Bonus Christmas Flash 2013 – Helpersby
David Steffen“Helpers” was first published in
One Buck Horror Volume 3 – you can order it
here.
DAVID STEFFEN lives in Minnesota with his wife, kid, and dogs, where he writes computer vision software. Dozens of his stories have been published at venues like
Escape Pod,
Drabblecast, and
Daily Science Fiction. He is the founder of
Diabolical Plots, and he is the co-founder of the
Submissions Grinder an always-free fiction market listing site.
Your reader this week –
Rikki LaCoste – is a musician, magician, and Hermetic physician. He has been involved in such musickal projects as his very own
Panthea, Wychwood Children, the medieval and renaissance ensemble called Moresca, and currently, a hand-drum based four-part harmony quartet called
IO. Samples of most of these projects can be heard
here. He is a musician, an artist, a regular narrator for Pseudopod (“
Responsible Parties”, “
The Suicide Witch”), a voice actor, a writer on occult subjects, a summoner of daemons, and teaches piano to sweet little children. But he is mostly known in this neck of the woods as the creator and co-host of
Kakophonos Internet Radio: an esoteric and metaphysically flavoured podcast, with stuff – which is currently on hiatus while Rikki goes back to school for audio engineering. There is, however, an episode from the Kak archives, ported to YouTube for your audio – and visual – pleasure,
here.
“The boy crept out of the front door, distant streetlamps bouncing dim reflections off his smooth cheeks, breath misting in the chill air. Pete couldn’t help but smile. The boy was just the right size, old enough to have grown some real muscle but still well short of being a man. He was downright plump compared to the half-starved urchins Pete was used to. Strange for a boy with a family to be out at this time. Hadn’t his parents told him the night was populated by thieves and killers? Their loss.
“Ripe for the plucking, yes,” Pete whispered. “How tough, strong, how healthy.”"
Listen to this week's Pseudopod.