“A day in the light, a year in the dark, that is the curse you also now face.” he says as he wipes the blood from his lips and sneers at them with a sarcastic smugness.

“You have CONDEMNED us all the hell foul demon! We….” he doesn’t get to finish his words, as he is quickly upon him, and grips him tightly by the throat.

“I have saved you all! I have allowed you to live through the impossible. I am your saviour, and you should worship me as such,” he says as he snaps the man’s neck and tosses his lifeless corpse to the ground. From out of the darkest corners of the cavern they descend, devouring at first the light, and then the corpse.

He growls, then leers at the others as he bares his teeth and levitates off the ground. “Does anyone else share his desires? Does anyone else wish to question what I have done to ensure our survival?”

For many minutes silence is his only answer, until finally a young woman steps forward. “I don’t want to question what you have done, but I-I, I do want to know how long it will be before we can go back above, to see the sun again.”

He smiles and gently comes back to the earth, landing in front of her. “You are a brave little girl to be asking someone as big and scary like me, such an important question.” he says as he kneels before her and places a hand on her shoulder, squeezing it softly. “Who put you up to this? Tell me and I promise it will be quick.”

“N-N-No one put me up to anything. I-I, I asked the question, because I want to know how long it will be until I can go outside again, and you’re not big, or scary.” she says, he smiles softly as he tightens his grip.

“I think you’ll find that I can be very scary,” he hisses.

“S-S-She’s just a girl,” a voice calls out from the crowd that has slowly surrounded them.

“Leave her alone, and pick on someone your own size,” another voice yells out.

“Coward!”

“Bully!”

“Monster!”

He lets out a scream, and spins around, baring his teeth once again. “DO YOU DARE DEFY WHAT I HAVE GIVEN YOU? DO YOU DARE CHALLENGE ME, YOUR SAVIOUR!”

“You are no saviour, not to me,” the girl says.

“Who are you? You’re not just a little girl, are you. You’re something entirely different, aren’t you?”

She smiles, “Because I don’t bend to your will, you suspect me to be more than I am. How brazen an ego you have.”

“My ego has nothing to do with this. I saved this town from a far greater evil than I, all I ask is the respect I deserve.”

“You have condemned them to a lengthier death is all,” the girl says as her eyes become like pools of oil, and her smile tears across her face.

“W-W-W-What are you?” he stammers, as he stumbles backwards.

“I am the spider, and you have brought me all the flies,” she says as the darkness moves in once more, this time for him.

***

Follow the below link to purchase 2020 Book Ten to read all 20 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 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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