The Siren’s Call publishes Lucian’s First Trick!

October 2012 edition, Issue #5!

The Siren’s Call is a dark fiction/horror zine with short stories, artwork, photography, editorials, and more from today’s most prolific purveyors of the darkly written arts.

And Issue #5 includes a short story by yours truly!

YES, really!  Lucian’s First Trick is about a kid on his last round of Trick or Treat fun, this side of puberty.  

Here’s a teaser:

“I don’t know about this one, Dad. The light’s not on.” He stood on the sidewalk looking up at the porch of the house next door. Unlike every other house on the street, it was dark, same as every night. Not once from his bedroom window had the boy seen the glow of a TV, or a light in the bedroom. “Let’s just go home.”

“Lucian, it’s your last year trick-or-treating,” his father said. “You said you were going to hit every house on the block.” A glowing iPhone illuminated the man’s face.

Lucian shrugged. He took a step toward the house, then froze, as he heard the sound of voices shrieking from across the street.

“Hey, Lucy-N! You got some ‘splainin’ to dooooooo!” It was Elmo Jenkins, threepeat douchebag champion of the world, doing his best Ricky Ricardo.

Lucian looked to his dad. His dad looked to his phone, now held sideways, thumbs typing away, frowning vaguely.

“’Sup, Peanut Boy? You get me any Reese’s Cups yet?” Elmo raised his fingers to his mouth in a crude gesture, wagging his tongue at Lucian and rendering his costume a sudden obscenity.

How many years had Elmo threatened Lucian because of his peanut allergy? Lucian did the math. He was eleven now, so…four years?

Lucian held up four fingers in Elmo’s direction. As the bully’s face registered delighted surprise, Lucian lowered each of three fingers, except for the middle one. He danced it around in the air, merrily for a moment, before putting it away as his dad looked up from the phone.

On the porch of the house next door, the light flickered on.

“Go on,” Lucian’s dad said. “Light’s on now.” In a whisper, he added “Maybe we’ll finally see what the old recluse looks like.”

And what doooooes she look like?  Pick up a copy and see, my loves.  I described her in full detail, this witty bitch next door.  Warning: it might get…messy.

Just a buck ninety-nine:

The Sirens Call - Issue #05

(Non-Amazon link coming soon.)

I received my complimentary copy today, and it’s lovely.  I am particularly loving the art.

Lucian is going to be in another story, hopefully before the end of the year.  He’s going to be part of an ongoing series you may have already started.  If you’d like to meet his future mentor, have a download of this freebie.  If you like it, the sequel’s only $.99.