Sam reaches in his mouth to find his teeth have fallen out...painless, but with the nightmare feeling of terror welling up in his chest as they hit the floor (tink! tink! tink!)...stinking holes expose dangling, twitching nerve endings...a cascading waterfall of blood pushes out passed the tongue...animal panic.

He rips at his lips and tongue, turning his lower jaw into a mass of eviscerated meat...his bottom jaw rips itself loose and joins his teeth on the floor, the tongue flopping madly around like a severed octopus limb...a death worthy of Hollywood.

The Director runs around screaming, "More Blood! More Blood!"

"But sir," a shrill voice screams, “if we add anymore blood, no one will believe it! It won't look real!"

The director runs on camera and slits his wrists...has just enough time to carve three sixes into his chest before he dies...the whole thing has a sort of "end of the world" feel coupled with an old spaghetti western.

A shrill voice screams, "Did you get that?! Did you get that?!"

Someone offstage answers, "Yes, but it didn't move me...”

"To hell with you! We're getting the Academy Award for that death scene!"

The gaffer climbs down from a lamp pole...all the lights dim...mood music floats across the room from out of nowhere.

"Can someone clean this up?!" A tired janitor picks up the carcass of the pale Director and crams it into an oil drum filled with sulfuric acid.

"Keep that pulp for the banquet scene!"

"Yes, sir!"

"And what are all these teeth everywhere? What are we, forgetful dentists? Someone push a broom around this place, for goodness sakes!"

The dry whisk of a broom on the floor.

"Action!" A door bangs open and closed offstage...Sam goes lurching around outside, bleeding on the sidewalk, mouth a miasma of gore.

"Pleesh! Pleesh helf me! My teef! My teef!"

"Cut!"

The blockbuster hit of the summer.


"On the Set With Dante and Beelzebub"

Copyright: © 2011 Dustin Reade

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Dustin Reade lives somewhere in Washington, where he spends a great deal of time reading about, but not looking for, Bigfoot. His work has appeared in various anthologies and magazines. He also makes short films that feature strange characters living out exotic fantasies on strange worlds. He is a Leo.

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