Lamb Chops and Chainsaws: Nine Disturbing Short Stories About the Darker Side of Human Nature

By Glen Johnson

What are your neighbours really like once their front door slams shut? Are your children's teachers' sound-of-mind? Has your partner got an evil, sinister side? Is a member of your family a murderer? These questions, and more, are examined in a collection of nine disturbing short stories; tales about the darker side of human nature.

Read about a wannabe serial killer who starts his reign of terror on the wrong footing. A Kindergarten teacher who has deep psychological problems that jeopardizes the safety of the children. How a child of nine turns to violence in retaliation for drug smugglers slaughtering her parents. A fanatical mother who believes her thirteen year old son is possessed by the devil. How one killer spirals out of control and in his haste for victims makes a fatal mistake. A government trained killer who was set up as a scapegoat. Or a serial killer who has captured the attention of the world, and has setup one final, sickening display. What does it take to push someone that little bit too far and turn them into a killer? Find out when a savage murder is committed over a packet of lamb chops.

Strangers will never seem the same again.

Contents

1 Sod’s Law
The story of a wannabe serial killer who’s not to clever when it comes to picking his victims.

2 The Last Straw
A seventy-three year old man is pushed too far, after fifty years of constant nagging. What’s the final straw? An argument about dinner; to have chicken or lamb chops.

3 The Lord is My Shepherd
A mother’s fanatical love of God has twisted her perception of her son; in her mind her unruly thirteen year old is possessed by the devil.

4 Shattered Childhood
A child’s life in Mexico changes forever when drug smugglers kill her parents. To retaliate she does something incomeprehensible, even though she’s only nine.

5 No Conscience
A young man is deprived of his mother and sister. When he finds out why it drives him to become a murderer. Now without a conscience he sells his killing gift to the highest bidder.

6 Dirty Little Animals
What happens when a kindergarten teacher has reached the end of her tether, and children are her second worst nightmare, right after her father?

7 The Red Mist-ake
He looks normal, but his desires are twisted and bloody, needing to kill when the hunger arises. But he soon realizes that he can no longer control his inner beast when he wakes from his latest killing spree.

8 Like a Son
A man the government trained as a killer is used as a scapegoat. He goes on the run, until someone unexpected from his past catches up with him.

9 The A-list
A serial killer has captured the attention of the world. He has setup one final, sickening display. He plans to let the world know his twisted reasoning.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Glen Johnson
• Release date: May 30, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476213002

Glen Johnson

Glen Johnson was born in Devon, England in 1973. He is the author of 55 fiction and non-fiction books. In August 2014, he gave away all his belongings and bought a backpack and he started travelling around Southeast Asia. While he travels, he helps charitable organizations, writing and releasing books about their foundations, leaving them with all the royalties. His first charity book is called Soi Dog: The Story Behind Asia’s Largest Animal Welfare Shelter and it’s available in ebook and paperback worldwide. He has also started to release a series of books about his travel adventures as they unfold, and Living the Dream: Part One – Khaosan Road, Thailand, and Part Two – Krabi, Thailand is available from all good ebook retailers. He also loves to travel and has spent over eleven years living and travelling around the world – so far, he has explored forty-three different countries. At present, he lives in Bangkok, Thailand, but he has also lived in Mexico, Malaysia, Laos, Cambodia, and Singapore. He is also the lead writer on the development team for a new computer game called The Seed (2018), from the creators of the award-winning S.T.A.L.K.E.R Misery mod.Why not add Glen as a friend on Facebook. From his author’s page, you can keep up to date with all his new releases and when his kindle books are free on Amazon. He checks it daily, so pop on and say hello. Don’t be shy, he’s friendly and accepts friend requests.www.facebook.com/GlenJohnsonAuthorwww.facebook.com/RedSkullPublishing and all good ebook retailers.Glen has published 174 books worldwide (via two publishing companies he owns). 55 are his own work; the other 119 are modern-classic-fiction books that can be found on all good eBook and paperback retailers.Books Released by Sinuous Mind Books, and Coming Soon –Books released under his real name Glen JohnsonNON-FICTION BOOKS –CHARITY BOOKS (with Gary Johnson)Soi Dog – The Story Behind Asia’s Largest Animal Welfare Shelter (2015)BEES Elephants Sanctuary: A Haven for Old and Retired Elephants (Coming Soon)TRAVEL BOOKS (with Gary Johnson)Living the Dream 1 – Khaosan Road – Thailand (2015)Living the Dream 2 – Krabi – Thailand (2019)Living the Dream 3 – Penang – Malaysia (Coming Soon)FICTION BOOKS –APOCALYPTIC/DYSTOPIAN/HORRORTHE SIXTH EXTINCTION SERIES (A #1 Best Seller on Amazon UK Horror Short Stories)The Sixth Extinction 1 – Outbreak (2013)The Sixth Extinction 2 – Ruin (2013)The Sixth Extinction 3 – Infested (2013)The Sixth Extinction 4 – The Ark (2013)The Sixth Extinction 1-4 – Omnibus Edition (2013)THE SIXTH EXTINCTION: THE FIRST THREE WEEKS SERIES (A #1 Best Seller on Amazon UK Horror Short stories)The Sixth Extinction Series: The First Three Weeks 1 – Noah’s Story (2013)The Sixth Extinction Series: The First Three Weeks 2 – Red’s Story (2013)The Sixth Extinction Series: The First Three Weeks 3 – Betty and Lennie’s Story (2013)The Sixth Extinction Series: The First Three Weeks 4 – Doctor Lazaro’s Story (2013)The First Three Weeks 1-4 – Omnibus Edition (2013)THE SIXTH EXTINCTION & THE FIRST THREE WEEKS SERIES OMNIBUS (A #1 Best Seller on Amazon UK Horror Short stories)The Sixth Extinction & The First Three Weeks 1-8 – Omnibus Edition (2013)The Sixth Extinction & The First Three Weeks & The Sixth Extinction America 1-12 – Omnibus Edition (2014)The Sixth Extinction & The First Three Weeks & The First Three Weeks The Squads Stories & The Sixth Extinction America & The Seven Seeds of the Gods 1-23 – Omnibus Edition (2017)THE SIXTH EXTINCTION: THE FIRST THREE WEEKS – THE SQUADThe Sixth Extinction Series: The First Three Weeks – The Squad – Echo’s Story (2014)The Sixth Extinction Series: The First Three Weeks – The Squad – Coco’s Story (2014)THE SIXTH EXTINCTION: AMERICA SERIES (A #1 Best Seller on Amazon UK Horror Short stories)The Sixth Extinction: America – Part One: The Black Spores (2014)The Sixth Extinction: America – Part Two: False Hope (2014)The Sixth Extinction: America – Part Three: The Pods (2014)The Sixth Extinction: America – Part Four: The Long Road (2014)The Sixth Extinction: America – 1-4 Omnibus Edition (2014)The Sixth Extinction: America – Part Five: No Turning Back (2015)The Sixth Extinction: America – Part Six: A Friend in Need (2015)The Sixth Extinction: America – Part Seven: All Aboard (2015)The Sixth Extinction: America – Part Eight: New Hope (2015)The Sixth Extinction: America – 1-8 Omnibus Edition (2015)The Sixth Extinction: America – 1-20 Omnibus Edition (2016)The Sixth Extinction: America – Part Nine: Keep Running (2016)The Sixth Extinction: America – Part Ten: Don’t Look Back (2016)The Sixth Extinction: America – Part Eleven: Resurrection (2016)The Sixth Extinction: America – Part Twelve: Alliance (2018)The Sixth Extinction: America – Part Thirteen: Abandon (2019)The Sixth Extinction: America – Part Fourteen: Burn (Coming Soon)THE SIXTH EXTINCTION: BOOK EXTRASThe Sixth Extinction: The Seven Seeds of the Gods. Book One – Ancient Egypt (2016)The Sixth Extinction: The Seven Seeds of the Gods. Book Two – Ancient Mayan (Coming Soon)The Sixth Extinction: One Year On (England) (Coming Soon)The Sixth Extinction: Clarkson’s Discovery (Coming Soon)THE ENDLESS SERIESEndless: Part One – Sorrow (2019)Endless: Part Two – Fear (Coming Soon)Endless: Part Three - Anger (Coming Soon)THE EVENT SERIESThe Event: Part One – The Last Hope (2019)The Event: Part Two – Crashing Down (Coming Soon)THE HUMAN NATURE SERIES (A #1 Best Seller on Amazon UK Horror Short Stories)Lamb Chops and Chainsaws – Vol.1 (2012)Lobsters and Landmines – Vol.2 (2012)French Fries and Flamethrowers – Vol.3 (2014)The Human Nature Series 1-3 – Omnibus Edition (2014)Backpacks and Body Bags – Vol.4 (Coming Soon)THE EXTREME HUMAN NATURE SERIES (Extreme Horror Short Stories)Condoms and Cabbages (2015)GHOST (Short Stories)Sea of Trees (2017)Child Angels (2018)Tall Ghosts (2020)The Lost Cat (2023)HORROR (Short Stories)Quarantine (2020)Laugh Out Loud (2021)Secrets and Lies (2021)Blood Lotus (With Hathairat Phuekhiran – 2023)HORRORThe Watchers (2014)THE WAR OF THE GOD’S SERIESWar of the Gods 1 – The Devil’s Tarots (2012)War of the Gods 2 – Lilith’s Revenge (Coming Soon)THE SEVEN WORLDS SERIES (with Gary Johnson)The Gateway – World One (2014)The Keystone – World Two (2015)Even Jewel – World Three (2017)The Sleeping Gods – World Four (Coming Soon)The Turquoise Abyss – World Five (Coming Soon)Oceans of Fire – World Six (Coming Soon)Journeys End – World Seven (Coming Soon)THE SPELL OF BINDING SERIESThe Spell of Binding – Part One (2012)The Spell of Binding – Part Two (Coming Soon)THE PARKINGDOM SERIESParkingdom – Book One (2012)Parkingdom – Book Two (Coming Soon)OTHER BOOKSTales from the Lake Vol.2. Short Story: Prime Cuts (A mixed horror anthology with 18 other writers – published by Crystal Lake Publishing. 2016)Books released under the pseudonym J.G. NewtonEROTIC PLEASURES SERIES (#1 Best Seller on Amazon USA and UK Erotic/Suspense)Guilty Pleasures: Erotic Pleasures Series (2014)Dirty Pleasures: Erotic Pleasures Series (2014)Secret Pleasures: Erotic Pleasures Series (2014)Kinky Pleasures: Erotic Pleasures Series (2014)Erotic Pleasures Series 1-4 – Omnibus Edition (2014)EROTIC MONSTERS SERIES (#1 Best Seller on Amazon USA and UK Erotic/Suspense/Horror/Humorous)Frankenstein’s Monster: Erotic Monsters Series (2014)Dracula’s Lover: Erotic Monsters Series (2014)Mummy’s Desire: Erotic Monsters Series (Coming Soon)Werewolf’s Lust: Erotic Monsters Series (Coming Soon)COMPUTER GAMETHE SEEDGlen Johnson is on the development team as the lead writer (eight writers) for a new computer game series called The Seed. The Seed is a story-driven post-apocalyptic video game set in Eastern Europe in 2026. It’s a single-player 2D interactive novel, deeply rooted in HEXACO psychology – it showcases the gravity of choice. It’s by the same team that created the award-winning game S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Misery mod.The Seed: Act 1 (2018)The Seed: Act 2 (Coming Soon)The Seed: Act 3 (Coming Soon)If you need to get hold of Glen Johnson, email him on: [e-mail]

Book preview

LAMB CHOPS AND CHAINSAWS

Nine Disturbing Short Stories about the Darker Side of Human Nature

Glen Johnson

-Sinuous Mind Books-

Published by Sinuous Mind Books for Smashwords

Copyright © Glen Johnson 2021

Cover design by Sinuous Mind Books

Glen Johnson has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work.

This book is a work of fiction. Names and characters are fictitious and any resemblance to actual persons, living, dead or undead is entirely coincidental.

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not be, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form without Sinuous Mind Books or Glen Johnson’s prior consent. Except in the case of brief excerpts in critical reviews or articles.

For my brother -

Gary Johnson

CONTENTS

Prologue

1 Sod’s Law

2 The Last Straw

3 The Lord is My Shepherd

4 Shattered Childhood

5 No Conscience

6 Dirty Little Animals

7 The Red Mist-ake

8 Like a Son

9 The A-list

About the Author

1 Sod’s Law

The story of a wannabe serial killer who’s not to clever when it comes to picking his victims.

2 The Last Straw

A seventy-three-year-old man is pushed too far, after fifty years of constant nagging. What’s the final straw? An argument about dinner; to have chicken or lamb chops.

3 The Lord is My Shepherd

A mother’s fanatical love of God has twisted her perception of her son; in her mind, her unruly ten-year old is possessed by the Devil.

4 Shattered Childhood

A child’s life in Mexico changes forever when drug smugglers kill her parents. To retaliate, she does something incomprehensible, even though she’s only nine.

5 No Conscience

A young man is deprived of his mother and sister. When he finds out why it drives him to become a murderer. Now without a conscience he sells his killing gift to the highest bidder.

6 Dirty Little Animals

What happens when a kindergarten teacher has reached the end of her tether, and children are her second-worst nightmare, right after her father?

7 The Red Mist-ake

He looks normal, but his desires are twisted and bloody, needing to kill when the hunger arises. However, he soon realizes that he can no longer control his inner beast when he wakes from his latest killing spree.

8 Like a Son

A man the government trained as a killer is used as a scapegoat. He goes on the run, until someone unexpected from his past catches up with him.

9 The A-list

A serial killer has captured the attention of the world. He has set up one final, sickening display. He plans to let the world know his twisted reasoning.

Whereas the locations in this book are a fusion of real and imagined, the events and characters are merely a fabrication of my imagination.

Glen Johnson

"What comes out of a person is what defiles them. For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come–sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person."

Mark 7: 20-23

I think that if there were a God, there would be less evil on this earth. I believe that if evil exists here below, then either it was willed by God, or it was beyond His power to prevent it. Now I cannot bring myself to fear a God who is either spiteful or weak.

Marquis De Sade

Please note that I am an English author, so I use English spelling throughout. You will see doubled letters (cancelled), ou’s (colour), ‘re’ (centre) ce’s (licence), ise’s (realise), yse’s (paralyse) as well as a few other slight variations from American spelling.

In addition, a few slang words used in England to describe people. Chav: a young lower-class person typified by brash and loutish behaviour and the wearing of (real or imitation) designer clothes. Yob: a rude, noisy, and aggressive youth.

Prologue

Everyday we are surrounded by people. When we walk down the street or get in our car, a taxi, a bus or subway train – constantly jostled by strangers, forever fighting for space. Generic faces and mass-produced clothes. Our outward appearance is crafted by the television and the mass media. We are one of seven billion inhabitants on this spinning ball of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. However, it’s what lurks in the confines of our mind – the dwelling place of our lusts and depravities – which truly makes us unique. Once the door is locked, and we are truly alone – in those sparse few moments – it’s what we do for personal pleasure that truly defines us as a human being.

However, for a few, their personal, deprived thoughts pour over into everyday life. No longer content to let them dwell behind closed doors, their evil eventually touches others.

-1-

Sod’s Law

If this is how you act, then I won’t stop until I get revenge on you! Judges 15:7

Here I slouch with darkness enveloping me. Eyes closed against the foreboding night. Body numb from stillness, my brain disconnected long ago and swimming on the cosmic void. I lie, like one of the undead; unmoving, unstirring. Life having given up on me long ago. What is there left for me now? What can I hope for from a world of hatred and unrelenting violence? A world where the young go hungry and the old uncared for. Where murder and death are as prevalent as the very air, we breathe. Surely, life once had a meaning? Life once had a purpose? Have I always been like this? Am I only now becoming aware of it, the natural order of nature now taking hold?

Fuck, what a life.

Why can’t I admit who I truly am? Who I really portray once no one sees the outer me, once everyone has gone and the real me comes crawling out from the dark place I inhabit, whilst the pretend me socializes with the other Homo sapiens.

Why does everyone try to fit into what other people expect of us? Why can’t we be who we want to be? Why do we have to fit the parameters of other people’s ideas, other people’s degree of what is acceptable?

What would the world truly be like if every person acted and behaved the way they determined was right? How they have decided, not their peers? Would the world as we know it exist anymore? Would it slowly sink down lower into the quagmire than it already has? Or would being who we want to be release the world from many parameters, make for a better world – a world where no one has to pretend, no one doing anything, unless they desire to? Would social order still stand? Would society as we know it still be upheld?

Do we really give a shit?

From what I witness on the television and in the streets, I say hell no.

I contemplate these things, as I lay awake well past midnight on a rainy English winter night, only three days away from the Winter Solstice.

I fidget.

I can’t hide who I am any longer.

I blink at the dark ceiling.

Do other killers think the way I do? Or am I an enigma? Do they believe what they are doing is wrong? Believe they are different? Or do they accept what they have become and grasp it with both bloodied hands outstretched, wanting to be held against the bosom of the nightmare they have unleashed?

I lay on a ripped filthy striped mattress, with dark bloody gang-rape stains, in a room that looks like an abandoned crack house; dirty and smelling of wet carpet and mildew. A small old cabinet, with burn marks and stained spoons, rests against one wall. To the other is a three-legged vanity table with congealed makeup and dirty cup rings. One corner is filled with empty beer cans and cheap vodka bottles. The wallpaper hangs off in sheets to reveal black mould clinging to the wet plaster. And this is the nicest room in the house.

After buying the house with what meager money I had, I had none left to do anything with it. It stinks. It’s cold. It’s dirty and unsanitary, but it’s mine.

I roll over onto my right side, peering out at the drizzling rain that covers the window in a gloomy depressing mist. The sack coverings hang limply and uneven over the chipped, flaky paint dry rot window. The darkness outside makes the trees look like tall powerful sentinels, ready to stop me if I try to stray away from my house.

Do I dare?

Fuck yes!

I sold everything I had to come to England’s black dirty capital: London. I now own a rundown three story, old Victorian house, right on the outskirts of East London in an area called Barking and Dagenham, near the A13 around Chequers Lane, less than a mile from the mighty Thames. What a shitty sludge pit that is.

The house, or more to the point, slum some would call it, even in this the twenty-first century, is on a rundown ugly district. It has an overrun garden that hasn’t seen a lawnmower or a pair of shears in more than a decade. An abandoned shed, with a deep pit below, more like a cellar. A place I hide many of my things. And a back, overgrown gate, that I can enter and leave by without alerting anyone to my presence, or to what I might be carrying. The lane comes out next to an even dingier river than the Thames. Here I keep a small rowing boat.

I needed a new identity, so I created one. I went to a cemetery and found a gravestone with a male, around about my age that had died, possibly from illness or an accident. Either way it didn’t matter to me, just his name did; I don’t give a shit about why or how he died. I copied down the name and details, then I went along to the Birth and Death Registry Office. I gave the name and date of birth, saying I had lost my certificate. The Birth and Death registers are not joined; she didn’t know the man had been dead for over fourteen years. And with a smile, I paid my thirteen pounds and ninety-nine pence and received my new identity. Then with the birth certificate I sent away for a driver's licence. My old identity vanished; all burnt in a metal drum. My old name is now just a distant memory of little importance.

I have never been in trouble with the police, and my fingerprints have never been recorded. Something I will use to my advantage. I so hate wearing gloves, even when the needs dictate that I must, just in case something does happen and by chance my prints are needed for comparison. The chances are almost nonexistent, but then, things like that have been known to happen. No one means to get caught, that’s why the prisons are so full. Luckily good old England hasn’t got the death penalty, because what I intend to do will surely warrant it.

Strangely, the death penalty was abolished for murder in 1969, but remained on the statute book for certain other offences until 1998. What these other offences could be eluded me?

I watch the rain running down the greasy windowpane. My eyes follow one erratic drop as it zigzags.

I came from Devon; from a sleepy little village that most people don’t even realize exists on the southwest coastline of England. I had not been outside during daylight hours for years. People had forgotten I was even there. I arranged for rumours to spread that I had had a mild stroke, that half my face was sagging, and I was too proud to venture outside. No one bothered me. No one cared. People came; people went, and soon I was forgotten. Good old England was supporting me with a weekly Giro that was deposited directly into my bank. And through the beauty of the internet, even food was delivered to my front porch.

I should have been signing on, but one visit to the doctor, stating I was deeply depressed and suicidal, saved me the trouble. I wasn’t offered counseling, just a pharmacy’s worth of tablets. I had my prescriptions delivered; there were hundreds of unopened bottles in a black bin bag.

The times I do venture outside I wear a disguise, making myself look much older than my thirty-eight years. I am thin, but only five foot five inches in height. I wear old shoes, three sizes too big, with four pairs of thick socks to make them fit my thin bony feet. Thick rubber gloves ready to be used and a black ski mask, rolled up on my head like a woollen hat, ready to be pulled down. Brown contact lenses sit in the little plastic figure eight pot in the bathroom cabinet, ready to be positioned in place. Old dentures, filed down, making the teeth irregular, untraceable, in case the need for biting engulfs me. I can thank the film Red Dragon by Thomas Harris for that. I have light brown hair; that’s always cut short by clippers that I do myself. I am also covered in a light-brown hair, when I allow it to grow. I shave every inch of my body once a week. My eyes are celery green, like the colour of old coke bottle glass.

I have a large selection of old clothes. I can appear any age I so desire; I am an expert at deceit and disguise. Then again, in this day and age, who isn’t? We are all hiding who we really are. No one, not even close loved ones truly know the real us. They think they do, or more to the point; they would like to believe so. If only lovers realized what lies deep inside their partners’ heart and dark soul. You can know a person for fifty