Kids are for Trxxks by Katherine J. Parker

Monster Breakfast by The Despot

“Don’t play with your food, honey,” Lrglphmp gurgled.

“But it’s more fun when I gotta catch’em.” Hrglphx gave the scrabbling bipeds a poke. They scattered, clambering up the walls of his bowl.

“Hm, a bit underdone.” Lrglphmp leaned over and delivered a glob of corrosive mucus to her son’s meal. “Better let them ferment.”

“Boooorrring,” Hrglphx groaned as his playthings grew lethargic. “They’re better raw.”

Lrglphmp thrust a tentacle behind the salt shaker, snatching an escaped morsel. It screamed as she tossed it into her gaping maw. “You’re right, humans do taste better raw.”

Beauty’s Shadow by Katherine J. Parker

Alien by patryk-garrett on DeviantArt.com

Thud. Click. Thud. Click. Thud.

Time is a snapshot as the emergency lights flash.

Red. Black. Red. Black.

Blood pools on the floor, a shadow creeping along the walls, slick and dangerous.

She’d slipped in it earlier. Ensign Cade had grunted when she landed on him. The sound escaped from the gaping maw that had been his throat.

A creeping shadow gnawed at the edges of the smiling wound. Laughing.

Thud. Click. Thud. Click. Thud.

Her blood pounds in her ears, contained, and behind her the beast follows.

A shadow passes the mouth of the corridor.

Thud. Click. Thud.

“Kill.”

“A Great American Pastime” of “Family Values” by Katherine J. Parker

The Deadly Pitch by Victoria-Von-Blood on DeviantArt.com

Johnny straddled the plate and bit his tongue.

“Swing!” Micah yelled.

Splat.

The disembodied head flew across the makeshift field, bloody hair and skull fragments trailing in its wake. Streamers and confetti.

“It’s out of the park!” Micah collided with his brother. They tussled joyfully in dirt and blood and brains.

“That’s my boy.” Morris tossed a bald, lopsided head into the air.

Johnny brushed himself off, squaring his shoulders and beaming, a fleck of thigh caught in his shaggy mop.

“Now throw me a curve ball, Dad!”

Morris chuckled, planting his feet on the oblong mound.

“Sure thing, kid.”

Child’s Play (part 3) by Katherine J. Parker

Bloody hands by KarenKong on DeviantArt.com

The knife slipped between the silver-haired viper’s ribs as though her skin were soft butter.

“Giani,” she gasped as the blade sank deep, “you traitorous bastard.”

“I learned from the best,” he whispered against her ear. “At least you gave me that.”

“They’ll eat you alive.”

“That’s where you’re wrong, mother. That’s where you’ve always been wrong.”

Cecilia spat blood as the blade, inserted so carefully, was ripped maliciously from her breast, her son’s weight lifting from the bed.

Eyes glazing, she cried, “Anton—”

“Was a better father than you were ever a mother,” Giani snarled. “Give him my best.”

Child’s Play (part 2) by Katherine J. Parker

Cute but Evil by Skissored on DeviantArt.com

“One, two, three, shots to the head,” Cecilia said.

“Four, five, six, now you’re dead.” Anton replied.

“Seven, eight, nine, you’ll be fine.” She smiled.

“Until I knife you while you dine.” He finished.

Cecilia smirked, draping a slender leg over the edge of the dock.

“You’re sick,” Anton said, laughing. He smeared blood across his pants.

She shrugged. “Maybe, but I’m not the one disposing of my father’s body.”

Anton grinned. “Angelo always wanted to be buried in the lake.”

“I think he meant after his heart stopped beating,” she said as Angelo’s last exhale surfaced with a burble.

Child’s Play (part 1) by Katherine J. Parker

Scary girl in the ring by Lycra21 on DeviantArt.com

“I’m a reasonable man, Giorgi. If you can’t pay your taxes anymore, I’m sure we can come to some other arrangement.”

“W-wait! I just need a little more time, that’s all.”

Cecilia covered a giggle as, through the door crack, she watched greasy old Giorgi squirm.

“Naughty little princess.” The girl spun to face the wiry Sicilian who’d crept up behind her. “It’s impolite to eavesdrop.”

With a flash of teeth, Cecilia slipped into the safety of her father’s richly furnished office. “Better stop sneaking up on me, Uncle Angelo, or someday I’ll make sure you can’t sneak at all.”