Hobo: A Horror Short Story

by Thomas S. Flowers

Under the overpass, Beverly Marsh spied a lone hobo standing on the median at the intersection of Falcon road and Interstate 59. He held a sign saying, "Any bit will help," but she ignored the sign, she ignored him, she ignored that maybe his eyes hungered for something other than her money. When the light flashed green, Beverly sped away, leaving the hobo behind in a cloud of exhaust. Two blocks later she slowed down. After thirty minutes, she forgot his face. In an hour, the entire event had washed away. And as she cuddled on her Chesterfield sofa with Penny, her well groomed poodle Maltese mix, Beverly Marsh had no idea her idyllic American dream would be coming to an end.

22 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 15, 2014

About the author

Thomas S. Flowers is an Operation Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom Army veteran who loves scary movies, BBQ, and coffee. Ever since reading Remarque’s "All Quiet on the Western Front" and Stephen King’s "Salem’s Lot" he has inspired to write deeply disturbing things that relate to war and horror, from the paranormal to his gory zombie infested PLANET of the DEAD series, to even his recent dabbling of vampiric flirtation in The Last Hellfighter readers can expect to find complex characters, rich historical settings, and mind-altering horror. Thomas is also the senior editor at Machine Mean, a horror movie and book review site that hosts contributors in the horror and science fiction genre.

PLANET of the DEAD and The Last Hellfighter are best-sellers on Amazon's Top 100 lists for Apocalyptic Fiction and African American Horror.

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You can follow Thomas and get yourself a FREE eBook copy of FEAST by joining his newsletter. Sign up by vising his website at www.ThomasSFlowers.com.

Reviews

[Lizzy Baldwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first positive to speak about is the writing style; I think Flower’s is a newly budding author (I am sure he will correct me if I’m wrong) but you really cannot tell from his writing style. It flows beautifully and the descriptions are so gruesome and dirty that you cannot help but be drawn into the writing, Currently I review a lot of books from new authors and I do find that new authors appear to enjoy description more than established authors. Maybe it’s because it is still new and exciting but I absolutely love it! I mean read this;

Smearing dirt or whatever else collected from lying in the street. The hobo smiled at her, exposing gaps where teeth had once resided, and those that remained were both yellow and nasty. He let his sign drop to the ground, moving his other hand up, cupping the tinted window, peering inside. Beverly reached for the locking mechanism, again. The bolts danced back and forth, unable to lock any further. The man opened his mouth wide, brandishing his black tongue, and fogged her window with a long drawn exhale. With one large finger he wrote, “Hungry” in the cloud.’

In the nicest way this writing has a dirty funk to it and I love it; really I do. Secondly I loved the way that the author has written the character Berverly as naive and slightly arrogant when the plot twists and we get exposed to the horror it makes it all the more horrible. Additionally I liked the way that the author only focused on the two characters; although additional characters are introduced and they are pivotal to the plot they don’t really take away from the main characters demise.

Finally, I loved the message that is woven into the plot line it really made me think about how people react and care about homeless people. I must admit when writing my 101 things in 101 days I deliberately included ‘buy coffee for a homeless person’ because of the deeper meaning that is shown in this book. It really affected me and made me think about the way that I have reacted to homeless people. Overall the writing style is brilliantly mature and with great understanding of how to strike fear into the heart of the reader. I cannot wait to read more from this author in the future!

*I received this book from the author in exchange for an honest review*

[J K · Rating 3 out of 5]

Brief bite of horror here. Over in a bit of a rush and would benefit from a deep breath in there somewhere to fully flesh it out. Clearly has a point to make about the state of the homeless, for reasons that will quickly be apparent, but otherwise kind of shallow. I liked it though. Noted a few spelling errors in there.

Perfect for a very quick, grand guignol(sp?) sort of lunchbreak read.

[Lydian Faust · Rating 5 out of 5]

A quick and dirty little morsel that sticks to the roof of your mouth. You will never be able to get the taste out. Ever.

[Zakk Madness · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun, short tale of the forgotten and overlooked Americans. Some great imagery and gore will satisfy genre fans. The opening chapter in relation to rest left me with some questions and the epilogue felt a little tacked on, at the time anyway. It'll clear up a bit when you check out the rest of Mr. Flowers catalogue. He seems to have a bit of a shared world thing going on, I dig that a lot. Keep 'em coming.

3.5/5
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