Psycho Pete
It’s time for Friday Fictioneers here in blog-land, hosted as always by Rochelle over at Addicted to Purple. The goal is to write 100-ish words in response to a photo prompt, which this week has been contributed by Kent Bonham.
What is this week’s photo of, I wonder? I thought of an idea within a second of seeing it. Is my idea funny, sick, gross or disturbing? You be the judge.
To see this week’s other entries, click on the blue frog guy, and check back during the week as more stories are added.
“What’s that?” asked Frank.
“It’s the ‘pain stick’,” replied Pete, hitting Frank over the head with it. A mess of blood and innards spurted out.
“Ugh!” screamed Frank. “What the hell?”
“I squished a rodent and shoved a stick up…”
“GROSS! Get it away from me! You’re sick!”
“Hello? Petey?” came a small voice from the doorway.
“Oh God,” muttered Pete under his breath, “it’s my baby sister.” Then louder, “What?”
The little girl looked close to tears. “Have oo seen Hawwy Hamster? He not in his cage.”
The colour drained from Frank’s face. Pete grinned maniacally, eyes ablaze.
“Is my idea funny, sick, gross or disturbing? ”
Yes
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Yay, the full set 🙂
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On second reading, it just hit me it was the brother who is twisted.
Answer is still yes, with extra emphasis on “disturbing”.
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Yes, Psycho Pete’s the twisted one. I fear for his future.
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I fear foir the future of anyone who is around him and also of the rodents,,,ewww!
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He’s certainly not a safe person to be around.
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uh oh!
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Uh oh indeed.
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Now THAT’s my guy. Last week didn’t have a revolting, creepy conclusion and I thought I was reading the wrong blog! This is much better.
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Yes, sorry about last week, I’m back!
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I think it’s time for a therapist.
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For Pete? Or me? Or both? 🙂
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Perhaps both, especially if you think Pete’s real. 😉
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Heh heh 🙂
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funny, sick, gross AND disturbing. Jeffrey Dahmer rises again. Well done
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I looked Dahmer up and I reckon Pete is well on his way.
Thanks!
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Oh gross! I might not be able to get this out of my mind.
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I was going to put a warning at the top but I thought that would make people want to read it even more!
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Poor Hawwy! I have a feeling that little girl is going to have a long childhood with plenty of stories to tell.
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Stories like “how my brother was banged up age 16 for… well… I’d rather not say, it’s too awful” 🙂
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Dear Draliman,
Another serial killer in the making. A grim tale and a phase many boys go through in life. Well done.
Aloha,
Doug
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Dear Doug,
That reminds me, this is the second serial-killer-in-the-making FF I’ve done. Maybe I’ve watched too much Dexter!
Ali
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Dear Ali,
Pete’s a little sicko, isn’t he? He has all the makings of a future psycho. I hope his parents get him some help before it’s too late. I’d say nicely done but Pete’s not nice. 😉
Shalom,
Rochelle
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Dear Rochelle,
He is, very much so. Hopefully his parents aren’t in denial about his blossoming condition.
I’m glad you “enjoyed” it 🙂
Ali
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A rodent’s innards — disgusting as it is — becomes so much worse when it’s his sister’s pet… Pete is on his way to the penitentiary system..
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We can only hope. We sure don’t want him running loose for too long.
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Ha, sick! That kid’s going to need therapy! 😉 Great story 🙂
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Therapy at the very least 🙂
Glad you liked it!
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Very graphic story that tells us a lot. Well done!
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Thanks! Tricky prompt this week but I reckoned it was definitely a squashed something.
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LOL!!! Funny.
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I thought it was funny too. I nearly tagged it “humour” 🙂
Glad you enjoyed it!
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What a twisted tail, it’ marvelously awful. Great work.
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I like that, “marvellously awful” 🙂 Glad you liked it!
Sorry for the late reply, your comment got unexpectedly caught by the spam filter. No idea why 😦
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Well, there’s an image I’ll remember. I vote ‘all of the above’ plus just right for this sticky prompt.
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I’d vote for all of those too. One of those things I feel a bit bad about laughing at given the grossness 🙂
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This Pete is really a dangerous boy, animal cruelty when a kid can get worse when he grows up.
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I suspect he’ll escalate to people if he doesn’t get some help.
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‘Pain stick’. Ha! That’s clever. Pete’s got big problems. Good dialogue.
Marg
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Let’s hope he gets some help before they become bigger problems.
I’m glad you enjoyed it, I like writing dialogue 🙂
Ali
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the ‘pain stick’ *shudder*
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They don’t call him “Psycho” Pete for nothing 🙂
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Oh my goodness…I think one is all three. Funny, sick AND disturbing!
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That’s what I think too! I wasn’t sure about a story featuring a squished hamster on a stick, but it came to me instantly and made me smile 🙂 so…
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Tell me, what kind of brother were you? This reminds me of my sister’s boyfriend – when he was little he flayed his sister’s goldfish (he wasn’t to be just like his dad, who fished). Funny!
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Pete’s not me 🙂
He flayed her goldfish? Holy wossname. I hope he was informed that he needs to go catch his own in future!
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That is a TERRIFYING story!
Pete is a scary, scary kid.
Alas, I’m not going to be able to get this out of my head.
Well-done!
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This is the second FF I’ve done about a budding serial killer. I think maybe I shouldn’t have watched all of Dexter back-to-back 🙂
The very thought of a kid like this scares me too. Twisted, no conscience.
Thank you for reading and leaving a comment!
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I’ve yet to read all the other stories (apart from Rochelle’s) on FF, because this was a hectic work-week. I look forward to everybody’s stories this weekend. (Right now, I’m presiding over my school’s Poetry Club, and just finished writing a poem, while my students are busy with theirs. It’s lovely.)
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That sounds like a very relaxing evening/afternoon (I’m not sure where you are!). I’m just watching some TV before bedtime.
Enjoy the other stories – people have had lots of different ideas about what the mystery object is 🙂
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Pete is on the road to free food and housing for life, in penitentiary, where pain sticks just might be real! EEEEeek! Great writing! 🙂
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I wouldn’t want to be his cell mate 🙂
Glad you enjoyed it!
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Uh oh! It sounds like a psycho killer in the making. Poor little hamster! Get that stick away from me, man. Excellent take, Alistair. Well done really.
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He’s heading down the wrong path, for sure. They usually start with animals, so I hear.
Thanks, I’m glad you enjoyed my little story!
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Dear Draliman, Psycho Pete will have a long criminal record. Very well written! I can see this in my mind like it does happen. WELL DONE! Nan 🙂
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I’m guessing he’ll be in and out of jail until he does something really nasty and ends up in there for the rest of his life.
I’m glad you liked it!
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Here’s to Pete’s incarceration.
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I second that.
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Oh dear… better a hamster than a squirrel.
This post somehow bypassed by Reader… glad I realized I hadn’t gotten my weekly dose of twisted dralihorror and came back to check…
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… and there it was in all its horrific glory!
I would never do that to a squirrel, never fear.
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Dear Draliman. What a great (and disturbing) story. Perfectly crafted. Thanks. LHN
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Dear LHN,
Thanks, I’m glad you liked it, disturbing though it was!
Sorry for the late reply, your comment fell into my spam folder 😦
Ali
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Not a clue how your mind went to a dead pet from that photo, that’s a brain scan I want to see.
Yeah Pete, I see a future for him in future DrAli stories.
I’m shocked you didn’t know about J. Dahmer. Loved Dexter!
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It took my brain less than a second to see “dead hamster on a stick”. Then I smiled (bwahahaha).
I could definitely keep Pete going, cataloguing his life as he grows up.
There might have been a mention of Dahmer on the news at the time, but it was a while ago and it wouldn’t have been a big story, having happened in a foreign country. That’s the sort of story which gets more time on the internet these days.
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I’m going with “funny, sick, gross and disturbing” too! Did I mention, twisted. 😉 But cleverly written as well.
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“Twisted” makes a good addition to the list of adjectives 🙂
Thanks!
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Oh my gawd and funny-sick, too! He’ll get a few time outs for this for sure….
Ellespeth
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Hopefully, he’s one sick dude!
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Revolting and disturbing, hence I say a, erm, well-done horror story! I think it’s one of the hardest genres to write, FWIW.
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Thanks! It’s horror with a psychological aspect I always find chilling.
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Ooops, I shouldn’t be laughing so hard. Poor Pete’s sister. I am seriously worried about how Pete is going to turn out. Well told.
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I had a bit of a giggle when I saw the photo 🙂 Then I thought about what’s going on in Pete’s head…
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I think Pete is a phenomenon; one that can be seen in most societies.
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I think there’s probably a lot of him about too.
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My initial response was laughter, then I felt kind of bad for the little hamster, then I laughed again! Uncomfortable evil!!! Muhahahahaha!
Well done, as always!
~ Andrea ❤
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The moment I first looked at the picture and thought of a squashed pet on a stick, I smiled 🙂
Glad you enjoyed it!
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Wow! That was truly dreadful … Now I know I COULD NEVER write horror. I would frighten myself so much I’d not be able to go to bed for fear of the nightmares! The worst of it is that there’s an element of humour to this tale and it frightens me that I think that. Very well written.
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It certainly made me smile in a “that’s awful” kind of way. You’ll be relieved to hear that if this happened in real life, I wouldn’t be smiling 🙂
I’m glad you “enjoyed” it!
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I like it! But I am not so fond of Psycho Pete. But anyway, I guess I may be going a whole other direction with this, but:
My father has always said, there’s a point in every little boy’s life (it’s OK, he grew up in the 40s), a crossroads — or maybe he just said, there was a point in his life, when he was a little boy, when he recognized the morbid curiosity inside himself (maybe a touch more than morbid), acted on it once (or twice) with other little boys (perhaps strapping a salamander to a fire cracker), and then decided **DECIDED** (that’s the part I love) that he would go no further down that road and, even, that he would be a friend and advocate for animals. He always taught us, they feel everything we feel only they can’t talk about it, not sure I totally believe that because I think that so much of what we feel is embedded in language. But I do agree for all intents and purposes, especially in that non-rational part of myself — if you can agree/disagree in that part (?) and/or if that part can/should be separated from the rest. He also said, with pets, let them come and go as they like, with regard to affection. Don’t hold them against their will, petting, kissing, etc., when they would rather be doing something else.
I’m not sure girls generally find themselves at this crossroads exactly, but I will say, I was curious. So was my sister. We didn’t want to stick a stick up a hamster butt, but if an animal was already dead, we might look at it longer than some others. The little girls next door ask me, often, when/if we can dig up the baby birds we buried a summer (or two?) ago. I feel bad that we haven’t gotten around to that yet. Seems perfectly innocent to want to see what’s become of them.
But back to Dad, he neglected to tell me that after that crossroads, he took a black snake to high school one day as a prank. And the prank went bad. The snake was killed. He was mad at my aunt for sharing. He has always made a point to drive around snakes (and the like), even get out and gently encourage them to move off the road. But true to his complicated relationship with the animal planet, he told me recently about how he saw a snake in a tree, trying to get into a bird nest, which is a “perfectly natural” thing for it to do — and he knows this. But he became irrationally enraged (he admitted) at the snake for going after the eggs, poked at it with a stick, and when the snake proceeded, he became personally insulted (my take on it), as in “How dare he ignore me! My stick! Who does he think he is!?” And he poked harder, sending the snake on its way, he wasn’t sure where/how, it (he?) moved so quickly, “just a blue streak and the rustling of leaves and he was gone!” And the whole point of his story, I think, was that he was worried he’d hurt the snake! He had interfered, attempted to intervene, in a natural event … and what a mess he had made.
I have a similar story. Maybe it’s in the genes, like whatever’s up w/ psycho Pete — probably at least in part. Me? I have a different take on that photo. Maybe I’ll give it a go, even though it’s late. Late is my middle name.
p.s. Is “Hawwy” the little girl’s attempt at pronouncing “Harry”?
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Wow, that’s quite a comment, thanks!
I understand the “crossroads” thing. I was one of those who used a magnifying glass to focus the sun onto slugs as a little ‘un. I don’t like slugs but the very thought of doing that now makes me feel ill. So I guess I took the “path-less-psycho”, fortunately.
I agree about pets. I once had a cat who would make it very clear when she didn’t want petting, so I left her alone. Other times she would start meowing from upstairs, so I’d go up and give her a cuddle. There’s no point trying to force your affection on pets, they know their own minds!
There’s no way I’d get that close to a snake (and there’s no way our most venomous snake could kill a healthy person, or even make them particularly ill!). Your Dad may have made a mess of it, but his intentions were good.
Thanks for sharing your stories about your Dad!
Give the photo prompt a go by all means, and join in weekly if you like. It’s a fun little community, writing a little story every week and commenting on each others’!
p.s. Yes, “Hawwy” is little sister’s attempt at “Harry” 🙂
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