Pseudopod 102: Dear Killer

[Bdoomed]

Pseudopod 102: Dear Killer

By Vinnie Hansen

Read by Ben Phillips

When had the idea first possessed her? Victoria peered about the dim one-car garage and squatted to look under the counter along the wall. Pushed behind the containers of old paint, the new bag of concrete stared ominously back at her. Ben had hidden it like one would an Easter egg from a child. Did he think she was such a dolt she wouldn’t notice? She came out here regularly to do laundry.

Ben had not said anything about a project requiring concrete. Neither had his hunting buddy Jack. They always worked together. But there had been nary a word about fixing a fence post or repairing the walk. She dragged the bag from its hiding spot, proud of her strong, lithe body, even if Ben’s eyes constantly swiveled toward cleavage. She forced herself to read the directions. She glanced around the garage for a water container and decided she would have to use something from the house—the thermos, maybe, or the plastic pitcher, but she didn’t want to return to the kitchen any sooner than necessary.

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Listen to this week's Pseudopod.

[MacArthurBug]

Gorgeous and horrific. The whole world as we know it having gone all a kilter as one woman struggles with daemons. Mind you- I'd just bet there was more wrong with the marriage then covetous glances. STILL! How wonderfully awful. The reading was well done, but it was truly the characters that got me in this one. Each was fairly well sketched and I honestly FELT for the main character, there are times a frying pan seems a truly handy utensil.

[deflective]

a solid piece of work. still finding that i'm anticipating the twist because that's what i expect from horror.


the title had excited me because it sounded like something i read in an anthology several years back. maybe someone can recognize it, it was the first story in that anthology.

there was a group of children being stalked by deer. yeah, sounds silly but the author made it work. the general idea was that there needed to be a trade, innocent human victims for the deaths of innocent deer. it actually freaked me out a little the way that the author took completely benign creatures and made them frighteningly.

[Void Munashii]

  While I've seen/read this type of story dozens of times, it's still always fun when done well. Even though the only real suspense to the story was what the cement and tarps were for, I still enjoyed every minute of it, and the punchline/reveal at the very end was perfect.

[Listener]

Pleh.  The ending was too much of a letdown.  If you wanted a twist ending, put Victoria and Jack together.

[Sandikal]

This story was way too predictable.  The only surprise was what the tarp and concrete were really for and even that was kind of lame.

[JoeFitz]

Sorry, this didn't work for me. I thought the lead-in was so heavy-handed that the husband _was_ actually planning to kill the narrator and praying that the very obvious twist ending was not going to happen.

And the pun in the title is just wrong - on so many levels.

[Myrealana]

I found it kind of...flat. A Pseudopod shaggy dog story.

It needed more. Victoria's actions just weren't believable. She didn't sound believably in fear of her own life, or believeably in shock about her actions, or believably insane. You need one of those to kill your husband with a frying pan and step over his corpse in the kitchen to fix a cup of tea.

[Void Munashii]

I found it kind of...flat. A Pseudopod shaggy dog story.

It needed more. Victoria's actions just weren't believable. She didn't sound believably in fear of her own life, or believeably in shock about her actions, or believably insane. You need one of those to kill your husband with a frying pan and step over his corpse in the kitchen to fix a cup of tea.

  What about just mean and evil? She came across as a mean and evil person who had frankly been looking for a reason to me.

[taueret]

I know this ep is not new, but I just listened to it- I have to ask, did it just *end*?  At first I thought my download was truncated but now I'm not sure.  The last thing I heard was "the hunting was illegal" (paraphrase) and then the end music?  Was that really the end?  I sort of "get it" now but geez, what a lot of lead up for such an obvious punch line.  Unless my version *was* truncated?

[DKT]

Nope. I'm pretty sure that was the ending.

[Void Munashii]

I know this ep is not new, but I just listened to it- I have to ask, did it just *end*?  At first I thought my download was truncated but now I'm not sure.  The last thing I heard was "the hunting was illegal" (paraphrase) and then the end music?  Was that really the end?  I sort of "get it" now but geez, what a lot of lead up for such an obvious punch line.  Unless my version *was* truncated?

  That was it, alright.

   I guess I did not see it as being a sudden ending because it was exactly the sort of ending I was expecting from this story.

[Unblinking]

I thought this was a good usage of an unreliable narrator.  The story travels in stages:
1.  Why I'm certain my husband was trying to kill me.
2.  I killed my husband.
3.  Oh shit, he wasn't trying to kill me after all.

And each section is very well encapsulated as she carefully does not think about the other possibilities.  Good stuff!

[Millenium_King]

Eh.  This one was okay.  Again, I think this story falls into the category of "good, but no fireworks."  It was solidly told, but nothing about it stood out.  We knew there had to be some sort of twist (I suspected the ending long before it arrives).  The plot was well handled, but not original.  The language was solid, but not interesting or unique.  Worth the listen, but not one of my favorites.

Great reading by Ben, once again.

A little versimillitude error that nagged me: she mentioned there was not a lot of blood after striking her husband with the frying pan, but that seemed pretty unlikely to me.  I have personally witnessed something similar and, let me tell you, there is a LOT of blood involved.  The head has tons of vessels just waiting to burst.  Head wounds bleed the most and even blunt trauma will cause bleeding.

[Unblinking]

A little versimillitude error that nagged me: she mentioned there was not a lot of blood after striking her husband with the frying pan, but that seemed pretty unlikely to me.  I have personally witnessed something similar and, let me tell you, there is a LOT of blood involved.  The head has tons of vessels just waiting to burst.  Head wounds bleed the most and even blunt trauma will cause bleeding.

Good point.  I've heard that scalp wounds bleed like crazy even if it's not a serious injury.