I'd like to present you to Dani Brown, the Queen of Filth, who kicks off our new blog with some flash fiction.
Two
to a Desk
By
Dani Brown
The
teacher thought the scratching came from behind the whiteboard, like
her nightmares the night before. Alone in the classroom, her former
student stood in front of her with hooks where hands should have
been. The same piercing blue stare she had in life surrounded by an
aura of decay.
The
art room developed a chill in the seat in front of the drying racks
ever since the girl who sat there was discovered mutilated in the tin
mines. No students wanted to sit there anymore and covered the seat
in paper flowers and daisy chains picked on their way to school.
She
asked the class to quiet down and noticed the chill spread from the
seat in front of the drying rack. The sun didn’t shine from the
windows on that part of the classroom anymore.
The
girl discovered mutilated in the abandoned mines came to her in her
sleep and pulled back the layers of her dreams with hooks where hands
should have been. Murdered the day before she turned fourteen.
The
students moved away as the daisy chains decayed. They’d rather sit
two to a desk than be near the icy chill. That wasn’t their
classmate anymore.
Hooks
scratched, trapped in the walls. The teacher turned her back on the
class and tried to investigate. She didn’t get much sleep last
night. Please,
I want to go home to my birth mother. The
teacher snapped around.
“Who
said that?”
The
children were clearly frightened, cowering in their seats. Two to a
desk, except that boy over there.
“Where’s
your desk partner?”
“I
don’t know miss, he said he heard singing and just disappeared.”
“Children
don’t just disappear.”
A
girl stood up and pointed to the drying rack.
“She
did.”
The
daisy chain fell off the desk and the paper flowers floated to the
chair.
“She
was murdered by her stepmother and thrown down the mine shaft.”
“They
never found her hands.”
“Please
be quiet.”
Hooks
scratched behind the whiteboard and the teacher rubbed her temples.
Please
help me, I want to go home to my birth mother. She
remembered the plea from her broken sleep. My
father can’t help me anymore. He’s held within my stepmother’s
spell. The
girl didn’t have hands or a school uniform anymore. Dried blood
ringed her neck. Her throat slit before her body landed in the tin
mines.
Orange
orbs floated from the drying rack. A girl with pigtails turned around
and tried not to scream. The faces behind the orbs had melted away.
Flesh bubbled in blisters where noses should have been.
Hooks
scratched behind the whiteboard. Hooks scratched behind the drying
rack. Don’t
look the miners in the eye. A
teenage girl laughed. It wasn’t a student. The whiteboard shuddered
and screamed. Blood oozed down and smudged the answers to the art
history exam.
The
intercom buzzed into life.
“The
miner’s will steal your classmates and take them to the tin mine
unless you return home.”
Hooks
cut through the whiteboard and the blood dripped into letters. Please
let me return to my birth mother. My father doesn’t love me
anymore. My stepmother promised him a new daughter, if he follows her
to the Neon Dream.
Hooks
crashed through the drying rack and ruined the paintings and prints.
Another girl stood there with hooks where hands should have been.
Maggots poured out of her mouth when she tried to speak.
“Do
what my mother says.”
The
girl at the opposite end of the classroom held her hooks above her
piercing blue eyes. Maggots landed on her tunic when she opened her
mouth.
“Please,
you were meant to be my friend.”
The
miners stared with eyes in a shade of demonic red and surrounded the
girl with pigtails. Off she went, to the tin mines. They left her
desk partner behind. The intercom came to life and the classroom
could hear the girl with pigtails cry.
“You
are fallen now. Trapped inside a cage. Your hands will power my neon
dream.”
A
final shrill buzz cut her screams.
The
former classmate trembled. Her hooks scratched her thighs and
released her flesh to the floor with maggots and scraps of fabric
from her dirty tunic.
“Please
help me.”
The
miners came back with their lamps held high and hoods concealing
their demonic eyes. The girl at the back of the room walked to the
front and slapped her stepsister with a gleaming hook. Maggots fell
where she stepped.
“Do
you want my mother to kill all your former friends? They didn’t
like you much anyways. Her tin miners are begging for action. Look at
their orange orbs, do they seem a bit brighter?”
The
paper flowers floated to the floor. The petals on the daisy chain
curled in. The blood letters on the whiteboard started to drip.
“Your
father left you to be with my mother. Can you blame him?”
The
teacher tried to step in. A hook grazed her skin.
The
former classmate started to cry and lost an eye in a river of tears.
The miners held their lanterns high and their hoods fell back. A boy
screamed at the melted faces. The lost eye hit the other girl with
hooks instead of hands in the foot. She put a hook through it and
held it up for the class to see.
“Come
on, back to the Neon Dream. Maybe we’ll run into your father?”
The
girl hissed at her stepsister’s former classmates and the miners
closed in. The former student screamed. Her hooks held high, she
tried to slash at the miners. They carried her away through the
whiteboard. Her stepsister turned to the class and opened her mouth.
Maggots fell out before she disappeared.
Sirens
approached the school. The teacher told her students to tell the
truth. They had the maggots as proof.
******
Love/lust gone in 56 seconds. Carried over the
Wi-Fi never to be seen again. 56 seconds and a lifetime of regret.
She walks out of the fog with a glass of gin and a slice of lime.
Flies return to life. The other screams inside his head. DJ Donnie.
Still a dick. Still a jerk.
So
much can happen in 56 seconds, 4 seconds shy of a minute.
Available
from amazon https://mybook.to/56SecondsReissue
Strip/Becoming
is the story of how Marcy died. Trapped in a loop and stuck with him.
The robotic shapeshifting demon from Mars.
Read
more here
https://danibrownqueenoffilth.weebly.com/stripbecomingselection.html
Available
on amazon https://mybook.to/Strip_Becoming
Suitably labelled
“The Queen of Filth”, extremist author Dani Brown’s style of
dark and twisted writing and deeply disturbing stories has amassed a
worrying sized cult following featuring horrifying tales such as
“Ghetto Super Skank”, “56 Seconds”, “Name Dropping With
Hayden” and the hugely popular “Ketamine Addicted Pandas”.
Merging eroticism with horror, torture and other areas that most
authors wouldn’t dare, each of Dani’s titles will crawl under
your skin, burrow inside you, and make you question why you are
coming back for more.
Find Dani online
here https://linktr.ee/DaniBrownQueenofFilth