A Halloween Story: I Want to Thank You for Stopping By

[Jamie Hogan]

Owen managed to worm his left hand back into the cords such that he thought Flythe wouldn't be able to tell it was free as the sociopath marched Burke back into the room and snatched him up by the collar like a mewling puppy.

The somber moon in the big palladium window and bits of straw cutting at the corners of his mouth and the blood rushing in his ears as Flythe said,  "I see you got the straw out and let me tell you, you say one word and" with his free hand he reached behind and produced a blade from his belt "you will get to see more of your brother than you ever have."

There were no walls between the great room and the dining room, it demarcated only by two tall columns, white sentries observing the proceedings with a cruel calm, and Flythe dragged Burke over to the nearest and produced rope from somewhere in his denim jacket and soon had the boy bound and lashed in a flurry of cutting and tying that would have impressed a weathered seaman. When he was done he put his dripping, piggish face two inches from Burke's and his breath smelled like black hate, "Sincerely son, I want to thank you for stopping by."

If he had turned to look past Owen and out through the french doors leading to the deck, he may have caught a glimpse of a prim nose and jade green eye peeking in to assess the situation. When she turned back to Theo, the boy had the eyes of a stallion corralled for the first time in its wild life, "No Theo, we can't go call anybody because by the time anybody gets here that fucking maniac will have cut Owen and Burke into strips."

[Angela]

Loved the sentries, the weathered seaman and the black breath of hate.  Chilling, enthralling.

[Cita]

Still hating this story... 

[Gita]

When he was done he put his dripping, piggish face two inches from Burke's and his breath smelled like black hate, "Sincerely son, I want to thank you for stopping by."

There is in the gentle God-fearing Jamie Hogan, family man, a thin streak of brutality that allows him to write cruel dialogue with perfect pitch. Let us all now give thanks for that.

[Bill Floyd]

"You will get to see more of your brother than you ever have."  Damn, that's brutal.  Flythe is even scaring me at this point.  Also, the "flurry of cutting and tying that would have impressed a weathered seaman" is pretty dang dazzling language.