We All Fall Down

All winter through I bow my head
beneath the driving rain;
the North Wind powders me with snow
and blows me black again;
at midnight 'neath a maze of stars I flame with glittering rime,
and stand above the stubble,
stiff as mail at morning-prime.

~ The Scarecrow by Walter de la Mare

Scarecrow (by GreatJester deviantart.com)

Scratch My Back

Eat Up - one of Saturday evening TV's biggest draws.

Famous for its hefty winning cash prize and luxurious three week holiday in the Bahamas.

Beloved by food critics and millions of viewers alike.

Cheap TV. 

Five hungry contestants have to create the perfect dinner whilst culinary wiz kid Joe Gill tastes and confers with the viewers. The handsome blue-eyed presenter with a penchant for flamboyant ties and winkle picker shoes addresses the cameras with a toothy grin.

"It's gonna be a close call folks!" Gill cries as he surveys the scene.

Tobias Bell.

A former city trader and newly divorced man of leisure who still can't believe he is appearing on a top rated TV show where he is cooking dinner.

Tobias Bell is surreptitiously putting the finishing touches to his grilled jumbo shrimp Cavatappi pasta. 

He eagerly watches the other contestants through the corner of his eye.

And mentally compares their offerings to his.

Two men and two women with their heads bowed as they silently pull their meals together.

Bell is particularly mindful of the tall brunette to his right.

He has spent most of the evening trying not to make eye contact with her.

The tension has been palpably mounting throughout the evening.

In between shooting - the several contestants retire to the green room except for Tobias Bell.

Bell has been smoking outside and trying to forget things he has no business remembering.

Now time is running out.

The theme tune to Eat Up is playing in the background as all five participants feverishly focus on their final presentations.

The music reaches its crescendo.

"And that's it folks!" Joe Gill exclaims with a flourish.

Standing beside him is his counterpart - one-time pop singer and model Callista Dean.

"Ladies and gentleman times up and its over to the viewers to decide!" Gill declares flashing his white teeth at the camera.

"And what an exciting finale its been!" Callista gushes effusively "You can cut the tension with a knife!"

"It's been a memorable contest!" Joe Gill adds knowingly "There are some pretty spectacular meals out here folks!"

Gill left his wife two weeks ago and moved Dean into his new Chelsea apartment three days later.

All the contestants smile in unison to the camera.

A member of the crew gives them all the thumbs up from the side of the set and signals to the contestants to keep smiling.

The modest studio audience breaks out into loud applause.

As the Eat Up theme tune begins playing and gets louder and louder as the studio lights gradually dim.

Then its all over.

Outside in the studio car park,  Tobias Bell struggles to find his car keys.

Tall and good looking with black hair and clear blue eyes - Bell got his decree absolute two months ago and he is just tasting the first fruits of his freedom.

But so far thing's haven't quite been going as he planned.

She is the dark shadow in his life again.

Traces 9 (by Mymosa deviantart.com)

"Lost something" A familiar voice enquires crisply from behind him.

Bell turns slowly to see his ex-wife standing behind him with her head held high and her green eyes shining.

"Only you" Tobias Bell replies dryly.

Lucy Spencer.

Tall and attractive with a high business acumen and a pocketful of resentment for Tobias Bell.

They had both been married for ten years before they realised they actually hated each other.

"I hope you find what your looking for" Spencer responds with a smile "before you turn into a pumpkin"

Bell sneers under his breath as the attractive brunette strides past.

For a moment he considers murdering her and stuffing her in the boot of his car.

She flashes a bright smile at him as she gets into her car.

Of all the places he had to meet her here.

He thought he'd seen the last of her.

Now he's pitted against her in a TV cookery programme.

Driving home -Tobias Bell remembers all the reasons why he hates his ex-wife.

"Let me count the ways ..." he snigger's bitterly.

Stopping off at a restaurant in town, Tobias reminds himself that he is a free man.

He is like a snake shedding it's skin - he has shed his cantankerous ex-wife.

Now he is at his favourite restaurant and ready to celebrate.

The Orient Delight.

The restaurant proprietor Kemal Terim welcomes Tobias Bell warmly into his Near Eastern palace.

"Where have you been my friend?" The rotund Turkish Cypriot man grins as he enthusiastically pats Tobias Bell on the back and leads him to his favourite table.

"I was in hell" Bell asserts.

Good times.

One hour later and Bell finishes his bottle of red wine and his plate of Kolokas.

He quickly checks his watch.

Its 9.20 pm.

At 10.30 pm they will announce the winner of the Eat Up challenge.

"Then I'll show that bitch ...I'll show that bitch who is king" Tobias Bell snarls.

As he drives home - Bell makes plans.

He'll sell up and move away.

He'll burn any lingering artifacts of his life with Lucy Spencer.

He'll start up his own business.

He'll grow his hair and get a tattoo.

"That fucking bitch won't win!" Bell cries as he turns up the car stereo and sings along to Iron Maiden.

Twenty minutes later and Tobias Bell is sitting alone in his modest little apartment with only a bottle of Cheval Blanc to comfort him.

Tobias Bell sits back on his leather sofa and watches the clock tick on the wall.

A sparsely furnished place in a respectable part of New Acres

They were living apart but their antipathy and resentment still bound them together.

Both of them were stunned into silence when they arrived at the studio.

Their animosity towards each other was obvious from the start.

They grinned flatly as they attempted to avoid each other thereafter.

"Stay away from me!" Lucy Spencer hissed under her breath at Tobias Bell.

"No need to worry you frigid bitch" Bell retorted "You spent most of our married life saying that in bed!"

A frost descended upon the warring couple but they maintained an outward show of amiability.

They could have fooled anyone.

Except for the make-up artist who noticed their behaviour.

By the end of the day even the gaffer knew about the estranged couple.

"Screwing you was like screwing a corpse!" Tobias Bell sneered maliciously "I should have married a stiff instead!"

"Marrying you was worse than a sympathy fuck!" Spencer snapped back as she considered stabbing Bell through the heart with a meat cleaver.

Later in the show as they took their places behind their markers - the gloves were off.

"If you upstage me,  I'll chop your bloody schlong off with this carving knife" Lucy Spencer warned.

"I thought you'd stabbed me in the back with it already!" Bell growled back at her.

Now Tobias Bell helped himself to the Cheval Blanc and began mentally counting down the minutes.

After a second glass of wine he began to feel drowsy.

His eyes were heavy and unable to fight his exhaustion he drifted off to sleep.

Tobias Bell was dead to the world.

Waking up abruptly, Bell turned the TV on in time to catch the final moments of Eat Up.

"For the first time ever in the history of Eat Up, we have a tie!" Joe Gill announces to the camera as his brilliant white teeth flash in the studio lights.

Along with his black Prada suit he is sporting a polka dot cravat.

"That's right Joe, its a TV first!" Callista Dean exclaims dramatically.

Dean is wearing a tight blue Balenciaga gown and impossibly high Jimmy Choo heels.

"Because tonight we have to announce that there are two winners ..." Gill cries with a flourish.

The camera's zoom in on Joe Gill and Callista Dean as they pause to smile in unison like Siamese twins.

Consummate professionals both.

The studio audience breaks out into wild applause on cue.

The Eat Up theme tune begins playing.

Joe Gill launches into his charm offensive.

"Ladies and gentleman, tonight we are delighted to announce that ..."

Tobias Bell moves in closer to the huge TV screen.

"... that the joint winners are ..."

Bell's hands shake as he pours himself another drink.

Ready for dinner (by valentina deviantart.com)

"... Lucy Spencer and Tobias Bell!"

Bell drops the bottle and the glass.

Just then,  Lucy Spencer rushes into view and is avidly embraced by the two hosts.

She is dressed in a black Versace gown with a revealing slit down the side and black Manolo Blahnik heels.

Slowly turning to the camera, Spencer behaves as if she has lived her entire life on stage.

"Thank you ... thank you all so much ... I am sure I will speak for us all when I say how much fun it's been participating in the show ... and how great it is to win ... and I'm sure I will speak up for Tobias Bell when I say that money isn't everything ... and that is why I am giving my winnings to the Fairy Lights Foundation for sick children ... and that I will be giving up my holiday for a terminally sick child to enjoy!"

The audience is rapturously applauding her speech and cheering Lucy Spencer.

Joe Gill turns and smiles to the camera.

"Come on Tobias!" He exclaims "Show us you care and donate your winnings to those less fortunate!"

Back in his apartment,  Tobias Bell is seething with rage and wishing he had finished Lucy Spencer off earlier like he had planned.

Scaredy Cat

The scarecrow stood in the cornfield as the three crows descended and sat on its frayed shoulder.

None of the birds that frequented the New Acres fields were afraid of the raggedy stuffed mannequin who hung on a rotted perch.

Nobody questioned the fact that the apparently inanimate hay mannequin had moved around on its perch.

Save for eight year old Melisa Carter.

She had been coming to the cornfields every day since school had broken up three weeks ago.

There she would sit for hours and talk to the stuffed decoy as if it were a real person.

Melisa's friends were terrified of the scarecrow but not she.

All the little boys and girls would avoid walking through the cornfields because they were so frightened.

They never left the beaten track.

"Scaredy cat's,  scaredy cat's!" Melisa Carter would taunt them as she ran through the open cornfields to where the mannequin hung.

"He's got an evil face" little Tommy Finch informed Melisa one day as they walked home.

"No he hasn't!" Melisa replied indignantly "He's the nicest man in the world"

"But he's not a man" Finch protested with a shudder.

"He's as real as you and I!" Carter replied brightly.

"When you talk like that it creeps me out!" Tommy Finch declared with large frightened eyes.

Melisa Carter smiled back darkly.

Then the little boy ran away when they reached the cornfields.

Melisa confidently informed the girls in the school playground that the scarecrow was real.

She loved telling them stories about him.

She loved to see to their reactions and the affect she had on them.

"He's just like a person!" Melisa announced as a circle of girls sat around her and listened avidly to her every word.

"But isn't he just a stuffed toy?" Little Priya Patel enquired "Like a teddy bear!"

Several children giggled.

"No he's real!" Melisa answered intensely "He's a real person ... and every night he gets off his perch and he walks around like you and me!"

All the girls were staring at her with wide eyes.

Most of them were too scared to say anymore.

Except for Priya Patel.

"I'll believe he is real when I see it for myself!" Patel declared.

"Then I'll take you to him tonight!" Melisa Carter replied.

It was dark when two little figures scampered across the field.

The scarecrow was hanging limply on his perch.

There was a full moon in the sky.

"He's just a dummy!" Priya Patel proclaimed as she strode towards the stuffed mannequin.

"You'll see ... you'll see" Melisa Carter replied knowingly as she followed the little girl.

The following morning Mrs McGuinness solemnly addressed the class.

"Boys and girls ... I regret to inform you that Priya Patel was taken into hospital early this morning"

An audible gasp arose among the children.

"We do not know what happened to her but we do know that she is very poorly and I would like to pass this card around for you to sign"

Melisa Carter was completely emotionless .

Over at St Michael's Hospital,  the black nurse had gently taken an anxious Mr and Mrs Patel aside.

"We are doing the best we can" Nurse Junita Johnson assured them "It seems that Priya has gone into some kind of shock and she isn't responding to treatment at the moment"

Sunita Patel began sobbing on the shoulder of her husband as the Nurse attempted to comfort her with soothing words.

Priya Patel was lying rigid in the hospital bed.

Her large blank eyes were staring fixedly at the ceiling.

Back at the Carter family home that evening, Melisa's mother watched her daughter intently as she played with her dolls.

She was behaving as if nothing had happened.

As if the horrible predicament of her school friend Priya Patel had never actually occurred.

Melisa was sitting cross legged on the floor and singing to herself as she jigged her dolls around her.

Maria Carter was obsessively worried about her daughter. They had been living in New Acres for eighteen months now and already her daughter had been growing attached to a horrible stuffed scarecrow in a cornfield.

Jake Carter's work as a volcanologist took him around the world and they were used to moving.

"She'll grow out of it" Jake Carter whispered as he joined his wife "it's probably a stress thing with the move and all"

"I only hope you're right Jake" Maria answered "because she's been talking about him again"

"I'll speak to her" Jake Carter assured his troubled wife.

Early evening and Melisa Carter had escaped her parents and run to the cornfields.

"Please Mr Scarecrow ... speak to me" Melisa was pleading with the dishevelled mannequin 

His stuffed stitched face remained silent. 

The black button eyes were blank.

dream (by ~alexkatana deviantart.com)

A worn felt hat sat atop his expressionless face and he was dressed in an old jacket that had seen better days.

But the little girl was convinced there was a smile on his withered face.

Melisa wiped away a tear as she continued to wait for the scarecrow to speak.

But the straw decoy remained staring resolutely ahead.

As Melisa walked away - she turned to look at the scarecrow and in the dying light he looked like a man with his arms outstretched.

He looked like Jesus.

That night Jake Carter tried to explain carefully to his daughter that a scarecrow wasn't real.

The little girl listened quietly as tears streamed down her cheeks.

"You are not to visit that vile thing again" Jake Carter informed his distraught daughter.

"Yes daddy" Melisa answered sadly "he isn't real ... he is just a scarecrow"

"Take it down" Maria Carter urged her husband when he had finally sat beside her on the sofa.

"Are you mad?" Jake replied "Its only a stuffed dummy and nothing more!"

"I want you to get rid of it!" Maria reaffirmed "Nobody will know who it was ... otherwise it will never go away"

Against his better judgement - Jake Carter shut the front door behind him and with a large spade in his hand he strode over to the cornfields.

The sky was black and there was a bright full moon.

And the scarecrow was gone.

Carter was perplexed as he looked around him.

Only the rotting mannequin's perch remained.

A year passed quickly for the Carter family. 

There was no talk of the scarecrow.

The last of their things had been packed and bundled into the waiting camper van.

The last furniture removal truck disappeared into the distance.

Jake Carter put his arm around his pregnant wife.

The house they had barely lived in was empty at last.

Maybe this time they would stay in their new abode longer and settle down at last.

Now Maria Carter stood at the foot of the stairs and called up to her daughter.

It was time to leave.

There was no answer and when Carter entered the little girls room she found her bedroom window wide open.

Melisa had already escaped and was running to the cornfields. 

Her heart leapt at the sight of the scarecrow.

"I missed you so!" Melisa Carter cried.

She flung herself at the feet of the scarecrow and looked up adoringly at his shriveled face.

"I've been so lonely without you" the little girl conceded.

A large crow descended upon the scarecrow's shoulder and squawked loudly.

"And I have missed you too little one" The scarecrow finally replied.

His knitted face grinned,  showing rotten black teeth.

Moon (by OzZcr deviantart.com)

                 
    
       

Dinner Time

Go thou and watch her lightest sigh,—
Thine own it will not be;
And bask beneath her sunny eye,—
It will not turn on thee.

’Tis well: the rack, the chain, the wheel,
Far better hadst thou proved;
Ev’n I could almost pity feel,
For thou art nor beloved.

~ Revenge by Letittia Elizabeth Landon

birdbox (by jfwalls deviantart.com)

The Last Supper

Dinner Time.

One of the most popular reality TV shows on the ABC Network.

A show that regularly pulled in tens of millions of viewers and was watched in forty countries worldwide.

Five nights.

Five dinner guests.

Five lives.

One big cash prize.

It was the final night to an eventful week.

The most bizarre week of all.

A week full of thinly veiled bitchiness, false sentiments, mindless banter and devious scoring as one dinner guest strove to outdo the other.

And get the prize.

All the guests were secretly filmed telling the camera what they really thought of each other.

Most of it would have to be edited out later because it was deemed far too blue and too malicious to air.

So far one of the guests had actually disappeared.

One minute they were there.

And the next minute they were gone.

Not that anyone noticed.

Or cared.

Tonight it was the turn of Archie Ball.

Ball was short and unprepossessing.

He was a grey little man with clear blue eyes and a mop of sandy coloured hair.

Now he was quietly and surreptitiously putting the finishing touches to his main meal - Hungarian Goulash with wild rice and seasonal vegetables.

Back in the dining room his three dinner guests were waiting impatiently for their meal.

Candy Duvall drummed the side of her glass.

She let out another theatrical sigh.

As she batted her eyelashes in the direction of the only eligible male in the contest.

Candy Duvall was skinny and petite with cold, blue eyes and dyed peroxide blonde hair.

Dinner for Two (by TheOtherCastle deviantart.com)

The orange tanned, cosmetically enhanced Duvall described herself as a "glamour model" and an occasional exotic dancer.

Apart from winning the money and going on "holiday" to Ibiza  - the dimwit was hoping to meet a "fit man" on the show.

So she had been making eyes at Jamie Downes all week.

So far he hadn't shown any interest.

Sitting beside her was larger-than-life mother of five - Sharon Reece.

She was small and plump and had a round face, sharp hazel eyes and curly brown hair.

Sharon Reece wasn't pretty.

She was a brassy outspoken pub landlady.

Everything about her was loud - including her enormous laugh.

All week Sharon Reece had been vociferously excusing her latent insensitivity with "I'm just blunt - that's me".

The explanation was clearly a euphemism for being rude and having no consideration for anybody else's feelings.

But Sharon Reece didn't care about anyone's feelings.

She was not there to make friends and influence people.

She was there to win.

And judging by the competition - she suspected that she had a pretty good chance.

Sitting opposite the women was the strapping IT consultant - Jamie Downes.

He was a tall, blond and blue-eyed cock of the walk.

But Downes cute baby face hid a reptilian nature.

And a ruthless determination to win.

Downes had been silently eyeing up the competition over the last few days.

And he had come to various conclusions.

Sharon Reece was just a fat loudmouth with no class.

Candy Duvall was a stupid tart who probably couldn't even spell her own name.

While the missing contestant had probably been put back into daycare.

The present host was a fucktard who should have been given a lethal injection.

Jamie Downes believed that he was the only person who deserved to win.

But he was not quite as clever as he thought he was.

If you scratched the surface a little bit you would find a little boy trying to be a man.

The empty space beside him should have been filled by Maurice Bay - an unemployed former bus conductor.

Nobody knew what had happened to him since he hosted the first night.

And nobody appeared to be bothered by his absence.

Marice Bay was a bit of an odd ball.

But not nearly as weird as their current cost.

The remaining contestants had enjoyed ridiculing the sickeningly nice Archie Ball all week.

He was always going to be an easy target for them.

Maybe it was his squeaky voice.

Or his strange looks.

Perhaps it was the fact that he appeared to have no notable personality whatsoever.

Or any sense of humour.

Maybe it was because he kept staring at Candy Duvall's inflated breasts.

The three contestants were dressed in their glittering finest and sitting around the big dining table.

Waiting for Archie Ball to bring out their dinner.

As the interminable time stretched out before them.

They were making the kind of remarks that would be TV gold when the show was edited carefully together later.

You could almost hear the production team rubbing their hands together.

"How long is this frigging meal going to take?" Candy Duvall exclaimed angrily.

"I bloody hope its worth it!" Retorted Sharon Reece.

"I could eat a bloody horse!" Duvall declared dramatically.

"I'm so hungry I could eat Archie Ball!" Sharon Reece retorted loudly.

Both the women cackled together like a couple of witches.

"He's a just little freak!" Jamie Downes asserted nastily "The sort of weirdo you cross the road to avoid!"

He poured himself some more wine and languidly sat back in his chair.

Candy Duvall caught his eye and pouted meaningfully at him.

She looked like a blow up doll.

Jamie Downes managed a wink.

He didn't do the cheap hooker variety.

But he was game for a laugh.

"And here we are - about to eat his sodding food as well!" Candy Duvall guffawed.

She grabbed the bottle and poured a copious amount of wine into her glass.

Jamie Downes looks at her slyly.

Noticing how large her breasts were through the corner of his eye.

"She's a slag but she'll do for a quick shag"

But the high flyer quickly stamped on the idea.

He had some principles after all.

The camera zoomed in on Candy Duvall's huge bust.

Earlier it lingered on her bottom as she sashayed into the dining room in her tight blue evening dress.

She'd been playing up to the camera all week.

Candy Duvall made compelling viewing.

A grotesque with no self awareness.

And no off switch.

Everyone appeared to be laughing together at a big collective joke.

Blissfully unaware that behind each others backs they had been ferociously tearing one another apart.

And scoring each other as poorly as they could.

Sharon Reece secretly detested Candy Duvall.

But all week she had melodramatically behaved as if they were the best of friends.

She had been laying it on with a trowel.

Piling on the false affection.

Whilst stabbing her in the back.

The self styled "glamour model" was too stupid to comprehend it.

Sharon Reece sneered at Duvall through gritted teeth.

Wondering how long she could endure her.

"What a slag"

Candy Duvall looked at Reece and flashed her a big bright smile - showing impossibly white teeth.

She despised her.

As far as Candy Duvall was concerned - Sharon Reece had committed the cardinal sin.

She had grown really fat.

Candy Duvall would never let herself go like that.

And if that wasn't bad enough - Sharon Reece couldn't dress for shit and she had a big plain face and big mouth.

"What an ugly old bitch"

The two women continued to grin inanely at each other.

But the main object of everyone's ridicule was Archie Ball.

The man who was about to quietly serve up their last meal.

Their last supper.

"You alright in there love?" Sharon Reece shouted out in the direction of the kitchen.

Archie Ball had barely said a word all week.

The two women smiled slyly to each other.

Their host was too weak to answer them back.

A weedy little loser.

"Need some help?" Candy Duvall added sarcastically.

"I'm nearly ready!" Archie Ball piped up.

The two women giggled.

"Thank fuck for that!" Sharon Reeces replied sharply.

All three dinner guests cheered out loud.

Before dissolving into fresh laughter again.

They were getting top class entertainment tonight.

"Have you ever eaten that shite he's preparing?" Jamie Downes whispered conspiratorially to his other fellow guests.

"Is it some Russian crap or something?" Candy Duvall asks disinterestedly.

"Hungarian Gulasch!" Jamie Downes informs her.

She looked back dumbly at him.

"Sounds like foreign crap to me!" Candy Duvall retorted with disgust

Skulls (by dennisjunior deviantart.com)

"No - I've never tried it" Sharon Reece declared "But if this hovel is anything to go by it will taste like shit!"

They all agreed.

All three diners looked around the sparsely decorated and furnished dining room.

There was an almost clinical cleanliness to it.

White walls.

And no paintings or photos.

There were no personal touches.

And the room had a weird hospital smell about it.

A disinfectant smell.

"Perhaps Ball keeps his mother body upstairs in the attic!" Jamie Downes asserted with an impish grin.

Candy Duvall shuddered in her chair.

As Sharon Reece shifted uneasily.

There was a large dining table in the centre of the room and several chairs.

A huge silver candelabra with large white candles sat atop it.

Giving the room a Gothic feel.

It was a cold room.

Devoid of any charm.

The kind of room that Jeffrey Dahmer might enjoy ...

Nobody wanted to explore the rest of the house either.

An icy chill descended upon them.

And suddenly all three dinner guests wished they were elsewhere.

Anywhere but there.

"This place gives me the creeps" Candy Duvall murmured as she shivering in her chair "I don't like it here one bit!"

 "I bet Ball is a paedophile too!"  Jamie Downes snarled viciously

All three diners looked up at the camera.

Big brother was watching them.

"This had better be worth it!" Sharon Reece hissed.

The camera man was almost licking his lips with excitement at the footage he had captured.

Several crew members could barely contain their glee.

This was going to beTV magic.

Four losers in one place at one time.

Making television history.

Suddenly Archie Ball made his entrance into the room pushing in a silver trolley which carried the meals.

He was more animated than anyone could ever remember him.

The three diners resisted the temptation to laugh out loud at the sight of the odd little man in an apron pushing a tea trolley.

But it was too comical to resist.

"We almost forgot what you looked like!" Sharon Reece screamed loudly - forcing a big fake smile on her face.

The caustic tone wasn't lost on anybody.

Archie Ball quietly placed each plate carefully on the table.

The meals smelt delicious.

Their host flicked open a lighter and lit the large candles on the candelabra.

It suddenly felt very eerie.

Like he was about to conduct a seance.

There was an audible sense of discomfort in the room.

Everyone fell silent.

Candelabra (by alienstar2004 deviantart.com)

They looked down grimly at the plate before them.

"Can we please say grace?" Archie Ball requested his guests in his little voice as he took his seat at the head of the table.

They all looked back expressionlessly at him.

As if he were about to chant from the Book of the Dead.

"I'm a new atheist!" Jamie Downes blurted out loudly as he shifted uncomfortably in his chair.

"Is that different to being an old atheist?" Candy Duvall asked him blankly.

"Go ahead" Sharon Reece encouraged Archie Ball.

Their host lowered his head.

As did the two women.

But Jamie Downes stared resolutely ahead.

"For what we are about to receive ... may the Lord make us truly thankful"   

"Amen!" Archie Balls cried brightly.

"Do we clap now?" Candy Duvall asked.

Nobody answered her.

The three dinner guests were now staring at Archie Ball in stunned awe.

"Tuck in then!" Their host declared "Before it get's cold!"

Slowly they began to eat.

Ball had even thoughtfully provided extra plates for the crew.

So they could enjoy the meal too.

Everyone ate in silence.

As Archie Ball surveyed them with a knowing smile.

And a devilish glint in the eye.

"King of the castle"

One hour later and Archie Ball finally poured himself a glass of chilled Cristal champagne.

He looked triumphantly around him.

All three diners were slumped at the table.

Face down.

Even the camera man had finally stopped twitching on the floor.

He was lying among a mound of twisted bodies.

All dead.

The meal went down well - considering the amount of trouble Archie Ball had sawing through the muscle and sinew of the dead Maurice Bay earlier on.

Ball meticulously planned everything.

He had waited until everyone had departed before garroting Maurice Bay with a piece of twine in his kitchen on the first night.

The unfortunate contestant hardly made a sound.

But later it was tough work chopping him up.

Archie Ball discovered that human meat was so much tougher to cook than animal meat.

But it was ultimately rewarding for him.

He even kept Maurice Bay's eyes in a little box beneath his bed.

As a little keepsake.

Archie Ball poured as much arsenic as he could into the food he served the three remaining diners.

As far as he was concerned - they were all parasites.

They all deserved to die.

The world would be a better place without them.

Now he surveyed their corpses with glee.

A godless fool.

A fat pig.

A brainless whore.

A company of clowns.

Now Archie Ball recalled their dramatic deaths with vindictive glee.

He pondered on their red faces.

Their frothing mouths.

And the wild thrashing about.

Archie Ball was laughing hysterically as they all died violently.

He even spat in their faces.

Archie Ball had been unable to resist laughing uproariously at his tormentors.

He suspected that they would all go straight to hell.

At last Archie Ball could sit back and relax.

The week was finally over.

And even his dead mother had joined them.

Moira Ball had just walked out of the wall.

She surveyed the scene with a smile.

"Did I do well?" Archie Ball asked her.

"Yes son!" His long dead mother replied "You did very well!"

Then the dinner host returned to his dead guests.

As the room became full of people from the past.

"Bottoms up!" Archie Ball exclaimed cheerfully as he lifted his glass to the corpses around him.

Dinner Time.

Skulls IV (by immugraah deviantart.com)

                
                      

Faustian Pact

Once I blazed across the sky,
Leaving trails of flame;
I fell to earth, and here I lie -
Who'll help me up again?

A Shooting Star ~ by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Raven Thru the Looking Glass (by wiebkefesch  deviantart.com)

The Noah and Nancy Show

It's Saturday night.

It's 7 pm.

It's time for The Noah and Nancy Show.

The saccharine sweet TV entertainment show that is one of the most popular shows on the ABC Network.

At the heart of the shows enormous popularity reside it's two charismatic hosts.

Noah Myers and Nancy Price.

The ultimate glittering TV couple.

Donny and Marie Osmond reincarnated.

America's sweethearts.

The couple made a name for themselves as Doctor Ken Cooper and Doctor Sarah Reed in the long running medical drama Hospital Ward.

They couldn't put a foot wrong.

Everything they seemed to touch turned into gold.

The world wanted to believe in the picture perfect couple.

And now they are riding on a crest of a wave which has no sign of crashing.

Myers and Price are the highest paid and most powerful couple in TV land.

The Noah and Nancy Show is the most popular family entertainment show on the network.

Regularly attracting huge viewing figures.

Noah Myers and Nancy Price are the prettiest couple on TV today.

Noah Myers has blond hair and a cute little face with sky blue eyes and a cleft in the chin.

Nancy Price also has blonde hair and a dainty little face with bright green eyes and a peaches and cream complexion.

When the couple grin they reveal impossibly white flashing teeth.

Unwavering polite and devoid of any rough edges - they are the flawless and completely faultless couple whom everybody loves.

For all intents and purposes - the pair must keep up the pretence that they are a couple in real life.

Nothing must spoil their perfect image of love.

Even if in reality they both go their separate ways at the end of the show - and are chauffeur driven to expensive apartments on opposite sides of Manhattan.

The world has to believe that America's sweethearts are happily ensconced in a pretty house with a white picket fence.

The world has to buy into Noah and Nancy's vision of romantic love.

All hearts and flowers.

All the biggest stars appear on the The Noah and Nancy Show.

And tonight will be no different.

Two award winning actors and a popular pop group are lined up to appear on the show tonight and they are waiting in the green room.

The studio audience are all seated now and there is a frisson of high expectation in the air.

Que the familiar intro music.

"And now ladies and gentleman - please put your hands together for Noah and Nancy" A voice announces.

Cheers and clapping erupt throughout the enthusiastic audience.

Noah Myers and Nancy Price make a sweeping entrance holding hands and grinning broadly.

Both are dressed in white Valentino suits.

"Thank you! Thank you" Myers and Price cry in unison.

Gradually the euphoria subsides.

"We've got a great show for you tonight" Noah Myers informs the audience brightly.

"We sure have!" Nancy Price adds cheerily.

"You know something, I really missed you" Myers declares as he kisses his companion's hand tenderly.

"It felt like forever while we were apart" Price replies with a dreamy look in her eyes.

Then the couple launch into their signature tune.

The small orchestra at the front of the set strike up.

 A rendition of You Made Me Love You (I Didn't Want To Do It)

Noah Myers and Nancy Price begin every show with the famous Judy Garland song.

You made me love you
I didn't wanna do it 
I didn't wanna do it 
You made me love you 
And all the time you knew it 
I guess you always knew it

The song comes to an end and the audience show their rapturous appreciation with hoots,  cheers and more clapping.

"I love you" Nancy Price informs Noah Myers sweetly.

"I love you too" Myers replies with a fixed grin.

"I love you three!" Nancy Price interjects with an earnest expression in her eyes.

An audible sigh rises throughout the audience.

The picture perfect couple and their picture perfect love.

"So let's introduce our first guest!" Noah Myers suggests enthusiastically.

"Oh yes - let's!" Nancy Price adds brightly.

A fresh round of clapping and cheering bursts in the audience.

Nancy Price moves in front of Noah Meyers and bows slightly with her arms open as waves of recognition sweep over.

And Meyers isn't smiling anymore.

"You're blocking me?" He informs her through gritted teeth.

"Because you've been playing up to the camera again" Nancy Price informs him tartly.

"No I haven't!" Myers retorts "You're the one whose been shamelessly fawning to the camera again!"

The couple still affect a fixed grin to the audience as their tirade continues in hushed tones.

"What was that vibrato for during the song?" Nancy Price demands "You were trying to out-sing me again!"

"Out-sing you?" Noah Myers snorts "Call that singing? You warble worse than a cat!"

"Ugh - don't stand so close to me!" Nancy Price remarks disdainfully with a dismissive gesture "Have you been eating garlic again?"

"Always the lowest common denominator with you!" Noah Meyers growls

"Like that Film Production Secretary you've been sexing up behind her husband's back?" Price retaliates nastily.

"You talent vacuum!" Myers responds with disgust.

"I think we know who the real star of this show is!" Price informs him arrogantly.

"You vicious grasping little bitch!" Meyers snigger's

"Temper, temper!" Nancy Price goads him.

Film camera

"Stop blocking me!" Noah Myers warns her menacingly.

"Perhaps all that white stuff you've been snorting up your nose has effected that pea brain of yours!" Price interjects.

"As if your so innocent?" Noah Myers retorts "Uppers and downers off the street corner? You must be desperate!"

The heat from the studio lights suddenly seem overbearingly relentless.

Myers adjusts his tie.

"Paying a cheap hooker for money in a cheap motel?" Nancy Price declares "Aren't you man enough to get a woman without paying for her? I've seen the grainy photos they secretly took of you and her!"

"I'm surprised you were sober enough to focus!" Noah Myers snorts knowingly "What with that alcohol problem of yours! You hopelessly drunk bitch!"

The blonde woman throws back her head and gives a long bitter laugh.

But she remains resolutely in front of Noah Myers.

"You really should sue that surgeon for your poor nose job!" Nancy Price guffaws with peals of laughter.

"And you should get compensation for that dodgy face job!" Myers grins back darkly "Did you actually pay your surgeon to give you the dumb blonde brainless bimbo look?"

The audience are very quiet.

A horrified hush has descended upon them.

They are getting much more than they bargained for on The Noah and Nancy Show tonight.

In the heat of their fiery exchange - the warring couple have forgotten that they are wearing mikes.

Their emotions have run away with them.

And the audience are coming along for the ride.

They are now sitting on the edge of their seats as America's sweetheart's decimate each other live on TV.

There is mayhem in the wings.

Logan Martinez is the shows director.

Either his television career is over or it is the start of a surreal jaunt into commercials or indie oblivion.

Logan Martinez is staring in mute horror at the sparring couple as members of the crew run frantically around him.

"Get them off - go to the commercials!" He orders  "What the hell are they doing?"

But the damage is already done.

Countless households in America are tuning into The Noah and Nancy Show to watch a foul mouthed couple mercilessly tearing each other to pieces.

The two actors and the rock group are staring in disbelief at the screen in the green room.

Back in the studio - the war continues.

"At least I don't need Viagra to get it up" Nancy Price declares nastily.

"At least I'm actually getting it" Noah Myers retorts caustically "Ever fucked anyone? You cold-hearted little virgin!"

"Don't mock my beliefs" Price warns him threateningly.

"Which beliefs are they? Myers responds slyly "Mormon on Wednesday,  Catholic on Friday or is it Buddhist on Sunday?"

"Fuck you!" Nancy Price sneers.

"Fuck you, too!" Noah Myers retaliates.

And with that - he grabs the woman roughly by the arm and tosses her onto the studio floor.

"You bastard!" She hisses.

Nancy Price recovers sufficiently enough to slap Noah Price hard across the face.

He stumbles back and as he does so - the studio begins spinning around him.

The camera lights seem to have been getting hotter and hotter throughout their altercation.

Myers squints through beads of sweat at his adversary.

Her make-up seems to be streaking down her face.

Along with much of her face.

"What's happening to me?" Nancy Price shrieks in terror as she clutches desperately at her dissolving skin.

Noah Myers struggles to comprehend what is happening before his eyes.

Then he grasps at his own face - and he feels only the sleek touch of fur.

It must be a trick of the light.

It must be some camera stunt some technical guy had pulled on them

Nancy Price is literally melting before him.

And changing into ...

It can't be happening ...

A couple of bright black eyes blink back at Noah Myers where her human eyes used to be.

Her facial skin has fallen away to reveal a twitching rodent's snout and silvery whiskers.

Noah Myers would have laughed - if he still had a mouth to laugh with.

But unfortunately most of his face was now lying in a pool on the studio floor.

He tries to speak.

But only a sharp high pitched squeak is emitted.

As the two mammal headed presenters struggle to come to terms with their metamorphosis The Noah and Nancy Show studio is quickly emptied.

Only the director remains to survey the scene.

Slowly he shakes his head as America's sweethearts scrabble desperately around the empty studio.

"You have been transformed into what you really are!" Logan Martinez declares "A couple of dirty rats"

Harry

Harry Cox has been shot in the abdomen.

He is in a critical state.

The wound is open and his intestines are visible.

The man is lying where he fell outside Goldman's Jewellers.

A blood spattered suitcase is beside him on the ground.

Someone has already called the paramedics.

But time is running out for Harry Cox.

Everything happened so quickly.

The air is still full of the acrid smell of gun fire.

All Cox remembers is walking along the street to the car.

Then a burst of noise shook him out of his reverie as several masked gunmen bounded out of the jewellers with bags full (presumably) of money.

Some sort of gunfight ensued between the robbers and owners of the store and unfortunately Harry Cox was caught in the cross fire.

Cox did not have time to run away or find cover.

Everything happened in a matter of minutes.

The big black getaway screeched quickly away leaving a huge grey mist of gun smoke and screaming witnesses.

One woman who was walking her dog and saw what happened has been screaming for three minutes.

A small crowd of people have gathered at the scene.

The shopkeepers wife has fainted and somebody is holding her up.

Several concerned people are standing over the fallen man.

"He's alive!" A thin young man cries after checking Harry Cox's pulse.

Cox took the bullet straight in the abdomen and the big suitcase went flying up into the air.

One minute he was daydreaming about his future and then next he was stricken.

Felled like a sick tree.

Now Harry Cox is lying flaccid on the ground where he fell.

Another couple of bodies lie a few feet away from him.

The shopkeeper and another unlucky bystander.

Everything happened very quickly.

And suddenly his future is hanging in the balance.

He surveys the scene.

A trail of blood like a slug trail connects his hand to the suitcase.

This was not where he wants to be.

"Lie still, sir" Lisa Philips from the National Bank informs him "The paramedics will be here very soon"

The man is helpless.

All Harry Cox can do is look up at the sky now.

Funny how he hasn't noticed how wonderful the sky is.

Today it is particularly clear with only a few white clouds which look like balls of cotton wool.

The sight of the big sky brings warm feelings to his soul.

Cox can't feel anything.

The searing pain has somehow subsided.

And he veers between reality and a sort of dream state.

It feels as if he is looking down upon his body.

The dark red patch of blood has completely covered his pale yellow shirt and is growing in a pool around.

He has never seen his blood like this before.

"It's my blood"

Harry Cox fights the urge to close his eyes.

silent death (by beyzayildirim77 deviantart.com)

He knows that if he does he will never open them.

The dying man should have boarded a plane to Sweden by now.

He had been expecting to wake up in the warm bed of his lover in Kalmar.

Now he is lying in the street he knows so well as more people crowd around him.

And life gradually ebbs away.

He can feel himself letting go.

It is getting harder to focus now.

Harry Cox feels warm and cold as he looks up into the faces that are looking down upon him.

"Hold on Harry!" Arthur Boerman of Glendale Bakery urges him.

The dying man smiles weakly.

Boerman's face disappears and other faces replace it but Cox is having trouble making out what they are saying.

The light behind their heads is getting brighter.

"Harry! Harry!" A familiar female voice calls to him.

Cox opens his heavy eyes.

Dorothy Cox is looking down upon him with large desperate brown eyes and tear stained cheeks.

His wife of thirty years.

Suddenly Harry Cox is back in his body as he feels her warm hand brushing his matted hair out of his eyes.

"Don't leave us!" The careworn brunette urges him.

Leave.

That was it.

Harry Cox was leaving his wife.

That was it.

Harry Cox was leaving his wife to begin a new life with his male love in Sweden.

As the dying man remembers all that he had hoped to be - a sudden urge to close his eyes and sleep for a few moments overtakes him.

"Just a little nap ... and then everything will be just fine"

Little Angel

Choir practise in the old Gothic St Swithin's Cathedral.

The medieval cathedral stands on a hill overlooking the snow laden town.

It has been a particularly treacherous winter thus far and many roads have been closed as a result.

In the dead of winter,  the most talented singers of  St.Thomas Moore School gather in the mystical old cathedral to practise for the encroaching Christmas calender.

Rows of teenage choirboys in their familiar red and white Ecclesiastical robes stand in formation as light streams in through huge stained glass windows and countless candles flicker in the centuries old cathedral.

Perry Andrews observes the scene with mounting consternation - his small hands are rolled into tight little fists and his knuckles are white.

He has clear blue eyes and a pale face framed by jet black hair.

The choirmaster is Byron Archer.

A fellow of King's College,  he is tall and good looking with a tousled mop of sandy coloured hair and quick green eyes.

He has a cheerful disposition and a genuine interest in the choral furtherment of his young charges.

Archer arrived at the school a month ago and created quite a frisson.

Already he has made great strides in the teaching of music and has definite plans for his pupils.

Of particular note is Jimmy Lee.

The lad arrived at the school three weeks ago and made quite an impression.

The new boy quietly established himself as the brightest lad in his year in a matter of two weeks.

Not least for his academic sparkle but for his good nature and impeccable manners.

Jimmy Lee is an angelic looking youth with blonde hair,  blue eyes and a cherubic face.

Most importantly for Archer's choir - Lee has an astounding voice and an already impressive octave range.

Jimmy Lee is now the boy soprano and it's shining light.

Byron Archer fawns proudly over his choir and particularly dotes upon Jimmy Lee to the exclusion of all others.

Perry Andrews watches as Lee stands in the place where he was standing just weeks ago.

Now the boy is doing all the solos and carrying the entire choir with his angelic high pitched voice.

Andrews has been pushed into the shade.

He is unable to hide his mounting outrage at the sight of his supplanter.

Bile rises in his throat and he fights the urge to vomit where he stands.

Perry Andrews had been the boy soprano before Jimmy Lee arrived.

Even before Byron Archer had arrived with his peculiar ideas.

A violent burst of anger rages as he watches the choirmaster fawning over the upstart.

The angelic little thief standing in his place and taking his crown.

How much did Perry Andrew detest Jimmy Lee?

"Let me count the ways" Andrews hisses venomously.

A glowing look of approval flashes across the face of the choirmaster as he leads the choir.

But his eyes light up as soon as Jimmy Lee's astonishing voice rises above the others like an eagle soaring high.

A shooting star cast across the night sky.

Perry Andrews casts his mind back to the morning.

He is sitting in class behind Jimmy Lee.

And he is unable to hide his growing revulsion for the boy.

As the tutor reflects upon the art of essay writing - he singles out Lee for preferment.

"I am not implying that your essay's are particularly bad" Mr Hayes informs them "But next to your poor offerings Jimmy Lee's presentation is manna from heaven!"

Andrews sneers at Lee as he basks in the approval of his fellow students.

But he is able to hide his hatred under a mantle of goodwill.

The two boys have become friends over football practice after school.

But the venom that Andrews feels for Lee has not found a sufficient outlet yet.

Jimmy Lee has the look of a saint in an old masters painting Perry Andrews concludes as he observes the lad in class.

Andrews wonders if Lee says his prayers at night like a good little boy.

Andrews looks at the crucifix on the wall.

He suspects that he is probably the only atheist in the choir.

Perry Andrews decided that God did not exist because he didn't have any proof of His existence.

The day he concluded that God did not exist - he suddenly felt sorry for all the weak people who still believed in Him.

Andrews suddenly felt a rush of relief.

A euphoria.

Like he had discovered something they had not.

And he greedily kept it to himself.

And it was just as he thought - he was more superior to them after all.

"The spineless who need God!" Perry Andrews sniggered.

Now he hated everything to do with God.

God was just a man made being to explain the world and to control people's minds.

He would forge a new path like all the other educated and intelligent people before him who dispensed with God.

He wanted to be different.

He didn't want to follow anyone around like a "weak minded sheep".

He would be the leader now.

He wouldn't be told what to think.

How to live.

And if God did not exist - he could do as he liked.

No need for morals.

No need to deny himself.

And if God did exist He deserved to be rejected for the failure of the human race anyway.

"I hate you!" Andrews sneered at a painting of Jesus in a book.

Everything was fine now - because Perry Andrews had sorted it all out.

He was a superhero.

Now Jimmy Lee has stolen his thunder.

The pretty youth has won his award and is singing his hymns.

Hymns to a God that Andrews does not believe exists.

"Beautiful!" Byron Archer declares "Simply beautiful - thank you everyone"

Jimmy Lee is beaming.

Perry Andrews is fuming.

Archer puts a protective arm around Lee.

The boy is treated like a rare jewel.

It turns the stomach of Perry Andrews.

He is incandescent with rage.

It is already dark by the time they finish  choir practise.

A small group of boys make their way home following the safest path against the heavily snowed surroundings.

Andrews silently observes Jimmy Lee as he walks in front of him - most of the lads are hanging onto every word he says.

He talks about his holidays to Spain and about life back at the old family home in Norway.

He talks about his wealthy father and how they moved to England after he divorced his Norwegian mother.

He talks about wanting to be a doctor one day and work for Médecins Sans Frontières.

Maybe one day (by hearthy deviantart.com)

For a moment,  Perry Andrews expects the sky to open up and take Jimmy Lee into the clouds like Jesus.

That evening Andrews goes out to stare at the frozen lake beyond his house.

Dark and conflicting thoughts are swimming around his head.

He hates his life.

He hates the stupid path that he is expected to follow.

But most of all he hates the God-loving lily milk white sop Jimmy Lee.

Perry Andrews throws back his head and lets out a loud howl of rage and frustration.

His voice echoes around him.

Everything is empty.

Like the godless world he believes in.

"There is no God!" Perry Andrews exclaims loudly as his voice vibrates around him.

But there is no response.

Then he grabs a rock and throws it at the icy surface of the lake.

A tiny crack appears and splintered outward.

Perry Andrews stares transfixed at the frozen lake and gradually an idea surges into his head.

An idea so dastardly that it cannot but work.

Perry Andrews laughs long and hard at the culmination of his nefarious brooding.

It is up to him to redress the moral balance now.

The following afternoon at Perry Andrews watches Jimmy Lee carrying the choir once more.

The boy's angelic face glows in the candle light as his voice arcs and reaches high.

A smirk creeps across the face of Perry Andrews.

Dark lights are glittering in his eyes.

Soon everything will be okay again.

"Isn't it dangerous out there?" Jimmy Lee cries as he teeters unsteadily on the frozen surface of the lake.

"Of course not!" Perry Andrews exclaims "I walked across it only yesterday"

But the young boy ahead of him isn't so sure.

"I don't like this" Jimmy Lee says "I think I'll be going now - it will be dark soon"

And with that - the pretty youth gently begins to glide his way back.

"Come on - don't be like that!" Perry Andrews reprimands him "You are quite safe!"

"I don't like this at all!" Lee protests "It isn't safe! I don't care if you have a tree house on the other side!"

"But Surely God has sent his angels to protect you from harm?" Andrews interjects

Lee shudders slightly at the sight of Perry Andrews darkened face and intense eyes.

There is something unsettling about his stare.

"The Bible says we shouldn't test God" Jimmy Lee informs him.

"Surely if God exists then he will save you!" Perry Andrews replies forcefully.

There is no denying the contempt in his voice.

Or the odd expression in the long pale face of Perry Andrews.

And suddenly Jimmy Lee wants to show Andrews that he can do it.

Suddenly he wants to get to the other end of the lake and make it to the tree house to show that he is not a coward.

"Go on then" Perry Andrews urges him flatly.

Jimmy Lee carefully swivels on his heels and begins gliding slowly forward.

The ice gives a slight cracking sound.

But unperturbed - the boy continues to skate forward carefully across the ice.

The ice cracks further but the boy artfully and lightly makes his way.

Perry Andrews is incandescent with rage.

Jimmy Lee stands on the other side of the lake now.

He is beaming proudly and he waves enthusiastically to Perry Andrews.

"Now you!" Jimmy Lee cries.

Fuelled by rage,  Perry Andrews moves forcefully forward.

He is cursing the other boy in his head.

Distracted by rage and completely disconnected - Perry Andrews bounds forward.

He sees nothing and thinks of nothing but revenge now.

Perhaps he will strangle the revolting little swine in the tree house with a piece of twine.

In his fury Perry Andrews miscalculates the forcefulness of his strides.

He has not been pacing himself.

The ice gives a loud snapping sound.

A large crack appears where Perry Andrews is standing.

Suddenly the boy is aware of the reality of his predicament.

But it is already too late.

Perry Andrews is teetering unsteadily on the icy surface of the lake as it breaks up around him.

Jimmy Lee is extending a branch out to him.

"Quick - grab hold of this!" Lee calls out to him.

But Perry Andrews resists accepting the boy's assistance.

His pathological hatred for Lee means more to him than a moment of weakness.

The last conscious thought of Perry Andrews before he slips beneath the ice is that he is sinking into a dark yet familiar place from which he will never emerge.

Breaking the Ice (by YourEndlessDream deviantart.com)