by David Byron
He thinks about fucking one of „em, but he"s nearly dried up, he"s already done so much of that. He wanders into the kitchen, thinking maybe he"ll fix himself something to eat, when he opens the utility drawer and his eyes
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happen to fall on Pappy"s corkscrew, that big ol" spiral thing he used to open his cheap bottles of red wine with. Marty gets an idea, and he"s so excited about it that he forgets all about food. He takes the corkscrew and rushes up the stairs. He"s heard about lobotomies, how they calm down the loudest patients in the state looney bins, and he"s getting mighty tired of having to constantly re-tie that one in the back bedroom, the one with the short brown hair and the small ass.
Sure enough, when he comes into the room she"s rolling around, trying to get the ropes loose again. He lays the corkscrew down where she can"t see it, then he ties her tighter, enjoying her little whimpers. Then he gets a board and a roll of duct tape; as her terrified eyes roll in her head, he slides the board under her head and duct tapes her head to it, giving her almost no leeway. Then he holds up the corkscrew triumphantly, and feels positively godlike at the look of stark, over-the-edge-of-the-sanity horror on her pretty face. He doesn"t really know anything about lobotomies, so he just puts the point between her eyes, and starts turning.
At first it"s hard to get the point in (he remember Pappy always struggled a little with this part, too), then the corkscrew bites down (into the skull, he figures), and the turning becomes easier. Soon she stops struggling. He"s surprised at how little blood there is – until he removes the corkscrew. Then it gushes forth, a bubbling spring of red.
And the girl is dead.
He"s disappointed, mainly because of the work of burying her now... but then he remembers he"s still got seven more.
And a world of billions outside the house.
### When she picks him up, she compliments him for being on time.
―So,‖ he asks as they speed away from the coffee shop in her car, ―dinner and a movie this time?‖
―Oh, I‘ve got something much better in mind. Just wait.‖
She turns up the radio, blaring a thrash metal song by a band he doesn‘t know, and he wonders for the first time how
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much younger she is. When the song ends, they‘re entering the downtown area, a bewildering array of one-way streets and towers that block the sky.
―So what is the plan for tonight?‖
―It‘s a surprise.‖
He nods, and feels that gnawing uneasiness inside again.
He realizes he has no chance of controlling this situation – or, probably, of controlling any situation with her. In fact, the truth is
– he fears her.
They emerge on the other side of downtown into a desolate industrial district. Even the street-people don‘t cluster here, in these blocks of rusting corrugated metal buildings with broken windows and cracked-pavement yards.
His stomach twists, the unconscious association taking another instant to materialize in his mind: Oh Christ. This place looks like something out of my books.
―Claudia, where are we going?‖ ―I told you, it‘s a surprise. Something I‘ve been working on the last few days.‖
She pulls the car up before a chain link fence and leaves the engine running while she runs out to take the broken padlock from the chain holding the gate. She swings the gate wide, then returns to the car. She drives down a short way, past one outbuilding to a large, battered warehouse.
There‘s light coming from one of the dust-laden windows.
He almost decides to tell her he‘s not leaving the car, or that he‘s walking out of here. He truthfully is not sure how far it is to a bus stop, but at this point a hundred miles through this constructed desert seems preferable to what he‘s beginning to fear is in that building.
Then she‘s opening his door, excitedly urging him out of the car.
―Claudia... ―
―Come on, Lee. I‘ve worked really hard to make this special for you.‖
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:She seems sincere, he thinks. Maybe I‘m wrong. So he allows her to pull him from the car, to take his hand and lead him to an ancient metal door, creaking slightly on rusty hinges. She uses a flashlight to find their way, first through a longabandoned office, filled with splintered desks and the remains of a 1983 calendar still fluttering on a wall, then through some sort of medical station, with large signs pointing out the location of the eye wash, which looks like a metal drinking fountain with the spout pointed straight up. There‘s a strong chemical stench pervading the place, even after nearly 30 years of disuse. Lee starts to wonder why it hasn‘t been torn down, and then realizes there‘s simply no reason to build anything better here.
Then they walk through a last doorway and out onto the main floor of this place, and Claudia turns off the flashlight, because there are two propane lanterns spilling light onto a work bench a few feet away.
A work bench where a woman is tied down.
At first he thinks she‘s dead; she‘s not moving, and she‘s so silent that Lee can hear the tiny hiss of the lantern flames. Then, as if reading his thoughts, Claudia dances forward and steps behind the bench.
―She‘s not dead, Lee. If that‘s what you‘re thinking.‖
Lee‘s feet won‘t carry him closer. ―What is this?‖ he asks, knowing how stupid he sounds.
―You know what it is.‖ She picks something up from a table behind her, and Lee sees it‘s covered with small objects – tools, saws, knives. And books.
It‘s a book she‘s picked up. She flips it open to a page she obviously knows well.
The book is Stumpfuckers.
She begins reading: ―‘By the time he arrived at the factory, the woman had passed out. That was fine with him; in fact, it was better. It made it easier to carry her in, strap her down on the table, carefully cut away her clothes –‗‖
Lee cuts her off. ―You don‘t have to read any more.‖
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Claudia sets down the book and hold up instead a small knife. ―You can use this. I‘ve got scissors, too, just in case.‖
―And then I‘m supposed to saw off her leg, I suppose.‖
Claudia waves the knife and smiles. ―Not with this, of course.‖
Lee finds his strength now, and he walks forward to look from the table to the unconscious woman. ―How did you get her here?‖
―Oh c‘mon, don‘t you remember, in Slit Thing he uses that tranquilizer on the woman? Your research was good – it worked just like you said it would.‖
Lee thinks he might vomit, but he works to hold it back. He thinks absurdly of another line he wrote in Slit Thing, a line one victim repeats over and over: This can"t be happening.
He looks at the proposed victim. She‘s young, probably about Claudia‘s age. Dressed simply in a blouse and skirt she might have worn to work that day, before she stopped by the bar on her way home, before she let the friendly woman with crimson hair buy her drink...
―Okay, Claudia. This was fun. Now cut her loose and let‘s go.‖
Claudia barks a short, disdainful laugh. ―Cut her loose? I can‘t cut her loose. She‘s seen me.‖
Oh God.
―This is not going to happen.‖
Claudia looks at him for a moment, then, frustrated, says, ―I don‘t get you. You write this stuff all the time, but when somebody gives you a chance to experience it for real, you shy away. This could take your writing to the next level.‖
―I write fiction, Claudia. I don‘t need to live it to write about.‖
―In other words, what you write is all fake. Isn‘t it, Lee? It‘s all completely phony, isn‘t that what you‘re telling me?‖
Before he can answer, the woman on the table moans and rolls her head slightly.
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Lee‘s horror escalates to panic. ―If we cut her loose and drop her off where
you found her, she might not even remember you –‖
The woman opens her eyes.
―Too late, Lee – she‘s seen you, too, now.‖
The woman struggles to focus – and then she begins to
scream.
In all the screams he‘s described in all of his novels, Lee
Denny has never imagined anything like this. The scream is
impossibly loud, ragged on the edges as if torn from some part of
this woman. Lee wants more than anything to make that sound
stop. He bends over the woman, ridiculous in his attempt to calm
her. ―It‘s okay, you‘ll get out of this –‖
He pulls at her wrists, and discovers Claudia has bound her
with duct tape, yards of the stuff. He looks around, and sees the
knives on the table behind him. He reaches for one, but the
woman screams even louder when he turns back to her. ―No, it‘s
okay, I‘m just going to cut you loose –‖
And then Claudia is behind the woman, with the small
knife, held to the woman‘s jugular. She stops screaming, afraid to
move even the smallest part of her throat.
―You see? I know more about how all this stuff works
than you do. You don‘t really understand people. In fact, I think I
could be a much better writer than you. You‘re not willing to take
that final step, are you?‖
Lee backs away, his hands shaking so that the knife he held
drops to the ground, the small clink sounding like a cannon roar in
the echoing stillness of the cavernous space.
―Oh Jesus, Lee, are you really crying?‖
He is. He didn‘t even know until she told him. ―What a loser. No wonder your books suck.‖
She bends over the woman with a fresh determination.
And Lee runs.
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He runs, regardless of door frames he bashes into, of jagged metal that reaches out to tear his clothing, trying to shut out the screams behind him.
He makes it out of the warehouse and down the driveway, out of the fence and down the dark street. He runs, hoping he‘s heading towards something like a store or a taxi or even another sign of human habitation. He runs until his out-of-shape body betrays him, and he has to double over, gasping for breath. Then he does vomit. When it‘s done, he falls back for a moment, depleted.
He begins to think now: Should he call the police? And what they‘ll find: A madwoman, a bloodied victim – and everywhere, his books. His fingerprints on a knife. Her testimony that it was his idea, that he was a partner until he chickened out.
He forces himself to move again. After another block he comes to the end of the industrial section and sees what he needs: A bar. ―The Tender Trap‖.
He heads for the bar and goes in. It‘s a dive, regulars with missing teeth and calloused hands lined up on the dozen stools, a few more clustered around the tables and the thirty-year old pinball game. Lee makes sure his order is memorable – two shots of their best tequila. He spills one on the foul-smelling senior next to him, and barely evades a fist fight. He asks what time it is.
After an hour in the bar – all he can stand, and then some
– he leaves. On the way out he trips and knocks over a chair, drawing more curses and hoots.
He‘s sure they‘ll remember him now. He‘s got an alibi.
He finds a phone outside and calls his friend. Luckily he‘s home, and Lee tells him roughly where he thinks he is. His friend manages to find it after forty minutes; Lee tells him only that he got stood up by a date. His friend laughs and sympathizes.
Lee doesn‘t sleep that night; instead, he finds an internet radio channel that monitors police broadcasts. He listens until 2 p.m. the next day, but there‘s no mention of a murder in the
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industrial district. He realizes it could be a very long time before the body is found.
Maybe he‘ll sleep in the meantime.. but he doubts it.
### Lenny was haunted by the ghosts of his own regrets.
At 34, he thought he was too young to feel this old. The burden he carried felt like a thousand years of life, not the third-of-a-century he"d been conscious. It didn"t show to the outside world – they saw only a sandy-haired, slightly-introverted young man, who spent most of his days painting – but inside Lenny could feel his own spine cracking from the weight. He couldn"t imagine going on another fifty or sixty years. He tried to understand how he had come to this, and his mind always came back to one thing:
It had started with her.
###
Lee‘s first novel of ―non-extreme fiction‖ isn‘t going well. He started it just yesterday, something to take his mind off that night, now two weeks ago, but his heart‘s really not in it.
He‘s read the newspaper every day since, but he‘s never seen a report on a murder in that area. He guesses it could be weeks, even months before the body is found.
After another frustrating bout with the new book, he decides to check his e-mail. There‘s an unusually large message from his publisher. Sometimes the publisher passes fan letters on to him; sometimes fans even send him photos or artwork. This email has a file attachment, a graphic; the publisher‘s brief note says only that this was sent to him, with a note asking that it please be forwarded to Lee Denny. The file attachment reads "sceneofthecrime.jpg‖.
Lee opens the photo.
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It shows Claudia, in the warehouse, laughing in the bluewhite glare of a camera flash. And sitting beside here, an arm around her, laughing, is the ―victim‖.
Lee stares at the photo on his screen for a moment, then promptly closes and erases the file. He drops a note back to his publisher, asking him to please not forward anymore mail to him. Then he takes the last two weeks of the newspaper into the bathroom, places them carefully in the tub and sets fire to them. Inspired by the last few glowing embers, he repeats the action with every copy he owns of every one of his books. He deletes the files from his computer, including the new novel.
Then he grabs a bottle of beer, turns on the television, settles back into the couch, and tries desperately not to think about the next fifty or sixty years.
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Iron Dave‘s 1980s Film List NOW, I BELIEVE THIS ALL OF THE NOTEWORTHY - OR NOT SO NOTEWORTHY - FILMS OF THE 1980S. PLEASE FORGIVE ME IF I HAVE MISSED ANY, BUT I DO OTHER THINGS BESIDES WATCH MOVIES, BELIEVE IT OR NOT!
IRON DAVE
NOTE: SOME OF THER FILMS HAVE RATINGS BY THEM AS WELL.
{ QUESTION MARKS? INDICATE FILMS I HAVE NOT SEEN}.
*** 976-Evil (1989) 10
Aenigma (1987) ?
After Midnight (1989) ?
Alien Dead (1980) ?
Aliens (1986) 9
Alligator (1980) ?
Alone in the Dark (1982) 7
Amazing Stories: Book 2 (1987) ? American Gothic (1988) ?
American Werewolf in London (1981) 10 Amityville 3-D(1983) 4
Amityville 4: The Evil Escapes (1989) 8 Amityville II: The Possession(1982) 8 Apartment Zero (1988) ?
Apology (1986) ?
Apprentice to Murder (1988) ?
April Fool's Day (1986) ?
Awakening (1980)
Basket Case(1982)
Bay Coven (1987)
Beast Within (1982)
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Being (1983)
Believers (1987) 10
Beyond Evil (1980)
Beyond the Door III (1989)
Beyond the Limit (1983)
Black Cat (1980)
Blind Date (1984)
Blind Witness (1989)
Blob (1988)
Blood Tide (1982) 8
Blue Man (1985)
Bog (1983)
Boogey Man (1980)
Brain Damage (1
988)
Breeders (1986) 8
Bride (1985)
Brimstone and Treacle (1982) Burial Ground (1980)
Burning (1981) 10
C.H.U.D. (1984) 10
C.H.U.D. II - Bud the Chud (1989) Cameron's Closet (1989)
Cannibal Apocalypse (1980)
Cardiac Arrest (1980)
Cat People (1982) 10
Cataclysm (1980)
Cat's Eye (1985) 9
Children of the Corn (1984) 10 Child's Play (1988) 10
Chiller (1985)
Chopping Mall (1986)
Christine (1983) 10
Conquest (1983)
Contamination (1980)
Crawlspace (1986)
Creepshow (1982) 10
Creepshow 2 (1987) 9
Critters (1986) 9
Critters 2: The Main Course (1988) 9 Cujo (1983) 9
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Curse (1987)
Curse II: The Bite (1988)
Dance of the Damned (1988) Dangerous Love (1988)
Dark Mansions (1986)
Day of the Dead (1985)
Dead & Buried (1981)
Dead Next Door (1988)
Dead Zone (1983) 10
Deadly Blessing (1981)
Deadly Friend (1986) 9
Deadly Spawn (1983) 10
Death House (1987)
Death Ship (1980)
Deepstar Six (1989)
Deliria (1987)
Demons (1985) 8
Demons 2 (1986)
Doctor and the Devils (1985) Doctor Dracula (1981)
Dolls (1987)
Dracula's Widow (1988)
Drifter (1988)]
Edge of Sanity (1989)
Effects (1980)
Endangered Species (1982)
Entity (1982)
Epidemic (1988)
Evil Dead (1981) 10
Evil Dead 2 (1987) 9
Evil Spawn (1987) 10
Evils of the Night (1985)
Evilspeak (1981)