In honour of my 666th post on this blog, I have prepared some very special treats for all of you. First, let’s do some lists, then we’ll get on to the big ticket item.

Six Devilish Book Recommendations

• The Shining – also my favourite book of all time
• The Witching Hour – my second favourite book of all time
• The Talisman – third favourite book
• Ten Little Indians – the Agatha Christie classic, aka. And Then There Were None
• Angels & Demons – much better than Da Vinci Code
• 120 Days of Sodom and Other Writings – the Marquis de Sade, and not for the faint of heart

Six Scary Movies

• Seven – I have only been able to watch this movie one time, and never again
• Children of the Corn – an absolutely deliciously evil classic
• Silence of the Lambs – no list would be complete without this diabolical thriller
• The Seventh Seal – Max von Sydow – need I say more?
• The Omen – no comment necessary for this series
• The Sixth Sense – I have also seen dead people

Six “other” books that You Should Buy

• Box of Hair, a Fairy Tale
• The Venus Diary
• The Dragons of Tarnack
• The Peregryn – Kindle exclusive
• Thorn Valley
• Sweet Kisses, Memories of Hayden Chalmers – Kindle exclusive

And now, a very special treat for all of you…

A story told in 666 words

“Maureen, don’t go! I love you!”

They were the last six words Tom spoke to his girlfriend before she closed her eyes, her final breath slipping into the vastness of the private room on the top floor of the hospital. Tears poured from Tom’s eyes, creating puddles on the starch-white sheet that had been changed only hours before.

The stench of the bedpan assaulted his sinuses as he wiped his face on his hairy right arm. He was in shock at how quickly this had all happened.

Only a week before, Maureen had been vibrant, beautiful, full of life and full of love for her soon to be fiancé, Tom Carson. All that changed when bus number sixty-six slammed into a parked car then rolled on its side and slid down the embankment of Santan Avenue into the oncoming traffic of Mantle Street.

She might have walked away with only cuts and bruises had the freight truck been able to swerve out of the way before splitting the tipped over bus into two sections that spun across the street. Even still, some passengers might have survived had one of the bus sections not careened into the propane tower at the gas station on the corner of Mantle and Canyon, igniting the compressed gas and sending a mushroom cloud of suffocating black smoke and fire sixty-six feet into the air.

The first half of the bus flew back across Mantle Street from the force of the explosion and smashed into the second half of the bus that was still laying on its side in the eastbound lane. Now back together, the bus was rapidly consumed with smoke and heat as the passengers struggled to crawl out from the carnage. Only six made it out of the bus. The remaining passengers, including the driver who had fallen asleep at the wheel after consuming two Vicodin for breakfast, were killed from the impact of the gas explosion.

Police were on the scene almost immediately – a twenty-four hour restaurant was just down the street from the gas station, and there was a breakfast special going on for Valentine’s weekend. Within the hour all six passengers were undergoing emergency surgery at the local hospital – most of them with severe burns and some with broken ribs. Maureen was among the last to leave the operating room, and her injuries were life threatening.

Third degree burns covered sixty-six percent of her body. The smell of charred flesh permeated the observation room where she was initially assigned. The other patients complained so vehemently that the hospital moved Maureen to the sixth floor and into a private room. Monitors and tubes were attached to most parts of her body, and sensors flashed and counted numbers measuring respiration, heart rate, and body temperature. Every number was in the red. She wasn’t going to make it.

Tom was beside himself when he got the call. “She what?” was all he could muster when the police officer told him that Maureen was in critical condition after a tragic accident. He left the office immediately, without even saying goodbye to his secretary Evon, who called after him, “What’s wrong?”

As Tom raced across town in his Passat, he listened to the anchor on the local radio station describing the horrific details of the bus crash and subsequent propane gas explosion. He looked up out of his sunroof and he could see the black smoke still lingering in the air above. The wind was still, and the smoke would stay above town most of the day as a reminder of the terrible crash.

Now as Tom stood staring at the blackened face of his dearest love, he wondered whether he had remembered to lock his computer before leaving the office. And then he remembered that the screen-saver was set for six minutes of inactivity, and it would automatically lock. He sighed in relief then left the hospital room. “That’s what she gets for making me wait until our wedding night.”