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Blackthorne
Cinemagenic 144
Demon
“If I get rid of my demons, I’d lose my angels.”
--Tennessee Williams.
1(medium close-up) Buck tossed a sizzling short-
fused bundle of dynamite down the stairs.
2(cut to shot) of the dynamite bouncing and
rolling down the stairs, and landing at Cash
Bronson’s feet.
Buck heard heavy boots scurrying like rodents,
and Bronson swearing. Ten bullets tore up the
edge of the wall that Buck was pressed against.
Then a humongous explosion happened, and the
roof caved in. Banisters became toothpicks, and
everything suddenly was acrid smoke and rubble.
3(cut to exterior) as the ranch house exploded, and
a two hundred foot fireball demon rose up through
the white smoke, a writhing, undulating, angry demon
from hell. Then the air was full of sticks and stones.
4(cut to) a murder of crows fleeing their tree, making
the dark sky come alive with their swarming.
5(sound cue) saxophone, coronet and bass drum.
6(cut to) the explosion flattened Buck. He lie there
catching his breath, rubbing his eyes, and
marveling at the cathedral bells clanging in his head,
as the shock wave snarled its way across the front
lawn and raced for the dark timber behind another
fire demon devouring the outbuildings.
Pieces of ceiling were still falling, as Buck under
the cover of stygian black smoke, pushed his way
back into Thor’s room. He logged at a glance that
a lamp still burned brightly perched on a round low
table, that Thor’s bed was made, that a large well-
framed picture of Salina, its glass covering splintered,
lie in the middle of the bed with blood splattered all
over it, and that a large window at the east end of
the room was half open.
Buck scattered the glass shards on the picture
frame, cutting his hand. Shaking the frame free of
the glass slivers, he snatched out the sepia-toned
photograph. Salina was wearing a big hat and a
fancy dress, with a low bodice allowing a lusty
set of cleavage to be exhibited. She was smiling,
and looked happy, care-free. A jealous image
seared into Buck’s mind like a branding iron, with
Thor holding Salina, both of them naked, then only
Thor naked, his eyes bleeding, his mutilated hands
crossed in front of the bullet-riddled hole where
once his genitals had been.
Buck tucked the photograph inside his shirt and
rushed to the open window. He heard thudding
boots clumping up the remains of the stairs. He
shoved the shutters all the way open, banging
them on the side of the house. He poked his
shaggy head out into the crisp night air. The sky
was choked with stars. It was a fifteen foot drop
to the ground below.
7(cut to exterior) as Buck swung one leg out, and
shifted his weight. Someone darted past the door-
way, and a shotgun went off. The window over
Buck’s head exploded, and moon-glowing glass
took flight into the gritty darkness. The Thunderer
barked twice, and the lead chewed through the
wall where the shooter was hiding, and the
projectile found flesh. Someone outside fired at
the window just as Buck dropped out of it.
Glenn Buttkus
Posted over at d'Verse Poet's Pub OLN