Tales Out of Turn: Short Stories of Rich Feitelberg

By Rich Feitelberg

Tales Out of Turn is a collection of dark fiction featuring the following stories:

When Only Murder Will Do -- Stan is at his wits end and plots the murder of his partner, Steve. 

Mourning Dove -- The cooing of mourning doves keeps Nicholson awake and gives him bizarre dreams.

Encounter on the Village Green -- Monica goes out for Halloween and meets real ghosts and witches.

Magazine Salesman -- A door-to-door magazine salesman attempts to sell his products to the homeowners in town.

The Drones -- Joan is killed by hi-tech drones, leaving no evidence as to how she died. Someone must command them, but who?

Dark Faires -- A woman is found murdered and the person who killed her claims it was self-defense; evil fairies came spueing out of her and attacking him.

Dopplegänger -- A girl goes missing and is then seen repeatedly by her abductor, even though she is dead.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rich Feitelberg
• Release date: Apr 25, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224581436

Rich Feitelberg

Rich Feitelberg is a poet and novelist, author of the fantasy series, the Aglaril Cycle. He also has collections of short stories and poetry available too. Rich is an avid map collector, and student of popular culture. Growing up on a steady diet of comic books, science fiction, and fairy tales of all kinds, Rich soon began weaving his own tales at a young age. These activities continue to this day, as Rich is working on many new projects, and writing more poems and stories.

Book preview

For Dale,

Who gave me ideas his doesn’t even know about

When Only Murder Will Do

Stan sat upstairs at his desk in his home office, finishing up the web site design he had been working on. The colors of the site needed to be changed and Stan sat quietly for several minutes, editing the style sheet to reflect to new hues his client had asked for.

Suddenly from across the house Steve’s voice came booming out of the downstairs bedroom.

You lousy motherfuckers!

Stan cringed. Steve had overslept again and was going to be late; he hated being late. That was understandable, at least to Stan. What he couldn’t explain is why Steve carried on so. Cursing and getting angry didn’t help; in fact, it seemed to make things worse.

The web designer just shook his head and went downstairs to help, praying he didn’t kill his partner in the process.

* * *

Steve barked orders at Stan as he came downstairs.

I need underwear out of the dryer and the black socks I got for Christmas last year.

Stan got him what he needed and dug out the shirt, pants, and sport jacket he would need as well. Steve said nothing, not even thank you. He just put on his clothes, brushed his teeth, combed his hair, and left.

Stan listened to the sudden silence. It was wonderful. Then he thought about Steve’s outburst. It was the same thing every time he was late. It had gotten so bad that Stan decided they needed couples counseling. So he asked around, found someone who was supposedly good and gotten Steve to agree to go. But it had done little good because at the end of the session Steve declared it was a waste of time and money.

You don’t know that, countered Stan as they walked back to the car. After one session how can you tell?

I can tell, replied Steve.

Stan doubted that and rethought what to do. Perhaps anger management would help. He suggested it to Steve a few nights later.

No way. Besides I don’t have anger problem.

Stan bit his lip for a moment, then replied, No, you have a problem organizing your stuff and there’s a community college course on staying organized that might help.

Piffle. My stuff is organized just fine.

Then why can you never find anything?

Steve shrugged.

Stan sighed and decided his partner liked to live in chaos. That was fine but there was no reason to get angry later when you couldn’t find the shirt, the ring, or the tie you wanted.

But worse than Steve’s disorganization was Stan’s anger at his partner; it was mounting. He could feel it. He needed to resolve this issue soon or he was bound to do something drastic that he would regret.

Talking to Steve was out of the question. Stan tried that once, asking his partner not to leave clothes in the dryer. That simple request had turned into a huge fight. Stan had no wish to repeat that mistake.

Finally he realized there were only two options open to him: divorce or he would have to kill Steve.

Stan supposed splitting up was the simpler option, but the process of dividing everything would be horrendous. It meant getting lawyers and arguing for weeks over stuff. They would have to sell the house too; that rankled Stan. He liked living in the house they had found and moving was such a pain. He would have to call his real estate agent and start looking for a new property. Immediately, it became clear, Stan would have to put his life on hold and he didn’t want to do that. Plus, divorce was just another form of running away from his problems; it meant giving up, and Stan never gave up. He dealt with situations and people. So how then to deal with this person?

Simple. Steve is acting like a spoiled child. The only answer is to kill him.

*.*.*

He thought carefully about his conclusion. It would be almost impossible to murder Steve without getting caught. Forensic science was just too advanced.

Unless, he mused, his death really was an accident.

He thought about that. But how am I going to arrange an accident without making it look like I wanted to kill him? He had no idea.

Then it came to him. He wouldn’t try to conceal his involvement. He would just do the deed and go to jail. Even prison was better than living through another tantrum.

He paused on that thought. He didn’t know if that was so. Certainly he had heard stories of prisoners being assaulted, beaten, and raped. He didn’t want anything like that to happen to him.

He sighed and felt his resolve waver. Then he envisioned Steve storming out of the house and Stan’s anger flared again. He knew he could defend himself in a fight so if anyone in prison made trouble for him, they would regret it.

*.*.*

With these details settled, he began to plan the event, picking the time and place. He supposed over the weekend was best; he could do it in their bedroom once Steve had fallen asleep. That way,