The Long Hard Road Out of Hell

however, began to dissipate later in public school. My mother would let me stay home sick if, say, I couldn’t comb my hair flat and didn’t want any girls to see me or if someone at school wanted to beat me senseless. I began to appreciate her for it. But that, too, was only a phase.
    As I lay in my bed that last night in Canton, I hated my parents more than I had ever hated them before. I was finally beginning to fit in in Canton, and now I had to live on the outskirts of frat-boy Fort Lauderdale because my father had gotten a new and boring job as a furniture salesman. I’d made it through the darkest places—from haunted houses to high school gyms. I’d had bad drugs, worse sex and no self-esteem. It was all over and behind me, and now I had to start all over again. I wasn’t excited to move. I was bitter and angry—not just at my parents, but at the world.

the road to hell is paved with good rejection letters
    I WAS SOMEWHAT LONELY, AND I SOON DEVELOPED DISAGREEABLE MANNERISMS WHICH MADE ME UNPOPULAR THROUGHOUT MY SCHOOLDAYS . I HAD THE LONELY CHILD’S HABIT OF MAKING UP STORIES AND HOLDING CONVERSATIONS WITH IMAGINARY PERSONS, AND I THINK FROM THE VERY START MY LITERARY AMBITIONS WERE MIXED UP WITH THE FEELING OF BEING ISOLATED AND UNDERVALUED . I KNEW THAT I HAD A FACILITY WITH WORDS AND A POWER OF FACING UNPLEASANT FACTS, AND I FELT THAT THIS CREATED A SORT OF PRIVATE WORLD IN WHICH I COULD GET MY OWN BACK FOR MY FAILURE IN EVERYDAY LIFE .
    â€”George Orwell, “Why I Write”

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    January 20, 1988       
    Brian Warner             
    3450 Banks Rd. #207
    Margate, FL 33063    
    John Glazer, Editor
    Night Terrors Magazine
    1007 Union Street
    Schenectady, NY 12308
    Dear John Glazer,
    Enclosed is my previously unpublished story, “All in the Family.” It is being submitted only to your magazine at the time. I would appreciate your consideration for a possible publication of the above mentioned story. I thank you for your time, and will be looking forward to your reply.
    Sincerely,                    
    Brian Warner              

ALL IN THE FAMILY
by Brian Warner
    He hoped the tape recorder would still work. It was one of those small portable ones often used in schools or libraries. Teddy didn’t even realize the irony of his action—Angie was in fact the one who had bought it for him. He wiped the hair and blood off the corner and released a sigh of frustration. “Mother will probably ground me from the television,” he considered, looking to the mess he had made.
    â€œDamn her. Damn them all. Why did she have to hurt Peg? Why?” Balefully, he kicked the corpse beside him. Her glazed eyes stared back at him with empty fascination. “You bitch. You killed Peg.”
    His sister’s dead look gave no response. (He wondered why.) Her face looked so shadowed. He lifted her head up by her clotted hair and saw that it was dried blood on her cheek that created the mock shadow. He saw, too, that the dent in her skull had stopped gushing; the coagulated blood had formed a gelatinous plug.
    Mother would be home soon. He would have to dig a grave.
    Teddy got up and walked to his bedroom where Peg’s plastic body lay deflated. Atop her bloodless chest was a kitchen knife and she stared at the ceiling with her permanent expression–mouth in the shape of an 0. She looked as if she would scream.
    He picked up the doll’s head and looked tearfully at the flat terrain of her airless, life-sized figure. Cradling her head, he began to cry–each tear held a thousand wishes to bring her back. He was glad Angie was dead–she had deserved every last blow. As Teddy stroked her artificial hair he noticed the stench coming from his sister who lay several feet away. He knew it was urine–he had heard her bladder release when he struck the final deadly blow. He had hit her once more for good measure–she killed Peg. He had every right.
    Carefully, he let Peg’s head rest on the carpet. Bending down, he kissed her cheek and wiped some sticky stuff from her rubber lip. Mom had told him before not to touch Peg or to make the nasty in her mouth, but he couldn’t help it. He loved her too much just to leave her be. If Mom found out he was