Decision

SO I have a decision to make. I found out last night that I managed to get this blog added to the New Mexican's reader blogs list along with Bumper Sticker Rant. I think it happened because I forgot to turn off the signature line on my email. Oops. SO now I have to decide if I want to keep typing whatever falls out of my head, or if I want to clean it up a little.

I guess the big question is whether people want content or updates.

I mean I am a very opinionated person. I could always offer my perspective on the issues that interest me. But somehow that doesn't seem to go with the idea of a personal blog. But if I'm getting readers through a newspaper link then I might want to offer those readers something.

Oh, well. I'll have to think about it. Anybody out there with an opinion please comment.

In book news...

One of the changes that my mother recommended was reworking the ending. I had already been toying with chaging it because it was a little flat. So last night I rewrote the ending. It is still a little flat, but I can work that out when I edit the new material. Editing shouldn't take long and then I can send the book off.

Now readers here are going to get the original ending. The version posted here is unedited and the rewrite is an edit to me. What does this mean to everybody here? Not much. The basic elements are essentially the same, and I didn't change outcomes. The biggest difference is that the new ending has a little more bulk to it.

So with only about another week to go for everybody... Here is chapter 57.

Torn
57

Jack had slept in. He felt great. He could count the hours left, both in terms of the elf’s life, and those that he was stuck in the cave.

He decided to provide the infuriating elf with one last meal, just to give him energy enough to truly suffer. He was still angry over the failed ploy from the day before.

He pulled out the last of his meat. He hoped that Malchevio came early, he would be quite angry if Malchevio was late and he was hungry.

He built a small fire and started cooking the elf’s meat. He ate his own cold and raw.

***

Jack had finished eating and cooking.

He stood over the sleeping form of the doomed elf.

He kicked the elf awake, careful not to break open any of the skin pockets.

The elf screamed, an involuntary reaction from all the pain he had experienced the past few days. Then he moaned, not at fresh pain but from the lingering pain of the wounds covering his body.

“Eat,” ordered Jack as he threw the food down onto the elf’s stomach.

The elf yelped as the hot food contacted the wounds.

“Eat.”

The elf carefully moved the food off of his body onto a rock. He then pulled himself across the floor and propped himself against the nearest wall.

Jack could see slight blood trails from the movement where rocks had cut into the back of the elf’s legs. At least the elf had been smart enough to drag himself backward and not open any of the pockets.

“Eat!” he ordered once again.

The elf simply glared.

Jack picked up the rock, took it over to the elf, and nearly set it down on the creature’s hand. The elf had to move the hand rapidly, causing pain all up that arm.

“Eat, or I will force feed you.”

The elf refused to move.

Jack grabbed a handful of food, opened the elf’s mouth and rammed the food to the back.

The elf almost choked, but couldn’t avoid coughing. White-faced he managed to chew the food and swallow.

Jack wasn’t smiling. “Do you want every bite to be like that or are you going to eat?”

The elf sullenly picked at his meal, forcing himself to eat rather than have the food shoved down his throat.

“When I get back that had better be all gone. If it isn’t you’ll be eating whatever is left in one bite.”

Jack left the room.

Defeated, the elf ate his final meal.

***

Jack watched from just outside the chamber. He almost wished that the elf had forced him to feed him.

Jack wandered to the entrance to the cave.

The day was bright. He wondered when Malchevio would arrive.

Screams echoed from the inner chamber.

Jack smiled; he had wondered when the show would start.

***

Jack made it into the back chamber to see that the elf had indeed finished his meal.

What made him smile, however, was seeing that the white things had awakened. The pockets on the elf’s skin were turning dark and writhing as the creatures contained within searched for an exit.

The elf looked frantically around the room, trying to find an escape for the fear and pain. Jack could see the whites of his eyes from across the chamber.

He decided to throw one more log on the fire.

He strode across the chamber, grabbed one of the elf’s arms and pulled free a knife.

The elf looked at him expectantly, pleading with his eyes for Jack to kill him.

Jack smiled.

He cut open one of the pockets of skin, and watched as the elf’s eyes grew so wide that it seemed the eyes would fall out of his head.

Spiders poured from the pocket, babies, just hatched and looking for their first meal.

The spiders decided that the skin of the elf would do just fine.

The elf screamed as he was eaten. Some of the pockets burst open with the tiny lives inside, others stayed closed as the spiders dug into his skin.

The screams were so loud and echoed so many times it was if they had been there forever. Pain and fear were the rulers of the cavern.

Jack smiled.

***

Jack sat in the main entrance to the cave as Malchevio walked up, smiling.

The elf had lasted nearly one and a half hours being eaten alive. He was strong through the end.

“Your toy still alive?”

“No, but what an exit.”

Malchevio raised an eyebrow, but really didn’t want to know.

Malchevio walked past Jack, and set his bag down.

He sat down against a wall.

“We’ll leave in a few hours, but first…”

It was Jack’s turn to raise eyebrows.

“I have news.”

Jack settled in. Waiting to hear what Malchevio had to say.