Shaun Jeffrey: Fangtooth

“Is there anything anyone wants to take?” Bruce asked.

“I just want to get away,” Jen said.

Bruce knew how she felt. He put the car in gear and made to drive off when Jack said, “Hold on. There’s something I’ve got to do.”

Bruce looked in the rear-view mirror and frowned. Without offering any explanation, Jack jumped out of the car and ran across to the bar. He reappeared a few minutes later with Graham’s cat in his arms.

“Don’t know what Shazam will think, but I couldn’t leave it behind,” he said when he reached the car.

Bruce smiled. “Come on, get in.”

Jack clambered in and Shazam sniffed at the cat, then licked it on the head. The cat ran its paw over where the dog had licked as though disgusted.

Bruce laughed to himself. They had arrived in the village as a widowed father, an errant teenager and a dog. Now as he threaded his way along the street, careful to avoid the bodies, they were a family.

Outside the village, Bruce stopped the car and turned to stare at the sea. He watched the destroyer sail towards the horizon, and heard the muffled thump of the depth charges she cast into the ocean.

The wedding ring on his finger glinted in the pale morning light. Bruce twisted it off to reveal a white band on his finger that would fade in time. He put the ring in his pocket.

Erin put her hand on top of his and squeezed

He noticed his son staring at him in the rear-view mirror. “Forget Tenerife, remember Mulberry,” Jack said.

Bruce stared at the sea–a shroud for the denizens of the deep; then he focused on the road ahead and started driving. “Let’s go home.”

Shaun Jeffrey was brought up in a house in a cemetery, so it was only natural for his prose to stray towards the dark side when he started writing. He has had five novels published, ’The Kult’, ‘Killers’, ’Deadfall’, ‘Fangtooth’ and ’Evilution’, and two collections of short stories, ’Voyeurs of Death’ and ‘The Mutilation Machination’. Among his other writing credits are short stories published in Cemetery Dance, Surreal Magazine, Dark Discoveries and Shadowed Realms. The Kult was optioned for film by Gharial Productions and is awaiting release.

Visit the author’s site at: http://www.shaunjeffrey.com.

Published by Deshca Press

Copyright ©2011 by Shaun Jeffrey

First published by Dark Regions Press

Edited by Stacey Turner

Cover by Karri Klawiter

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