Bone Orchard (16 page)

Authors: Doug Johnson,Lizz-Ayn Shaarawi

Tags: #Literature & Fiction, #Mystery; Thriller & Suspense, #Thrillers

BOOK: Bone Orchard

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The girl managed only a squeak in reply and dashed out the gate like a mouse.

Lazarus didn’t count to five. He set his rake on top of the leaf bags in the wheelbarrow and walked it to the shed. He disappeared inside and emerged a moment later with a shovel.

His feet crunched over pea gravel and leaves as he made his way back up the path, and he pretended not to see the girl again as she spied from her vantage behind the wall. Perhaps it wasn’t yet time to turn the leaf after all. It was all right. Leaves wouldn’t stop falling. Some would be caught by lucky hands, others by the wind. The clock would never stop ticking. He walked along the spine of trees until he passed Kitty’s plum.
Dark and luscious,
he thought with a pang of nostalgia. Where was there left to go after Kitty? He didn’t know. Maybe he was about to find out. He silently counted from one to five, then thrust the pointed blade of the shovel into the soil and began to dig a new hole. He breathed in the rich, sweet scent and felt alive. Was there a more glorious smell in the world? Lazarus didn’t think so. Life was a garden…

And timing was everything.

EPILOGUE

For dust you are, and to dust you shall return.

-- Genesis 3:19

CHAOS PUBLISHING

Chaos Publishing was created with two key goals in mind: to provide screenwriters with an alternate avenue to showcase their abilities and build their public profile, and to provide readers with great stories from highly talented writers that might never have seen the light of day.

Chaos Publishing

PO Box 1571

Annandale, VA 22003

USA

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

DOUG JOHNSON
is a multi-talented media creator and editor with a passion for telling stories through moving visuals, dynamic sound and the power of the written word. As a freelance audio-visual designer in New York City, his skill and creativity have been showcased in works for television, documentary and film.

Doug was honored in 2010 with a First Place win at the industry-powerhouse Fade In Awards for his short screenplay,
The Bassinet.
He has also written three feature-length screenplays.
Debt to Society
with co-writer Brian Murphy, and
The Holstein Epiphany
and
From Hell I Came
with co-writer Dennis Smithers, Jr.

Doug writes primarily in the crime and suspense genres, with liberal doses of horror, black comedy and the inherent drama of the human condition. He cites as major influences the strange, violent and darkly humorous southern gothic traditions of authors Flannery O’Connor, Edgar Allan Poe and Harry Crews.

Bone Orchard
is his second writing project for Chaos Publishing.

ABOUT THE SCREENWRITER

LIZZ-AYN SHAARAWI is a Texan lost in the Oregon wilderness. She first became enamored with the horror genre when she accidentally caught part of an edited-for-television version of The Shining while still a child. In fifth grade, she managed to coax her mother into letting her check out Stephen King’s Dead Zone during a weekly library trip. After a stern skimming of the book, her mother allowed her to have it on the condition that she promised not to have any nightmares. After all, if it’s a library book it can’t be that bad (cue maniacal laughter.) Not only did these events give her a lasting love of horror (as well as the work of the maestro himself) but they also cemented her need to share her own stories and nightmares with the world. She is a horror screenwriter and author.

Her short stories have been featured in numerous anthologies including
Fortunes: Lost and Found, Phobias, Ain’t No Sanity Clause
, and
Shadows of the Mind.
Her screenplays have been recognized by the Austin Film Festival, The Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting, and the International Page Awards. She is always searching for that elusive “next level” of writing and constantly strives to reach it. You can find her random babblings on
Twitter
under her username @lizzayn

Bone Orchard
is her first script-to-page project for Chaos Publishing.

CLOSING

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