Charnel House Quotes

“Passing the kitchen the second time, the vodka sang to him from the freezer its sweet song of forgetfulness. He longed to dart in there and free it from its prison, to twist the cap off with a practiced flick of his thumb and tip his head back, filling his mouth with the only thing that could quell the fear that roiled his stomach. Mullins clapped one hand on his shoulder, perhaps sensing something. The goddamn man was on him like a tick.”
― Fred Anderson, Charnel House

“Monsters never seemed as real when you were out of the place that gave them their power.”
― Fred Anderson, Charnel House

“on the other hand, had been a hippie-dippy back in the day. That’s what Grandma Rose—Mom’s mom—called him. Bobby wasn’t sure exactly what it meant, but he thought it involved long hair and LSD. Grandma Rose didn’t hold Dad in high regard, that was for sure. Bobby was just thankful that if his dad had been doing LSD it was a good thing he hadn’t jumped off a rooftop, like the kid in the film Mrs. Callaway had shown them in Health class. The guy had been on a bad trip, the narrator said, and thought he could fly. He had climbed a ladder in the gymnasium of his school and gone through”
― Fred Anderson, Charnel House

“trailer for a while, but with a little time he could save up a down payment for a house, even if alimony and child support payments slowed him down. Who knew? Tina might even want to get back together eventually, to start a new life in a new place where Garraty didn’t drink too much and there wasn’t a dead kid trying to gut him. Distance”
― Fred Anderson, Charnel House

“Water,” he croaked. His throat felt like the arid ground he’d seen all over the news the previous year when the drought in the midwest was so bad, brown earth so criss-crossed with cracks it looked more like plated scales than dirt. He had a sudden memory of a bad dream, one where he was swallowing a snake whole, and his chest tightened. He could almost feel the thing going down. Must”
― Fred Anderson, Charnel House

“Something was in his mouth,”
― Fred Anderson, Charnel House

“And it’s Cuckoo Kid Killer”
― Fred Anderson, Charnel House

“buddy,” he said. “Of course I know what day it is. I was sleeping when you knocked, and I’m still fuzzy. Just confused for a second. This has been a real shitter of a week. I got laid off. Downsized.” Oh, and I killed that boy standing next to you. The one that won’t shut up.”
― Fred Anderson, Charnel House

“smacked into the asphalt”
― Fred Anderson, Charnel House

“Couldn’t he even catch one little fucking break?”
― Fred Anderson, Charnel House