Chapter 9
Under the surface of the dark water I feel milk cartons and leaves and trash bumping into my face. I slosh around in the sewage, an acidic green and black cocktail. The air, urine-heavy with the scent of cholesterol-soaked piss.
I float on the surface of the garbage-infused water, looking up at the spotlight spewing from out the manhole I just fell through, with a Virgo full moon giving high energy vibes, as I float farther away.
Chapter 8
As if I’m being controlled remotely, I step out of the bar and into the street. Cool wind blows in my ear. Its frigid bite resets me, slightly.
I’m going to assume the worst is over and that whatever malfunction my intestinal tract was experiencing was due to ingesting whatever it was in that cocktail. But it seems to have passed now, and I feel good-n-pissed. Downfall is, my whiskyed dick don’t work but I still got energy.
Chapter 7
It wasn’t that weird that this Morgen A. needed a ride.
Although, our interactions in private messages did make me wonder if I was talking to a computer programmed with auto responses. A bot.
The driver double-checked to make sure the address I put in was really where I wanted to go.
Why does it always feel set-up whenever someone agrees to hang out with me?
Chapter 5
The DMV is a Visual Cult Object to me.
When stepping from outside into the glass antechamber, one feels they are in a limbo space.
The second set of doors swing open to the waiting area, the catechumen.
Chapter 2
Mom lit her cigarette on the red coils of the stove. The tobacco burned slow. And you could smell maple syrup. One side of the neck would glow orange and start to smoke. Then she’d roll it along the edge.
“Girl fell asleep at her station again.” Mom rattles, “And I haven’t said nothing about the times I came over and checked on her, woke her up, made sure she was alright. I never told anyone. I didn’t report her to the super or nobody. Then the one time I have to cover they say ‘Keep an eye on her, if she falls asleep and gets hurt you’ll get in trouble’ and she was literally asleep standing up over the workstation when they were telling me that.”
Chapter 1
During the commercial break before returning to the featured presentation of James Whale’s Frankenstein the television tells me to stay tuned for a live news update at six using the same stock footage from a year ago.
People holding signs over their heads that say: UPDATES COMING SOON? and FREE FOR WHO?
There’s a long history of serialized fiction in the world, from Charles Dickens’s novels to Stephen King publishing The Green Mile in six parts. Next year, we’ll be joining that tradition by publishing VCO, a novel by James Jacob Hatfield, over the course of 40 weeks. James has more information on the project on his website.
The Ritual
by James Jacob Hatfield
Joselyn has encouraged me to begin developing my own rituals. Things I do to calm down. Per the new installment of the Freedom of Medical Care Act (FMCA 7.3) “rituals” fall under the category of preventative medicine.
Now everytime I brush my teeth I time travel.