City of Heretics

by Heath Lowrance

  He sat back down, and all the will in him, all the strength, seemed to evaporate right before Crowe’s eyes. His face went dull and he sat there and gazed blindly at the wall.

  Crowe left him. In the living room, Dallas was his lifeless twin, staring dumbly at a spot on the carpet, the glass in her hand. She didn’t look up at him when he passed through the room.

  In the car, Crowe opened the bottle of pain pills and threw three of them down his throat. He wasn’t in any particular pain, but he needed to be numb. He started the engine and drove away.

  On his way out of Memphis, he got stopped at the light right before the freeway entrance at Danny Thomas. To the left, the overpass loomed, cars and trucks making it whine and thrum. A dog came lopping out of the shadows under the overpass, stopped and looked at him.

  It was a greyhound, but it was hard to tell unless you looked closely. Its fur was matted with blood and bile. Part of its head was gone, skull sticking out whitely, and its hanging tongue was black with age.

  Crowe said through his window glass, “I see you, boy.”

  The tail was little more than a bloody, segmented bit of bone, but it wagged anyway. The dog’s mouth moved, a bark of acknowledgment, but of course there was no sound.

  Crowe watched, and the dog cocked its head at him before turning around and trotting away, back into the shadows. For a second Crowe thought he saw the boy there, in the shadows waiting, his round white face glowing and cocked at an angle, just like the dog.

  But no. There was nothing.

  About the Author

  Heath Lowance is the author of the cult novel THE BASTARD HAND, as well as a short story collection called DIG TEN GRAVES. His other stories have appeared at Crime Factory, Shotgun Honey, Chi-Zine, Pulp Metal, The Nautilus Engine, and others. He has been a movie theater manager, a tour guide at Sun Studio, a singer in a punk band, and a regular donor of blood for money. He lives in a quiet neighborhood near Detroit.

  .

  About Snubnose Press

  Snubnose Press is the ebook imprint of Spinetingler Magazine.

  The snubnose revolver dominated visual crime stories in the 20th century. Every cop, every detective, every criminal in every TV show and movie seemed to carry a snubnose. The snubnose is a classic still used today.

  The snubnose is easy to conceal and carry.

  The snubnose is powerful.

  The snubnose is compact.

  That’s how we like our fiction.

  Snubnose Press Titles:

  Speedloader

  Harvest of Ruins by Sandra Ruttan

  The Chaos We Know by Keith Rawson

  Monkey Justice by Patti Abbott

  Dig Two Graves by Eric Beetner

  Gumbo Ya-Ya by Les Edgerton

  Old Ghosts by Nik Korpon

  Hill Country by R Thomas Brown

  Cold Rifts by Sandra Seamans

  Nothing Matters by Steve Finbow

  Karma Backlash by Chad Rohrbacher

  To Die Upon a Kiss by Craig Wallwork

  Bar Scars by Nik Korpon

  The Jones Men by Verne Smith

  City of Heretics by Heath Lowrance

  Ghost Money by Andrew Nette

  Wild Child by Josh Stallings

  The First Cut by John Kenyon

  Moondog Over the Mekong by Court Merrigan

  The Subtle Arts of Brutality by Ryan Sayles

  Pulp Ink 2

  A Healthy Fear of Man by Aaron Philip Clark

  Dope Sick: A Love Story by JA Kazimer

  Blood on Blood by Frank Zafiro & Jim Wilsky

  Broken Glass Waltz by Warren Moore

  Choice Cuts by Joe Clifford

  Wake the Undertaker by Joe Clifford