Part 1 of 2
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Tonight we find Thomas Blackhall, student of the occult and master frontiersman, standing over a devilishly-tongued man.
The Skinner Co. Network
136 - Jabber, Part 1 of 2
[music] Welcome to FlashPulp episode 136. Tonight, we present Jabba, part one of two. [music] This week's episodes are brought to you by Frank. [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] Frank is a bounty hunter, who's probably bitten off a lot more than he can tune his latest assignment. He's up against the pair of hitmen. One is alive but dead, and the other is dead. It should be alive. Throw in an escort girl, and the big man, the devil, and you've got an interesting story. [music] Frank, I'm calling for you. [music] Boiling Point, Volume 1 in the Tales of Frank is a free, serialized podcast novella, available at milkohun.com. [music] FlashPulp is an experiment in broadcasting fresh pulp stories in the modern age, three to ten minutes of fiction, brought to you Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evenings. Tonight, we find Thomas Blackhall, Student of the Occult and Master Frontiersman, standing over a devilishly-toned man. Jabber, Part 1 of 2, written by J.R.D. Skinner, Art and Narration Biopoponax, an audio produced by Jessica May. [music] Blackhall held the oil lamp high, letting the dim glow drag along the moist stone walls. It had been many months since he'd last seen the abandoned mine site, and the elements had worn heavily upon the timber works which kept the meager shaft from collapse. Before him, knelt a slight man, clothed in two large pants and a motley sweater, who would have found himself hard-pressed to bluff his age as above that of 21. His forearms were bound at the small of his back, with a long run of twine, and a wad of stalking had been forced into his mouth, and held there in place, by a wide strip of rag wound several times about his head. Thomas scraped his nails over the stubble at his chin, and gazed down at the stooped form. Until seconds previous, the figure had lay in unconscious, and now, the portion of Blackhall's mind ruled by curiosity, was tempted to observe what might follow. The grubby muzzle began to moisten, and the captive's jaw drew tot as he commenced gnawing at the interior of his facial bindings. Blackhall filled his lungs and raised a boot to the man's brow. With a grunt and a kick, the prisoner toppled backwards, plummeting from the stone precipice at which they'd lingered, and into the darkness of the vertical shaft behind him. The silence of the fall was broken only by the occasional brush of cloth upon the rock face. Thomas cast a wish into the hole that he might have a stick of dynamite to aid the conclusion of his deposit, then turned to make his way towards the exit. Two weeks earlier, he'd been amongst the pines, three days west of the small town of Sekrem, and preparing to bed down. The evening had been warm, so he'd let the fire gutter before moving a short distance from his camp to correct the complaints of his bladder. His travels had him trailing at the banks of White River, which ran north and south, and, having finished marking a spruce as his own, he crouched at the water's edge to refresh his face and arms from the crisp flow. That was when he noted the swing of the torch over the Battle of the Cascade. Blackhall could not hear the dialogue of the naked ancient elder who held aloft the beacon. The distance across the rush was too great, but it was obvious that the man was expanding at length as he conducted a parade of some fifty capering bodies through the unyielding forest shadows. The leader came to a brief halt as he stepped upon the bank, then he turned northward. As his chain of dancers came to the same location, they too turned, never breaking stride. The shape and age of all involved varied wildly. Some seemed but babes, barely old enough to walk, and others seemed too old to live amongst the wildwoods, much less maintain the spastic cavorting which currently occupied them. Thomas remained huddled low as he moved back into the tree-line, then with reckless speed he collected the accoutrements of his encampment. Once he'd stuffed the last of his loose items into his bag, he slung his baker rifle at his shoulder and belted his sword. Despite his absence, it was a simple matter to relocate the human column as the guide strayed little from the course of the waterway. It was more difficult, however, to intersect it. It was a twelve-hour chase, during which Thomas was forced into increasingly inhospitable terrain in an attempt to remain hidden, even as the sun once again took the sky. The need for expediency in his rough passage left the frontiersman's hands bleeding from the effort, and imparted two fresh gashes in his great coat, which would require mending. But finally, the old man broke his orientation and started away from the shore. As soon as the last of the succession had turned to follow, Thomas thrust into his mouth the stone he kept upon a raw hide-loop about his neck, and dived beneath the cool torrent. The breathing trinket made his passage inevitable, but the strong current carried him well away from his intended landing point, and he was forced to recover ground to match the splintered tree he'd memorized as a landmark. His mind and limbs ached with the fatigue of the pursuit. Having to slow to mark the signs of his quarry's passage, he rummaged about for something that might stop for his ears, but, in the end, he could manage only rippings from his tattered shirt, with which to fashion shoddy plugs. There was nothing he could do to assist the former residents of Sekreme when he came to the cave that had been the old man's destination. Within that lost hour, the japper had fed extensively. Corpses littered the floor, and in the furthest corner, a broad-chested man of forty took his last gurgling breath. The beast, now a youth, leaned low over a woman, the last of the living, whose auburn hair fanned from her head, to splay haphazardly across the stone, and whose eyes remained impassive over her chubby cheeks. The boy appeared to be telling a great tale while inspecting the quality of her teeth. Her lips were spread wide, and her neck tilted, as if a child demonstrating the healthy state of her tonsils. As he neared, Blackhall had begun to hum to cover the sound of its rambling, but as he stepped into the rocky shelter, with his sword drawn, he was brought up short by the flash of a bristling array of thorns projecting suddenly from the glutton's still yammering maw. Then the thing's face lost its guise of humanity entirely, and it plunged its spines into the woman's gaping cavity. As it fed noisily upon her tongue, Thomas wretched. He'd never encountered such a creature himself, but he'd heard of its methods while scouring the toms of his father's library. He was rejuvenated by its insatiable hunger for the knotted mouth-muscle, and had, as its primary tool of enticement, the ability to drive men to madness or enslavement with the nonsensical discourse it maintained. He knew, too, that speech was its weakness. It was recounted that the only layman to have survived the approach of such a fiend had done so by providing an impassioned plea for his wife, over which he could not hear the beast's ravings. After a crescendo of clashing utterance, the monster had fallen unconscious, and had been then submitted to fearful inspection at the hands of the church's specialists. Every effort was made to end the abomination, but the might of horses tugged uselessly upon its limbs, and even blessed waters seemed to have no means of starving its lungs. On the following rise of the full moon, it reawoke and began to gnaw at the steel links that held it. It was only the voice of Monsignor La Jois reciting script, verse, and even childhood poems which finally brought the thing under control, and still, at the cost of five other attending brothers. The Monsignor had decided that it would be buried, and twenty days of well-manned digging were followed by ten days of filling, then the jabber was forgotten by all but La Jois, who recorded the incident, and promptly retired from the clergy. Blackhall was unsure if this was the same as that of the legend. It was impossible to know, given the longevity imparted by its grisly consumption. He found his lungs. It was dusk before the rant was complete, at tirade largely filled with memories of his merry, and before the horror once again succumbed. Thomas already had in mind his next destination, the abandoned shafts which laid the east, and that it would be days of tough hauling with a heavy load. He also knew, however, that he would not sleep that evening, at least certainly not in that cave of damned souls who drown in their own blood. He began to bind his foe. In truth, it was another three dawns, three long days of dragging, until he could summon the courage to once again slumber. And when he did, he dreamt of the visage of the Auburn-haired woman, as she was kissed so deeply by the kneeling form. Flashpulp is presented by http colon slash slash Skinner dot FM. The audio and text formats of Flashpulp are released under the Canadian Creative Commons attribution non-commercial 2.5 license. [MUSIC PLAYING]