My coworkers are all married and they’ve started popping out kids. ย I’m at a corporate bring-your-family get togetherย and everyone is firmly ensconced in first-world tedium: ย SUV talk, PTA stuff, the latest yuppie-geared New Agery…I’m bored out of my skull. ย I look around and notice they’ve gradually formed a ring around me. ย WTF? ย “One of us is not like the others, Kent. ย We’re tired of you being single and not contributing to our groupthink. ย You think you’re better than us? ย a ‘cocksman?’ A ‘dicksmith?’ ” ย I want to laugh butย this is too creepy. ย I say, “No man, I just like toโ” ย He cuts me off: ย “I DON’T WANT TO HEAR IT. ย Children…AT HIM!” ย Every kid there, from infant to teenager, looks at me in unison, their eyes lighting red. ย Suddenly they’re galloping at me on all fours, fangs extending from their mouths. ย HOLY BALLS! ย Open my eReader to Echo. ย Magic flash. ย I hear a mythic croon slice the air and a cyborg velociraptor materializes in front of me. ย It’s saddled, has a gatling laser cannon mounted on its neck, and a sheathed longsword named Iceflame dangling off it. ย It turns to me and yells, “My name is Grimstroke, I’m here to save you! ย Jump on!” ย I leap on its back and ride like the wind, strafing the demon-tikes with the gatling laser. ย Then I charge into my evil coworkers’ midst, laying them low with a radiance-threaded Iceflame. ย After a path is cleared, I charge off into the sunset, my heart beating a mile a minute, my grin as wide as the blue summer sky.
Swords, lasers, and cyborg dinosaur besties! ย Get Echo Vol. 1 on Kindle here: ย Vol. 1 on Kindle. ย Vol. 2 on Kindle here: ย Vol.2 on Kindle.


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