“Up, are you sure that’s what we should be doing?”

“Of course I’m sure, up is the only way we can proceed. We can’t go down, the radar shows too many possible inaccuracies that it cannot account for. We climb up, and we keep climbing until we are well out of their bloody reach.” Jethro hisses through clenched teeth.

“You can’t be serious! I’d rather face them, than face whatever’s up there!” Sam yells, pointing towards the mountain top.

Jethro raises a revolver and smiles, “There are grander things to be fearful of out there, than what you can’t see!”
“Is that some sort of twisted threat?” Sam asks as he thrusts his hands in front of him, attempting to somehow prepare himself for whatever Jethro decides to do.

With a laugh Jethro lowers his revolver and quickly slides it back into its holster. “Take it how you will. But just remember, regardless of all the things you’ve done to me and my family over the years, I was the one who risked everything to come back for you. Do you think I would do all that, just to kill you in cold blood?”

“W-Who knows, for your kind anything is possible.”

Jethro sneers as he grabs Sam by the collar of his jacket and lifts him high into the air. “MY KIND! WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN? I BLEED RED, AS DO YOU! AND FROM WHERE I’M STANDING, ME AND YOU ARE THE SAME, IT’S THOSE THINGS DOWN THERE THAT ARE FAR FROM WHAT WE ARE!” He bellows as he pulls him in close and stares coldly into his eyes. “So tell me worm, what the fuck do you mean by MY KIND?”

“I-I-I, I don’t need to explain myself.”

They stand there, locked in a cold stare, until Jethro finally smiles broadly and begins laughing. “You are one funny weirdo McCannon, now get the fuck up that mountain before I decide to put a bullet in your head.”

“But wouldn’t that be a waste of your time?”

“What, you’re starting to throw my own words back at me? You got balls boy, big fucking stupid balls.”

Sam laughs nervously, “Living out here you need to have them, otherwise you’ll end up dead.”

“Shit boy,” Jethro says with a wry smile, “Those balls of yours are probably the one thing that’s going to end your life. See, once we reach the summit, we’re going to meet up with the rest of my kind, as you like to call them. And from what I know about my kin, they don’t be liking your balls that much. In fact, I’m wagering they don’t like those balls of yours one little bit, and if you go talking like you are now, to those up there, then I think someone’s going to put a plug in your head hole.”

Sam swallows and looks downward towards the town below, and then back to Jethro. “I-I-I, I know we’ve never s-seen eye to eye on anything, and p-please understand I am grateful for what you have done for me today, please d-d-don’t misunderstand that, it’s just there is no way I can endanger myself in that way.”

“Are you sure tha….” Jethro doesn’t get to finish his question as three shots rip into his torso, and he collapses to the ground in an ever-growing sea of blood.

“I guess I just fear what I can see, more than what I can’t.”

***

Follow the below link to purchase Breadcrumbs To Madness 1 to read all 24 five minute short stories.

Before you lies a piece of a puzzle far grander than you could ever know or imagine. For scrawled in blood upon the pages hidden within the above tome is stories twisted twenty-four in all, soaked in the embers of my insanity. Five minutes to glimpse inside the eyes of someone new, five minutes to answer, five minutes to sin, five minutes to do almost anything. A god, a demon, a harlot, a whore. A fascist, a killer, a sinner, a door. Death and division, humanity askew. A belfry of bats, a sea of black cats, so many moments out there to see, so many things you could see with me. So take a seat beside me and call it voodoo, because now you ride with me too…

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