keep your wits about you.”
Brandon nodded as if he knew exactly what his brother meant. His hand never left his sword.
They reached a creek bed with the water low and the soft sounds of waves hitting against rocks.
“Be careful as we cross,” James said.
“Will it be safe?”
“As long as you look out for danger.”
The brothers hiked up their pants, letting the cold water run across their ankles as they waded through. Just as they were about to reach the other side a creature that seemed to be all fangs and bright white fur snarled at them. Brandon had his sword out and made himself look as large as possible to scare the creature away. James was faster than Brandon and had already wrapped his arms around the creature’s neck.
Just as Brandon was about to leap onto its back and rescue his brother he heard the sound of a voice from behind. The only voice that could bring an end to their battle.
“Boys, what are you doing? Get out of the mud and would you let the dog go? Honestly, I don’t know why we let you run around with those toy swords of yours,” their mother said.
“But ma, we’re just foolin’ around.” James let go of the dog and Brandon did the same.
“Now that you’ve had your fun, it’s time to get inside and wash up for dinner. Get a move on.” She pointed toward the door, a sure sign that she meant business.
As the brothers sat at the table trying to mind their manners Brandon leaned over to his brother.
Happy Friday folks! Here’s a little story I wrote, hope you enjoy it!
Handcuffs by Adam Wright
When the handcuffs clacked onto Thomas’s hands, the cold metal biting into his wrists, he knew he made a mistake. He must have been begging on the wrong corner. Some places it was ok to beg. Other places they made you move on.
The spotlight shone in his eyes, bright and unforgiving. The sea air whipped against his cheeks and he could taste the salt on his tongue. His clothes were old and torn, with brown smudges and stains on them. He was wearing four jackets and two pairs of jeans. The knit hat on his head had holes in places and was unraveling in others. The gloves he wore had holes where the fingertips should have been.
“What’d I do?” he asked the police officer.
“Thomas, I don’t know,” he motioned his head toward the squad car, “Feds tell me to put cuffs on, I put cuffs on, that’s it.”
Thomas looked back on the ground where his sketchpad and pencils lay. He never bought alcohol with the change he begged, but art supplies were expensive and hard to come by on the streets. On the paper was the beginning of his latest sketch, a building that not only scraped the sky but penetrated the clouds. It was an exact copy of an office building most people walked by without thinking about. Stock traders and big businessmen were the only ones who ever entered the place. Even they never paused to look at the structure. Thomas knew what it must have taken to make the building. The height alone was a challenge to the architect, but the way the walls creeped up into the air with such imposing dominance was perfection. He could tell without looking inside of the building exactly where the arch supports were, the floor plan on the inside, where the strongest and weakest points were located.
“Can I take my pad?” He looked hopefully at the officer.
“No. Get in the car.”
“That’s my livin’, my pad. It’s all I got.” He tried to move his shoulder toward the pad and the officer nudged him to the car.
Thomas sat down in the back of the car; the upholstery was cold and unforgiving. His hands were uncomfortable behind his back and the metal dug into him. He looked out of the window toward the crowd, if you could call it a crowd in a busy city like this, and saw a heavy dark boot step down and snap one of his pencils. The shards of fine lead scraped across the concrete as the foot moved away.
“Ohh,” he squeaked.
“What’s the matter, you hearin’ them voices again?” The cop turned his head toward the back of the car.
“No.”
“You know I told you about places that can help. I told you about them free doctors and clinics. If you woulda gone, maybe you wouldn’t be here.”
“I just wanna draw, don’t want no one tellin’ me I can’t draw or what I should draw. Them doctors do that to you, they do it all the time.” Thomas watched the buildings go by outside the car. He knew which ones were art deco, which were gothic or glass box style. He could name them all.
“Why didn’t you go to school, Thomas? I’ve seen your drawings, you coulda been an architect.” The officer kept his head straight forward looking at the road.
“I tried, sometimes I say stuff, talk to myself, can’t stop, said a bad word once, teacher thought I was cussin’ her. I was cussin’ them voices, they tell me I’m stupid, can’t do nothin’, won’t be nothin’, so I cuss ‘em. They kicked me out, I never tried again.”
Thomas and the officer were silent the rest of the way to the station. He loved the look of the station house. It had high curved arches, a large flight of concrete steps going up to the door, and big bright lamp posts that lit up the sidewalk. He had drawn that building too. In fact, he had drawn every building in the city at least once. From the coast to the business district, he sketched them all. The police station building was not a big seller on the streets. Most people wanted really tall buildings. Thomas could never get more than three dollars for the police station.
Inside the station, people were walking back and forth in a hurried fashion, ignoring each other. Phones rang and people shouted across the room. The officer led Thomas past the bustle and into a sterile, empty room with a table and two chairs. A man in a dark suit sat at the table and gestured for Thomas to sit down.
“Who’re you?” Thomas asked.
“Special Agent Fields, counter-terrorism division,” he replied as he pulled out a tape recorder and pressed record. The red light on it stared Thomas in the face. The agent was tall and thin and kept clicking the pen in his hand.
“Begin recording,” he said. “Interrogation of subject suspected of terrorist activities on February seventeenth. Subject’s name is?”
“I’m Thomas.”
“Do you know why you are here?”
Thomas looked at the man. He had no emotion in his face; he just stared in Thomas’s direction. Click, click, went the sound of the pen.
“I was at the wrong corner.”
“No, sir. You are accused of aiding an elite terrorist network with vital information about the design and structure of several buildings in the financial district. Do you draw buildings?” he asked, pausing long enough to cross his arms and sit back in his seat.
“It’s my livin’. And beggin’ but mostly I draw. Some people, they like it and want to buy ‘em.” Thomas moved his hands around as much as he could in the handcuffs.
“We have stopped an attack on the building you were outside of. One of their recon agents had piles of sketches in his briefcase detailing every inch of the building. They even knew delivery drop points and service entrances. How long did it take you to learn the layout, sir?” The agent clicked his pen again waiting for an answer.
Thomas looked down at the hard metal table and thought for a moment.
“I never been inside. I just know, I can feel the inside. It comes out when I draw. That’s when the voices stop, when I draw.” He rubbed his shoulder against his face to try to scratch the itch on his chin.
“Subject admits to knowing the inside of the building,” stated the agent.
“I never been inside,” said Thomas.
“Do you know what they do in that building?”
“No. People dressed all up in suits go there. They don’t give money even though they all dressed so nice. Some kinda office?”
“Yes. Some kind of office. It is the building that houses the nation’s foremost chemical weapons research lab. It is the most heavily funded lab on the west coast. You will be detained indefinitely, charges may or may not be pressed against you for your actions, you have been defined as a national threat, an aid to terror, and an enemy combatant. You should be happy. You won’t have to beg anymore for food, you will have a place to live and will be taken care of.” The agent set his pen down and pressed the stop button on the recorder.
“Can I draw?” Thomas asked.
“No. Never again, you are too dangerous to our security. Now let me remove those handcuffs.” The agent motioned to a police officer to take the cuffs off.
The key released the cold metal from Thomas’s hands.
“Now isn’t that better, sir?” asked the agent.
“Yes, sir, my hands feel much better now.” As Thomas rubbed his wrists trying to get the circulation back he knew that even if he was released he would not ever be free again. Not to draw was the same as cutting off his hands.
Happy Friday everyone! Hope everyone’s 2024 is off to a good start so far. Here’s a little story I wrote called At the Crossroads. Hope you like it!
At the Crossroads by Adam Wright
It was midnight when Jasper McPheerson got to the crossroads, his guitar strapped across his back.
He had a bag of ingredients with him. The sack was small. It fit in the palm of his hand. He looked at the full moon.
Slowly, he untied the string on the bag. He picked up the feather and blew it into the wind. He pinched the strands of hair between his fingers and gently dropped them to the ground. With the pocket knife he sliced deep enough into his palm to draw a few drops of blood and placed his hand directly in the center of the crossroads. Finally, he lit a small candle with his Zippo lighter and sat cross legged.
Jasper closed his eyes and breathed deeply. He recited the chant. It had taken him months to learn enough Latin to be able to pronounce all the words. It had taken even longer to recite it from memory with no pauses, interruptions, or mistakes. Now he knew it as well as he knew the pledge of allegiance.
After the chant was finished, Jasper expected something to happen. He listened to the wind and waited. He heard the sound of crickets and waited. He smelled the fresh cut grass and the stench of residual oil hanging in the air and he continued to wait. Keeping his eyes closed, he fought to stay awake. His pulse slowed and he caught his head drooping a time or two.
The smells around him started to change. Instead of grass he smelled sulfur. Instead of crickets he heard the sound of crackling flames and felt the heat of a campfire all too close to him.
Jasper opened his eyes. Before him stood a man in a pair of old blue jeans, a dark leather overcoat, and a wide brimmed black hat. The man’s eyes glowed with a fiery red light. The man was thin and his face was gaunt. When he spoke to Jasper the voice sounded like the hum of electricity running through a high voltage wire.
“Not this horse shit again. I suppose you want something from me?”
Jasper found his mouth was dry and when he spoke it came out as a thin whisper.
“Yes, sir. I do.”
“On with it then, what do you want? You’ve got me trapped here until we make a deal. For both our sakes, and to keep me from boredom, make it a good one.”
“Famous. A famous musician. It’s all I’ve ever wanted.”
The man cocked his head to the side as if in thought. He scratched at his chin and Jasper saw razor sharp black nails.
“Fifteen thousand, four hundred and seven.” The man’s voice crackled once again.
“Excuse me?”
“That’s the exact number of times someone has asked me to make them a famous musician. You do a thing once and it never ends. I have immense power at my fingertips. Are you sure you don’t want something else? It’s not very original.”
Jasper stood up and stepped closer.
“Please, sir. Like I said, it’s all I’ve ever wanted. There’s nothing else for me.”
“Can’t you reconsider? I mean, you could be rich and not famous. Or, hell, here’s an idea, ask me to stop world hunger. You never know, maybe I could do it. No one’s asked. Maybe the reason you want fame is to meet women. I can do that for you also. But really, this whole devil down in Georgia at the crossroads thing is just a trope. Can’t you be more creative?”
Jasper took his guitar off his shoulder and grabbed a pick from his pocket. He started the first few notes of Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin. The man grabbed Jasper’s wrist. His hand was like a hot coal on Jasper’s skin.
“No need for that, son. I’ve heard that song plenty. I can see your mind is made up. You know what you’ll owe me?”
Jasper swallowed.
“My soul.”
The man nodded. He then spit into his hand and extended it toward Jasper. Jasper did the same and they shook.
“Well, that’s it I guess. I’ll be seeing you soon. Enjoy your fame.”
The man faded into haze until Jasper saw a blinding white light. He heard the sound of a horn blaring. Before he knew what was happening, two tons of steel collided with Jasper and he was no more than a streak on the pavement.
The next day the headline that made Jasper famous read:
MUSICIAN STRUCK BY PRESIDENTIAL MOTORCADE AT MIDNIGHT IN GEORGIA
Well Happy New Year out there all you dungeon crawlers! It’s officially 2024 but before we start off the new year for real, I thought I would give a little wrap up about what happened here on my blog this year. I’ll also give you a little peek into a few of the things you might see on here in 2024. If you can’t stand this kind of a post, don’t feel like you need to read it, I just like to do a little reflection now and then. I’m just going to be talking about what happened on my blog more or less, not big news stories (for the most part) or anything like that. Let’s see what happened in the categories I covered.
film
I started off the year wanting to review every movie I saw. I failed on that goal because, well, you know, life and stuff. But I started out reviewing one of the oddest movies I have ever seen called Adult Swim Yule Log (AKA The Fireplace). It’s not for everyone but it’s definitely memorable. In January I also reviewed Prey which is best entry the Predator series has had in decades. Horror films in theaters started off fairly strong in the form of M3GAN about an android doll who does what android dolls do and tries to kill everyone. January also had a Friday the 13th in it so I reviewed the last of the Friday the 13th movies I can, Freddy vs. Jason. I’m still hopeful for a 13th movie in the series but we’ll see if that ever actually happens.
In February they rereleased Titanic for a limited time and made me ugly cry as always. On Valentine’s day I watched Picnic at Hanging Rock which is a quiet horror movie with a decidedly creepy vibe which also happens to take place on Valentine’s day. I also watched Tom Hanks be a grumpy old man in A Man Called Otto. February brought with it more Ant-Man in the form of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. It was sort of okay but certainly not Marvel’s best.
In May it was the anniversary of Return of the Jedi so I wanted to give everyone a guide on how to go about watching, reading, playing etc. in the universe of Star Wars. I’ve got a lot left to review on that so stay tuned if you like Star Wars. Also in May I reviewed the entire Fast & Furious franchise starting with the very first movie, The Fast & The Furious. It’s mind boggling how far into ridiculousness these films get.
I didn’t really watch any movies in July actually so nothing to report here.
In August there was a refreshingly independent horror movie called Talk to Me. And a couple of box office juggernauts were launched with Oppenheimer and Barbie. I watched them both but only got around to reviewing the first one. They’re both worth watching though!
In October I reviewed the whole Psycho franchise (excluding the TV series Bates Motel) starting with the first film. I also reviewed the double feature slashers of X and Pearl.
I was a little burned out on movies so didn’t review any others until December when I watched what might have been my favorite film of 2023 and an absolute mastery of storytelling with Godzilla Minus One.
So, what’s coming up on this blog for film for 2024? Well, I can’t say I am overly excited about what is coming to theaters but I’m sure I will review a few things here. I’ll almost certainly review the Oscar picks for best picture. As far as film series to review I think I am going to go with the whole Halloween franchise and the Texas Chainsaw Massacre movies. We’ll see if I end up doing any others.
Books
It was a busy year in books for me. In February I read the second volume of the Time Corrector series, The Movement by Avi Datta. It’s a fantastic series and a beautiful book. And I am very excited that I have the third volume which I will be reviewing in early February. I also started reviewing the Empire series by Tim Goff.
In November I read Illyadra by Adriel Wallaker and Drakomunda by Guy Quarterly.
December I read The Badlander by Tom Golden which has an utterly unforgettable ending. I also read To the Solemn Graves which is a solid ghost story anthology by Kim Idynne.
In 2024 you can expect more reviews of independent author’s books from Reedsy. I’m also hoping to but in a few more Star Wars book reviews and couple of reviews for bigger name authors, especially in fantasy and science fiction. I am a slow reader so we’ll see how far I get.
Marvel
I continue my quest to review every Marvel 616 comic in order and I made some progress this year. There is still a ton to go.
I could link every post I did on these this year but my series of reviews is meant to be read from the beginning so I am going to cheat a little and just link you to that first post here. If you read through it, you can link to the next one at the bottom and go in order.
I love Marvel comics and for 2024 I plan to continue with these reviews. I have to take breaks from it here and there because as much as I do love them, these early issues can seem a bit repetitive. Once you’ve seen Thor beat up a bunch of communists you don’t really need to see it again but that just keeps happening. Anyway, as far as Marvel goes on this blog just watch for more of it!
Star Wars
As far as Star Wars goes, as I mentioned above I have a lot left to review. I did come up with a guide for how to get started here. And I managed to review The Light of the Jedi.
For 2024 I’ll be reviewing Into the Dark which is the next book in phase 1 of the High Republic series. I will also probably start reviewing the movies but those are going to be a super deep dive so I’m not sure if I will complete that this year. I’ll be consuming tons of Star Wars stuff as I always to but how much I review basically remains to be seen.
Role Playing Games
Oh boy did a lot happen in the world of TTRPGs this year! There were too many crazy things to cover but the year did not start off well for Wizards of the Coast who makes Dungeons & Dragons. They had a huge debacle in what came to be knows as the OGL well.. debacle. And a ton of other stuff happened too. At the end of 2023 I basically feel better about TTRPGs as a hobby as a whole but D&D really needs to figure itself out as soon as possible if it wants to stay the most popular TTRPG of all time.
In January I gave my recommendations for the Top 5 TTRPGs to play in 2023. Also in January things started happening with the OGL (Open Gaming License) which allows creators to make third party stuff for D&D. But you know what? There are other rules systems and companies out there and people who want to make stuff for TTRPGs can use them. One of my favorites is the Basic Role Playing system by Chaosium. January just went crazy with the whole OGL thing and another company who I would say proved to be one of the best in 2023 was Paizo who makes Pathfinder. I wrote about that here.
In February I gave my picks for great gifts for any game master here. I know, it’s not romantic or whatever but hey, everyone can use dice and stuff like that. There were also a lot of play tests of new games happening in 2023. In particular in February there was the first play test of what was called Project Black Flag but will be known as Tales of the Valiant. It’s got the potential to be a D&D rival but it remains to be seen how popular it ends up becoming.
One of the things I find most difficult about TTRPGs is just finding a group to play consistently. A great way around that is to play solo TTRPG games which is why I cam up with my list of Top 5 Solo TTRPGs in April.
In August I got my hot little hands on a game I am super excited about which combines my love of Marvel comics with my love of TTRPGs. That’s right, I wrote about everything you need to know about the Marvel Multiverse Tabletop Role Playing Game. I also did a review of the core rulebook here and did a breakdown of the first chapter here. I’ll be doing a lot more with this book and this game in 2024 so if you are into Marvel TTRPGs watch for that.
In October I did one of the two things I am most proud of for 2023. I wrote my first scenario for Call of Cthulhu 7th edition called Fantastic Light Display. I worked for more than a month on it and I’m still just really excited to have published anything TTRPG related. This is definitely not for everyone but I had an absolute blast making it.
Also, because it was October, I couldn’t resist giving my recommendations for the Top 5 Monster TTRPGs to play.
In December, the MCDM TTRPG had a crowdfunding kick off and I have to say this is the game I am most excited for coming out in 2024 so expect a lot more written about it right here on this blog.
I had such a great time making my first Call of Cthulhu 7th edition scenario that I decided to do it again. This one is called Trouble on the Rock and is set on Alcatraz island just as the military prison is about to become a federal penitentiary. This is also just the first part as I intend to do two more in the On the Rock series. In February watch for the second in the series called Terror on the Rock. Just to be clear, these are related but stand alone scenarios so you don’t have to play one to enjoy the other. If you are into TTRPGs and like Call of Cthulhu it would be awesome if you could spread the word about it!
In 2024 you can expect more posts about how to play TTRPGs, more Top 5 lists, and definitely more scenarios, adventures etc written by yours truly!
Stories by Me
I definitely didn’t write as many short stories in 2023 as I intended to but I still got a few out.
In January I wrote Resolutions. Never try to grow tomatoes is my advice.
In February I wrote about Twenty Years of Walking Away and a story called Invasion. I also posted a story called Space Walk. That story actually first appeared in a collection called Flashbang! Volume II featuring a bunch of independent authors. I just wanted everyone to enjoy my story for free as well if they wished to.
In September I had another story featured in a collection called In a Flash. Again, it features a whole lot of independent authors and they are all flash fiction stories so it’s a nice small bite of fiction for when you don’t have a lot of time.
And as I said in the section above, I published my first two Call of Cthulhu 7th edition scenarios. These are not technically stories but they are written by me and I hope people enjoy them. I’m not trying to make anyone spend a dime on anything I write unless they want to but if you do, buying those scenarios is the best way currently to show your support for this blog.
In 2024 I definitely want to bring back my Flash Fiction Friday series and hopefully have a few good stories for you to read. I absolutely am not going to have one for every Friday of the year but I’ll do what I can!
I’m also working on a novel, but I’ll tell you more about that once I get to a point where I think it’s really worth sharing something. I’m not sure what all else I will get up to as far as writing goes this year but you can definitely expect more blog posts!
Heading into 2024
There are a lot of things I am excited for in the coming year and I hope you’ll decide to keep reading some of my posts whether you enjoy my fiction, my reviews of books and movies, my nerding out about Star Wars and Marvel and TTRPGs or all of the above. I hope everyone has an incredible 2024 and I wish all of you a Happy New Year!
