Killer-Extras: Flash Fiction
Here we go with a special full length story from the winner of our Beach Blanket Blood Bath contest. Bill Breedlove brings us the horror of overfed children in swimwear!
Highsmith Beach
By Bill Breedlove
It was, Charles Magnus decided, an abomination.
It was vile, disgusting, and obscene Charles thought. He had
been coming to Highsmith Beach for a long, long time, and—while
he had certainly seen more than his fair share of disturbing and
strange things over the years, this was just too much.
Charles shook his head as he liberally applied the sunscreen to
his arms and bare shoulders. With disbelieving eyes, Charles
turned his gaze back to the boy. The lad couldn’t have been more
than 11 or 12, standing in his swimming trunks underneath a
large beach umbrella while the two adults with him—his parents,
presumably—BOTH talked into cell phones, completely oblivious of
the monstrosity.
Fat. The boy was fat. Not plump, not chubby, not even, as the
department stores of Charles’ youth had euphemistically termed
it, “husky.” He was fat. Hugely so. Grossly so. His skin was an
unhealthy, splotchy white. His ample belly hung floppily over
his shorts, gigantic chunks of flab dangled down on both sides
of where his waist should’ve been, his arms and legs were
dimpled and rolled with doughy flesh that quivered even when he
was at rest, and his neck looked as if it had a small, inflated
inner tube inserted. From the back, the rolls of fat made it
seem as if he was possessed of gills, and from the front, he had
pendulous, swaying breasts.
The boy was eating an ice cream cone.
Chocolate was smeared around his lips, dribbling down his chin
in the heat of the summer day, even dripping on his chest and
belly. While Charles was watching, the boy noticed some glop
sliding down the convex surface of his tummy, and wiped it up
with a plump index finger, which he promptly inserted into his
mouth.
Charles shuddered.
In the many years Charles had been coming to Highsmith Beach, he
had noticed a gradual, creeping encroachment that had grown from
a trickle into a full-blown flood: an invasion of the obese.
It had begun just like it always does, he thought grimly, with
one or two token fatties lounging uncomfortably amongst the
lithe and bronzed bodies that rightfully belonged on the beach.
No one could mind them; in fact, they were a good point of
interest for other people take note of to not let such a fate
befall them or their loved ones. Countless second-helpings were
probably passed over because of them.
But then, no doubt emboldened by the acceptance of the corpulent
pioneers, other overweight beachgoers began to arrive, and not
only individually. Entire fattie families—chubby dad, jowly mom
with whole broods of porky children—began waddling onto
Highsmith Beach.
And, they didn’t even act like traditional beach goers. There
was no sunbathing, no wading or splashing in the surf. No, these
lumpen interlopers were content to simply sit squinting into the
sun, yammering incessantly into their cell phones while their
bloated offspring sat hunched over, frantically thumbing
pocket-sized video games.
And eating. They were ALWAYS eating. The idea of an afternoon at
the beach with a bottle of water and perhaps some fruit and
crackers, or even a small shaker of a cooling libation was
completely foreign to them. The unloaded their giant SUVs with
repasts that would sustain a small army of average humans
several days—provided those humans were not particular about
what they put into their bodies. Every manner of hideous,
disgusting and inedible processed concoction: soda, chips,
candy, cookies, Slim Jims, Fritos, cupcakes, sports drinks,
and—one horribly memorable occasion, cold lasagna—were shoveled
into their eagerly open, endlessly masticating maws.
But, here, today, looking at the fat boy lapping up the rapidly
melting ice cream, Charles had finally had enough.
Something had to be done.
The rest of this story is no longer on our website, but will be available for purchase Summer 2009 with the release of our annual anthology!
Killer-words: Year One
Tiny Slices of Darkness
It will feature all the fiction stories posted on the site this year (including the rest of this one), brand new stories, a year in review, some of our best articles, original art, and more!
If you are interested in pre-ordering copies of the book please send an email to
jude@killer-works.com
Bio Bits:
Bill Breedlove's work has
appeared in publications such as the Chicago Tribune, RedEye,
InSider, The Fortune News, Restaurants & Institutions,
Encyclopedia of Actuarial Science, Bluefood.cc and
Playboy Online. His stories can also be found in the books
Tales of Forbidden Passion, Strange Creatures, Tails from the
Pet Shop, Book of Dead Things, Cthulhu and the Coeds and
Blood and Donuts.
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