cat casebl21.txt

Siren klaxon announcing my arrival

Car quietly whining as it slowed

Electric motor’s gentle purr

I step out into the cold

Snow falling in thick flakes

Cotton covering to all

I pull my cap down

Flat top adorned with badge

Emblazoned with HIPD

As I approach the front door

Officer greets with a simple nod

I flash credentials

Holo-card glimmering in the dark

“Detective Kovar Nepovim

I heard it was suicide

Do we know their name yet?”

The officer nods again

Leading me within

“Her name was Bronislava Liska

And she worked for Ignis…”

I pause a moment

Holding up my hand

“Ignis?

Then why are we here?”

The officer shrugs

Opening the door beside us

“They tell me where to go

And I go”

I sigh and hold up my wrist before me

Display fizzles on

/HalcyOS Select Mode/

I select biological analyzer

Then pull out and pull on

A set of thin white gloves

“A coverup it is then…”

I grumble beneath my breath

The apartment is cramped

Shelves lined with dolls

Synthetic glass eyes glaring

Judging

Above

Silk hangs low

I brush it with my finger

It’s real

“Impressive…”

Expensive…

As I step farther in I spy her feet

Just hanging past the silk

Table toppled nearby

On the floor a reader

Opened to Poe

And a spilled glass

Of Synth-Wine

A bit overdone

A bit too staged

I know what this is

But still

I focus the analyzer on her

Face blue

Lips pale

Tongue bulged

Analyzer makes quick work

Cocktail of antidepressants and Synth-Wine

Some sad literature and there we have it

I sigh again

Sitting on her bed

Looking up at the remains

What remains of her

Little more

Than fertilizer

And some futile fretting

The analyzer blips

Something else

On the shelf

The doll

It has real hair

One eye is real glass

The other

A camera

I quickly pocket the doll

Evidence

I’ll analyze later

Yes

Later

I’ll include it in the report

What Lies Within Delver’s Deep

They dared me to go

Down into Delver’s Deep

Where mom always warned against

A set of tunnels that twisted and turned

Curling into the depths

I told them I didn’t want to

That I was scared

And it was dark

But they pushed me

They pushed me in

And I fell

I tumbled

Broken

And battered

I came to rest

So far below

And with not a light all around

The pain was all consuming

Wracking my fragile body

But after a bit

My eyes adjusted

And here on the walls

Grew fungus

Translucent

And effluent

I tried to cry out

But all the sound that I made

Was a miserable and defeated wheeze

Yet

Something heard me

A scuttling in the distance

Above or below

Or even beside

I could not tell

But definitely moving closer

Grandma’s words came

Her warning of this place

“They shut it up for a reason

Things crawl down in there

Things that God’s light never touched

And they’re a terrible sight

Enough to kill a man”

My breathing was ragged

As the sound drew closer

I shut my eyes tight

Taking my grandma’s words

As literal advice

The steps grew faster

Heavy breath coming with

A scrabbling scuttling sound

It rounded whichever corner

And stopped at the sight of me

I whimpered

Eyes shut oh so tight

As it slowly paced closer

I could feel its hot breath

And smell fetid stink

As it leaned over my cowering form

Something thin

And bony

Grasped my ankle

And I was dragged screaming

Into the dark

Flame’s Caress

Bleary eyed buzzing thump

Head a swarm of burbling bugs

Pain recognized shoots across

Tears through brain down my spine

Dark and damp and cold is what I notice

Once the pain plateaus so far above

I crouch and grasp about

For what I don’t know

But some part of me does

A small box rough on a side

I grasp and pull against my chest

Rattling inside little sticks

I smile as I pull one out

Pressing it under thumb

Against strike pad

As I pull it across

My nose notices something important

Something crucial

Acrid and bright

Vaporous and heady

Alcohol

Denatured

And coating all of me

Light and pain is the last I recall

Twister Lit Contest

I was just tagged by the Twister Lit Contest hosted by High Tensile UK and found out this morning that I won! The winning tweet is the featured photo for this post~ The goal was to write a complete feeling piece of psychological thriller fiction within one tweet.

As part of this I am going to receive a signed copy of A Ladder to the Sky by John Boyne who is also well known for writing The Boy in the Striped Pajamas.

The other part is that I’ll be featured on their website hightensilelit.com when it goes live on December 9th!

I am so freaking excited!!! If you’ve found me through their website I do hope you enjoy my writing and decide to hang around~

This is the first writing contest I’ve ever won so this is also VERY EXCITING!

Violent Paths Cross

Wanderer dragged forward

Ever onward past dry land

Through downy soft crystal fields

Stopping briefly for water

In the midst of a silent pasture

Stream burbling pleasantly

Some distance away

The Wanderer saw another

Dressed in garb

So far removed

As his was also

This one in wrapped layers

All but eyes hidden

The Wanderer himself

Dressed in crimson cape

With deep grey and black swirled rags

The Wanderer drew his blade

A humming biting thing

Which brought death swift

The Stranger drew his

Curves wicked and barbed

Its every facet to bring agony

The Stranger gave a guttural call

Challenge in tone

The Wanderer met it in kind

With swift leap the Wanderer landed

Across the lolling stream

Slowly they approached

Blades ready

A careful dance

Not too close

But ever closer

Until

The Stranger lashed out

Flecked with something muddy

Unseen from afar

The Wanderer dodged all

But one barb

Which sliced his arm

As he too swung

The edge cut azure blur

Clear through

A pause

Breath

The Stranger collapsed

Felled in two

Victory

Surely

But

The Wanderer felt a burn

Of something insidious

Crawling through his veins

He knew what this was

And spat on the body of his foe

For the honorless poison he used

He walked to the stream

Dipping in his toes

Laid down his blade

And laid back in the grass

The wind whispered

The grass murmuring

And in them a reminder

He will not be remembered

Nor the trials he faced

All that he accomplished

Was to feed this beauteous place

The Hand We’re Dealt

Cards are dealt

Quick flash to each on the table

I tip my Stetson back

With a broad smile as I eye my hand

One man meets my gaze

Grumbles something crass and crude

Eyes his own cards

And folds quickly on the first round of bets

The next ups the ante

And growls surly for my decision then

I ease back puzzling quietly

Then push forth my pile with simple “all in”

The man beside me whistles

Taps his own chips with a reticent pace

Before he shakes head

And quietly folds as the first did

Then just one and me

He meets me with a sinister grin

Shows his cards

A straight flush three to seven of clubs

I nod solemnly

Set down my own hand with defeat

And show him

A glorious spades royal flush

The table is flipped

The man draws iron and cries

“Cheatin’ dog!”

With cards still fluttering down

I leap from my chair

A hard tackle sends him sprawling

I force back his hand

And with a deafening boom

Little is left of his head

Death March

His boot heels dragged

Through the lone dry grass

Sparse and brown from the wilting heat

His Planter’s hat

Wide brimmed and flat

Hid his eyes from the muddled hues

Above him cried

A vulture who eyed

The gait of a thing soon dead

How long he’d gone

Or what he had done

Few knew and yet fewer would tell

He did not curse his plight

As another man might

But prayed it be enough to atone

As the sun then set

And a pale man was met

He welcomed the stranger into his arms

He gasped a last breath

And walked calmly to Death

He fell down to the hard packed earth

The only witnesses here

Are two who men fear

The reaper and his malodorous bird

Outlaw’s Thoughts

Wagon wheel rocks and jolts

I cough the road’s rough dust

And ‘neath my jackets folds

Hides a tool of pain and rust

What used I to take a life

Of one held dear to most

A good and lovely wife

Of my deed I will not boast

A town rolls by beyond my right

Beside my path of troubled woes

With not an end in sight

And arrayed with endless foes

The path or town matters not

Pray forgiveness would I

For all the men I’ve fought

And left behind to die

One day I know from now not long

That I will surely fall

And with no tale left to song

I will curse you all

XIII

On the horizon you spot it

A gathering darkness

Like so many swarming buzzing corpse flies

The sun died behind it

Yet the sky before you

Still seems a simple sunset

But there

Bulging

Is that blackness

That badness

Quickly growing

Ravenously consuming

Your nails claw at your cheeks

Ragged strips of flesh fall away

A scream

Ragged

Tears from your throat

Your mind fumbles for reason

Some order

Some cause for all of this

But finds none

The walls scream too

And as the world dies

You glimpse behind the encroaching gloom

Something bright

And new

“Chance” Meeting

I cup my simple brew

Warm but I imagine

Quietly to myself

Something oh so warmer

And satisfying too…

As I meet your eyes

Is there a spark?

Do we feel the pull

The draw of fate’s strings?

I smile and give a little wave

You smile too returning wave

Though you waited a moment

I am so eager to know you

I’ve been watching for weeks

But I’m so very nervous

And terribly shy

Yes for weeks that’s right

I do hope I haven’t unnerved you

I have tried ever so hard

To go unnoticed

That is

Until now

Now you see me

Now I smile

You smiled too

Hesitantly

I felt that hesitation

A slight against me

So hurtful and minatory

Oh foul temptress

How could you so toy with my heart?

How cruel you are

And awful too!

You will pay

For hurting me so

I was your only chance

For love and life

A shame

You are so pretty

When you sleep at night

For that is where

I will creep within

And with careful hands

Snuff your life