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I Gave Them the Finger

by Chad Lutzke

About the Author: Chad lives in Michigan with his wife, children, and far too many pets. He loves music, rain, sarcasm, dry humor, and cheese but has a strong disdain for dishonesty and hard-boiled eggs. Chad has written for Famous Monsters of Filmland, Rue Morgue, Cemetery Dance and Scream magazine. His fiction can be found in several magazines and anthologies as well as his own 18-story collection, NIGHT AS A CATALYST. He has written collaborative efforts with authors Terry M. West and J. Thorn.

Excerpt

I found the finger next to the mailbox, out near the street. I remember it was a Monday. I’d been expecting a package, a bottle of Celestial Sage–some cologne I’d ordered. I like to smell good, and I wasn’t partial to the bottle I was given last Christmas—licorice dipped in bug spray, if you ask me.

I almost didn’t see the finger, as my package had arrived and I was excited to get back inside with it. But there was the digit, lying in the grass only two feet from a dog’s mess—the work of Ms. Smothers’s poodle, no doubt. The woman held zero regard for anyone else. If I were less of a man I’d set a bear trap.

What was most peculiar about the finger was the missing bone. The finger hadn’t been lobbed off but degloved. The owner, if still alive, would be writhing in pain with a number of bones exposed and angry red with blood. The sight made me feel for my own fingers, like a man guarding his balls when witnessing another receive a hit to the nether regions. Instinct.

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