Reminder – Halloween promotion – on the 30th and 31st of October, most of my books will be on sale for only $0.99
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Find these decadent twisted tales of mystery, music, magick & mayhem in your favourite bookstores listed at www.books2read.com/b/Valhalla
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“That’s one reason we all took it so hard, when her husband had the stroke last month. While driving her to the hospital for her treatment. It’s bad enough that she lost her son. But to lose her granddaughter the same way, in the very same accident that claimed the life of the man she had loved and cherished for over fifty years…”
Dirk watched the nurse lower the old woman to the grass that was just starting to sprout, young and green and vital, from the mound of fresh soil. She leaned forward against the gravestone, resting her weary head against the uncaring granite as if communing with the loved ones who had left her behind.
“She’ll be joining them soon enough.”
Dirk had forgotten the old man was there. “Eh? What what?”
The priest shook his head. “The treatment. Sometimes it doesn’t take, and the Lord calls the faithful back into his loving arms.”
The old woman – Rae, that was her name – was frozen in place. She might have already gone to seek her final reward. Dirk saw now that there was more than one headstone, more than one plot set aside for this family. She knelt between two fresh mounds, forehead pressed against the larger piece of ebony granite guarding two graves, with a hand stretched out to rest atop the smaller monument. The space in the middle was undisturbed except for collateral damage from recent excavations on either side.
“The end comes to us all, my son. It’s how we accept it that makes the difference.”
Dirk was surprised to find he’d been thinking the same thing. But he hadn’t been able to say it out loud. There was something in his throat, struggling to escape into the crispness of the day. He forced it back down.
Gruff, now, in self defence – “I hear there was another vehicle involved, father? A bike, maybe?”
The old man nodded. “That’s right. Colin’s stroke made him lose control of the car. I believe it swerved into a motorcycle, then carried on till it ran off the road and into the tree that finally stopped it. Rae was wearing her seatbelt. She was always careful that way. But young Caitlin, in the back seat…”
Now the child had a name. Now she was real.
“This is the first time I’ve seen Rae here at the gravesite. She was just released from hospital yesterday.” He shook his head. “A temporary reprieve, I’m afraid.”
Dirk had seen enough. He brushed the old man’s hand off his shoulder as he turned and stalked back towards the parking area. The lump of steel in his pocket bumped cold and hard against his ribs, reminding him that it was still there, still ready.
But he didn’t feel the bumps. That thing in his throat was back. And now he seemed to have something in his eye.
Read Dancing in Valhalla in weekly installments on FaceBook or WordPress. Receive notifications via Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, GoodReads, or Amazon, where you’ll find the whole book – 13 decadent twisted tales of mystery, music, magick & mayhem.
Download FREE sampler previews of all my books – and some complete short stories – from PCloud.
No charge. No obligation. No sign-in. Read for free. Share with your friends.
⛥⛥
⛥ Halloween promotion – on the 30th and 31st of October, most of my books will be on sale for only $0.99 ⛥
Find your favourite bookstores listed at www.books2read.com/b/Valhalla
⛥⛥
Cheers.
There were two of them. The younger woman helped the older one out of the passenger seat, holding firmly to her elbow till she found her balance and leaned against the car.
Dirk spat in an open grave, looking around to check that nobody had seen him. This was Mick’s great revenge plan? His conspiracy theory? Obviously not a hit by a rival gang, or some enemy he’d made on the inside.
Still, if this was what it was going to take for Mick to get off his back about Janine…
He watched the old woman pull her threadbare greatcoat around her shoulders. Were those medals pinned across the front? He couldn’t be sure. Then she turned to step away from the car and her cemetery eyes met his. Dirk reached into his jacket where sudden death waited patient and silent in the midst of so many wasted lives.
The old duck smiled at him. In that moment, with her new hairdo and her glasses perched precariously on the end of her wrinkled nose, she looked exactly like his mother. No matter how many candles appeared on Ma’s cake, even while cancer gnawed and chewed at what was left of her ruined body, Ma had never grown older than eighteen in her heart.
What girl ever does?
“Hell of a thing.”
Dirk nearly jumped into the open grave. If the elderly priest hadn’t reached out and steadied him, he would have had another story to tell from behind the bar.
“Jesus, father.”
The old man laughed. “Forgive me, my son. I often forget how people lose themselves in the intensity of this peaceful place.”
Dirk adjusted his jacket, shrugging his bruised ego back into place. “Ja, well, no, fine, father. S’cool, ek se.” The smell of freshly dug earth, still damp from recent showers, calmed him as he took a deep breath. He realized he’d been trying not to inhale since he’d followed his quarry through the gates.
“Did you know the family?”
Dirk carried on adjusting his attitude. This involved shoulder movements and tiny simultaneous dance steps till he felt comfortable enough to respond.
“No. Not as well as I should have. Never met her daughter.”
The priest raised his hand to Dirk’s shoulder. “Rae never had a daughter. That’s a nurse I hired to help her through this difficult time. She did have a son, though, but he passed a while ago. Car crash.”
Dirk was uncomfortable again. It wasn’t just the goosebumps that stalked the spaces between his arm hairs, or the sudden drop in temperature that had him pulling the collars of his jacket tight. He could swear the sky was changing colour. Those clouds, dark and heavy with life-giving moisture, hadn’t been there when he’d arrived.
This week’s image is again courtesy of fairy goddess Tana Jovic, designer extraordinaire.
Read Dancing in Valhalla in weekly installments on FaceBook or WordPress. Receive notifications via Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, GoodReads, or Amazon (where you’ll find the whole book, all 13 stories including this one).
Download FREE sampler previews of all my books, and some complete short stories, from PCloud.
No charge. No obligation. No sign-in. Read for free. Share with your friends.
⛥⛥
⛥ Halloween promotion – on the 30th and 31st of October, most of my books will be on sale for only $0.99. Everywhere except Amazon, although this promotion will also affect a couple of the Amazon editions. ⛥
Find your favourite bookstores listed at www.books2read.com/b/Let
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Catch Big Day Out, a mad mercenary romp through the dystopian nightmare that Covid-19 might have become. Might still become, if we don’t keep our self-appointed leaders on a very short leash.
“Complete kak. Not a single witch or demon in the whole book.” – John West, author of the awesome Burning Books series, featuring witches and demons and serial killers.
“Where are the puzzles? And the trains?” – Richard Edwards, author of the even more awesome Puzzle Train series, full of puzzles and trains, islands and castles.
Available online from most good retailers. www.books2read.com/b/billjames
Cheers.
Shorty’s Poems have inspired other local poets to publish their own work.
Check out this new poem available on Amazon. Printed copies available from the poet herself.
Proceeds will be donated to an organization assisting and empowering the homeless.
Shorty’s Poems is still available online. https://books2read.com/b/shorty
“Ding.”
Noddy couldn’t work in a place like this. He’d rather be dead. Constant jangling every time someone walked through the door. Soulless musak blaring from a portable radio behind the counter.
“Good afternoon. Can I help you?”
But Janine seemed to like it. At least, she’d been here for a while, without going postal and littering the tiny print shop with the dismembered bodies of her co-workers. Which was close enough to liking as far as he was concerned.
“Janine? Is she around?”
Big Hair behind the counter reassessed the situation. She’d only spoken to this long-haired skermunkil in the perhaps overly ambitious and obviously mistaken belief that he was a potential customer. Still, to her credit, she restrained her lip’s instinctive urge to curl up at the corner, and her nose remained firmly out of the air.
“She’s not here right now, dear. Popped out to see the doctor.”
Noddy turned. The conversation was over. But wait…
He turned back. “Is she okay? Did she hurt herself?”
Big Hair hadn’t yet turned away, waiting for the customary greetings that would indicate the end of the discussion. So she was still poised and ready.
“Oh, she didn’t say. Probably just a check-up, though, I would think.” She thought for a moment, mascara flitting up to the left as she scanned the memories stashed in that corner of her crimped red hair. “No, she seemed fine.”
Noddy smiled this time before turning away. But not much.
This week’s featured image is courtesy of fairy goddess Tana Jovic, designer extraordinaire.
Read Dancing in Valhalla in weekly installments on FaceBook or WordPress. Receive notifications via Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, GoodReads, or Amazon (where you’ll find the whole book, all 13 stories including this one).
Download FREE sampler previews of all my books, and some complete short stories, from PCloud.
No charge. No obligation. No sign-in. Read for free. Share with your friends.
Catch Big Day Out, a mad mercenary romp through the dystopian nightmare that Covid-19 might have become. Might still become, if we don’t keep our self-appointed leaders on a very short leash.
“Complete kak. Not a single witch or demon in the whole book.” – John West, author of the awesome Burning Books series, featuring witches and demons and serial killers.
“Where are the puzzles? And the trains?” – Richard Edwards, author of the even more awesome Puzzle Train series, full of puzzles and trains, islands and castles.
Available online from most good retailers. www.books2read.com/b/billjames
Cheers.
Don’t miss Big Day Out’s relaunch. Grab a copy this week for only $1.99.
From your favourite online retailers. https://books2read.com/b/billjames
Set in Johannesburg in the near future, Big Day Out is a mad mercenary romp through the dystopian nightmare that Covid-19 might have become. Might still become, if we don’t keep our self-appointed leaders on a very short leash.
Good old-fashioned don’t-give-a-toss action. You don’t like it, don’t buy it.
“Complete kak. Not a single witch or demon in the whole book.” – John West, author of the awesome Burning Books series, featuring witches and demons and serial killers. www.amazon.com/author/burning
“Where are the puzzles? And the trains?” – Richard Edwards, author of the even more awesome Puzzle Train series, full of puzzles and trains, islands and castles. www.thepuzzletrain.com
Download free previews at http://pc.cd/uNEctalK
Six bullets should be enough. Hell’s bells, if he couldn’t take out a couple of civilians with a fully-loaded revolver, he shouldn’t be carrying one.
There they were up ahead, changing lanes. No indicators. Bloody cage drivers. He wasn’t close enough to see whether they’d even checked behind them before moving across. Probably not.
Dirk accelerated. The Harley surged forward, cutting through what little traffic there was on a Monday. He would have preferred to be on his beloved Ninja, but it was still being patched together. Like Mick.
Bloody Mick. Lying on his back in a hospital bed, barking out orders. Do this. Do that. Bring my ex-girlfriend to see me. Take potshots at the bastards who did this to me. Fetch me some whiskey. Make sure it has an e in it.
Still, Dirk grinned under his helmet, it was good to have him back. Things weren’t the same without the obnoxious bogtrotter.
The black Mercedes was slowing down now, turning left into Westpark Cemetery. Well, that was fitting. Maybe they’d be kind enough to stand next to an open grave. Make things easy for him.
Dirk pulled into the first parking area he saw, engine still running, keeping an eye on the car as it crawled along the quiet internal roads. Nobody else was around. No witnesses. And no security. The people here had nothing left to steal. Not even their dignity.
Ah. The Merc had stopped in one of the newer sections. At least, this part had fresh mounds of dirt where new forever homes had been recently prepared. Dirk revved his bike as quietly as he could and moved slowly in that direction.
Read Dancing in Valhalla in weekly installments on FaceBook or WordPress. Receive notifications via Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, GoodReads, or Amazon (where you’ll find the whole book, all 13 stories including this one).
Download FREE sampler previews of all my books, and some complete short stories, from PCloud.
No charge. No obligation. No sign-in. Read for free. Share with your friends.
Catch Big Day Out, a mad mercenary romp through the dystopian nightmare that Covid-19 might have become. Might still become, if we don’t keep our self-appointed leaders on a very short leash.
PROMOTIONAL LAUNCH PRICE OF $1.99 THIS WEEK ONLY
“Complete kak. Not a single witch or demon in the whole book.” – John West, author of the awesome Burning Books series, featuring witches and demons and serial killers.
“Where are the puzzles? And the trains?” – Richard Edwards, author of the even more awesome Puzzle Train series, full of puzzles and trains, islands and castles.
Available online from most good retailers. www.books2read.com/b/billjames
Cheers.
