Writing My Own Penny Dreadfuls

Snippets, more like.

A character in my current work-in-progress section of Before the Blood likes to compose sensational serials. This means, I've had to compose them. Sigh.

Here's a few of those excerpts from serials with such provocative titles as The Beggar's Lair and The Doctor and Lady Elise.

The moon rose high in the sky. A wolf howled in the distance. His time had come.

            The guards pushed his head through the noose. He couldn't wait for the crush of his windpipe, the snap in his neck.

            Do it, he thought to himself, do it. 

"Elise, put down that dagger!"

"You'll never beat me again, Bruce! Or our children! Do you hear me, Bruce? Do you hear me? You'll never hurt anyone again!"

            "Elise, no one's hurting you. You're mad, I tell you! Mad! Just like your Aunt Olivia."

            "Mad, am I!"

            She plunged the knife deep within his heart. He didn't drop. He didn't bleed.

            Mad? Oh how Elise wished she was mad!

"Reeves, confess your crimes before God and repent for judgment day is upon you!"

            "Ha, ha! Do you take me for a fool, why...why..."

            Reeves clutches his throat, collapses, and gasps, "Elliot, what have you done?"

            "Poison, dear brother. I told you judgment day was upon you."