Watching

He just sat there, his eyes closed, embracing the darkness and the silence. He slowly opened his eyes and checked his watch, 2.30 am, and still nothing. His joints were aching and his back had stiffened up hours ago. The file of papers on his lap felt like a dead weight, his legs going numb underneath. He sighed, rotated his neck to try and loosen up, looked back down at the file and opened it up.

He had taken the photo three days previously. She was beautiful, a petite redhead with curves in all the right places. She had the kind of smile that instantly made you feel good. The kind that comes from deep inside. A genuine smile that showed that here was somebody who really cared.

"What could've she have ever done to deserve this". He asked himself out loud. "What on earth, could a woman like that ever do to deserve someone like me, coming into her life".

He sighed again and picked up the digital camera from the passenger seat. The light from the LCD was harsh and intrusive in the dark cabin of his old car; it took a moment for his eyes to adjust. He scrolled through the other photo's he had taken of her. He was intoxicated by her. The way she walked, the way she sat, even the way that she searched the corner of her lip for stray crumbs with the tip of her tongue when she ate a sandwich. He cursed out loud and threw the camera back on the seat.
Why him? Why this way? Sure he had done this kind of job, thousands of times to thousands of different people, but it was different this time. The rest of them, they had deserved it. They were the lowest of the low, the scum of the earth. Junkies, gangbangers or pimps. People nobody would miss.

This was different though. She wasn't any of those things. She was just a nurse. She was in the business of helping people, not hurting them. But she had made one little mistake and now it was going to cost her everything.

Then there was the message. His employer was insistent that the first thing he did, when he met her, was give her that message. It was a really nasty one too. One that would make sure she knew why he was there and who had sent him. It wasn't necessary, it was just there to hurt and it was going to hurt a lot. He was going to do it though. He had to; it was just too much money to pass up. At that moment he was shook from his reverie by the sound of an approaching car. It was her. It was time.

As she got out of her car, he reached into the glove box and took out the package containing the message. He also took the revolver that was lying underneath it. He got out of the car and hurried across the street, reaching her just as she unlocked the door. He tapped her on the shoulder and said her name out loud for the first time.

"Alison" The word sounded cold and strange on his lips. It seemed to him like she turned round in slow motion. She looked up at him with a vague look of recognition in her eyes.
"This is for you" he said coldly and handed her the package.
Her hands shook as she took it from him. She already knows what it is he thought to himself and he had to stifle his heavy breath from becoming a gasp.

She opened the end of the package and shook the contents out into her other hand. As the small snowflake decoration fell into her palm she let out a gasp of her own, but it was a gasp of terror, not anticipation.
She slowly moved her head up to look at him again, as her eyes met his all she could see were the cold empty pupils staring back. And that’s when she started screaming.

The Very Fussy Cannibal

"Please sweetie just eat a little bit?"
"Nuh huh, I don't like it!"
"How do you know you don't like it until you try it?"
This kind of coaxing had been going on for an hour and Max was coming to the end of his tether. Katie's mom was due home from a fortnight business trip in an hour. Max wanted her dinner finished and the precocious ten year old in bed before Emily got back, so he could spend a little 'quality' time with her, before he went on his business trip.
"I don't even know what it is" whined Katie
"It's just roast beef, you've had it before" Max's patience was wearing thin.
"Well it doesn't look like roast beef"
"It's just a different recipe hun, it's, Mexican style"
"Well why didn't Rosalita cook it?" Rosalita had been the family’s house maid until a few days ago. When Katie asked where she gone, her dad had just mumbled something about a last minute holiday. Katie wasn't happy about it at all, as Rosalita had been like a second mother to her. A fact that Max hated.
"Look I told you" Max replied, trying his best not to shout "Rosalita's gone and she ain't coming bac-" Shit he'd said too much. He hoped that Katie hadn't caught what he said but he knew she had. She was what her teachers called "a gifted child", which Max took to mean "too smart for her own good". He looked down at the expression of horror on her face.
"YOU FIRED ROSALITA!" she yelled.
"No sweetie I didn't, well not exactly" he garbled out.
"Not exactly? then what did you do?" As she spat out that last question she looked down at the roast beef, because that was where Max was no looking with a pale, guilt ridden look on his face.
It hit her all at once, Rosalita's sudden disappearance, the strange looking beef that Max told her was a Mexican recipe; wasn't Rosalita from somewhere like that? She felt sick to her stomach as her eyes rose to meet his.
"Daddy" she muttered very nervously and very slowly "d-did you," She couldn't believe the words coming out of her mouth "k-k-kill Rosalita and then COOK her?" She couldn't hide the horror in her voice anymore.
Damn thought Max I always knew she was too smart for her own good.
"No baby of course not why would you think that?" As he went towards Katie, she started squirming back in her chair. "GET THE HELL AWAY FROM ME!!!" She yelled moving further back, the chair started rocking backwards as well. All of a sudden the legs slipped from underneath the chair on the smooth hardwood floor. The chair slammed to the ground, smacking Katie’s head against it, she screamed and went silent. A dark crimson pool slowly emanated from the back of her skull.
"Oh Fuck!" Was all Max could manage to say, before he could react any further he heard the front door open and close, then footsteps moving up the corridor. "Hello," Called out Emily "Anyone home?"
Max's head appeared from around the kitchen door. "Hey Sugar, me and Katie are just finishing up in here and then I’ll put her to bed. Why don't you go upstairs, take a shower and get into bed yourself? I'll bring you something to eat"
"Oh that sounds good, I'm exhausted".

Emily took a long shower and climbed into bed with her favourite book. She read until she was almost asleep. At that point Max came in with a full tray for her.
"Here you go a tasty chicken sandwich"
"Hey what took you Mister?" Emily asked hungrily as she took the sandwich from the tray and tore a huge bite from it.
"Oh you know how Katie can be when she's over tired, it took a while to get her to go to sleep" Explained Max, relieved that Emily had no idea what had transgressed in the kitchen.
"Umm" Mumbled Emily "Are you sure this is chicken?"
"Of course baby" Max replied "It's just a new recipe".

Welcome!

Hi and welcome to The Penultimate Universe.

This is basically just my blog where I get to be completely self indulgent and a bit of a show off (but then again isn't that what most blogs are all about? ;-))

Anyway, the purpose of this blog is for me to have somewhere to post my short stories and creative writing. If I do then, hopefully, you'll want to read it.
Most of what I write is either sci-fi, fantasy or speculative fiction. Occasionally I might try my hand at something else from time to time but, for now, I'm a firm believer in sticking to what you know.

I hope that you'll enjoy reading these as much as I enjoy writing them. Please feel free to comment on them too. Tell me what you like, what you don't like and why. Constructive criticism is always welcome!

Thanks for taking the time to have a look at my blog and enjoy!!

Tim :)