Halloween

“Bastards!”

I rubbed the back of an arm across my eyes. But they didn’t seem to work as well as they should. When I tried to crack them open, a murderous gang of light rays launched a vicious assault, forcing me to roll over and press my face against what felt like a carpet. This felt better.

But now the other senses were pissed off at me for disturbing their rest. Sirens blared. Vulcan’s trolls went to work in my head. And the sounds of frantic activity played on in the background.

“Not today, you bastards!”

This last was accompanied by the melodious grind of furniture being dragged across a wooden floor, and banging against what could only be a wooden door. At which point the sirens came to a sudden stop, car doors slammed open and shut, and I forced an eye open.

“Oi! Hippy! Lock up when you leave!”

This came from a hulking form dressed in dungarees and an Adolf Hitler World Tour shirt. The sleeves had been ripped off the shirt to expose arms wrapped in barbed wire, swastikas and chains. One end of this monster was grounded in a massive pair of Doc Martens. The other end had been shaved to a dark stubble. The beast was standing in front of a pair of double glass doors, pointing some kind of baton at me. Not in any condition to argue, I raised a thumb, at which sign the thing turned, vaulted over a railing and dropped from sight.

Extract from Burning Roses, a decadent tale of sex, drugs, rock n roll & magick. Available on Amazon. Also available in paperback.

And on Amazon.co.uk.

Or you can find all my books at Curiosity, the new retail shop open from Wednesday to Sunday, 11am till late, at the Railways Cafe in Pretoria.

Or at The Real Mackay in Blairgowrie. They also have a few hundred second-hand books going for as little as R10 each. And several other self-published books by various South African authors. Go stock up for the holiday season.

Catch me at The Pins and Needles Halloween Market, 110 Susman Avenue, Blairgowrie from 10am to 7pm on the 2nd of November. Get signed copies of scary books based in and around Johannesburg.

Keep an eye out for one of my stories in the upcoming “25 Gates of Hell” anthology. And in The Great Void Books anthology “Black Veins”. And you’ll find another couple of stories in the soon-to-be-published South African anthology “Flambé, Silk Tie Murder, and the Rooibos Baby.”

Till next time.

Cheers.