The further adventures of Harold from Flesh Trap

Because Harold is my favorite character from Flesh Trap. So sue me.

Harold Tan loved girls. He loved the girls with drooping eyelids and dirty knees, carpet-burned on their elbows and knuckles. He loved them with bruised lips and black eyes, amputated arms and legs fitted snugly into cuffed pegs with matching collars. Girls looked best spread open, stuffed full of medical utensils as big as fists, laughing and smiling and asking for more.  Harold loved that the most. The girls were poster-sized and pinned to the walls above his bed, dresser and laundry hamper, full-color foldouts with breasts bound in electrical tape and bandages tied over bruised sockets. They were better than the real thing, girls that talked too much and wanted his money and time. These girls never said no, fitting easily under the counter at the Grab-N-Go where Harold hid them, tucked away behind the cash register to keep him company.

He spent most days at the store, manning the counter on swing-shifts. Hair gelled in place, tonguing at the stud in his lip, Harold thumbed through porno mags to pass the time. At night he closed up shop, counted the drawer, caught the last bus to his friend Tony's to drink beer and play X-Box.  Tony was a skater-punk with all manners of holes punched into his face and caps to cover up his tri-colored hair. Sometimes they went out to the dub-step clubs across town when Harold had some extra money. Tony liked to pick up girls with stringy dyed hair and candy-colored outfits. Sometimes the girls even went for it, laughing into their beers and letting Tony fondle them in the bathroom or in the parking lot after last call.

Harold didn't care. He drank his beers, maybe danced. Maybe he watched Tony screw a girl in the men's room with his stupid gap-toothed smile. Maybe the girl asked Harold to join in, once or twice. Harold didn't like these girls with their nose rings, hair dyed pink or turquoise, tasting like cigarettes and beer. He had his girls at home, all to himself, so he just watched and thought about leg braces and leather collars instead.

Coming soon to a computer screen near you.