And for Dark Fiction this is something you want…unsettling and putting you over the edge.
Don’t Make Marty Mad by Calico Skelly fits this bill perfectly. It came across my cyber desk because life interrupted another editor and as we do at MuseItUp we back each other up. I’m glad I was able to be a small part of this story, but I’ll be honest it did unnerve me and still does.
I’ll repeat…isn’t this what Dark Fiction should do 😉
Read…if you dare.
Marty needs to lighten up before he loses his head
Blurb:
Marty has issues, like his need for anger management. Just ask his wife, pregnant with their fourth child—or ask the kids. Can his family help him solve his problems? Marty thinks so.
Excerpt:
Opening the door to our doublewide, I expected the fragrant odor of dinner on the stove to settle my raw nerves after the rough day I’d had at work.
I expected to hear the happy voices of my young son and daughter at play as their imaginations ran rampant.
I expected a warm and loving embrace from my wife of twelve years; the woman I’d loved throughout high school and had married upon graduation because my first son was on his way into this world.
I expected to receive the respect of my family for bringing home the bacon week after lousy week despite having to put up with the bastards at the factory who pushed for more out of me when I was already giving all I had.
Stepping into the trailer, my senses were assaulted instead with dank, foul air, a roaring television, toys strewn everywhere so there was nowhere to step, and a dark, empty kitchen which bore no signs of recent occupation.
My wife, again pregnant, this time with our fourth child, lay sleeping on the sofa, snoring softly.
Frozen for several moments on the top step, absorbing this scene of undomesticated bliss, I was dumb-founded—speechless. Obviously the lessons of the past were forgotten.