A Halloween Story: Lineage

[Bill Floyd]

"Do it," said Laura, and then Burke, and then Theo, wheezing painfully as Laura and Burke carried him to the clubhouse door.

Leaving Owen and Flythe behind in the room at the center of all the torn flesh and twisted tableaux, Flythe up on one knee now, brandishing the knife and muttering weakly until Owen took the blade from him as easily as a bully would take candy from a poor kid.

All those months in the summer locked in that small room, listening to Flythe toy with and then dispatch the other abductees, their screams falling silent one by one until only he remained, wondering why me, why had he been selected to endure until this ultimate night.

Spinning blue lights approaching outside the windows now, the sharp peep of a siren, the others calling for help, time running low, so Owen shoved Flythe down and drove the knife into his chest like a pale human suitor staking the vampire who'd turned his lover into a wanton nocturnal thing, only there was a terrible gratitude in Flythe's eyes to go along with the pain.

"As I was taught, so have I taught you," Flythe said with his final breath, "and you learned well, son."

Owen on his knees now, scrambling to pull away the scarecrow mask, unsure of the face, not having seen it since he was five years old and Dad walked out and never came back, Mom having long since thrown all the photos away.   

 

[bolton carley]

line 5 - holy crap!  what a line!  wow.  dumbfounded.  and impressed.

[Cita]

WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Well, yes, of course.  Of course.  And ditto the sumbitch.  The best writing leaves one "comment-less."

[Jamie Hogan]

Yes, he did. Deft as hell, too. Terrible gratitude. Sumbitch.

[Gita]

OH NO YOU DIDN'T!

[Joey Delgado]

Oh man! Flythe's line is a gut punch. Superb writing.

[Diana E. Backhouse]

Hell's fire!!!