FLASH FICTION:-- HORROR, SCI-FI, HUMOUR, CRIME, SLICE OF LIFE, ETC.

Friday 29 October 2010

Pumpkinhead

Ah, Halloween is here again, I just love Halloween.

Today I was making my lantern.

The knife was short, but sturdy, and very sharp.

I pushed it in almost to the hilt, then twisted it round, scrolling my wrist over and back, over and back, delighting in the squishy-squelchy sounds it produced. I withdrew the blade, globs of soft flesh and tendrils of thick liquid clung to the stainless steel.

I ran the flat of the blade across my tongue, savouring the juices, aaah...sweet, sweet.

Okay, now for the second eye.... A slight pop as the blade went through the skin, then squish- squelch, squish-squelch. I caught myself singing a few bars from an old George Benson song “In your eyes” and smiled.

I carved the nose out with three deep cuts, leaving a gaping, dribbling, triangular hole.

I held it against my lips, tilted my head back, and sucked deeply, allowing the sweet liquid to trickle down my throat.

The mouth was a bit more tricky, the teeth proved to be a problem, but I hacked and slashed and gouged, until it took on a look that pleased me. A rather lopsided, but gap-toothy smiling look.

I kissed the mouth, running my tongue slowly along the contours of the teeth, flicking it deeply into the wet hole, searching out the loose tiny morsels.

After removing the top I carefully scooped out all of the insides, slopping them into a large bowl, I would eat them for dessert after dinner tomorrow.

I pushed the candle deep into the soft base inside the head, lit it, replaced the top, then turned out the light to appreciate my efforts.

Hmmm, not bad, the Halloween lantern was probably one of my best efforts to date, the candle's glow flickered eerily from the carved apertures. All in all I was quite pleased with it.

I glanced across at the rest of the corpse in the corner of the room, and debated whether or not to use a real pumpkin for next Halloween.


©2010 Stephen. J. Green.

32 comments:

  1. From the title I thought it was going to be about the cult classic monster, Pumpkinhead. But carving works as well. Disgusting reveal, but what do I expect in late October fiction?

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  2. Thanks John, I wanted the story to have a nice Halloween glow to it.

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  3. Yucko! Creepy and gross in a very cool and Halloweeny way!

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  4. Thanks Harry, I'm glad you found it tasteful. Bwuhahahaha!

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  5. Thanks Tim, originally it was much less gross, then I added lines 7, 12+13, and 16+17, just to give it a bit more sugar.

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  6. Again, this holiday provides more reminders as to why I'm glad I'm vegetarian.LOL :D

    Creepy, gross, well told.

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  7. Hahaha, Hi Catherine, glad you like it, gross is a word that seems to be a favourite with this story.

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  8. Ohhh that was horrible. Well done!
    Kari @ The Best Place By The Fire

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  9. Thanks Kari, I seem to be attracting many horrible (and gross) comments today. Mwuhahahahahaha.

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  10. One gets the impression the narrator is a tad disturbed. I sort of knew where this was going after a few sentences. But you know what? It doesn't matter because this somewhat gory tale is completely in the spirit of the season. Nice.

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  11. Alan, I think possibly more than just a tad.

    It is rather sickening, especially the kissing bit.

    Thanks for reading.

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  12. hahaha great Hallowe'en tale Steve! About the time you started describing the eyes I became afraid of where it might be going. Very Dexter-esque; a look inside the rather twisted mind of a killer. Well done :)

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  13. Thanks Lauren, I was hoping for the double misdirection, (He's pretending it's a real head but it's really a pumpkin)

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  14. Delightfully twisted, my friend. Bravo.

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  15. Thanks Earthgirl, It's nice to be appreciated for my twisted sense of humour.

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  16. Well you caught me there. Couldn't believe the ending. What a surprise when I was thinking, yeah, pumpkins, Halloween, Northern Hemisphere. Twisted all right!

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  17. Truly disgusting, very icky. I liked it.

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  18. Thanks L'aussie, making my lantern from a pumpkin would be so much easier, now I've got the problem of disposing of the rest of the meat (again)

    Bwuhahahahahahahaha.

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  19. Jason, thank you for reading, Icky is very apt. (along with horrible and gross) :-D

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  20. Completely gross, but also funny in a sick way. The perfect combination for a scary story. I really enjoyed this one Steve.

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  21. But...but...wouldn't you have to let the head dry out a bit before putting the candle inside it?

    Terrific description of the squelchy and gruesome sounds and tastes here and some grizzly verbs that just added to the effect.

    I do have to wonder whether any Trick or Treaters rang the doorbell, though. ;)

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  22. Rachel, Thank you, once again 'gross' describes. I really like that word in connection with this piece.


    Kath, the wet base didn't interfere with lighting the candle wick. And as for the Trick-or-Treaters.....

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  23. A tale full of gore, but what is Halloween without one. I especially enjoyed the sounds as your lead twisted the knife and then fought the mental image as he tasted the juices. This one ranked a perfect ten on the yuk-o-meter. Well done.

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  24. Thanks Stephen, tasting the juices was one of the lines that I added afterwards, it does rather evoke yucky images doesn't it?

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  25. Perfect for Halloween. Grosstastic! Nice.

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  26. Good story! You got me. I was guessing he just had some weird pumpkin fetish. Nope. Much worse. In a good Halloween story sort of way.

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  27. Thanks Gen, another notch up the grossometer.


    Thanks Eric, he certainly has some kind of fetish. Yuk.

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  28. The over the top descriptions are what made this story. Blech, but in a good way. :)

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  29. Hi Laurita, thanks for reading, I do tend to go over the top quite a lot. :-)

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  30. This is great!!! Loved it! If he's anything like my character he won't settle for a real pumpkin :P

    I wrote a very similar flash last year :)
    http://estrella05azul.wordpress.com/2009/10/31/carving-terrific-jack-o-lanterns-by-estrella-azul/

    And a sequel for it this year for Halloween :)
    http://estrella05azul.wordpress.com/2010/10/29/terrific-opportunity-by-estrella-azul/

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  31. Thanks for reading Estrella, I'll have a look at your Halloween gore. :-D

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