Lunacy

  LUNACY

  by Dan Dillard

  Copyright ? 2012 Dan Dillard

  This is dedicated to my daughters, Brenna and Schuyler. My imagination lives in your eyes. It still amazes me when you look to me for answers, advice?anything. I love you, Daddy.

  All rights reserved. No part of this document or the related files may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, by any means (electronic, photocopying, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the author.

  LUNACY

  Digital ISBN: 978-1476368955

  Cover art by: Lydia Burris

  Short Story "Lunacy" Edited by: Gina Nagler

  This book is work of fiction. Characters, names, places, incidents, and organizations are a product of the author's twisted imagination and are fictitious.

  Other books from this author:

  Demons and Other Inconveniences

  What Tangled Webs

  The Unauthorized Autobiography of Ethan Jacobs

  How To Eat A Human Being

  Giving Up The Ghost

  The Toothless Dead

  Light As A Feather

  The Journeyman

  Dig

  and the novella, The Wicked

  For more information:

  https://www.demonauthor.com

  https://www.facebook.com/thedemonauthor

  https://twitter.com/demonauthor

  https://gplus.to/dandillard

  [email protected]

  Acknowledgements

  I would like to thank my family first. My wife for her understanding, patience (however slight), proofreading, and her honest opinion. To my children, I owe my imagination's triumphant return.

  Thanks to everyone who reads this story-and any of my other stories-whether you love, or hate them.

  Thank you to Lydia Burris for seeing what I saw in my head, and having the talent to make it real, even if I made it purple.

  Thanks to my father, Robert Dillard, also for proofreading, and Gina Nagler for helping me find the mistakes in the words and their meanings. You're the best! If readers find any other errors, I assure you, they are mine.

  Last, I'd like to thank the fans of the weird, the unusual, the things that make you stay up at night, afraid to check the closet door for fear of what might be waiting there. I'm right there with you.

  JEREMY BOONE

  Here lies the body of Jeremy Boone.

  A lazy teenager who slept until noon.

  He had a foul mouth and terrible frown,

  and everyone feared him, all over town.

  To discipline Jeremy, nobody dared.

  Even his parents were constantly scared.

  They cleared him a path and gave him his way

  Which made him grow meaner each day after day.

  He picked on the kids in his church and his school

  He once drowned a dog in the neighborhood pool.

  The weak and the chubby were his victims of choice

  Taunt them, he would, with his menacing voice.

  The folks in the berg tired of living in fear.

  "As long as he's round, we don't want to live here!"

  They called on the hermit who lived on the hill,

  And asked for his guidance and magical skill.

  He watched the young lad wreaking havoc and pain,

  He watched in the sunshine, and watched in the rain.

  Then he conjured a spell to cause Jeremy pain.

  Young Jeremy Boone woke the next day past noon

  With no inclination his demise would be soon.

  He walked toward the school with evil intentions

  Unaware of the old watcher's magic inventions.

  The sky it grew dark and brewed as it toiled

  Breeze turned to gale and the cumulus boiled.

  Nightmarish things clawed their way through the soil.

  Jeremy puffed his chest and walked without care,

  Nothing in that town could give him a scare.

  He entered the schoolyard and worked up a glare

  And shouted, "Come get me! Right now, if you dare!"

  The old madman smiled in his shack on the hill,

  Glad to watch the lad try and swallow that pill.

  He'd been a victim of bullies himself as a child

  Because he was a thinker, his manner was mild.

  He watched the skies swirl and then he heard the sound

  As all his dark minions escaped from the ground.

  Goblins and ghouls and shambling things

  Lay in wait in the shadows for the school bell to ring.

  They surrounded their prey and he started to shake

  Hisses and eyes made him quiver and quake.

  When the bell finally rang and the children appeared

  They laughed at the bully and his ironic fear.

  The goblins came first and chanted their taunts

  At the boy who was given whatever he wants.

  They circled him gnashing their teeth in his face

  Then grabbed his arms and his legs and held him in place.

  The ghouls and the demons gave him no relief

  One scare for each child that he'd ever caused grief.

  Then specters and monsters of every style

  Took turns beating Jeremy up for a while.

  His hair turned to white and he cried and he screamed,

  But the army of haunts' fangs glistened and gleamed.

  They dragged him deep into the woods and then,

  On to the boneyard where he met the old man.

  "I knew many like you when I was a boy.

  You treat others' emotions as if they were toys.

  I vowed to the townsfolk today at school's bell,

  That you, Mr. Boone, would be taken to hell."

  With that the dark creatures tore open the earth

  And grabbed him, though he fought for all he was worth.

  They took Jeremy with them, a long journey down.

  His screams could be heard on the far end of town.

  A marker is all that remains to this day.

  Each autumn we bring the kids here and we say

  That each of us fits in the puzzle some way.

  To bully and torment is never ok.

  Be respectful to others and glad they're unique.

  They might have a talent you'll need when you're weak.

  If you choose to be callous and vicious and frown,

  The shadows will find you and escort you down.

  LUNACY