Category Archives: Suspence

Bicycle Rider in Park

Beware the Pedaler – Part One

by VJ Miller, Sr.

A malignant narcissist chooses the wrong geek to throw trash at who then plans extreme psychological vengeance.

Beware the Pedaler – a Psychological Thriller

It was a simple act… simple and thoughtless. Truth to tell, thoughtless act should have been Bart Tredan’s middle name. He made a career of such acts; the unsettling part being he was damned proud of it too. Sober saw him at least bearable but after a few beers even his closest friends (which you could count on one fist) found him hard to stomach. If they’d been told of the act by a total stranger they’d have said, “Yeah, that’s Bart all right; asshole to the max.”

12:22 AM; Bart was on his way home from the bar in the southwest corner of New Mexico. He’d not had so much to drink that he was impaired in any way but enough to make him just that much more thoughtless. The orange and yellow reflectorized vest in the distance caught his eye on the stretch of dark road. The saddlebag baskets on the back of the bicycle labeled the rider a geek, at least in Bart’s frame of mind.

Bart fondled the half empty can of beer at his crotch while he approached the bicycle rider who jounced and bounced along the pothole-littered shoulder of the road. Bart slowed his truck to match the rider’s speed. Without so much as a teaspoonful of compassion he launched the can out the side window and sped off. In his mirror Bart saw the can hit the rider in the face. The shock and surprise in the rider’s face brought a nasty giggle to Bart’s own.

When the rider lost his balance, spun out of control and went over the handlebars into the dust-laden ditch along the side of the road Bart could contain his raucous laughter no longer; laughing so hard he ran halfway over the double yellow. If the driver in the 87 Eldorado with the rusted-out quarter panel and one mismatched fender hadn’t yanked his wheel into the ditch, St. Gabriel might have had two more callers that night. What’d he care if the geek got hurt? Continue reading Beware the Pedaler – Part One

Otto’s Pet Shop, the Horror in the Dark

by VJ Miller, Sr.

Suspense in a Dark Room:

Pet Shop owner, Otto Dengler awoke slowly in the dark.  He sensed first the uncomfortable chill of the air, then the pasty taste of his mouth.  He reached for the blanket to cover his naked body but couldn’t find it.  Stiff and sore from the cold, the mattress felt unusually hard; in fact, he could swear he was laying on a bed full of crumbs.  He didn’t recall eating anything in bed; he never did that.

Rising to another level of consciousness he sat up.  His back prickled all over; his buttocks felt like he’d sat on crushed glass.  Startled, he flipped over to his hands and knees.  While his senses warmed up from their stupor he became aware he’d been laying on gravel.  A handful rubbed between the fingers was flung to the side. Continue reading Otto’s Pet Shop, the Horror in the Dark