Short Story

Tools Of The Trade

The Sicilian Storyteller

Written for Six Sentence Story #309; the required word is “core”

John Black always keeps his tools in the finest condition, each one hanging on the rack with incredible precision like soldiers standing at attention, lined up by size depending on his needs, clean, sharp and at the ready at all times.

There are saws that could cut down the largest tree and mallets strong enough to pound huge spikes into boulders, screwdrivers and files of every shape and size, pliers to yank out the longest of nails and wrenches to loosen joints rusted together, planes that could shave off the thinnest slice of wood and blades that could cut through the toughest leather.

John Black scrubs his tools clean after each use so they are gleaming, polished and waiting for his next job, whenever that might be .… every day and into the night …. and he is ready, a busy man who never waits to be called, a man who easily finds his own clientele. 

John Black is not a carpenter or a plumber, not a roofer or a mason, not a mechanic or a custodian – no, his job is of a different nature, his instruments weapons meant to inflict the most pain a human could endure – for you see, John Black is a psychopath, a stalker of the innocent, a torturer, a murderer; oh, yes, his tools serve him well, sate his sadistic needs and, being an unassuming man, his victims are so very easy to find. 

John Black lives nowhere yet everywhere, next to your sister or your daughter or your mother or you, so keep your doors locked and never go out alone, even to check your mailbox or collect your newspaper or to bring in the cat, for he is ever vigilant, constantly at the ready, waiting patiently to show you in the minutest of detail what every last one of his tools can do in the hands of a master.

Come now, don’t look at me like that …. I’m just the storyteller telling the story of John Black who’s a bad seed, the devil’s spawn, a blot on the escutcheon, a moldering apple, rotten to the core.

NAR©2024

Sunday’s Six Sentence Story Word Prompt!

This is AC/DC with “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap”

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43 thoughts on “Tools Of The Trade”

  7. “…who easily finds his own clientele…”

    Now I get that hint, lol. But not, lol!
    Excellent setup, Nancy, for what turned out to not be the ending I suspected! (at least I can blame you for any nightmares tonight 😆)

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    1. Exactly the reaction I was hoping for, Denise! I apologize in advance for any nightmares you may experience tonight but I doubt my powers are that far-reaching. Maybe you should check your locks, though, cos sometimes you just don’t know. 😳

      Thank you, Denise!

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  8. Ncely done!*

    Then… in the middle, I found myself re-reading the “…so keep your doors locked” sentence, thinking I missed something. And then the slow reveal.

    very effective writing

    *your transition. did not see that coming. in part ’cause I was taken by the detailed description of the tools… (gotta be a cool Greco-Roman word for the rhetorical device of such an engaging list ‘multithingerotica’ or something… )

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    1. Multithingerotica …. I can dig it.

      While other women are shopping for fresh laundry-scented candles or bud vases that hold a single rose, I’m checking out the combination wrench sets at Lowes. I like a man with an impressive tool belt and I cannot lie.

      Thanks, Clark.

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