Night Swallows West.

“As Peeps vehicle climbed onto the elevated roadway, the sun reflected in shooting flashes off the lines of the skyscrapers on either side. On nights that had no moonlight, even these cold, great and empty forms disappeared into the vast ink”.

Dear sports, this is my feeble and rather amateur attempt at the first part of a short story that I’ll er, publish entirely online. You know where to send the briefcase of cash! I first posted this on Sunday 23 September 2007. I really liked Richard Matheson’s freaky and eerie classic, I Am Legend. Though I thought the vampire angle was a bit naff, while disturbing and beautifully well done. I just can’t believe in ‘em at all.

In fact, I often find horror fantasy neither scary nor fantastic. More a neat allegory, or a preposterous and poor second to the harsh and disturbing facts of er, our current reality. No, really. And I found the I Am Legend film a disappointing, utterly unconvincing and shallow CGI mistaken bore. But what do I know?

Now I thought that the idea of being the poor last bastard on earth and why, would be frightening enough and without the vamps. But what do I know? I hope you get a laugh out of it.

Chapter 1. A Figure On The Landscape.

A light breeze snaked past the open doors of a balcony and through the space between two heavy curtains, pushing them slightly inwards. There was almost no sound from outside and nothing passed within as the cool air drifted softly over the body of Sam Peeps, as he lay asleep in the half-light of the room. The sound of his own voice brought him to a kind of semi-consciousness, the partially shouted words unfolding rapidly in the shadows. With a wired shot, he sat up as his arms pushed out straight from his sides and pressed hard into the bed.

“There is no such thing as the Devil!”, he said.

“Oh Christ. Day or night?” he wondered vaguely for a moment before falling back into torpor. Several phrases fell from his half opened mouth like a kind of catechism. “All failure is a lack of concentration. God never interferes in our lives. Energy can only go in one direction at a time”, he said in a continuous mumble.

“You’re not listening, are you?! Never did. I tried to…save you”, he growled to no one. “It’s all a little hey, hey…late, sport. Yes, endurance”.

Flattening out on the damp sheets with a deep exhalation, Peeps knew these words to be so and that they were a test though difficult to apply. He recalled offering long ago in explanation to someone he could not remember, in understanding the true meaning of the first, you achieve the simplicity of the second and reveal the clarity of the third. The fourth provides the strength and flexibility to continue. Now as he tried to concentrate, he knew that he was alone…Continue reading on Colonel Robert Neville Always Dresses for Dinner >>