Category Archives: Blog

28

Today I am 28 years old, which means I failed to maintain membership with the 27 Club. A sick, honest part of me is a little disappointed, as I’ve been promising my family since I was a teenager that I would die at 27. Although, in a way, I guess I sort of did die—if you’re a frequent listener of my podcast, GHOULISH, then you probably already know about the special 100th episode that went live late last night/early this morning titled “The Death of Max Booth III”.

From the episode description:

In the 100th episode of GHOULISH, Max Booth III is murdered with a poisoned egg—potentially by a previous guest of the podcast. Andrew Hilbert takes over hosting duties and investigates the crime by analyzing over 30 eulogies sent in following the news of Max’s death. Did one of these psychotic sons of bitches kill him? Listen and find out.

Featuring Jon Lovitz, Kelby Losack, Cynthia Pelayo, Todd Keisling, Miguel Villa, Zach Chapman, Josh Malerman, Jessica Leonard, Lucas Mangum, Joshua Chaplinsky, Jessica McHugh, Sarah Read, Stephen Graham Jones, Betty Rocksteady, W. P. Johnson, Alan Baxter, B.R. Yeager, John Baltisberger, John Wayne Comunale, Brian Asman, Danger Slater, Frank Edler, Zachary Ashford, Michael Allen Rose, Hailey Piper, David Leo Rice, Armand Rosamilia, Jay Wilburn, Tony McMillen, Jonathan Raab, Briana Morgan, Lisa Quigley, Bob Pastorella, Michael David Wilson, and Lori Michelle.

You can listen to it by clicking HERE.

Also, of recent interest for all you GHOULISH fans, the last couple episodes included interviews with Jeff VanderMeer and Chuck Tingle.

I am not sure what else to add here. I’ve been very busy with many different projects, hence the lack of updates lately. The movie I wrote, We Need to Do Something, recently premiered at the Tribeca Film Fest in New York. Lori and I flew out for the premiere. It was both of our first times visiting the state. I think the reaction to the movie has been mostly okay so far. Some people like it far more than others, but the same thing can be said about the book. IFC Midnight will be releasing the movie in the US on September 3rd, in theaters and VOD. There will also be a physical media release, although I don’t think it’s been officially announced yet, so don’t tell anybody I told you that.

I did finish a new crime novel at the end of December called Casanova Curbstomp, but the longer I sit on it the longer I’m convinced it’s actually not very good, so it might just be a trunk novel for the time being. Maybe in the future I’ll figure out a way to make it not suck, or maybe it’ll never see the light of day. Who knows!

I’m 65,000 words into another novel called Maggots Screaming, and I am far more confident with how that one’s going. I started it in July 2020, so my goal is to finish it before the end of the month. 12 months is already too long to spend on a first draft. It makes me paranoid I’ll never finish anything of worth again, which is a stupid trap to fall into. It’s also an easy trap to fall into.

I’m also incredibly busy with Perpetual Motion Machine projects. Lots of editing to do that I’m behind on thanks to how much traveling we’ve been doing lately (for the movie). I’m not complaining, just explaining what’s been going on in my life. Right now I’m playing a game of catch-up, which is a game I imagine I’ll be playing until I die for real and not just in a podcast.

Happy Fourth of July. I hope you shoot a bottle rocket out of your ass to celebrate. Trust me. It feels awesome.

Two New Interviews: CEMETERY DANCE and THE SAN ANTONIO CURRENT

Two new interviews featuring myself have been published recently.

The first one, over at Cemetery Dance, was conducted by Tyler Jones. It’s a lengthy conversation that took place over several months via Twitter direct messaging. I think it’s probably one of the most in-depth interviews I’ve been given, and I’m stoked it’s finally available. In it we talk about writing advice, my creative process, capital punishment, my ranking of the Mission: Impossible movies, and so much more. You can read that here.

I was also kind of interviewed for my local paper, The San Antonio Current, about We Need to Do Something’s recent acceptance into the Tribeca Film Festival. I say “kind of interviewed” since, yes, the editor and I did talk on the phone, but I only answered like two or three questions clarifying some things about the announcement, so I’m not sure if it officially counts as an interview. I also don’t know who keeps track of what is and what is not an interview, but I’m terrified of them getting mad at me. Anyway. Here’s the write-up.

Speaking of the We Need to Do Something movie, Tribeca recently made a page dedicated to it on their festival guide, and the description they’ve written for the listing filled me with an immense amount of joy. I am not sure if we’re allowed to consider it our first “review” but it feels like that, at least to me. So damn cool. The page also reveals the movie’s runtime, which hasn’t been announced until now: 97 minutes. Read the listing here.

WE NEED TO DO SOMETHING to make its world premiere at Tribeca Film Fest

Pretty much what the title of this post said, honestly. My movie, We Need to Do Something, which I wrote and served as an executive producer on, will make its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Fest in June. Sean King O’Grady directed it. Shane Patrick Ford edited it. The cast includes Vinessa Shaw, Sierra McCormick, Pat Healy, Lisette Alexis, and John James Cronin. Many other very talented people also worked on the film, but you can just go check out the IMDB page for the rest of the credits.

I will be traveling to NYC for the showing, which will be my first time ever visiting the state. Tribeca is a dream fest and I am truly honored for our little bathroom movie to premiere there. Here’s an official still from the movie with the fancy Tribeca selection stamp:

Here’s Deadline’s write-up about the complete 2021 lineup, and here’s Rue Morgue’s focus on Tribeca’s Midnight genre slot (which is the slot WNTDS is in).

More news when I’m allowed to talk about it. Until then, you can buy a signed copy of the novella directly through my webstore.

Works in progress (January 2021 update)

Last month I posted about current works in progress and where they stood, word count wise. Instead of copy/pasting every project I talked about in the previous installment, I am only going to spotlight the projects I actually worked on since last month.

First up is Casanova Curbstomp. In the last update, this project sat at 56,000 words. As of right now, the first draft is completed at 77,000 words. I actually finished it on New Year’s Eve. It’s currently being read by my manager and several beta readers, then I will go back through it and adjust as I deem necessary. After that…I am not sure. There’s a specific small press I’d like to send it to. But also maybe this is the book I should start sending to agents. It’s a comedy crime novel about Internet porn addiction. If you’re an agent and that sounds cool to you, hit me up.

With Casanova Curbstomp out of the way, I’ve been focusing most of my novel attention on Maggots Screaming! (The exclamation mark is part of the title.) Last month the word count sat at 25,000. Earlier tonight I hit 30,000. Last month I also anticipated the total word count would clock in at around 65,000, but after figuring a couple upcoming plot issues out, I now realize I’ve greatly underestimated the word count. It will probably be closer to 80,000 by the time it’s finished. My goal is to finish the first draft by the end of March. I’m really happy with how this one is coming. I wrote the first 15,000 words while in Detroit filming the adaptation for We Need to Do Something, and I think the immense happiness I was experiencing during that month has definitely continued into the rest of the manuscript. I’m just having a goddamn blast writing something that’s pure, unapologetic body horror.

Other things I’m working on right now, which I can’t get into very much detail on due to reasons: rewrites on a script for another one of my previously published novels; a proposal package for a book I recently pitched to an extremely cool audio company; a secret non-fiction book for Cemetery Dance; and several novelettes for Cemetery Dance for their “Be a Star” program.

Plus, ya know, a ton of freelance non-fiction. Speaking of which, here are my two most recent online publications…

On LitReactor I published an article about my recent plunge into being a full-time writer. I provided some context for why I made the decision to leave my terrible hotel job and also offered some (hopefully) handy advice for anybody considering doing the same thing. Read the article here.

Related to the previous article, I also wrote a lengthy essay for Film-14 about how I managed to get a film adaptation made for my novella, We Need to Do Something. If you were puzzled how some jerk like myself currently has a movie in post-production, then this article should help clear most of your confusion. Read the article here.

I think that pretty much covers everything. Unless you want to get into what I’ve been editing–in which case, the latest issue of my horror magazine, Dark Moon Digest, just dropped. Go treat yourself to some spooky horror fiction.

A love letter to long paragraphs

I love long paragraphs. I love getting lost in them. I love the investment. I love the payoff. I love the rhythm. I love that I remembered how to spell “rhythm” without having to look it up. That almost never happens. A lot of words don’t make a lot of sense in my brain and “rhythm” is usually at the top of the list. When I was a kid they taught you every paragraph was exactly four sentences long. No more. No less. If you broke this bizarre rule they’d mark points off your grade. Maybe not every teacher knows what the hell they’re talking about. Once, while attending English class in a drop-out adult high school, the teacher insisted on using the word “irregardless”, and I informed her it wasn’t a word. You looked at me like I was a piece of shit and told me that I was wrong. I corrected her again. It wasn’t a goddamn word. She said, “What do you know? You don’t know anything.” She told me she was the one with an English degree and she would know whether or not something was a word, and “irregardless” was definitely a word. “But it’s not!” I shouted, unable to shut up when it came to petty arguments. The rest of the class was ruined as we continued yelling at each other. I just googled “is irregardless a word” a second ago and apparently now it’s considered a word. Maybe it was always considered a word. Maybe I’m just a jackass. But still. I stick by my opinion that she was a terrible teacher who would have probably also told me every paragraph should be exactly four sentences long and I would have screamed until blood spilled from my mouth. Some authors never use long paragraphs. These authors are cowards. They think the key to writing suspense is short, one-sentence paragraphs, where every action deserves its own line. They confuse prose with screenwriting, which is something entirely different. A lot of writers are very bad at their jobs. You can tell by the size of their paragraphs. I want my paragraphs to last forever. I want them to blossom like lunatic flowers. I want readers to open one of my books and see the lack of paragraph breaks and think, “What the fuck am I looking at? I’m not reading this,” and then, maybe, they decide to try out a couple sentences, and suddenly they’re three pages in and the paragraph still hasn’t come to an end, and they sure as fuck can’t pause now, how would they ever remember where they stopped? Now they’re trapped. Now I have them. A long paragraph is magic. It is hypnotism. I love long paragraphs so much I would absolutely marry one if I could, but I don’t know how that would work. I love them so much that I’m afraid to end this blog post. This paragraph could be longer. It could always be longer. The trick is knowing the perfect place to stop. The trick is knowing the exact spot that will make the reader think, “Okay, I’ve about had enough of your bullshit.” That’s when you add in some quotation marks to fool them into thinking something exciting might be expressed through dialogue. I got you now, you son of a bitch.

I got you now.

Works in progress (December 2020 update)

I’m going to start providing brief updates for the books I’m currently writing. Why? Because it’s a nice distraction from actually working on the books. Another reason why, you ask? I don’t know. I want to keep this blog updated more frequently and this seems like an easy way to do that. A third reason why? Holy shit. What are you, a cop? Okay, I guess maybe if I put this stuff out in the wild, it’ll work as more incentive to actually finish them, otherwise it’s going to start feeling awfully depressing when each project doesn’t significantly jump ahead after so long.

Okay, so with that said, here are the books I’m currently working on, and their current word counts:

  • Casanova Curbstomp – 56,000 words
  • Maggots Screaming! – 25,000 words
  • Expect Radioactivity – 21,000 words
  • Hushpuppy – 14,000 words
  • Secret Cemetery Dance Coffee Table Book – still in the research phase

To provide further insight on these projects (which I don’t intend on doing with every update), Casanova Curbstomp is my attempt at a sleazy crime novel. Something that maybe Hard Case Crime might publish (guess where I intend on submitting it). I anticipate maybe another 20,000 to go on this one. I’m been working on it for a couple years now, off and on. Sometimes I think it’s the worst book I’ve ever written, but then I remember I feel that way about everything I write at a certain point.

Maggots Screaming! is my ode to body horror. It’s gross and delightful and just…completely repulsive. And before you ask, the exclamation mark on the title is not a typo. I think maybe I’m at the halfway mark on this book, or almost to the halfway mark.

Expect Radioactivity is my Big Novel. I fear it might exceed 200,000 words by the time it’s finished. I don’t want to say anything about it other than it takes place in the 1950s.

Hushpuppy is kind of a bildungsroman about my early teenage years growing up in a hotel next to a casino. Every time I work on it I get very sad. I think it’s probably end up being one of my best books. I have no idea how long it’ll be or when I’ll finish.

And, obviously, I can’t say anything about the secret Cemetery Dance coffee table book, other than it’s a coffee table book, and it’ll be released through Cemetery Dance. Oh, and also, I’m collaborating on it with Matthew Revert.

I’m also working on various scripts, short stories, and articles, but those aren’t as fun to tease.

I’ll do a bigger post later, but I recently quit my day job to write full-time. It is my goal to have all of these novels (except for maybe Expect Radioactivity) finished by December 2021. Without the hotel job in my life, I feel like this is more than possible. I’m doing things to limit other distractions, which I’ll save for another blog post. I have probably talked enough here. If you’ve read everything I’ve written and find yourself hungry for more Booth books, these are what you can look forward to someday in the future. If you’ve never read anything I’ve written and only found this website by googling something porn-related, I apologize but there is nothing sexy on this website, and you’ve come to the wrong place. Unless your fetish is WIP updates, then holy shit, prepare to ejaculate, buddy.

People I wish were in THE AMERICANS

Adam Driver, Jimmi Simpson, CCH Pounder, Michael Shannon, Maya Rudolph, Pam Grier, John Goodman, Samm Levine, Alison Brie (as “Zoya the Destroya” from GLOW), Michael K. Williams, Ruth Negga, Christina Hendricks, Benicio del Toro, Pat Healy, Michael Cera (trust me on this), Harvey Keitel (as “The Wolf” from Pulp Fiction), Ray Romano, Jesse Plemons, Jessie Buckley, other people named Jesse/Jessie, Tom Waits, Margo Martindale (I know she’s already in it, but she’s not in every episode, and that’s a big problem for me), Jeremy Davies, Rosario Dawson, Danny McBride, Elliot Page, Michael Rapaport, Jada Pinkett Smith, Donal Logue, Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson (in the same episode), Paul F. Tompkins (as a soviet spy who loves improv comedy), Paul Dano, River Phoenix (would have probably been difficult to do), Daniel “Danny” DeVito, Danny “Daniel Day” Lewis, Julia Garner, Alfred Molina, John Turturro, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Elisabeth Moss, Dan Stevens, Isla Fisher, David Cross, and Nicolas Cage (as “Charlie Kaufman” from Adaptation).

“SATAN HIS OWN SELF” – a short film I wrote and directed

Last year, toward the end of 2019, I spent two glorious nights making a short film with some of my best pals: Andrew Hilbert, Miguel Villa, and Trey Hudson. We filmed on location at Radio Coffee and Beer after normal business hours. To make the movie, we used an Audio-Technica AT875R Line/Gradient Shotgun Condenser Microphone ($183), a DJI Osmo Mobile 2 Gimbal ($138), and the FilmicPro app ($15) on my iPhone Xs. Minus the cost of my phone, which I already had, our budget totaled out to $336. The Gimbal was defective, actually, and kept giving me trouble, so I ended up returning it for a full refund after we wrapped shooting, so the budget was even lower than that.

Here’s a photo of me Andrew took while he was sprawled across a duct tape pentagram, mostly naked:

After Andrew and I finished editing the short film several months later (life got in the way), we submitted it to several fests, and then…the world ended. Some fests continued virtually, some cancelled altogether. Either way, none of the places we submitted to decided to use the film, which is why we decided to say fuck it and release it ourselves via YouTube. Here’s the very fun poster Lori Michelle made for the festival submissions:

At this point, there’s really no reason to keep it a secret or anything. I desperately miss hanging out with the people who helped me make this short film, and rewatching it again lately was a nice way to spend 15 minutes. We had been in the process of mapping out a new short film to make just before COVID hit, so hopefully sometime next year when things start to calm down, we can get back on the short film train, because goddammit this was a total blast.

So here ya go. Here’s “Satan His Own Self” for your enjoyment. If you like it, please give it a thumbs-up thing on YouTube, maybe subscribe to my channel, and–hell–why not give it a share on your own social media accounts? Tag me on Twitter @GiveMeYourTeeth.

“Satan His Own Self” Written & Directed by Max Booth III

Edited by Andrew Hilbert & Max Booth III

Boom Operator – Miguel Villa

“The Bartender” – Andrew Hilbert

“Satan’s BFF” – Trey Hudson

“War on the Colorado” performed by Jack and the Hacks

Excerpt – TOUCH THE NIGHT

My new novel, Touch the Night, comes out on June 16th, which is…very soon. Cemetery Dance is publishing the eBook and limited edition signed hardcover, while I’ll be releasing the paperback edition myself. Here are the two covers for the book, both designed by Dyer Wilk (the paperback edition cover also featuring a collaboration with Matthew Revert):

Cemetery Dance Cover
Paperback Cover

Before I get to the excerpt promised in this blog entry’s title, here’s how you can order the book:

Limited Edition Signed HC | Signed Paperback | Amazon | B&N | Kobo | Bookshop.org

Okay!

Now let’s read the first chapter, shall we?


SATURDAY

OCTOBER 22, 2005

“Let’s get the fuck out of here.”

Josh hears his friend but he doesn’t respond. He can’t. Alonzo’s mom moaning in the next room has him fully mesmerized. He’s helpless to the sound and he wouldn’t want it any other way, except maybe to be the one in the room with her. To be the required sacrifice for her forbidden ritual.

It doesn’t matter that it’s past midnight, that Josh’s parents would kill him if they found out he snuck outside, that they’d never let him stay at Alonzo’s again. His dad would beat his ass and ask him if he was stupid, ask if he’d paid attention at all to the stories they read about other black kids his age wandering the night, minding their own business. It doesn’t matter if you aren’t doing nothing bad.

“Josh?” Alonzo says, raising his voice. “I know you’re awake, man.”

Elsewhere in the house, Alonzo’s mom continues to moan. Bedsprings rattle in perpetual motion. It’s the loudest noise in the world, and Josh is in love. He wants to fall asleep to the sound of Alonzo’s mom like it’s his own lullaby. He wants to live in this sound for the rest of his life.

So he remains corpse-still, silently begging Alonzo to give up the idea and go to sleep. If Josh doesn’t say anything, then that means he didn’t hear the question, and if he didn’t hear the question then he isn’t chicken, he’s just tired.

They lie in Alonzo’s room—Josh on the floor, Alonzo on his own bed—listening to the strange, wonderful, scary sounds from the other room. The blue screen on the television set atop the corner dresser showers them in its radiance. The credits of the last movie they watched stopped rolling at least ten minutes ago. Josh had read every name involved, every role required to give a movie its magic, memorizing every character, but he’s already forgotten the majority of them save for the main stars. He looks at other, different stars now—pentagrams sloppily Sharpied across Alonzo’s ceiling. “Isn’t your mom gonna get pissed?” he’d asked a few months back, balancing the swivel desk chair with both hands as Alonzo stood on the cushion, gnawing on his tongue and drawing like the possessed. Alonzo had laughed then, didn’t answer, just continued worshipping devils with his marker. Studying the pentagrams now, they don’t come across scary or threatening like Alonzo intended. If anything, they’re relaxing. Like those airplane mobiles parents hang over cribs. A little too easy to get lost in their hypnotism and collapse into slumber.

Movement behind him. The sound of a body fidgeting under the covers. The sound of Alonzo crawling to the end of his bed and peeking his head over the edge. He stares down at Josh and it’s too late to feign sleep, he’s been caught with his eyes open, his head in the pentagrams. Alonzo’s puppy-dog stare is so on-point it’s ridiculous. The sound of his mom in the other room only adds to the pitifulness.

“Did you hear me?”

“I was asleep.”

“No you weren’t. You were trying to remember the names of who played all of those goddamn cenobites.”

“Well.” Josh swallows, paranoid the look on his face will reveal how much he’s enjoying the sound of Alonzo’s mom having a good time, doing all the things him and Alonzo talk about doing with girls from school. “I was almost asleep.”

“Let’s get out of here.” Alonzo jerks his head to the window. “Let’s go have some fun.”

Josh’s instinctual response is to ask, “Isn’t it kind of late?” but he can already hear Alonzo’s reply: “What are you—eight?” And he can’t suggest just going back to sleep, not now, not with Alonzo’s mom and the man she brought home from the bar only getting louder as the night progresses. There is no falling asleep to this sound. It will only bring years of therapy for Alonzo, and years of confusing and exciting fantasies for Josh. But still. Josh tries to imagine how he’d react if they were at his house. Would it be different because Josh’s parents are still married—still in love?

But are they really? When Josh is home, lying in bed, what sound does he hear more often from his parents’ bedroom—the sound of sex and fun that he hears now in his friend’s house, or the sound of two people who hate each other to the very core? How often has Josh woken up to his dad throwing something against a wall, or to his mom screaming loud enough to make her voice raw and worn out the following day?

Maybe there are worse noises in the world than your mom having sex.

But he doesn’t tell any of this to Alonzo. It’s not the kind of shit he needs to hear right now. What he needs is a distraction. What he needs are big fucking headphones.

Josh sits up, sliding the sleeping bag down. “Why don’t we play a video game or listen to some music?”

Alonzo sighs and collapses the rest of his weight into the mattress. “That fucking bitch is driving me crazy.”

Josh tries to imagine calling his own mom a bitch. The thought makes his stomach hurt. “Where . . . where do you want to go?”

“What does it matter? Why can’t we just enjoy the night, breathe in that delicious moon air? Come on, bring your camera. Never know what’s waiting out there for us.”

Josh pauses, licks his dry lips and tries to conjure an explanation that won’t reveal his cowardice. He can’t say he’s afraid. This isn’t the first time they’ve snuck outside while the rest of the world is supposed to be asleep, and he still hasn’t learned to not be afraid, but he has learned not to fight it. He’s seen enough horror movies to know life is about being unsettled.

So he says, “Okay, let’s go.”

***

They slip out of the window and flee the back yard like seasoned convicts. Their feet slide in gravel as they run through the back alley. Josh’s initial fear of abandoning the house momentarily numbs as the thrill of sudden freedom washes over him. Then, every dog in the neighborhood loses its shit at the boys’ presence, and the reality of what they’re doing sinks back in.

Over and over he asks himself what’s the worst that can really happen, and the possibilities stretch endlessly. Most seem unlikely, and some impossible outside the realm of movie magic, but that doesn’t make them any less inevitable. It’s only a matter of time before every bad thing that can happen happens.

Fiction is only fiction until it isn’t.

Josh warns someone’s gonna hear them if they’re not careful and Alonzo laughs and cups his hands around his mouth. “Everybody wake the fuck up! It’s time to have some motherfucking fun!”

Josh’s heart races faster than his feet as he shoves his friend. Alonzo stumbles and grabs a neighbor’s fence post just before falling on his face. He climbs back up and glares at Josh. “What’s your problem?”

“Nothing. Let’s just go before one of these rednecks thinks we’re trespassing and shoots us.”

Alonzo smirks. “Let ’em try. I fuckin’ dare ’em.”

Josh considers reminding him they aren’t in a Cronenberg movie, that bullets aren’t gonna melt into his flesh like butter, painless and smooth. Instead Josh continues forward, pretending like he couldn’t give less of a shit if Alonzo follows. When they reach the end of the alley, they pause, crouched like the petty thugs their middle school principal so often accuses them of being. Alonzo peeks over the corner of a fence and scans the suburban street in both directions, left to right, then down and up in case there’s any helicopters surveilling their activities.

“Where are we going?” Josh asks, and Alonzo shrugs.

“Nowhere. Everywhere. Who cares?”

“I was just wondering.”

“You scared we gonna get in trouble?”

He shakes his head, a little too desperate. “No.”

The night isn’t dark, not dark like Josh had imagined it being back in Alonzo’s bedroom. The moon hangs over the center of town, as round and bright as an eyeball devoid of its pupil. He debates pulling out his little camcorder but doubts it’ll pick up anything besides shadows. They avoid the glow of streetlights and instead sneak through front yards hidden in darkness and boobytrapped with sprinkler systems. He tries pressing one hand against his hoodie pocket holding the camcorder, adding a second layer of defense against the water.

“I didn’t bring a second set of clothes.” Josh grimaces at the way his feet squish in his shoes.

“Who says we’re ever going back home?” Alonzo laughs, no attempt to conceal his voice. “Shit, who says we even need clothes?”

“I don’t know about you, but I don’t like walking around naked.”

“What, you worried somebody might make fun of that tiny little pecker of yours?”

Josh tries to laugh, but it comes out as a weak little hiccup. He spits on the street and hopes it looks cool. “What do you want to do on Halloween?”

“I don’t know. Same shit we did last year, I guess. Blow some shit up. Get candy. Steal my mom’s vodka.”

“This is probably our last year, huh?”

“What do you mean?”

“We’re getting too old. We won’t be able to get candy next year.”

“Says who?”

“I don’t know.” He licks his lips, grimacing at the taste of dry skin. The night has a bad feel to it. The air’s heavy, suffocating. He opens his mouth wide and gulps oxygen like a fish abandoned on dry land. “That’s just how it works, I guess.”

“Well fuck how it works,” Alonzo says, voice rising in anger. “I’m gonna keep getting candy until the day I die. Even if I’m some cranky-ass old man. I’ll get my little walker and wobble all up and down the neighborhood ringing doorbells.” He hunches over and mimics an elderly gentleman. “Uh, hello, yes, sonny-boy, triiiick . . . or . . . tre—oh gosh, my back! My back! Someone call an am-bu-laaaance!”

They both bust up laughing and crash into each other. Josh trips into someone’s yard and slides on wet grass, but it’s no big deal, could have been worse if he landed on his frontside and crushed his camcorder. His clothes are already wet at this point so what does it matter. They’re having fun. Alonzo is Josh’s friend and Josh is Alonzo’s friend and together they are having a good time. What time it is doesn’t matter. Not really. If anything, the danger adds to the excitement, as much as he hates to admit it.

Alonzo helps him up and they keep walking.

“You gonna watch the game tomorrow?” Josh asks.

“What game?”

“C’mon, like you don’t know.”

Alonzo shrugs, sincere. “Baseball?”

“It’s the World Series, bro.”

He laughs. “You know I don’t give a shit about that. And you know I know you don’t give a shit about that, either.”

“It’s all my dad’s been talking about.”

“Man, fuck your dad.”

“Hey.”

He claps Josh on the back. “I’m sorry, but that guy’s an asshole.”

“Yeah.” He sighs. “Maybe.”

Josh spots a realtor sign in a lawn ahead and kicks it. It shoots up from the earth like a rocket and lands in the driveway, creating a loud twang aluminum echo.

Alonzo claps and tells him, “Now that’s the shit, baby,” and picks up the sign and Frisbees it toward the house. It bounces off the exterior and the darkness swallows it.

Josh retrieves a rock and throws it blindly. For a moment, it’s as if a tear in the sky opens up and gulps the little rock down into the surreal dimensions of its stomach. But then somewhere one street over glass explodes and they both shout, “Oh shit!” as they forget about sticking to front yards and book it down the middle of the road. They don’t dare look over their shoulders, knowing that not only is the Percy P.D. hot on their trail, but so is the military and national guard.

They cross Main Street without checking for passing traffic. A honk blasts to their right and tires skid on pavement. Alonzo flips them the bird and shouts, “Fuck you, car!” Josh considers joining in, but decides both of his arms are required to maintain Alonzo’s pace. He is not the fastest kid in town—hell, minus Wheelchair Kid in his Social Studies class, he’s probably the slowest—but he tries his best not to make it obvious. Nobody wants to wait for the fat kid.

Wheezing, Josh follows Alonzo through a deserted strip mall. All the shops are closed, the structure a series of black mirrors. Josh can’t take his eyes off of them, convinced there’s something standing on the opposite sides of the windows, watching them as they flee from government henchmen. Maybe they’re licking their lips, the sight of two boys making their stomachs growl. If this were a horror movie, Alonzo and Josh would escape the police by breaking into one of these. They’d lay low behind a mannequin display and explore their new playground, stealing whatever fit in their pockets. But the longer they lingered, the stranger the noises they’d hear, until eventually the mannequins opened their mouths and sank their teeth into the boys’ throats.

But this isn’t a horror movie, and they don’t know fuck-all about breaking and entering, so instead they pass the strip mall and head toward the gas station, the one they always steal chips and pops from after school.

Josh taps Alonzo on the shoulder. “Do you really think it’s okay that we go in here?”

Alonzo shrugs. “I don’t see why not.”

“Yeah you do.”

Alonzo isn’t an idiot. Twelve-year-old boys can’t just walk around past curfew. Not in a suburban town like this when nobody is awake. And you especially can’t walk around at night when you’re a black kid. You’re automatically a suspect. Anything goes wrong, there’s no such thing as an investigation. Your ass is getting thrown in the back of a cop car. Hell, nothing even needs to go wrong. The fact that you exist and choose to flaunt it is enough of a crime. Sure, Josh is only twelve, but that doesn’t make him ignorant of reality. Maybe the white kids in town can go on with their lives surrounded by cotton candy and bubble wrap.

But Alonzo just laughs and pulls open one of the doors. Alonzo understands all of this just as well, but the difference with Alonzo is, instead of being filled with fear, he’s instead consumed by rage.

Last month, the cops killed two people on a bridge in New Orleans, and it’s all Josh and Alonzo have been able to talk about. Obsessed isn’t the right word. Terrified’s a little closer, but still not quite. Hurricane Katrina’s destroyed the city and everybody is desperate to survive. Meanwhile, the cops there just seem eager to kill kill kill. This happened on the Danziger Bridge. Only a goddamn month ago. He’s seen photos of the bridge. Videos. It’s huge. On top of the two who were murdered, four others were shot and injured. All six black, all six unarmed. Of fucking course. As if that’s a surprise. As if that’s a shock. They’d watched the news story online at least a dozen times in Alonzo’s basement, yet the repeated viewings did nothing to desensitize the acidic burn Josh feels in his stomach whenever he thinks about it. One of the deceased, a fortysomething-year-old man, was revealed to have possessed the brain of a toddler. And the other one who died? Shit, he’d only been seventeen. Probably still in high school. Older than Josh and Alonzo, but not by much, not really, not when he thought about it. The other day, Mr. Grayson in his Social Studies class brought up the encounter, and had this to say about it: “If you’re going to live like a thug, you need to accept the consequences.” Josh is only twelve and even he knows this shit is fucked up. Ask any white kid in his class and they’ll claim the police are their friends, that they’re out to protect them. Ask Josh and he doesn’t know how to respond. Maybe they do protect, but they sure as hell seem awfully choosey about it.

If you’re going to live like a thug, you need to accept the consequences.

“Fuck that cracker cocksucker,” Alonzo had said later that day, after class. “Bitch doesn’t know shit about shit.”

“Yeah,” he’d agreed, but that hasn’t stopped him from obsessing over his words.

Josh usually doesn’t have a problem with shoplifting, but you have to be smart about it. Do it in the middle of the day, when the store’s busy with customers. Not at 1:00 A.M. when any customer activity is immediately suspicious.

A bell chirps as the door opens. The gas station clerk, some twentysomething-year-old, glares at Josh as he nervously waves and whispers, “Hi.”

The clerk doesn’t respond. He’s the same guy who’s typically working the shift after school. When does he get to go home? Maybe he never leaves—maybe he’s not even alive. If this were a horror movie, the gas station clerk would probably end up being a ghost. Maybe some desperate criminal held the place up and, not wanting to leave behind any witnesses, stole the security tape and inserted a bullet inside the clerk’s skull. Or maybe he didn’t give a good goddamn about witnesses, maybe he simply enjoyed the fame—the tabloid worshipping and Nancy-Grace hysteria, and he shot down the clerk for no other reason than it felt good, like cracking your knuckles or shaking your dick a few extra times after taking a leak. Now the clerk’s trapped here in this gas station, his spirit destined to remain imprisoned until justice’s served, until his murderer’s brought down like a rabid dog. If this were a horror movie, the spirit of the clerk would haunt Josh’s every waking moment, attach itself to his aura and negotiate Josh’s sanity with his willingness to carry out sweet vengeance.

“Can I help you?” the clerk asks, not a ghost after all.

Josh gulps and hurries down the chip aisle. Alonzo stands at the end, inspecting the back of a Doritos bag.

“Are you counting the calories?” Josh asks, trying to make it sound like a joke but only succeeding in reminding himself of the night two years ago his father stumbled into his bedroom, drunk, and tossed a stack of calorie charts on his bed. “Read up,” he’d said, “or you’re never gonna meet a girl who wants to fuck you.”

Josh nudges Alonzo. “He’s looking at us.”

Alonzo tilts his head, acknowledging the clerk with a forced smile.

“We can’t do anything.”

Alonzo laughs. “We can do anything we fuckin’ want.” He hands him the chips and continues past the junk food and into the drink aisle. Josh stands between Alonzo staring at the frosted glass doors and the clerk staring at the both of them, just waiting for one of them to slip.

Alonzo hums. “What do you want? I’m thinking about a cream soda.”

“Okay.”

Alonzo takes out two glass bottles of Jones Soda from the freezer and hands them both to Josh, who has to squeeze the bag of chips in his armpit to avoid dropping the pops.

Alonzo sidesteps three doors to the left, past the juices and beer, past the Hungry Mans and Lean Cuisines, and stops at the dairy section. The eggs.

“Boom.”

Alonzo places the items on the counter, still wearing that same stupid-ass grin. The clerk scans the barcodes, not sharing the same enthusiasm.

“Is that it?”

Alonzo leans on the counter, inspecting the wall of cigarettes behind him. “You know what, I think we’ll also take a pack of Kools.” He straightens his stance and elbows Josh in the ribs. “Some Kool cigs for some cool cats—ain’t that right, Joshy?”

The clerk doesn’t seem as amused. “I don’t suppose you little shits have any ID on you, huh?”

“Hell, mister, we ain’t even got cash.”

“Then what’s the plan here? Rob me?” Now it’s the clerk’s turn to laugh. “Because that’d be great. Seriously. You don’t know how long I’ve been waiting for a chance to test the shotgun we keep back here.”

“Bullshit.”

Josh slowly steps back, figuring nobody will notice him slip out the door if he moves only an inch at a time. Alonzo shoots his hand out without looking away from the clerk and grabs Josh’s arm.

“Do you really want to test me?” the clerk says, arms crossed over his chest.

Alonzo nods. “Well, yeah, kinda. But no. We’re here to propose a trade.”

The clerk raises his brow. “Oh, and what is it you have to trade?”

Josh is wondering the same thing. This is all a surprise to him. Which means Alonzo kept it a secret for a reason. Which means, whatever it is, Josh ain’t gonna like it.

Alonzo reaches into his back pocket and pulls out a folded photograph, then places it on the counter. The clerk unfolds it and examines its contents for a moment before looking back at Alonzo, disgusted. “What the hell is this?”

“You know what it is.”

“Why . . . why would I want this?”

“What, you don’t like girls?”

“Kid, you got no idea how much ass I get.” The clerk moves to return the photograph, then stops, holds it closer, really looking at it now. “Hey, wait. I recognize this chick.”

“She comes in here all the time.”

“That’s right. Holy shit, yeah. She buys condoms and beer like every Friday.” He glares at Alonzo, curious. “What are you doing with this?”

Alonzo cracks his neck. “Maybe I fucked her the other day.”

The clerk laughs. “Kid, I doubt you’ve even hit puberty yet. She’s probably like your mom or some shit.”

Alonzo lowers his head and doesn’t respond.

“Jesus Christ. She is, isn’t she?”

The clerk inspects the photograph one last time before snickering and tossing it across the counter. It slides off and lands on a patch of dirt-stained linoleum next to Josh’s feet. He looks down at Alonzo’s mom situated on her hands and knees at the edge of her bed, stripped to her dark, tattooed flesh as she peers over her shoulder, seductive eyes glued on whoever was holding the camera. One sagging breast peeks out from around her large bottom. At first glance, that’s all you can look at, then slowly your vision starts to travel down her crack and you discover something new, something weird and alien, and eventually it dawns on you this is what everybody’s always talking about. A pussy. And not just a girl’s pussy but a woman’s pussy and not just any woman’s pussy but your best friend’s mom’s pussy. Josh doesn’t need to look at the photo to know every single detail printed on it. He’s gone over the image enough times in his head to no longer require visuals. He and Alonzo had discovered the image a couple months ago on his mom’s computer while downloading stupid photoshopped .jpgs from eBaum’s World. An image they were never meant to see, something that’d been saved in a hidden folder. For the longest time neither of them spoke—then Alonzo eventually pressed—punched—the power button and told Josh to go home, to get lost, that he didn’t have time to sit around all goddamn day watching stupid-ass videos, he had a life to live, so maybe Josh better go find his own. The next day Alonzo decided to talk to him again, but for a brief spell Josh had feared the worst. Although they’d never discussed the incident again, it had never left Josh’s mind.

Now here it is again.

A million questions plague his mind but they go unanswered as Alonzo knocks over a Zippo display. “What, my mom’s not good enough for you?”

“All right, get the fuck out of here before you get hurt.”

Alonzo turns around and Josh sighs, relieved, thinking this nightmare is over, then chokes up as Alonzo retrieves the photo and waves it back at the clerk. “I’m not going anywhere until you agree to the trade.”

“What are you even talking about? I ain’t looking at your ugly-ass gorilla of a mother. That’s fucking gross. You shouldn’t even have that, you goddamn pervert.”

Alonzo drops his arm down to his waist, clutching the photograph tight enough to crinkle it. “What did you just say?”

The clerk exhales loudly as he brings out his cell phone. “Kid, I wouldn’t stick my dick in that STD cesspool if she were the last nigger on the planet.”

Alonzo scrambles over the counter, sending the drinks and eggs flying to the floor as he swats the phone from the clerk’s hands.

“Are you fucking ser—”

Alonzo bashes an awkward fist into his nose and the clerk shoots both hands to his face, moaning, “Oh, you motherfucker,” and backing up against the wall of cigarettes, “you goddamn nigger piece of—”

Alonzo tackles the clerk and cigarettes rain down upon them. Then they’re both out of sight, their presence evidenced by the sound of grunting and fighting. Josh struggles to move, caught in a freeze-frame of indecision, like a scratched DVD. Alonzo won’t be able to take the clerk alone for much longer. A sucker punch will not grant you the upper hand forever.

He hurries around the counter and finds Alonzo sitting on the clerk’s chest, shoving the photograph of his mom into his mouth.

“Eat it! Fucking eat it! She ain’t good enough for you? Fuck you, you ain’t good enough for her.”

The clerk gags as the balled-up photo proceeds past his resistant tongue and down his throat.

“Alonzo,” Josh says, tapping his friend’s shoulder. “Stop. Please.”

And he stops.

Trembling and breathing hard, he takes his hands off the clerk’s bloated face and the clerk spits out the soggy ball of paper. Alonzo looks up at Josh, eyes screaming, like he just awoke from a nightmare. “What am I doing?”

Josh holds out his palm. “Let’s get out of here.”

Alonzo stretches his arm out and just as their fingertips connect, the clerk moans and shoves Alonzo to the floor. Josh catches his friend and falls back on his ass. The clerk frantically climbs to his feet and if this were a horror movie, this would be the part where the clerk mutates into some supernatural carnivore, except this ain’t a horror movie, it’s real life, and the clerk just scrambles away from them in search of something underneath the counter.

The shotgun.

“Shit, he’s gonna shoot us,” Josh says, pointing and backing up against the wall. Cigarette cartons bounce off his head but it doesn’t matter, nothing is going to matter once the clerk finds what he’s after.

Josh pushes Alonzo and inertia pushes Alonzo into the clerk. He grunts and trips forward and bashes his head against the register. His body goes limp and collapses to the floor, leaving behind a sticky chunk of hair and gore on the edge of the cash drawer.

They stand over the motionless body, the sound of their own hearts beating loud enough to satisfy a rock concert.

“What have we done?” Josh whispers, thinking please be okay and knowing that he isn’t, not now, not ever—not just the clerk but also Josh and Alonzo. Their lives are ruined, there’s no walking away from something like this and living a full, healthy life, not after stealing someone else’s, and that’s exactly what they’ve done—stolen a life. They’re thieves. Murderers. Monsters.

Alonzo steps over the clerk’s body—planting one foot on his spine—and attempts to pull open the register, but it doesn’t budge, might as well be glued shut, just another prop displayed on the set of this poorly budgeted horror movie.

“Try hitting one of the buttons.” Josh hardly recognizes his own voice.

Alonzo gets it open and Josh collects a bag from the counter and holds it open while Alonzo empties the cash into it, moving on autopilot, minds frozen in carbonate and bodies operating under the guidance of malignant puppeteers.

“Some beer, too,” Alonzo says and Josh nods because why not? Why not take the whole goddamn store? Alonzo steps off the dead clerk and the dead clerk groans and starts sitting up and maybe he’s not dead after all, maybe Satan’s giving him a second chance to seek vengeance against the two cold-hearted kids who murdered him for no reason, no fucking reason at all.

“What . . . what happened?” the clerk asks, a deep gash on the side of his head, thick chunks of blood and gore dripping from his confused face.

But Josh and Alonzo are already fleeing the gas station, running as fast as their legs will allow, running, running, running, but no matter how fast or how long they run, Josh knows it will never be enough.

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