Hey it’s that time again… This year I have the added personal goal of including a villain in every story. I don’t know why, but that doesn’t come natural to lots of writers these days, including me. Real life is full of villains, and the ones in fiction are actually fun, so why not? Proceeding thus…
Oh, big-time content warnings today: incest, pedophilia, rape, suicide. Hates to start on a down note but the prompt brought this immediately to mind. You know what? This one is horrible enough I’ll keep it under a fold – a practice I’ve largely not bothered with for a while.
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SPOOKTOBER DAY 1 – BLOODLINES
OPTIONAL CHALLENGES: CLOSETS & CELLARS, SECRET DIARY, REBIRTH
TAROT INFLUENCE: TWO OF PENTACLES, UPRIGHT
TITLE: THA YIN YANG
Premise: Chris Choi is indirectly haunted by his dead grandfather Wilmer Canyon. His mother Karen struggled and lost against mental illness – chiefly trauma inflicted by the old scumbag – which led to hanging herself in a closet (CLOSETS & CELLARS). A cancer diagnosis for Chris leads to genetic testing that confirms what had previously only been hinted at – his real father was also his grandfather. In childhood his kindly stepfather’s explanation of the symbols on South Korea’s flag stayed with him, and he contemplates his curse with self-made mysticism – penning his own grimoire (SECRET DIARY).
The Villain: This villain is no fun. Wilmer Canyon (deceased) was an incestuous child rapist, ’nuff said. He had no conscience. On the surface he was a comfortably upper middle class retired aerospace engineer, with healthy interests like kayaking, gardening, and playing cards with the boys. But when he was alone in vulnerable company, his utter void of morality turned idle whims into terrible sins. These never came to light and he died well-respected, from a rare form of brain cancer.
Horror Element: Chris walks a path of contemplation. The cancer he shares with gramps (REBIRTH) is proof of their connection. There is something of the darkness within the light, something of the light within the darkness (2 OF PENTACLES / BALANCE). Through meditation he can go inside the old man’s mind, back in time when he was alive, and schemes to rewrite history by killing him – saving his mother and erasing himself. But to gain enough control, he has to witness those sins from a horrifying point of view – that of the sinner.
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Oh hey, this year I’m using AI tools from goog and openai plus photopea to make my covers, starting with sketches of my own. To see the starting point…
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I could see this one being difficult to write without slipping into describing the emotional pleasure the old man gets from raping juveniles. Which may be accurate, but not something you would really want to describe in fear of encouraging other people who might have similar inclinations. Maybe having the protagonist break meditation and vomit as sequences like this arise.
Heh, a hundred years ago you probably could have used euphemisms to deal with pedophila and incest, and the readers would just believe that anyone who acted in that manner wouldn’t be cultured enough to read novels,or if they did they wouldn’t understand the euphemisms. We know better now.
horror is horrible, but yeah, i probably wouldn’t even write this one.
jfc a spambot tried to post here with a handle derived from the theme, phrased more bluntly. this is why i close comments on random articles, if anyone was curious.