Overheard at Table 1: The Greatest Army

The Greatest Army

The greatest army we ever faced?  Strangely enough, it was the army that never came at us with guns or tanks or planes or bombs.  They came at us, babbling about their Savior, and how we needed to stop our killing and learn to love and live in peace.

We killed 'em.  Sure, we killed 'em.  By the dozens.  By the hundreds, but they kept coming.

That was the weird thing.  They kept coming.  Never stopped going on and on about their Savior.

Eventually, though, we did kill them all.  At least, we thought we did.  You see, they stopped coming, so we thought that was the end of it.  But of all the armies we'd ever gone up against, this was the one we couldn't forget.  Couldn't get it out of our minds - these crazy soldiers, always going on about their Savior.

Some of us even starting proclaiming this Savior.  Just a few at first, and then a handful more, and then more.

So, you see, it's almost as though, in the end, they won.  They were the greatest army we ever faced.

Overheard at Table 1: April is TCM - Conversation with Artichokie

 #horrorprompt 1428 no sanctity

Detective Samson Liang visited Arthur James Choake (AKA “Artichokie”) on April 20, 2024, where Choake is on Death Row in a Maximum Security Prison in Oklahoma.  Here is a partial transcript of the recorded conversation

SL: … I brought all this to you because I thought you could help.

AJC:  Still don’t know why you thought I’d be of any help, Detective.

SL: Looking over everything we know about this TCM killer, it seems like you both share the same … determination.

AJC: Thanks for the compliment, detective.

 

SL: It wasn’t a compliment.

AJC: Yeah it was.  You just don’t want to admit it.   But anyhoo, all I can tell you is what you already know:  he’s killing members of this “dark poets community” – how many is that?

SL: Hundreds – even thousands.

AJC: Well, you got a lot to choose from, but mainly it seems like he’s going for the ones he thinks are not “real writers” – those who don’t actually write or who just fool around in other people’s DMs.

 

SL: But why?

 

AJC: I would say it’s because there’s no sanctity in these people’s approach to writing.  Or at least, that’s not what he sees.  He sees them as “betraying” the sanctity of writing.

SL: Kinda like you.  Killing sinners.

AJC: Correction.  I kill UNREPENTANT sinners.  Those who will never choose to turn their lives back toward the Lord.  Your guy here, well, seems like he’s already made his mind up.  He’s an editor.  In his mind, the whole community is a book, and he’s whittling it down until it’s fit for publication.

 

SL: That’s insane.

 

AJC: Writers are a strange bunch, but editors, well, they’re even stranger.  Their logic is well, let’s just say, it’s esoteric.

 

SL: That’s not very helpful.

 

AJC: Just look for the ones in the group what haven’t actually written a lot in the past few years.  Start with them.  HE certainly has.

 

SL: We’ve already figured that angle and we’ve got a list.  Don’t know if you’ve a whole lot of help, but thanks.

 

AJC: It does seem to me that if you don’t stop him before the end of the month, you never will.  

SL: How do you figure?

AJC:  April is the cruelest month?  Detective, that should be obvious.  When May first gets here, if you haven’t taken this guy out, he’s either gonna take himself out or he’ll go to ground until next year.

SL: Why do you think that?

AJC: Because the story will be finished.  Ready for publication.  In his mind at least.   So, you got ten more days.  Oh, and if you do catch him, tell him ‘2 Peter 3:17’

 

SL: Do I have to look that up or are you gonna tell me?

AJC: “Be careful that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability.”  You would do well to hold on that verse yourself.

 

SL: See ya ‘round, Arthur.

AJC: You know where I am, Detective. I ain’t goin’ nowhere but the chair.