Death Scenes

By Sean Farrell and Son

The following was composed on a mechanical typewriter. Each author wrote a small portion, followed by the second author adding to the short story. Spelling corrections and formatting has been changed, but the remainder is original.

Death Scenes

Latin looked around and saw the carnage and mayhem that surrounded him, he saw one of his comrades get hit and they fell to the ground, their eyes (unintelligible) blank. Latin screams but he can't hear himself over the sound of cannons and machine guns Latin hid behind a mound of dirt hoping that he was safe but of course he underestimates karma. Before he could react, the whistle of a mortar ended next to him and all he knew was a flash, mud, and pain.

He awoke covered in sweat with his legs tangled in his bedsheets. Heart slowly returned to a normal speed and descended from his throat back to its home in his chest. It dawned on Latin that his memory of battle was only a dream, but it felt so real...

"Dad was right," He confessed to his empty bedroom, "that caffeine and sugar after bedtime can lead to some really strange dreams."

As he opened his eyes again and looked around, he suddenly got the impression there was something different about the room he was in. It looked as he remembered, trophys on top of the bookshelf, a few posters and a pile of dirty laundry. Perhaps it was the mysterious trench coat and large black, wide-brimmed hat over by the colset. They were standing seven feet up and had shape almost as if... as if there was someone, something that wore them. The massive bare feet covered in long curly brown...fur below the trench coat proved the non-vacancy of this mysterious wardrobe.

"Don't get up on my account," the growling, gravelly voice right out of a pinot noire detective story said. He continued "and its just noire for those pulp fiction tales. Pinot is the drink."

"How did you know what I was thinking?"

"I didn't know, but I'm here to talk to you about this place. I've heard all the reactions to me over the ages, and you strike me as the off meme type. Glad I still got the insight after all this time." The hat, coat, and feet replied, barely moving. They continued, "Has the shock worn off now, Latin?"

"Unfortunately no," Latin said. Latin looked around the room and saw that the posters were all in Japanese, he then looked at the man and saw that he had a detonator in his coat pocket. He looked at Latin, grabbed the detonator, said "See you later" and pressed the button. The building disappeared before Latin's eyes and he then found himself in a smoky battlefield where he and others were being bombarded by the enemy. He looked around the battlefield and his eyes landed on a man in a trench coat sitting in a tank. He sees Latin and waves the tank's gun, then moves toward Latin's position and as it is about to fire, Latin SCREAMS at the weird man "DU TEUFEL!" and then the tank fires.

Latin woke with a start as he hears a Stuka. The Stuka drops its payload and Latin finds himself on a warship, he sees the man and storms over to him angry. He says angrily to the man, "What are you doing here?"

"Giving you your punishment."

"WHAT?"

But it's too late, the ship explodes and this time Latin is in a plane that's stalling in a flat spin. You look and see that the pilot is the man mysterious man. The plane is close to the ground. Latin, now terrified, ejects. But it goes wrong and the cockpit collides with Latin's head...

(nothing follows)