It’s time for this week’s Song Title Challenge.

Write a short piece of fiction, around 300 words, using the song title as your story title but don’t listen to the song.  You can pick your own genre or use the one suggested to me.  Remember to link back to this post so I can find yours.

If you would like to suggest a song title for a future post, you can do so from the challenge page.  You can also leave a suggestion on the Facebook page.

This week’s song is Sunday, Bloody Sunday by U2 and the genre is Horror/Thriller.  Thanks to poemcollision for the suggestion.

Sunday, Bloody Sunday

I’ll never forget that Sunday.  “Bloody Sunday” we ended up calling it.

I had the weekend off and had managed to go to church for a change.  They actually sent a uniform to fetch me from the sanctuary.  It wasn’t necessary for him to speak – I could see from his face that it was bad.

“How many?” I said as we walked to the car.  I knew there had to be multiple fatalities for them to call me out of church.

“Five, but…you have to see for yourself, sir.”

“Where?”

“The waterfront.”

We drove the rest of the way in silence.  As I expected a big crowd of onlookers had gathered at the scene.  What I hadn’t expected was the big screens set up around the scene, hiding the bodies from sight.  How bad was this?

The captain spotted me getting out of the squad car and hurried over.

“It’s him, Jim.  He’s back.”

No.  It couldn’t be.  We had shot him twenty years ago.  I attended his cremation to make sure.

I ran toward the screens, shoving people out of my way.  A uniform I didn’t recognise tried blocking my way and I knocked him to the ground.

I knew what lay beyond the screens, and yet I wasn’t ready for it.  Five bodies, naked, arranged in a star with their heads pointing outwards.  Their entrails used to form the lines of a pentagram around their bodies.  Symbols cut into their chests, specific to their respective ages and genders.  Other little details that were never revealed to the press.  This wasn’t a copycat.  It was him.

I glanced at my watch…just past nine.  The call would come in any minute now.  There was going to be many more bodies, and nothing we could do to prevent it.

Copyright © 2013 Herman Kok

And now, the original (which I think is much better than my attempt 😉  )

• Fiction
• Song Title Challenge