Michael Montoure's Blog, page 7

Last Call to Pre-Order PERMANENT DAMAGE!

Well, after a couple of days of being on an unexpected trip to Las Vegas, which meant a couple of days of laboring under the overly-optimistic assumption that I could *totally* manage a social media campaign for a book launch purely with my cell phone, I am on my way home. So, hopefully, no more mangled links posted to Twitter or Facebook — just this one last blog post to remind you that you have until midnight tonight to pre-order my new collection of short stories and get your name on the Acknowledgments Page! Thanks!

“Permanent Damage” Teaser Eight: THE OLD APARTMENT

Three days left until the release date for Permanent Damage. Ten stories. A teaser every day for each story to whet your appetite, give you a hint of the plot and the feel of them.

This time, a man seeks shelter somewhere he should never go back to . . . .

THE OLD APARTMENT

That morning, that cold and rootless morning when I felt like the sky might open up and I wouldn’t be able to hold on to anything and I might just fall right off the face of the world, I decided — a little drunkenly, like I said — that maybe just this once, I could go back home. Stephanie would have left for work already — I could just let myself in, get a few hours sleep in a real bed, use her shower, and leave, and she’d never know. Or if she caught me there, I could apologize, or we’d have a screaming fight and she’d hate me even more or anything or whatever, but I was too damn tired to care.

So I did. I drove back to the old place, and I didn’t even have to think about it, barely needed to keep my eyes open to make all the right turns, drifted to a slow stop in my old parking space. Walked to the door, arms and legs feeling like they were full of cement that was starting to set, and fumbled with the key and let myself inside.

The inside of the place was warm and dark, blinds pulled shut, and I stood just inside the door for a second, eyes shut and swaying slightly, listening for the slightest sound, the smallest reaction, and when I was sure I was alone, I kicked off my shoes and walked down the hall to the bedroom, pulling off my shirt, my belt. Crawled into soft cotton sheets that smelled for all the world, here in the dead of winter, like they had been dried outside in warm sunshine on a clothesline. I was asleep almost before my head touched the pillow, and I slept deep and dreamless.

Jerked awake hours later by the feeling of something landing on the pillow next to my head. Eyes snapped open — cat, a cat had jumped into bed, and my eyes closed again. When did Stephanie get a cat, I wondered? Shook myself awake again when I remembered — Stephanie is allergic to cats.

I sat up, disoriented, and looked around, absently petting the startled cat.

Posters I didn’t recognize for bands I didn’t know. Clothes spilling out of the open drawers of an unfamiliar dresser — Stephanie never left her clothes like that, she always ironed and folded things and they were safely and sanely shut away and these were clothes she’d never wear in bright colors she hated —

I didn’t know where I was. The room was familiar, but nothing in it was. I threw the covers back and swung my legs to the floor. The cat mewled in protest and jumped to the floor, ran off.

I looked at the clock (unfamiliar clock, unfamiliar nightstand) on the nightstand. Nearly four.

I gathered all my stuff in a blind panic, struggled into my shirt, and bolted to the door. Whoever lived here, they might not be here now, but I had no idea when they’d be back, they’d, they’d scream, they’d call the police, they’d lock me up. I might not have much of a life left but I didn’t want it ruined.

I made it back to my car and crawled inside and slammed the door shut, and I never felt safer or more sheltered in it than at that moment. I sat there, still staring at the old apartment building, getting my breath back, trying to will my heart to slow down. It felt like a bird throwing itself against the bars of its cage.

I realized after a moment that I was laughing hysterically.

______

“Permanent Damage” — Available Oct 1, 2012. Last day to pre-order!

“Permanent Damage” Teaser Seven: NEW YEAR, OLD GHOSTS

Four days left until the release date for Permanent Damage. Ten stories. A teaser every day for each story to whet your appetite, give you a hint of the plot and the feel of them.

Today we find a man who’s used to seeing his own ghosts. Let’s see how well he deals with someone else’s . . . .

NEW YEAR, OLD GHOSTS

I placed the photograph on top of the pile of books and watched the agitated dust spin and dance in the light. Dust really is what we leave behind — dead skin cells and tiny fragments of hair, fibers from the clothes we wear. Dust is older than life itself and its motes hold more memories than you could ever count.

“It’s all right,” I said quietly. “You can come out now.”

I stood there motionless, waiting for the barest whisper of a sign. None came, and I nodded — he would show himself when he was ready, or not at all. I went to start my morning.

I ran the shower as hot as I can stand it — I always needed to, mornings after Cecily’s visits, needing to rekindle some kind of inner warmth. I stood under the pounding water and just let my attention drift, thinking of nothing at all, feeling just animal pleasure in the heat and letting the tension bleed out of my shoulders and back.

The shower curtain was pulled sharply back. Just a few inches, maybe a foot, but enough to snap me back to the moment. I shut off the water and reached out for my towel, wrapped it around my waist, and opened the curtain the rest of the way.

Easier to see, in the steam-filled room, an absence the shape of a man. It stood there for just a moment, only disappearing when I stepped out into the room, letting the steam billow into the space where it had been standing.

Already fading in the heat, letters on the bathroom mirror, drawn by a dead finger. CAREFUL.

______

“Permanent Damage” — Available Oct 1, 2012. Pre-order now!

“Permanent Damage” Teaser Six: HEROES AND VILLAINS

Five days left until the release date for Permanent Damage. Ten stories. A teaser every day for each story to whet your appetite, give you a hint of the plot and the feel of them.

Today, a glimpse of how far obsession can lead . . . .

HEROES AND VILLAINS

This next message had no words at all. Just the sound of Paulie crying. Just deep, racking sobs. Ben had never heard anything like it, not from Paulie, not from anyone. It barely even sounded like a person. At the end of it all, it sounded like Paulie was trying to collect himself to say something, but instead he hung up.

Ben was drifting along the corridor, drawn moth-like toward the light, thinking to himself, What did you do? Paulie, what did you do? He steadied and guided himself by trailing the outstretched fingers of one hand along the wall, the orange-peel texture cool and comforting under his fingertips.

He looked at his phone, squinting against the harsh rectangle of light. One more message. He pressed “Next” again.

“Ben? Can you pick up the phone? Can you please, please, please just call me back?” He was still sobbing — not like before, but it was still hard to make out the words. “Can you — I fucked up, Ben, this is — bad, this is so bad, I can’t tell you on the phone, but — can you please please come over here? Right now?”

There was more, but Ben didn’t hear it. He forgot the phone was in his hand.

______

“Permanent Damage” — Available Oct 1, 2012. Pre-order now!

“Permanent Damage” Teaser Five: SAFE HOUSE

Six days left until the release date for Permanent Damage. Ten stories. A teaser every day for each story to whet your appetite, give you a hint of the plot and the feel of them.

This time, we visit a man who’s just agreed to let the neighbors use his house as a safe place for their children to come in an emergency . . . .

SAFE HOUSE

“How come you’ve never had children of your own, Mr. Avery?” Doris asked him at one point. She’d asked him this before — she never seemed to remember that she’d asked him on more than one occasion. Probably because he never gave her a good answer.

“Oh, never saw much call for it,” he said, and gave her another sunlit golden-brown smile.

“You just seem so good with kids,” she said back.

“Other people’s kids,” he laughed. “There’s always people having babies. There’s always enough children around. And I can send them home with their parents when they get cranky, isn’t that right, Claudia?” And he bounced her on his knee some more.

That must have been enough of an answer for Doris, since she stopped asking. They talked about the President instead, and the weather.

Nice kids. They really were. Nice young couple. Sweet young daughter.

But when they were gone —

Lawrence watched them leave. Hand kept carefully steady just barely lifting the curtain aside, peering out, watching them — Claudia skipping and bouncing her way down the driveway, Howard and Doris sedate and confident behind her, and he watched them all get into their Saturn and drive off.

The smile left Lawrence’s face. Drained away as quickly as the blood would drain from his face if he cut his own throat.

He let the curtain fall, grabbed a screwdriver from the kitchen drawer where he kept his tools, and headed upstairs.

______

“Permanent Damage” — Available Oct 1, 2012. Pre-order now!

“Permanent Damage” Teaser Four: THE LEAK

Seven days left until the release date for Permanent Damage. Ten stories. A teaser every day for each story to whet your appetite, give you a hint of the plot and the feel of them.

Today, a problem that will hopefully go away by itself . . . .

THE LEAK

What’s that dripping sound? If that’s that damned faucet again, the manager is going to —

He stopped, hand still on the bathroom light switch, and looked down at the floor . . . and then up at the ceiling, to its source.

Blood. That was his first thought. Water, just water, was his second thought, some burst rusty pipe somewhere staining the water this dark.

His third thought returned to the first. Blood.

No rusted water was this thick, spattered and spread like this. He knew blood when he saw it. He’d had a hundred nosebleeds, growing up, sensitive, sickly child. He knew the way blood looked and flowed.

He remembered the numbers he’d left in the room behind him. Clock numbers, important numbers, the time, he was already late —

I do not need this, he thought. I don’t have time for this.

He licked his lips nervously. He should call someone — ?

He grabbed his wastebasket from by the sink — ugly little thing, brown plastic, childish floral pattern embossed gracelessly in its side — and pulled the plastic garbage bag out of it, set the bag aside, and set the wastebasket down in the puddle to catch the dripping blood.

There. That would do for now.

He didn’t shave. Just pulled the bathroom door shut behind him, got dressed, and went to work.

______

“Permanent Damage” — Available Oct 1, 2012. Pre-order now!

“Permanent Damage” Teaser Three: THE LESSONS LEARNED AND THE DAMAGE DONE

Eight days left until the release date for Permanent Damage. Ten stories. A teaser every day for each story to whet your appetite, give you a hint of the plot and the feel of them.

Today, we see what happens on the playground when the adults aren’t around . . . .

THE LESSONS LEARNED AND THE DAMAGE DONE

He didn’t need to check if the kid was breathing, or if his heart was beating. He was dead. He could feel that much from here.

The other kid who was standing there — Trevor didn’t know his name, either, but he thought it was one of Sam’s friends — he picked up something heavy. A brick. Brick red, blood red. “Sam was chasing him,” this kid said. “Found a brick and threw it at him.”

“I hit his head,” Sam wailed. Trevor flinched at the sound — it seemed fundamentally wrong. “I hit him in the fucking head and he just went down.”

“Did you tell a teacher? Did anyone?”

Sam stared at him. “Are you fucking crazy?”

Trevor shrugged, his hands in his pockets. It made him feel weirdly fearless, seeing Sam like this. “Why tell me?” he asked.

The other kid said, “Justin says you can fix it.”

Trevor made himself laugh. “What?” he said.

Justin nodded glumly. “I told them about the dog.”

You told — ” He stopped. Looked at the other two kids. “You believed him?”

“Can you fix it?” Sam asked.

Trevor kneeled down next to the dead boy. Everyone else took a step back. Maybe they didn’t want to think about how close they were standing. Or maybe they were scared. Not of the dead boy. Of Trevor.

“I don’t know,” Trevor said. “I’ve never done a person.”

“You gotta try,” Sam said. “If you don’t, I swear to God I’ll — ”

Trevor looked up at him. “You’ll do what?” he said.

“Nothing. I just — please, can you do it? Please?”

“If I do,” Trevor said, “you never touch me again. Got it?” He hoped it sounded tough.

“Sure. Sure, whatever, anything.”

Trevor held his hands out over the dead kid, palms down. He jerked them away, as if he’d touched a hot stove burner. He sighed, rubbed them together, tried again.

“I can’t believe you told them about the fucking dog,” Trevor said.

______

“Permanent Damage” — Available Oct 1, 2012. Pre-order now!

“Permanent Damage” Teaser Two: THE DEVIL YOU KNOW

Nine days left until the release date for Permanent Damage. Ten stories. A teaser every day for each story to whet your appetite, give you a hint of the plot and the feel of them.

Today, we look in on the most dangerous game of all . . . .

THE DEVIL YOU KNOW

“He keeps scaring me. He doesn’t even say anything anymore, he just — looks at me, whenever she’s not looking, and — I don’t know.”

“Have you talked to Rachel about this?”

“I’ve tried. There’s no point to it. She is just so — completely blind to him.” She was shaking again, even here in the comfort of Matthew’s bed. “I just still get so scared, every time I leave her alone with him. I’m so convinced I’m going to come home and find her dead. Or just — gone, that she’ll disappear with him and not come back. And I’ll never know what happened to her unless they find her in a shallow grave somewhere.” She curled up closer to him.

“You really honestly think he’s dangerous.” Matthew looked thoughtful for a minute. “You think we should talk to the police?”

We. She liked that, now, she was part of a we. “No, but I don’t — have any proof of anything. I just — each time I see the door close with the two of them behind it, I’m sure, absolutely sure, that’s the last time I’m going to see her alive.”

“But — okay, supposing you’re right, why would he be dragging it out like this? If he was really going to kill her, why wouldn’t he just — do it?”

She shook her head. “I think that’d be — too quick,” she said. “I think he’s . . . like a cat that’s got a mouse, who keeps letting it go and catching it, and — I know he thinks this is funny. He thinks the fact that I know, that I know what he’s really like and she doesn’t — he thinks that’s funny, he’s laughing at both of us, and I don’t think he wants to give that up just yet, but I keep thinking, maybe it’s tonight, maybe this is the night he finally gets bored with it, and . . . just . . . . ”

Matthew’s eye were wide. “ . . . How have you been managing to live with all this?”

She laughed. “Not very well.”

______

“Permanent Damage” — Available Oct 1, 2012. Pre-order now!

“Permanent Damage” Teaser One: UPSTAIRS, LOCKED

There are ten days left until the release date for Permanent Damage. Which contains ten stories. Which gives me an idea.

I’m going to post a teaser every day for each story — just a few choice paragraphs from each one to whet your appetite, give you a hint of the plot and the feel of them.

It’s coming soon. And this time, the damage will be permanent ….

UPSTAIRS, LOCKED

“What are we going to do?” Becky said.

Tami knew what she meant. She meant, what are you going to do? You’re back now, big sister — you’re going to make everything okay, aren’t you?

Tami drained the last of her drink. “I want to see it.”

Becky looked even more pale. “Mother never — ”

“Mother,” Tami said, the word like a curse, “isn’t here to say anything different.” She looked up at Chris. ”You know where the keys are, right?”

He looked at Becky first. For permission, or maybe for forgiveness — it didn’t matter. “Yes, I do.”

“So let’s go.” She stood, uneasily, and almost reached for her leather coat — wanting some protection, some kind of talisman — but abandoned it at the last minute.

Chris led her into the kitchen, opened the cluttered drawer she still remembered, reached into the back of it and took out a small ring of keys. He unlocked the door to the attic and led her upstairs.

She could hear it, reacting to their footsteps, to their approach. Hear the whimpering.

Oh, God, she thought, watching Chris open the padlocks, throw back the deadbolts, unlock the door. It’s all just the way I remembered it. It’s all real.

“Hello, Pennyroyal,” she whispered under her breath before the door was even opened.

______

“Permanent Damage” — Available Oct 1, 2012. Pre-order now!

This week’s free story: “Lullaby for Two Voices”

While you’re waiting patiently for the October 1st release date for PERMANENT DAMAGE, here’s another free story to tide you over. As always, please pass this link around to your friends, and if you like it, posting a short review would be much appreciated. Thanks!

Don’t have a Kindle? Get one here, or download a free Kindle reading app for your PC, Mac, smartphone, or tablet!

Lullaby for Two Voices

Sarah loves her two twins, bright and laughing Josh and dark and troubled Kyle, more than anything in the world — but the day that she will have to pay the price for their strange birth is coming ever closer ….

Free from September 14, 2012 through September 16, 2012!  Download now »

This short story originally appeared in the collection “SLICES,” available now.





#list-l2v { display : none }