Cry to Heaven

“Whatcha reading?” Tobias asked.

DJ didn’t even look up. “A book.” He turned the page.

“Goodness gracious me, I’m so unobservant that I didn’t notice.” Tobias rolled his eyes and perched on the arm of the sofa with the uncanny balance of a bird of prey.

“You can read the title.”

“Yes, well, Cry to Heaven doesn’t tell me much. It could be religious or weepy or whatnot,” Tobias said.

DJ said, “It’s none of the above.”

“Then what’s it about?”

“Revenge.”

Tobias blinked. Then he leaned in, peered at the cover, and sure the cover was bright red and all, but that didn’t tell him much. “So...revenge. Who’s getting revenge on who?”

“A boy is getting revenge on his father,” DJ said, “and he has to become a monster to do it.”

“Oh.” Tobias mulled that over for a moment, then said, “But you’ve already done all that. Surely a book pales compared to the real thing.”

The smile that curved DJ’s lips would have sent Jack the Ripper fleeing in terror. “You’d be surprised.”

Later, when Tobias read the book, he was.

(185 words)