Secrets of the Hanged Man
Icarus Fell thought the afterlife couldn't get any worse...until Hell came looking for him.
When you are the orphaned child of a disgraced nun, and you're saddled with a ridiculous name like Icarus Fell, you don't expect things can go drastically downhill.
Until death comes along and an archangel recruits you for a job you screw up so badly you nearly lose your son to a demonic priest and a fallen angel.
And then, burdened by the lives lost because of your foul ups, you travel to Hell, a detour that costs you more dearly then you could ever have imagined.
No, things couldn't get much worse in the afterlife...unless Satan sends his lap dog to bring back the one thing he thinks belongs to him.
You.
Why couldn't death be easy?
Excerpt from Chapter 3
The
pickle factory smelled of—you guessed it—pickles. I’ve never
been fond of the things; I always picked them off my Big Mac and gave
them to Rae, or threw them away on the many occasions I found myself
gorging on fast food alone. Considering pickles are cucumbers soaked
in evil, this place seemed an odd choice to bring souls finding their
way to Heaven.
Being the middle of the day on a Wednesday didn’t help our situation. It meant a shift in full swing and too many people around for us to be inconspicuous. To my surprise, none of them wore yellow protective suits and inhalators like the guys on Breaking Bad, but regular clothes and hair nets instead, as if they worked in a place devoid of the stink of cucumber death.
We gained access by way of a back door propped open with a broken piece of brick, presumably placed there by someone sneaking out for a smoke. I marveled at the size of the place. We hadn’t stumbled into a Heinz factory, just a local operation, but it was huge. Fluorescent lights dangled from the high ceiling, their harsh glow reflecting on the surfaces of gleaming silver vats and pristine machinery; the interior sparkled with a level of clean to make most hospitals jealous.
But neither its cleanliness nor the fact it showed up in my scroll brought it close enough to godliness for me to consider devouring one of the hated little things.
Being the middle of the day on a Wednesday didn’t help our situation. It meant a shift in full swing and too many people around for us to be inconspicuous. To my surprise, none of them wore yellow protective suits and inhalators like the guys on Breaking Bad, but regular clothes and hair nets instead, as if they worked in a place devoid of the stink of cucumber death.
We gained access by way of a back door propped open with a broken piece of brick, presumably placed there by someone sneaking out for a smoke. I marveled at the size of the place. We hadn’t stumbled into a Heinz factory, just a local operation, but it was huge. Fluorescent lights dangled from the high ceiling, their harsh glow reflecting on the surfaces of gleaming silver vats and pristine machinery; the interior sparkled with a level of clean to make most hospitals jealous.
But neither its cleanliness nor the fact it showed up in my scroll brought it close enough to godliness for me to consider devouring one of the hated little things.
Bruce Blake lives on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. When pressing issues like shovelling snow and building igloos don't take up his spare time, Bruce can be found taking the dog sled to the nearest coffee shop to work on his novels.
Actually, Victoria, B.C. is only a couple hours north of Seattle, Wash., where more rain is seen than snow. Since snow isn't really a pressing issue, Bruce spends more time trying to remember to leave the "u" out of words like "colour" and "neighbour" than he does shovelling. The father of two, Bruce is also the trophy husband of a burlesque diva.
Bruce's first short story, "Another Man's Shoes," was published in the Winter 2008 edition of Cemetery Moon; another short, "Yardwork," was made into a podcast in October 2011 by Pseudopod, and his first Icarus Fell novel, On Unfaithful Wings, in December 2011. The second Icarus Fell novel, All Who Wander Are Lost, was released in July, 2012, and the Khirro's Journey epic fantasy trilogy followed between October 2012 and January 2013. His next project, another epic fantasy series titled The Small Gods, should begin seeing the light of day by September 2013.
Actually, Victoria, B.C. is only a couple hours north of Seattle, Wash., where more rain is seen than snow. Since snow isn't really a pressing issue, Bruce spends more time trying to remember to leave the "u" out of words like "colour" and "neighbour" than he does shovelling. The father of two, Bruce is also the trophy husband of a burlesque diva.
Bruce's first short story, "Another Man's Shoes," was published in the Winter 2008 edition of Cemetery Moon; another short, "Yardwork," was made into a podcast in October 2011 by Pseudopod, and his first Icarus Fell novel, On Unfaithful Wings, in December 2011. The second Icarus Fell novel, All Who Wander Are Lost, was released in July, 2012, and the Khirro's Journey epic fantasy trilogy followed between October 2012 and January 2013. His next project, another epic fantasy series titled The Small Gods, should begin seeing the light of day by September 2013.
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/BruceBlakeWrites
Twitter: @bruceablake
www.bruceblake.wordpress.com
bruceblake@hotmail.ca
Twitter: @bruceablake
www.bruceblake.wordpress.com
bruceblake@hotmail.ca
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