#VSSMURDER Week One (and a bit)

October 3 You called the #ritual murder of my child a necessary sacrifice to return fertility to our farms. You told me to be proud. I nodded, even smiled. Then I sowed salt upon the fields, put monk’s hood in the mangers. You sought a blessing, but have only my curse.
5 October A statue is #lifeless, a painted canvas even more so, yet no one objects to galleries and museums crammed with such things. Why, then, gentlemen, do you detain me over the few works I have created to adorn my garden? Is it the smell? The flies? You lack soul!
7 October He knew, in the beginning, that #vengeance was justified... but years passed, and the connection of his victims to the original transgression became ever more tenuous. As he scrubbed the meter reader from his hands, he suddenly realized what a monster he’d become.
2 October ”Jake said you needed a cleaner.” Otto mopped at his face. “Yeah. Job went wrong. Bad wrong.” ”In there?” Otto nodded. “Yeah.” ”That’s a mess, all right. Where’s the #corpse?” Otto spun, eyes wide. Before he could speak, the room was plunged into darkness.
October 4 Osric looked from the royal warrant to the gloating man. Both were ragged and filthy, but the warrant was definitely real. ”For services to the crown, you are immune to beheading, even for murder. Very well. Executioner, put away your axe. ”Fetch your #bludgeon.”
6 October In the club lounge, brandy by his side, Major Dee rattled his paper. "See this #mayhem in Hyde Park, Smith? Six dead!" Smith nodded. "Dreadful amateurs. No subtlety, no style." "What's that y'say?" "Just thinking aloud. More brandy? No, I see you're finished."
8 October “One more dance!” she cried. ”Another?” He wiped his brow. “After a volta, a polonaise, and a polka? I may perish!” ”Will you?“ She smiled, sweet but with a wicked thread. “Perhaps a #garotte?” He heard ‘gavotte’ and assented, to his brief regret.
9 October I’m studying Japanese again, and to make it an everyday part of my life, I’m keeping a daily journal in the language. I can’t remember this one word, but it’s just right. So compact. One word for “to test your #sword upon an unsuspecting passer-by”. Footnote: 辻斬 (Tsujigiri). Writers collect odd information like magpies, never knowing what might one day be useful.
Footnote: 辻斬 (Tsujigiri). Writers collect odd information like magpies, never knowing what might one day be useful.

“#VSSMURDER Week One (and a bit)” ©2020 Dirck de Lint, althought I’m well aware that Twitter will do as it pleases with the content, since it appears on their platform.