100 Words a Day 1230

Carter held his handkerchief to his face and hurried through the coughing bunkhouse, eyes on the floor, and not for the first time cursed the architectural and bureaucratic incompetence that forced him to walk daily through that repository of the diseased.  Some instinct made him look up. There was a narrow, sickly-shouldered man walking towards him. When they were closer, Carter observed a face replete with alien features. The man’s large, bulging eyes seemed to be looking in opposite directions and weird flaps of skin hung under either side of his jaw. He held a strange idol between wet-looking fingers.

100 Words a Day 1229

“Happy Birthday!”

I started of bed and crashed onto the floor, hitting my head on something. I looked up and saw a blurry mass of people blocking my view of my room. I rubbed my eyes and the mass coalesced into my friends and family. They stared at me expectantly. My head was starting to ache from whatever it had hit.

“What?”

“It’s your birthday!” my mom declared.

“No it isn’t.” I shook my head.

“Yes it is. It’s September 10^th.”

“That’s Steve’s birthday, Mom.”

I could see her brain working. She suddenly deflated when she realized I was right.

100 Words a Day 1228

“Uff,” Pat said after finishing his long swig. “Whoever named this the Suffering Bastard knew what he was talking about. I’m feeling better already.”

Some of the pain lines on his face faded. But the dark circles around his eyes remained, and his skin was still pale.

“Ready to do it again?” Sarah asked, eyes twinkling.

“Not sure I can,” John said, holding his Bloody Mary against his forehead, which was sweating.

Pat stared down at his mug. It was carved in the shape of the strange idols that doted the islands. Its big eyes sat atop a lurid grin.

100 Words a Day 1227

After the submarine breached the ice, there was a moment of relief when the hatch opened. Our cries of elation were swept away by the roaring arctic wind however. We looked around. We saw nothing but a field of cracked ice, broken only by an enormous frozen pillar thrusting towards the clear blue sky some distance away.  Within minutes, our teeth started chattering, despite our heavy coats. It seemed we had traded death by suffocation for death by freezing.  The wind died suddenly and we could hear the shifting ice crackling, laughing at our plight.  

“We won’t last the night.”

100 Words a Day 1226

The beach bar was just like they’d imagined it would be.  Four bamboo poles supported a roof of dried grass. The bar itself was equally native in appearance; composed of what appeared to be local materials, more bamboo, wood, rope made of natural fibers, etc. It was surrounded by tables made of old-looking barrels and shaded by dried grass umbrellas. And staffed by locals selected for their comely appearance and affability as much as their ability to mix drinks. The modern infrastructure required for the bar that the visitors expected, refrigerator, CO2 lines, taps, etc. was concealed behind primitive trappings.

100 Words a Day 1225

“Hey, has anybody seen Chad lately?”

They all looked at each other.

“Last I saw Chad he was leaving the party with that island hottie who started talking to him at the bar,” Lance said

Chet and Bret grinned at each other and high fived.

“That’s my boy!” Chet said.

“I don’t know guys,” Brock said. “I think something’s happened.”

“I be somethings happened! I bet it’s still happening!” Chet said.

“Yeah, man. Don’t be such a wuss.” Bret said, shoving Brock in the chest. “He’s probably learning all the native love-making secrets.”

The other boys laughed and clinked glasses.

100 Words a Day 1224

The Vicious Snarl wasn’t like the anger of a drinker, or a general ruffian. It originated deep inside me, and it wasn’t a simple desire to fight or dominate through pain or physical control, but a yearning to the hurt the target of my ire as thoroughly as possible. The broader and more horrible the application of the pain, the better. Living alongside the Vicious Snarl was the Sucking Voice. When it emerged from the depths of my psyche, it tried to draw any positive emotion or feeling back down into the depths with it, leaving me with only misery.