Excerpt || The First and Final Game
Altair 6/7, Altair Press, ed. Robert Stephenson, pub. 2000
Aurealis Award Best Horror Short Story winner
Ditmar Award Best Short Story shortlist
I will enjoy telling you this story, Martin. I have
your eloquence at last. I will enjoy caressing your cold still hands and
delighting in my own pulse.
Martin.
You have that blank stare of the dead now.
It is my first day as a flesh and blood human being.
I have been standing, staring out this window until my eyes burn. Sharp
white daylight turns the bay into flat glass and slices cleanly across
rooftops.
Across the water, houses squat behind high hedges,
hidden from their neighbours. Electricity is irregular here, and so are
phones, but the privacy is absolute.
You could kill every single person in every single
house and hardly anyone would disturb you. It's that kind of place.
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