Tagged: Tribulations of Youth

Unholy Trinity: Good Bones by Gus Wood

Our church worships at the altar of the Unholy Trinity. Its gospels are delivered as a trio of dark drabbles, linked so that Three become One. All hail the power of the Three.

Bone Concert

Olivia, after her years of brutal tutelage,

has mastered the flute. 

She should hate this particular instrument.

The flute’s crude construction bends every breath into noise.

It’s such a struggle to get good music from bone.

Each note is a power drill,

a hack saw through a stubborn teacher’s skin.

Olivia, when she closes her eyes and plays,

can only hear the sound 

of her music teacher screaming 

as she taps her fingers across the holes.

She imagines him as she last saw him,

pale, bleeding, clutching a bleeding stump, 

watching her play his favorite song,

blowing into his femur.

 

Missed Cue

The lights burned

as Leopold struggled with the words to Hamlet.

“Alas…poor Yorrick…”

Nothing. 

He started pacing, buying time.

Leopold wondered what the old critic

would’ve thought of his performance.

What a man who loved theatre enough to donate his skull 

thought of a college kid butchering the bard.

Leopold tripped, gripped the skull to ground himself.

Then, the click of polished teeth,

the squeak of spurting blood,

the thump of fingers hitting the floor.

The critic, his bleached teeth streaked red, 

hollow mouth full of knuckles and skin, 

was never shy about giving a review with a bite.

 

Mr. Ossum’s Bones

Mr. Ossum starts the lesson.

The entire class rolls their eyes.

“The human body has 206 bones,” he says.

Pointing a ruler at each one, 

he rattles off their names.

Phalanges, Tarsals, Metatarsals, Tibia, Fibia, Femur, 

No one is paying attention.

Cocyx, Sacrum, Lisa, Renee, Joan,

The names slip out quiet and uneventful.

Ossum stops himself and clears his throat.

Nobody notices,

except for the quiet girl in the back

who stopped talking when her mother went missing

The girl stares at the skeleton,

all its different bones,

including the long, slender, familiar fingers

that could have taught her piano.

Gus Wood

Gus Wood is a game designer and horror writer. You can access all of his games, fiction, and horror criticism at www.gusonhorror.com. He hopes you read this by candlelight.

Unholy Trinity: Tribulations of Youth by Yvonne Lang

Our church worships at the altar of the Unholy Trinity. Its gospels are delivered as a trio of dark drabbles, linked so that Three become One. All hail the power of the Three.

I

Jane breathed deeply, trying to quell her nausea. Had her drink been spiked? Everything felt fuzzy and her brain was fumbling for coherent thoughts. The cold air was helping as she gulped it in. She’d be more careful at the next party. Something rough was digging into her soles. Jane was paralysed as she realised she was stood barefoot on a window ledge at least a dozen storeys up. She gripped onto the wall, desperately trying to edge back inside. Then a pair of hands shoved her and for a few seconds Jane was flying before she hit the ground.

II

The girl’s blonde hair was splayed like a halo round her crumpled face. A mess of twisted limbs and jutting bones seeped in blood. Students from the party claimed it was Jane, who had unexpectantly jumped. Sarah tried to remain professional in her role as security officer, but the girl looked so young. Her concaved head had been the first thing to hit the ground, shattered wrists had tried to break her fall. Jumpers hit the ground feet first, had smashed ankles. No-one depressed enough to fling themselves off a roof dove headfirst. Sarah reckoned this girl had been pushed.

III

Glynn stood in the empty room. She had packed up her candles, wiped away the red lettered incantations from the walls and scrubbed the chalk pentagram from the floorboards. This abandoned building was earmarked for demolition, yet students still flocked to the lower floors for parties. Glynn could sidle up to a vulnerable soul and lure them to her thirteenth floor. Another sacrifice to keep her young. These days it was easy pickings. Social media wrecking people’s mental health as well as thousands of new and vulnerable people shipped here annually. The humans were making her eternal existence even easier.

Yvonne Lang

Yvonne’s short stories and comedy articles have been featured in a range of publications, from Sugar Magazine to Your Cat Magazine, as well as local publications such as Northern Life Magazine and ranking highly in competitions throughout the UK. She has featured in online publications Café Lit Magazine and has had drabbles on The Daily Drabble. Her latest horror stories have been published as part of the Short Sharp Shock Series by Demain Publishing and are available on Amazon. Her horror has featured in Siren Magazine, Schlock Magazine and her science fiction on sites such as 365 tomorrows. She resides in Yorkshire, England with her partner and cat.