Slaughterhouse Games Novels & Stories

I growl. I push the heavy oak door open. The stench hits me first. The thick, copper smell of a slaughterhouse. I step into the small room and my boots slide on something slick. The floor is covered in a dark, sticky lake. Five tiny, black bodies are strewn across the ruined linens. A litter of kittens, completely butchered. The violence of it makes my stomach turn, and I have seen the worst of the pack wars. I go to pull the door shut to spare Nina the sight, but a tiny, wet scratching sound stops my hand.

in all caps, but the cashier has no problem when Calder grabs my hand and pulls me inside. And if the condition of the bathroom is any indication, we're not the first ones to ignore the sign. "Don't touch the walls," I say, shying away from the grungy tile. "Where else are we going to hang this?" He rips open the package for our newly purchased game and pulls out a large, glossy poster of a very tan, very ripped, very naked man. The model is missing his important parts, of course, but it's still a lot to take in.

[Atticus] Laz records the results, documenting this decision in the meeting log and we move on to the next element of the game--choosing the method. As last year’s winner, I get to choose. “I thought we’d go a bit ‘old school’ for this year’s game,” I announce as I stand and pull an old deck of cards from the pocket of my jacket. “Like Old Testament. How many of you know the seven deadly sins?” Evie yawns, stretching her arms above her head. “BOOOOORING,” she moans, opening her perfectly painted mouth wide. “Sloth, lust, greed, envy, blah blah blah. When did you get religious, Ace?”

‘Aleksis Agustus, Chief Executive of Octagon Solutions’ How shameless of her husband to say he was fired from a company he owns? A flicker of excitement rushed into her eyes. All these years, Sierra has tried to dismiss the world she grew up in. The rush and hunger for danger were pulsing through her heartbeat. The same way it would always do whenever she was given a task. There was no need to ask who would play this game better. She knew damn well who would be a better player. All she had to do now was plan her way to make Alek feel like winning, and just when he got a hold of the trophy, she’d sneak in and snatch victory away from him. Maybe kill him. Well, that would be optional.

She mostly kept to the city, but she loved the sights of the colourful lights and brightly decorated stores that stood out in the gloom of the night. “What are you hungry for?” “Anything.” She answered, distracted by the teenage girls playing hopscotch in front of a four-storey building. “Anything.” He repeated. “Do you come here often?” "Not recently, but I used to." He pointed at her window. "There is a gaming centre down that road. In college, I loved to come over and play a game or ten with my friends." "What kind of games." "RPG." "Are you any good?"

He spat blood after talking nonsense. He believes that saying those words to me will cause me pain. No, I've sacrificed far too much to care about meaningless phrases. I will not go back to my traumatic past, where I could not express what I really wanted and fight for my rights. The fact that he believes I am not capable of killing him and that I have remorse for doing so infuriates me. And because he made me feel this, I will surely kill him. As I approach him and pull his hair back, I look into the brown eyes staring back at me. They are currently screwed up because of being beaten.

"I didn't choose this life, Bianca. It chose me. It's inbred in me that I can't walk away from it even if I tried. The moment you're a male in the famiglia, you're a part of the mafia, whether you like it or not. I took an oath when I was old enough to decide for myself. I can't break that oath as long as I live. The only way out of the mafia is death." "Will you ever know peace? These gang wars, this territory dispute. It must be draining to always expect an attack." "It's the mafia, Bianca, not a Disneyland fairytale." I joked, chuckling lightly. She looked at me undeterred. "But does the nightmare ever end?" A small smile touched my lips. "Once in a while," I said softly. Truthfully. "Aft

Yes, it's his house, his money, not OURS, I'm his wife on paper alone, a mere transaction, technically I was bought, ha! But this library, it's my usual space. I'm always here, reading, watching something on my laptop, whatever, painting sometimes, but I'm mostly here…alone. Oh, how I miss my art studio, it's nothing compared to all the space I have here, but at least it's MINE, even though Liam paid off the loan I took out to get that place. Ugh, this is driving me crazy! Liam, Liam, Liam Caruso! I look at the clueless man, he's seriously concentrated on his Stephen King book, 'Pet Sematary'. He has glasses on, and it looks good on him, the Liam Caruso effect.

He added and Damian pinched the bridge of his nose. We went back and joined the party, it was horrific because the games were bloody and almost impossible to complete. “These people are not dead, are they?” I asked Damian and I saw his eyes turn red. I looked over at Elijah and he looked away, my head felt light and it seemed like I’d pass out anytime soon. “They’re dead,” Damian answered and I froze, “I should’ve known.” He added and I couldn’t comprehend what I’d just heard. “It’s the way of the Mafia, they host fairs like this, it’s their own way of having fun. You register for the games and so you either kill or get killed.” Damian explained to me and my eyes widened as I stared at the d

They looked like they were raised on raw meat and murder. “Welcome,” Luciano said, his grin spreading like a fresh wound, “to The Game.” The crowd shifted. People parted like the sea—like they knew what was coming. One of the men rolled a steel cage onto the floor. Another opened a weapon crate. Inside: blades, crowbars, chains, bats. Luciano descended the stairs, walked right up to me, and leaned in like we were old friends. “You want a shot at your sister?” he said softly. “You play. You bleed. You survive. Maybe—maybe—I tell you where she is.”