Weird Tales

By Mark Lambert

A collection of fourteen short stories with a main theme of mystery/fantasy but encompassing humour drama and horror.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mark Lambert
• Release date: Nov 24, 2011
• ISBN: 9781465993533

Book preview

WEIRD TALES

By

Mark Lambert

SMASHWORDS EDITION

* * * * *

PUBLISHED BY:

Mark Lambert on Smashwords

Weird Tales

Copyright © 2011 by Mark Lambert

Thank you for downloading this eBook. I hope you have some fun and thoughts while reading it.

Your support and respect for the property of this author is appreciated.

This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.

Adult Reading Material

*****

Please note that I use British English spelling throughout apart from where American spelling is necessary. You will see ou’s (e.g. colour) and ‘re’ (centre) as well as a few other differences from American spelling.

These short stories are the product of prompts given in writing groups, which is a useful tool to spark the imagination.

I hope you enjoy the stories as much as I enjoyed writing them.

*****

WEIRD TALES - INTRODUCTION

This is a collection of short stories and flash fiction.

The content ranges from humour to fantasy/sci-fi to drama to horror/mystery.

Dreamspeak

A priest conducts a confession in a new technological dictatorship and wonders what happened to traditional methods.

Facebook

A man gets contacted by an old girlfriend on the social network. He reads her email and narrates his thoughts. Is getting contacted by old friends good or bad?

Archie's Plan

Two bank robbers meet up at a scheduled place and wait for their leader. Where is he, and what exactly was the plan?

Input Output

Fred’s wife wonders what he’s working on in the basement. He eventually shows her, promising it will change their lives.

Study of a Delusion

A doctor visits a patient who is convinced he’s a werewolf. He’s forced to stay the night. Is his patient really a werewolf?

Almighty Control

Who actually looks after the universe, and who is their boss?

Big Ole Tree

A lady reminisces about her childhood when her grandmother saved a mighty oak tree from being destroyed.

Burgulary

A woman arrives home from holiday to find her home has been burgled. What’s the most important thing that’s gone missing, and how can she replace it?

Internet Problems

Does any malevolent force lurk in the internet? What are the consequences of annoying it?

A New Little Rule

Space travellers return to Earth, looking forward to enjoying themselves after a year away. Will they be able to do that?

Marion's Lot

A beaten housewife tries to hold her life together, while a friend tries to help.

Judging Emma

A woman is involved in an accident. Who was it with? Who calls for a trial? How can she get an innocent verdict?

The Village

A man gets stranded in a small village. Who can help him? Why are the people a little strange?

Eco Revenge

An old lady contrives to frame her neighbour for rubbish recycle crime.

DREAMSPEAK

The body lay on the reclined chair in front of me; electrodes still attached to his forehead and chest. The intermittent beeps from the monitor now merged together in a low hum. I brushed my hand over his eyelids to close them and pushed his gaping mouth shut. What went through his mind? He never spoke. He’d generated no images. He’d only screamed.

I took one last look at the unfortunate man and pressed a red button to alert the Dumpers that we had a failure.

I needed coffee and a cigarette, so I made my way to the vending machine and out the back of the church. The two Dumpers nodded as they walked past me, on their way to the confessional area.

The hot coffee refreshed me somewhat and I sparked a match to light my cigarette.

Having a sly break eh, Father? Father Thomas surprised me.

I see you’re needing one too, I said as he brought a fat cigar up to his lips.

How’d it go with the difficult one? he said.

We had a failure.

Hmmm. I thought that might happen, he said. The man just wasn’t up for confession.

Well, I don’t know. I’ve never seen one like that before. He never said a word, and no images. Just screamed, you know?

Father Thomas glanced at me between huge puffs.

Your first screamer eh?

No. Like I said, there were no images either. Never happened before.

Don’t take it personally Father, some just don’t want to confess.

I sipped my coffee and thought about his words. Why would anyone want to confess to things that the church didn’t approve of? I really wasn’t sure anymore. I’d seen people lie there, electrodes attached to their head, a drug-induced sleep, and pictures of their dreams and thoughts transmitted to a large plasma screen. The pictures were vivid and sometimes bizarre; most spoke and some shouted aloud. Some screamed, but hardly any simply screamed and died like this one. I’d heard of that happening, but never experienced it until now.

Must go, said Father Thomas, got an indoctrination to do. Young girl. She’s apparently having thoughts of independence and her parents are worried. See you later.

He threw his cigar stub to the floor, stamped out the embers and left me alone.

I thought back to my first confession ten years previously. The woman had been nervous, as I was, but I had to coax her thoughts out. I was trained to do that then. She’d had thoughts about having an affair with a work colleague. Reading passages from the Book was my punishment for her and she probably went away quite happy, relieved and only a little embarrassed. Today, after the rule of the superiors three years ago, she would be strapped up to a machine, sent to sleep, and we would see her sins for ourselves. They have no choice. We make a decision on their fate, but I know the authorities are asking the programmers to automate the punishment process. I’d always argued that they should involve us before it went too far.

I sparked another cigarette. Maybe my faith was slipping, or my faith in the technology they now use. I longed for the old days of face to face encounters, or even the older days when their faces couldn’t be seen. I wondered how far their technology now reached.

Two men appeared from the building and stood either side of me. Men I’d never seen before.

Hello Father, said one.

I looked at each of them. Their white suits and red ties unnerved me.

You can finish the cigarette, if you want to, said one man.

What’s up lads? I asked. I felt sweat form on my forehead.

You have been selected for confession, said the first without emotion.

You have worrying behaviour and thoughts, said the other.

Before I could speak again, or even think about his last comment, each man had grabbed my wrists and my arms were bent upwards behind my back.

There was no point in arguing or struggling.

As they led me to the confessional area, I wondered what images I would give them, what words I would speak and what punishment they would deliver.

Or would I just scream and die?

END - Back to stories list

FACEBOOK

There are many evil things in this world which were not originally intended for bad use. Man somehow learned to control fire in an effort to keep warm, and then learned to use it to burn down houses of the enemy. Then there's Facebook.

Okay, I left a few things out there, like gunpowder, nuclear fusion and Pop Idol, but Facebook beats them all.

Hi !!!!!!! Remember me!!!!!!!?

This was her first contact via the insidious network. Overuse of exclamation marks, and yes I did remember her. We had one date when we were spotty fifteen year-olds. Stacey. I read her email with trepidation.

I remember when we went to the movies to see Annie Hall!!!!!!!

She's going to wear out her exclamation mark key in a minute, plus it was 'Manhattan' we went to see. She kept farting all the way through.

I kept farting LOL!!!!

Yes. I wondered if the 'LOL' stood for 'Long Out Loud', which they were. Although being a spotty fifteen year-old, with raging hormones and a desire to find out what your spotty date is made out of under those clothes, you had no option but to ignore the farting and go for it.

God, you got your finger stuck in my bra strap!!!!!!!! :) ;) :>( :) :>((

Erm, I did, but what do all those smiley things mean? Are some of them supposed to be tits?

Then I puked up!!!!! I wasn't used to popcorn LOL.

Right on my lap.