{"id":3400,"date":"2018-07-06T20:37:52","date_gmt":"2018-07-07T01:37:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/?p=3400"},"modified":"2019-02-18T10:42:09","modified_gmt":"2019-02-18T16:42:09","slug":"plague-childs-doctor-excerpt-with-art-by-seth-daughtry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/2018\/07\/06\/plague-childs-doctor-excerpt-with-art-by-seth-daughtry\/","title":{"rendered":"Plague Child’s Doctor excerpt with art by Seth Daughtry"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

Original artwork by Seth Daughtry.<\/p>\n

Plague Child\u2019s Doctor<\/h1>\n

by Joshua Heston<\/strong><\/p>\n

There was a flicker of afternoon sun through sighing leaves. Movement came back into the world. The ratchet-like scrape of butcher knife against sharpening stone. The rustle of old newspapers being spread out on the floor.\u00a0 <\/span>Dirty yellow curtains billowed in the wind. The creak of a rusty bucket handle. I flinched.<\/p>\n

\u201cHurry it up, boys! Them in the basement ain\u2019t gonna stay asleep forever, ya know,\u201d scolded the woman.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, ma,\u201d said the dark-haired boy, looking resentful.<\/p>\n

\u201cIra, get yer ass down them stairs and lay out papers to catch the blood. And take that slop bucket with you.\u201d She looked back at the knife in her hand and smiled. \u201cThis is gonna make a mess.\u201d<\/p>\n

I knew I had only moments. I felt myself running outside into a strange world of shadows and wind and fluttering leaves. I can\u2019t say how, but I knew where to go. Behind the strange, square hateful building with eyes like windows that only stared, I ran. There in the dirt was my hawthorn staff, hex bag and silver pendant, all scattered among the opened saddlebags. My hands scrabbled across the gravel. Inexplicably, the world had gone solid again. The hex bag went into my pocket. I then grasped the staff and pendant simultaneously and power shot through me. I did not understand the power but felt it understood me.<\/p>\n

I reached out and found I could touch the evil as it moved inside the building, creaking down the stairs, edging toward Micahel and myself who were both still tied to the posts.<\/p>\n

I reached out again and could feel the old woman\u2019s soul. Her heart beat in my ears. Time slowed. Curious, I reached out again and felt my consciousness worming its way into the thick, shaggy boy\u2019s very being. He was tired. Tired of killing. But he didn\u2019t mind much, as long as he got chocolate cake at the end of the day.<\/p>\n

Again, I reached out and flinched. The dark-haired boy was like a snake poised to strike. Deadly as his mother, hungry for blood. Reaching cautiously, ready to recoil, I saw the faces of the dead he had witnessed as a small child. The slit stomachs, guts spilling out. His mother \u2014 younger then \u2014 smile on a thin face streaked with blood. The sound of the flies. Buckets of gore standing to be emptied to the hogs. The stench. The anticipation. The lust.<\/p>\n

But wait! There was another. The father. My soul stretched out and I found him as he leaned back on an old daybed on the porch. The summer wind ruffled his hair. He stank of sweat and reached a heavy hand up to scratch an ear. There was a lost look in his eyes. Questioningly, I caressed his soul and felt despair. I saw long-ago memories lost. An innocent child playing in a field, reaching into the dirt in wonderment. A young mother bounding over the grass, eyes bright. Then, a young, thin, beguiling woman with black hair and a strange, dark glint in her eyes. The old man\u2019s life played out to me in an instant. The memories, the decisions, the thousand-upon-a-thousand moments which had brought him, fitfully, finally, hopelessly to this living hell.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I felt tears against my cheeks.<\/p>\n

What do I do? I asked myself. Can I strike them down? Do I have that power? Do I want that power?<\/p>\n

\u201cThey will kill you if you do not,\u201d whispered the leaves and shadows.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are a child of light,\u201d echoed Micahel\u2019s voice in my ears.<\/p>\n

I reached out again to the old woman with the knife. I felt my soul gently drift over hers. Surely, expectantly, I found a snag against the smoothness of her rancid being. I pulled back against the snag and in my mind, saw her flinch. I reached in, worming my way into that inner darkness, all smooth surfaces and sharp edges, and could hear her heartbeat deep within myself, could feel her blood\u2019s reverberation course through me.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

Artwork by Seth Daughtry.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_text_separator title=”More from writer and artist…”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

“I loved Writers and Artists Night. It was a very good and also humbling experience to see so many creative minds in one space, and I can’t wait to do it again.” \u2014 Seth Daughtry<\/strong><\/p>\n

[\/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”3405″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_single_image image=”3408″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” onclick=”custom_link” img_link_target=”_blank” link=”https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Plague-Childs-Doctor-Joshua-Heston\/dp\/1717585256\/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1529545538&sr=8-1&keywords=plague+child%27s+doctor”][vc_single_image image=”3406″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” onclick=”custom_link” img_link_target=”_blank” link=”https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Plague-Childs-Doctor-Joshua-Heston\/dp\/1717585256\/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1529545538&sr=8-1&keywords=plague+child%27s+doctor”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] Original artwork by Seth Daughtry. Plague Child\u2019s Doctor by Joshua Heston There was a flicker of afternoon sun through sighing leaves. Movement came back into the world. The ratchet-like scrape of butcher knife against sharpening stone. The rustle of old newspapers being spread out on the floor.\u00a0 Dirty yellow curtains billowed in the wind.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3402,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[180,945,949,937],"tags":[229,216,419],"class_list":["post-3400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arcaneozarks","category-darkozarks","category-ozarkfinearts","category-ozarkwriters","tag-joshua-heston","tag-plague-childs-doctor","tag-seth-daughtry","category-180","category-945","category-949","category-937","description-off"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3400"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3400\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3410,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3400\/revisions\/3410"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}