Maleghast's Stories

Forest Fire

2008-09-08T23:56:51Z

Edgar was standing against the skyline, binoculars to his eyes when Christine got near to the top of the ridge. She could see the smoke snaking into the sky, and the heat was palpable.

“Fire’s movin’ away. The wind’s blowin’ to the South West. We’ll be fine if we hold tight here. ‘S gonna be a few days, but we have plenty of food besides. It’ll be fine.”

She let her shoulders relax and breathed a sigh of relief. She climbed the last few steps to stand by her uncle and then she saw the horror of it all. Away below them she knew that the trees were roughly one hundred and twenty feet tall and she could see flames that had to be another thirty feet above the trees. If it were not for the wind blowing away the thick black smoke the sky would have been black, but as it was there was an almost completely blue sky for as far as she could see to the north and east.

Edgar was right, the wind was moving the fire away from them, but winds could change. She had no idea how they could escape if it came back their way.

Identification

2008-09-07T23:00:28Z

I looked again, trying to see something that in my heart I knew I would never see again. There is no way to describe the moment when you cannot be sure that the person you love is lying dead in front of you; just on the other side of a window, and just for a moment you cannot quite tell if it really is them. There is no spark there, no humanity left, all that is there is flesh and bone, no life at all.

Dwight had just popped out to meet an old friend from university at a bar, there had been nothing special about his plans. We had both gone out for similarly unremarkable evenings without one another. That is what couples do sometimes, no one can spend all of their time with another person.

As I stared at his body lying there, my hand cold against the glass, all I could think was that he might still have been alive if just that one time I had been a little more clingy, a little more needy and even a little jealous and had imposed my presence on the proceedings. I knew it and I could not forgive myself at all.

Cold Dawn

2008-09-07T02:57:38Z

The fire was burned down to embers, just a soft orange glow that was barely heating the inch around it, let alone the three sleeping bags scattered around or the people in them. Scott pulled his knees in closer to his chest and cursed all three of them for sleeping.

The sky was lightening in the East, slowly shifting from black to a rich deep blue. If it had not been for the exhaustion that was starting to come to him he would have genuinely loved the view; with enough sleep behind him, dawn was his favourite time of the day. He padded his pockets one more time, looking for smokes that he knew were not there. Why had he only brought one pack with him?

It had seemed like such a good idea to get out of town for the weekend when David had suggested it, and until the others had crashed after all the beer and guy-talk he had enjoyed it; it had taken his mind off Erica, as David had planned all along. He had not had as much to drink as the others and once there was no one to talk to, his mind went into overdrive.

The Flame

2008-09-06T00:56:11Z

There it was, suddenly, in the darkness. The flame appeared with its attendant rushing sound, not unlike fast moving water, as it flared into existence and then was gone.

Victor strained one more time against the ropes that were tied tightly around his wrists and ankles. He could not make anything out in the blackness, even though he had returned to consciousness and opened his eyes several minutes before. He had never been in complete darkness before, and he was starting to wonder where he could be that not even the tiniest amount of light could find its way to his eyes, apart from that flame. He decided that as he could not work out where he could be or how he could have got there that he had nothing to lose by trying to make contact with whoever was in control of the flame.

“Hello? Who’s there?”

Again the flame burst into life, for nearly a second and then was gone.

“Come on, tell me what you want if not who you are. Okay?”

A low laugh came out of the void.

“What makes you think I want anything?”

Homicide

2008-09-04T23:01:40Z

Andrea was completely silhouetted in the lights from the squad car, stood over the corpse whose coming to rest on that corner, on that night had dragged them from their beds at three in the morning.

In that moment it was easy for Dan to forget the dead person lying in the street, and marvel at how impressive she was. Only out of bed only ten minutes and she was already ten times more focused than he would be until the rest of the coffee in his hand had been taken on board, like fuel for his brain. How did she do that? Maybe she did not sleep.

He knocked back another slug of the bad, convenience store drip and placed the box on the deck. He started getting the camera ready to shoot the scene, looking up from time to time to watch her taking notes and moving in a slow spiral towards the body, noting the placement of shell casings and other detritus before she even reached the body. He clipped the adapter from the ring flash onto the hot shoe and checked that there was a card loaded.

“Ready for the pictures?”

If Only He Knew

2008-09-03T18:29:08Z

We were walking down Chandos Place heading for the Maple Leaf, which is one of my favourite places in Covent Garden, hell even the West End, when Jake turned to me and dropped the bombshell.

“I mean, how fucking cold is this; she told me while we were fighting that the thing that finally made her want to divorce me was mi haircut!”

I nodded, and desperately sought within myself a way to agree with him while resisting the temptation to agree with her as well. No one has ever looked quite so ridiculous with a mohican as Jake. He was my best friend, but the man had ears that would not have looked out of place on Prince Charles. His tiny, pin head denuded of all but a floppy crest of his thin hair that had then been dyed a dodgy shade of red, he did look a mite ridiculous.

I was pretty sure that Katie really wanted to divorce him because he quit his lucrative sales job and become a bicycle courier, at twenty-nine, without talking to his wife about the decision. Well and then there was that she was shagging me.

Kiss Me Quick

2008-09-02T18:07:19Z

“YOU can kiss me if you like.”

I nearly choked on my coke. Sure I wanted to kiss her, pretty badly in fact, but that was pretty forward even for Pip. There we were, sitting on the barrier at the top of the cliff above Orange Peel Corner, stealing thirty minutes before we were both expected in different holiday homes for tea. This was our only time, until maybe next year when we might be allowed to go out after tea, though not to the Tuds. We would have gone then if we thought we could get away with it; we each knew other fourteen year olds who would be there later on that evening.

I smiled at her and without saying anything I moved my mouth towards her, extending my whole body behind my face, to reach and kiss her without our bodies touching at all. Her lips were soft, warm and wet and just a little apprehensive, like mine. I was about to pull away when I felt her fingers in my hair pulling me closer; our bodies touched. In the back of my mind I started to hope fervently that I was going to be late for tea.

No beer for you, Newsman.

2008-09-01T12:50:16Z

“Hey Jimmy! Phone!”

He put the beer back on the bar – was he ever going to get to drink it? He had just got rid of Newton, who talked so much and so fast that Jimmy had felt like he was caught on the interstate without a windshield. He levered himself down off the stool and ambled to the end of the bar where the phone’s receiver had been thoughtlessly placed in a pool of beer. He rolled his eyes at no one in particular, wiped it off with a spare napkin from the pile on the bar and put the receiver to his ear;

“Jimmy Lancaster here. Who is this?”

“Jimmy, get your ass back to the White House right now! Something unbelievable just came over the wires and when I tried to call Gergen for confirmation the switch was jammed! It’s for real, man, so get back there before you miss the briefing that is no doubt about to occur.”

Jimmy’s mind was swimming, first off Nate almost never screamed at him down the phone, plus Brady’s deputy had already called a full lid. It had been a quiet Labour Day. What had happened?

Proactive Political Action

2008-08-31T22:47:03Z

The pistol felt heavy in his hand, not in an alien way as he was familiar with weapons. No the gun felt reassuringly heavy. Old fashioned projectile weapons like this Browning were antiques, considered so outmoded and rare that security scanners no longer paid them any mind; these days it was the energy signature of a plasma or laser weapon that was the target of the state security teams and their technological help mates. It had taken considerable time and money to find and repair it, and even longer to gather together the requisite equipment to manufacture reliable ammunition, but it had all been worth it.

He was no longer in any doubt that his target deserved death. His only concern had been the potential to inadvertently marytr a man that was so utterly unworthy of such respect or dignity. Luckily the tide was turning there as well, and the documents that he had sent to various news directors that would arrive after he was dead were likely to leave his actions mitigated at worst and vindicated at best.

Desert Night

2008-08-30T21:13:11Z

The night was far too warm. Normally the darkness had brought some respite from the heat of the days, but the fall of night had brought no such relief today.

Damian sat by the window, looking out across the town and the flickering lights of candles in windows. The town at large did not have electricity, but he was glad that the compound had a generator, if only for the fan that was working overtime trying to cool down his study.

He took a sip of the ice water that was a undreamed of luxury for most of the people readying themselves for sleep below and then picked a cigarette out of the packet in his breast pocket. He turned the lighter over and over in his hand, trying to recall the look in Danielle’s eyes when she had given it to him; the expectation of him being pleased by the gift, the anticipation of his happiness. He flicked the lid open and it made the characteristic and satisfying clunk that it always made; a predictable sound that bore the promise of the satisfaction of the first lungful of smoke.

Flame of Remembrance

2008-08-29T17:56:56Z

Andrew turned to the window and pushed it slightly more open, hoping that there might be some breeze in the still summer night. The candle did not even flicker in the darkness.

He laid down the quill and stared into the lonely flame, allowing his eyes to drift out of focus as he relaxed back into the chair. The soft yellow glow filled his vision and he started to drift into a familiar reverie.

He allowed his mind to wander in the background and found himself remembering the Great Hall when he had first arrived. It had been in the very depths of Winter that he had made the journey across the county to pledge himself to the order, and he had been so keen to finally arrive after ten days in the snow and wind that he had not camped in sight of the abbey to approach in the morning. The brother that had welcomed him as an honoured guest had left him seated in the Great Hall surrounded by hundreds and hundreds of votive candles flickering in the icy drafts that cut across the space while he fetched the Abbot.

Breakfast in Bed

2008-08-28T17:58:11Z

She was winding her forelock in her fingers, absently staring out of the window; content as far as I could tell.

She was not aware that I was watching, her reverie deep enough that my feet on the stairs and the gentle clanking of cutlery on crockery had not roused her consciousness.

I stopped for long enough to really look at her; her deep blue eyes, the sweet gold of her blonde hair, the soft ivory of her skin. She was perfect in my mind, even if for another her neck might be too long, her breasts too small or too big, her hips too wide or too narrow; one can never tell the taste of others. I was captivated by the places where her body disappeared under the sheet that was laid across her in a rather careless manner, not to cover her it seemed, but just because it was there and the cotton felt good against her skin. I considered putting the tray down and going hunting under the sheet for the delights that its borders seemed to promise.

She stirred.

“Breakfast in bed? Oh baby, thank you.”

Oh that smile.

Black Jack at Lunchtime.

2008-08-27T17:27:14Z

“Another shot?”

James motioned to the open bottle of Jack Daniels on the bar between them.

David tried very hard to tear his eyes away from where Michelle was practicing her moves; even fully clothed there was something undeniably sexy about pole-dancing when she did it.

“Nah. Thanks, but I’ve got to get back to work.”

James snorted;

“That’s never stopped you before. What’s up?”

How could he explain that this story was personal without revealing that he had been screwing a stripper, and worse still a stripper from his friend’s biggest rival. James was a good friend, but he would not have been impressed to discover that David had been nailing Olga, if only because in order to have met her there was a good chance that he had been spending his time and money at a different establishment. As far as James was concerned if David was in Soho, he should be in his place. Of course in James’s place David could not pick up on the talent. This meant that he often went elsewhere; he just did not want to admit to it.

Master and Servant

2008-08-26T20:11:16Z

“There is no honour in this, my master.”

Randolph spoke from his knees, but the defiance in his voice was evident as though he were stood to his full six feet. Eyes cast down, he did not see the smirk on his master’s face, reveling in the inevitable rebellion of the student. Randolph waited, trusting to his recent successes and services rendered, hoping that he might speak his mind when it mattered and influence the old man, even a little.

The old man reached up slowly and cast his hood from his head, allowing the shock of white hair to catch the flickering candlelight, clearly making ready to speak, but delaying for as long as he might, testing the resolve of his protegé. Putting a crooked finger to the side of his face he drew in a long, lingering breath and then finally answered;

“Honour is not why we are here, Randolph. Have you forgotten? We are here to bring about the defeat of the Church of Rome and nothing more, or less come to that.”

Randolph shook his head and rose to stand before his master…

Suicide Bombers

2008-08-25T21:20:52Z

I was just headin’ into work, like I do every day. I make ammunition at the factory, most of the town does. I had waved at Bill, he’s the guy who does the security desk at the main gate, and I was stopped to chat to Helen and Marjorie when it happened.

There is talk that some folks saw the bombers’ faces, that they were just ordinary looking guys, without any hate or madness in their eyes. Me I never saw them, all I remember was lighting Marjorie’s cigarette and then being knocked off my feet by the blast. The noise was incredible, you know there was a ringin’ in my ears for well past a week after?

I was out – I hit my head on the ground when I fell – and, well I’m glad about that. I didn’t see the broken bodies and the blood, I kinda slept through it all. I’ve heard folks talkin’ since the factory re-opened and I wish I hadn’t heard. Friends of mine were ripped open by those two fellahs, for what? They say that they were protestin’ the war, but how can you protest a war by killin’ folks? I don’t see how.