He looks across the boneyard, eyeing each of the rotting carcasses with a look of disgust upon his brow. “Seventeen good women have fallen for YOUR cause, yet you still stand tall but not with them. Why is that? Why are you not here among the dead like the true martyr you are destined to be?” he snarls with a turn of his nose and an upward thrust of his head, holding his chin out proudly.

“I am no MARTYR Johnathan! I am a leader like you, and as with all good leaders, I will not fall until the end game has come to its crescendo.” Sari replies with a sprinkle of flair and flavour in each and every word that rolls off her tongue.

“You are NOTHING like ME!” he spits wildly with ferocious gaze upon the screen before him. “I DARE not hide in holes dug beneath the earth! I stand PROUD and in the open, while you hide and conspire against ME! I stand DEFIANT, while you sabotage and slander my reputation! I RULE, while you COWER!” he bellows as his cheeks burn red and his blood runs hot, while his thrusts his thumbs towards himself as each and every word leaves his over saturated lips.

“What can I say, when you paint me such a beautiful target, who am I to resist taking the shot?”

“CHARLATAN! LIAR! YOUR WORDS ARE NOTHING BUT FALLACIES AND MIRAGES PAINTED ON TOP OF THE REAL REASON YOU WANT TO BRING ME TO MY KNEES!” he roars, thrusting a pointed finger at the silhouetted figure on the screen before him.

Several long moments of silence pass while the room sits in its frozen state, until Sari breaks the silence with a gut dwelling laugh. “Fallacies? Lies? Who is making things up now? You are an old man who has reigned terror over MY people for far TOO long! We have RISEN, and we will take everything you HAVE!” she snarls.

“THEN COME TAKE IT!” he bellows. “COME TO ME AND TRY TO TAKE MY KINGDOM! COME FIND THE MYTHS ARE TRUE! I DARE YO…” But his words are cut short as a blade tears through his chest. His eyes widen, and he clumsily turns to face his attacker. She smiles broadly from beneath the blood caked hair.

“You should’ve counted those that you took down, and those that laid down without being striked!” she spits as she grips him by the hair and slices the blade across his throat swiftly, removing his head in an eruption of red. She lets the snarl linger on her lips as the blood rains down upon her. “Kingdoms are just like myths, they are both eventually forgotten in time.”

“The only time myths are forgotten, is if they are given the change to BE forgotten, and forgetting MYTHS can lead to mistakes being made!” Jonathan growls, she lifts up his head, and stares into his still very much alive eyes.

“H-H-How is t-this possible?” she stammers.

He smiles broadly, as his headless body grips her by the throat and lifts her into the air, grabbing his head from her hands. “Like I said, if you had listen to the words you were told as a whelp, then you would know with me, anything is possible,” he says as he holds his head over the bloody stump, and it knits itself back upon into neck. “Now, let me show you why they call me the eater of sins,” he says as his moth widens, and he slows stuffs her wriggling body into his mouth.

***

Follow the below link to purchase A Twisted Kiss On New Year’s Eve 2022 and read all 31 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 thirty-one 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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