Gabriel was coming home from school, when he saw a man leaving the doorsteps of his house--a fat, middle-aged man dressed in a blue flannel suit and carrying a briefcase. He felt a stake sinking slowly into his chest, as he always did when this happened.
After the man was out of sight, Gabriel rushed inside and found his mother taking a bubble bath. The bathroom door was open. She always let it open for him.
Gabriel gazed down at her.
"Hi, sweetie," she said softly, slowly caressing her arms between the bubbles.
Gabriel remained silent, his cold eyes on her cleavage.
"I got a present today from one of my friends. Why don't you go to your room and take a look? If you want, you can have them," she said.
He went to his room and found two Spaniel puppies on his bed. For a moment he looked pleased and sat next to them. The puppies stared at him with their all-eye faces and opened their mouths, letting undeveloped barks come out. He scratched one of them on the head and felt himself growing stronger, his blood hotter, his hands getting bigger and bigger. His eyes seemed to bulge out, as he lifted one of the puppies and twisted its neck and then did the same with the other. It wasn't difficult at all. The bones of five-week old puppies are very frail and can be broken easily.
Then he picked them up and put them lovingly on his mother's bed.
***
A Spanish version of this story was previously published in El Nuevo Dia newspaper, San Juan, P.R.
I am going with Terry on this one, this is impressive as hell. Quite an imaginative horror tale you wrote here. I can easy go into the 1800 to 2500 word range. I am just recently getting into the word counts of 6,170 words. This is going to be a memorable horror tale in itself. Strong horror entry from you.
Reviewed by Rosalina Martinez
1/11/2004
Ms. Calvani:
This is the "photograph type" kind of story, that in a few words is capable to say so much.Here you present a memorable scene to shake every bone from the reader, with such delicacy and elegance to be worth of an applause.
Brutal, concise, and to the point. Just the way I like my short tales (but are hapless to complete myself, as my own can NEVER seem to go less than 3000 words).
In the end they'll all be dancin'--all them ones that didn't die.... Dance with me in the shadows amidst the lightning and the thunder, and all that nu-cu-lar debris. See the big bang from the other side, and then open that cellar door. Go down into
