Hanson Oak

Which evil are you referring to? There's so much to choose from....

We outran our breath, left to gasp, beg for its return. We'd escaped, if only for the moment.

Then the squeal of its teeth grinding stilled our hearts. She sat down and cried.

"Don't give up!" I begged.

"Mr. Oak, bravery goes out the back door," she said. "When death knocks at the front."
#vss365

I look at the graveyard, rolling hills, the lush lawns had gorged itself on rain, and Jacob, who had recently gorged himself on the corpses buried about - that he was still chewing through. "Idyllic, isn't it, Mr. Oak?"

"We have different.. taste," I say. "But I'm glad you've found home."

#vss365

My problems are different than most.

Happy holidays.

I want to move through the world as a ghost - rarely noticed or felt.

I want my existence to cause no more damage than a drop of dew on a spider web, yet be as consequential as an earthquake.

I take a breath to consume the wind. I close my eyes to see myself.

#vss365

We live our lives in the threshold, Mr. Oak," Pasley said. "Most think we must move forward, to death, the next room of our existence as it were."

"Time moves forward," I say.

"But we don't have to! We can stand still or go back even!"

"Back to what?"

He smiled. "Would you like to see?"

#vss365

Thank you for digging deep and saying so.

They couldn't be more aptly named.

In one fluttering gasp of the second hand's struggle to stay in the present, she is beside me.

She moves with the grace of the taipan, but her words hold twice the venom of the snake's fangs. "A kiss, Mr. Oak. Then you may go. A modest toll."

"As modest as a noose at the gallows." I say.

#Vss365

"Like the planaria," he took a sip of his tea. "I leave a bit of myself wherever I go."

"Figuratively, of course," I clarify.

"Not at all," he pulls his pant up, his leg shaved to the bone like a holiday ham.

"But the planaria regenerate."

"And sadly, that is where we differ, Mr. Oak."

#vss365

BOOM!

I pushed my back to the door, heels pressed hard against the stone floor. I held my breath, anticipating the next-

BOOM!

"Hanson?" My wife looked out the window. "I can't just leave-."

BOOM!

"I don't doubt your devotion, but the kids are down there-"

BOOM!

"And you're up here."
#vss365

Thank you, sir.

You're kind to say so.

"She died as she lived, Mr. Oak." He held a hat over his heart as we looked in the ravine.

"In various pieces?"

"At odds with herself. What do you 'spose done this?"

I look at the severed head, eyes looking in the distance. I follow the gaze to a ribbon on a branch. "Let's go find out."
#vss365

"It's so idiotic, Mr. Oak," it said from the shadow. "You claim to be citizens of here or there when, in reality, you're the same cattle divided by fences you erected yourselves, unaware you're just food wandering the same field."

"Food for what?" I ask.

A pause. "See you in the morning."

#vss365

"When the flame ceased, we coated the corpse with sterno gel. You can imagine the stench, Mr. Oak."

"Vividly," I said.

"By morning, it was beyond charred, just ash."

"But not dead." I noted.

"She must have inhaled a flake. It started again. It's a demonic tardigrade."

#vssghostship #vss365

"Say yes, Mr. Oak." The voice crackled over the intercom. I stood by the speaker in the kitchen.

"If I invite you in, you'll devour us." I say.

"You can pick ONE to live."

"No."

A sigh. "Must we do this every week?"

"Forgive my resistance to being ground to paste between your teeth."

#vss365

Beautiful shot. Magical.

Are you looking at me?

"You are fascinated by death, Mr. Oak," she said, "Because yours is inevitable. My own death is improbable."

"But not impossible," I offer.

"So there is hope."

"Where shall I put you if only your corpse greets me at my next visit?"

"I don't care. But please take my eyes as a souvenir."

#vss365

Thank you, my friend.

Very Short Story

And welcome.

Whatever was under her skin wanted out.

I locked a tourniquet around her thigh, the lump moving against her flesh couldn't have been angrier that I'd shrunk the range of its home.

"What is it, Mr Oak!" She screamed.

"Hold on to me." I lifted a scalpel. "We're about to find out together."

#vss365

A familiar face in a sea of strangers.

I hope you've been well.

I'm so glad you're enjoying the journey.

And on Thanksgiving! I apologize.

Having bonds with something isn't always positive.

Have a great day.

The crumpled steel was eaten away by time and exposure, the train car I sat in was unrecognizable so long after its derailment.

Things like the cast-iron wheels would take centuries to depart.

Things like the ghost of the boy I sat with never would.

"I lost my ticket, Mr. Oak," he said.

#vss365

"I don't mean to complain, Mr. Oak." Her fingers ran over the braille, her blind gaze distant, her mind painting the scene she touched. "But something has changed."

"The writing?" I ask.

"Yes, someone rewrote all the books. I'd be less offended if they ban them outright."

"Give it time."

#vss365

I have no "official" license.