Bits & Pieces - Vol. 1

By Jason Burchard

This collection of short stories from author Jason Burchard grabs horror, smashes it with suspense and blends in some sci-fi.

The stories within:

Karma's a Bitch- Some girlfriends are crazy. Drew's really takes the cake.

Alien Annihilators- Two grade school boys play a wildly popular computer game.

The Note- A young man loses his crush and can't deal with his life anymore.

The Slugger- Years ago, a man was convicted of brutally murdering his family, even though they never found the weapon-- which turns up in some new hands.

Truth Serum- A science fair project goes awfully wrong.

The Chef: Part 1- A famous chef cooks up some terror in the first installment of this short story series.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Mar 9, 2012
• ISBN: 9781105589096

Book preview

Bits & Pieces - Vol. 1

A FEW SHORT STORIES

BY

JASON BURCHARD

 Published by Lulu.com

Copyright 2012

From the Author

Karma's a Bitch

Alien Annihilators

The Note

The Slugger

Truth Serum

The Chef

From the Author

I want to thank you for purchasing my book of short stories. You are one of millions I’m sure, or at least I wish.

All joking aside, I hope you enjoy these stories. The ones in this and future collections are mostly horror but sometimes sci-fi or something close. I like to think I’m a little bit Stephen King, part Hitchcock or Twilight Zone. If you enjoy the stories here, be on the lookout for more collections coming soon.

Soon, I also hope to release my more mainstream novel that I wrote. It’s nothing like these horror stories but I do think if you enjoy my straightforward writing style that you’ll enjoy my novel as well.

The novel, Tomorrow on TV, is about an average guy who buys a cool new TV that predicts the future, every channel, one day ahead of time. He experiences how awesome it is at first to know the future, but then later the burden of seeing all the bad news before it happens gets to him.

For now, enjoy this handful of short stories before you.

Sincerely,

Jason Burchard

1

Karma's a Bitch

- - -

It wasn’t until after I’d been seeing Karmella for six months before I started to notice strange behavior. She came over one day with her Maltese puppy I’d gotten her for her birthday. It was a fluffy little girly-girl dog named Ivory. She seemed to love her more than me. That particular day she escaped out the front door when I went out to check my mail. My house was on two acres of land in the country. Karma was always worried Ivory would run off and never come back. She wasn’t as worried about her getting ran over like she would be if I lived in the city. She chased her for a good fifteen minutes before she came back inside.

Thanks Drew, she said as she slammed the door shut.

I’m sorry hun,-- which I was. I knew how much she cared for her dog. I turned to look at her as she walked in. The intensity of hate coming from her eyes burned me.

You’re lucky that I finally caught her. She was holding her dog tight to her chest, practically under her neck.

You know it was an accident, I didn’t mean to let her out.

Coulda helped catch her though, she said in her baby talk voice, as she rubbed noses with Ivory.

You know she never comes to me, but I realized by then that I still should’ve helped. So I had a lapse in judgment.

If she hadn’t come back, I might not have either.

She had her back to me as she walked out of the room. I could hear her in the kitchen opening the silverware drawer. Then, she came back in to the living room. She had a steak knife in her hand.

Here, she said as she handed me the knife. She put Ivory in my lap. "If you don’t like my dog, that you got me, if you’re so jealous and hate her so much, then get rid of her right now."

I took it as a sick joke, but the more I noticed how she was so calm, so blank in the face, I started to sweat. Could she really have been serious? Then, she grabbed Ivory back with one hand and the knife with the other. Her puppy was oblivious to the events unfolding. She put the tip of the knife to the nape of her dog’s neck, just above the collar. She had a shaky grip on the handle.

"Or you want me to do it? I will if that’ll make you happy because it’s always about making you happy isn’t it?"

No, you gotta be kidding Karma. I didn’t think her running out was a big deal. Sheesh, why even joke about that? I still hoped she was joking or teaching me a cruel lesson, for anything more than that was ridiculous.

Well that’s the way I saw it.

She finally took the knife off the dog. She went back in the kitchen and tossed it in the sink. It landed with a metallic clank.

I didn’t even see her coming back to the living room. I just heard her yell, GODDAMN YOU DREW! Then I saw a blur of white fur fly through the living room. She had thrown Ivory. The helpless puppy smashed against the far wall and yelped, then lay there and whimpered. Then, Karmella left the house.

I didn’t hear from her again that night. I was glad for that because I wouldn’t have known what to think or say. Ivory was hurt but I took care of her that night.

The next day, Karma and I tried to pretend like it never happened, but Ivory’s new limp was a solemn reminder. I think she had seriously hurt her leg, possibly broken it. I thought for a while that Karma scared herself with her temper and was remorseful. She kept rather quiet and gave me and Ivory more love and attention than usual. I hoped things were going to be back to normal.

A month later, in August, she spent a weekend over at the house. We’d usually go out to eat and stuff on Friday and Saturday. On Sundays, I’d do yard work or chores. Sunday, August