The Ninth Strange Day

Fiction

June 7, 2008

First of all:

Ace of Wands: 7,594 / 10,000 (75.9%)

SO CLOSE! *happydance*

And now… fiction! Nothing offensive. No sex. No questionable language. Nothing dangerous or dirty. Just 254 words.

The house was small to begin with and made smaller by the books and DVD cases that were stacked everywhere. Most of the DVDs were porn. Some of them were horror movies. The books were almost entirely cheap horror.

The kitchen was full of fast food and delivery trash. Pizza boxes, Chinese containers, crumpled bags with smears of ketchup on them. Flies buzzed around an overstuffed trash can. There was a stack of blue plastic bags filled with beer and soda cans. At least he recycled. Sort of.

More books, more carryout trash, and more porn in the bedroom. Blonde women with obviously fake breasts stared vacantly from the covers of magazines and DVDs. The books in here, however, were allegedly books of magic. Most of them were from Beagmhaitheasach Press; a line his store carried. Alex and I exchanged a look and a grin. “Beagmhaitheasach” means “worthless,” and after flipping through three of the books, I could say that they certainly were that.

Under the mattress, however, was the real find. There was several thousand in cash (Alex later informed me it was five thousand, three hundred twelve dollars.) and a small book bound in brown leather. It was smooth and warm to the touch and smelled a little meaty. Startled, I dropped it onto the bed and stared at it for a few seconds before picking it up again.

Alex raised an eyebrow questioningly.

“It’s made of human skin.”

“Ew,” he said and returned to skimming through the collection of porno mags.

Copyright me, dammit.