[LNHY/ACRA] The Daily Super Short-Short Story #49

[Saxon Brenton]

The Daily Super Short-Short Story #49
 
A Devil Came Down to Georgia 31
 
Last time: Martin fought some more with the Diabolicals, and got to kill 
the evil sock. Maybe.
 
     " 'Other three of then?'" Martin repeated. Then his mind caught up 
with what the scarred man was telling him. "Hold it, hold it, hold it. 
You mean there's another one?"
     "Yes."
     "And where was that one?"
     "It... well, she, I suppose, was left guarding your friend."
     "You mean Delroy? Delroy's dead."
     "No he's not."
     "I saw the body," said Martin with heat.
     "You saw another guy who they picked out and killed because he was 
the same size and would fit in Delroy's clothing," countered TJ.
     "No," disagreed Martin. "That can't be right. I recognised his face."
     "Which Tsurlich stole and swapped onto the corpse," explained TJ 
patiently. "I don't think they bothered to swap fingerprints as well, 
but frankly it'd be quicker simply to mount a rescue mission than try to 
prove identities with forensics."
     Martin felt sick to his stomach at what he'd just heard. "Who the 
hell is Tsurlich. Who are you?"
     TJ gave him a strange look, then said, "You don't recognise me, do you?"
     "Should I?" Martin demanded.
     "I'm TJ. The guy that Damian the wondersock grabbed at random for a 
host body, and who's been stalking you for the past half week," TJ replied 
in a curiously detached tone of voice. "We've talked a couple of times. 
Well, you two have. The last time was the other morning when you ripped 
my dick and balls off after I exposed myself at you."
     Martin stared at him in horror, and his flesh began to creep. 
Considering the nature of the student's flesh at the moment, this resulted 
is an eerie rippling of machine parts and debris. "Oh God," he murmured. 
It took him several seconds to get his thoughts together, and even then 
the only thing that he managed to say was to let slip, "So you're not 
gay then..."
     "No, actually I'm not," said TJ. "But I don't hate them either."
     Martin gave him a sharp look, but still couldn't decipher the other 
man's flat expression or tone of voice. For his part TJ watched, just as 
he watched everything - and paranoid schizophrenic or not, he recognised 
the homophobic anxiety in Martin's reaction.  .oO( How far does your 
bigotry extend, little god-botherer? ) TJ wondered clinically.  ( Does 
the fact that I won't burn gays at the stake mean you'll lose your 
sense of guilt? And how would you react to knowing that I've been 
interned in one of the concentration camps? )
     Unfortunately TJ considered himself to have little choice but to 
deal with Martin. There simply wasn't anybody else who he could reasonably 
expect to believe a story about abductions by demons - especially since 
it included possession by evil socks. They were too dangerous to be left 
running around, and Martin was the best chance TJ could see to remove 
their threat. But the two of them would have to act quickly... which 
come to think of it led right back to the question that he'd first asked 
Martin after dealing with Damian.
     "Look," said TJ, cutting through Martin's mixed emotions. "Those 
demons are after you. They talked a bit either recruiting you or using 
you as a bargaining chip, and maybe they were just feeding me lines while 
having another agenda in mind altogether, but either way they aren't 
likely to stop coming for you. Now if you're strong enough we can start 
offing them like we did with the wondersock, or we can lay low and plan 
an attack. Considering they have your pal, I'd say a quick snatch-and-
grab was in order for starters."
     Martin considered this. "To get back Del, yeah." Then a though 
occurred to him. "And what's in it for you?"
     "I really don't feel safe with creatures running around who either 
hurt people just for the fun of it, or actively feed of other people's 
pain. I want them out of the way so I don't have to worry about them 
turning up to torture me again just because they're having a boring day."
     "So... We're not just talking revenge then..."
     TJ stared at him as if he had gone senile and started to dribble. 
"Folks who let themselves get worked up about revenge overlook things 
that are obvious. No, I'm talking about survival."
 
Tomorrow: Panty raid! Uh, no, hold on...
 
The Daily Super Short-Short Story series and the wondersocks created 
by Arthur Spitzer, and used with belated permission.
 
All main characters created by Saxon Brenton are Ask First Before Use 
for the duration of this storyline, then they'll probably go to Usable 
Without Permission.
 
-----
Saxon Brenton University of Technology, city library, Sydney Australia
     saxon.brenton at uts.edu.au
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