Hair Rising, Heir Raising, Erasing
Zachary Wilton-Cough
What can I say about Zach? The first time you encounter him you will not like him a tad. I wrote him with his sheer stupidity aligned with his false cleverness. Zachary Wilton-Cough is a character as daunting as a sponge which was left to absorb vitriol until it is so poisonous, your guts instinct are to just leave it there and ran away without dealing with it or squeeze it out of the bullshit it is full of.
What can I say about Zachary? His first name starts by a Z, unlike his father. He symbolises the end of the alphabet, the end of culture, the end of love. Zach poses as a dreary dead end, the final error of an answer which no one wants.
What can I say about that ghoul? He was a child, loved and cherished. His father prioritised him above all else, left him his entire fortune (in the nightmare) yet it doesn’t explain the way he turns out to be.
When his own father found him plundering his grave, he fails to understand his son for he had given everything to him. Yet Abraham will not get any respect for whatever he gave. Zach is soulless, heartless, materialistic to the core. Zach can eat his own parents without remorse. He became a ghoul.
How to discuss with Zach in his state is an impossibility. He is a killer with a gain and aim which render your murder negligible compared to his fast feasting reward with your bones.
Of course Zachary is a metaphor for the worst, we encounter in our century. Explained or not, Zach is a threat which will cull without a reasoning heart, swearing to whoever, just mass murdering.
Zachary is a brainwashed fool, a ghoul, a killer: no longer a son, nor a human. Zachary meets a deadly end, the one he gave to many. However we will meet him again as his ghostly father will haunt the living in order to save his eldest son from becoming a ghoul, desperately seeking to lift the curse of Wilton Town.
Zach in quotes:
Trying to fix up the part of his flapping scalp, Zachary winked at his father with a cocky smirk as he answered, -I am not too worried for them two, for the less we are the more we feast. Apart for that missing bit of brain now don’t you think I look dashing and very well preserved, dad? I will let you into our little secret to great longevity: we eat people dead or alive, the fresher the better.
Stepping away from his son, seized by an uncontrollable shiver, Abraham was in total disarray. It dawned on him that Zachary Wilton-Cough went through his tomb: was he looking to eat his very own father? He pointed to his grave shakily then to himself repetitively a few times wanting explanations, demanding,
-Do I truly look like a happy meal to you?
Turning around his father ever so slowly, considering him as meat for the grab, making Abraham tremble of fright doing so, Zachary finally stated,
-Not as very well conserved as I expected, I am afraid. I thought your money would have bought a decent coffin with tin like quality attached to it. Yet I am very much mistaken, you are pretty much rotten all over. Your bones might still make perfect toothpicks for dirty nachos.
The terrifying Zach went to pick up a piece of Abraham’s rib that laid flat at his feet from the shooting, and put it in his mouth to illustrate his point. Then he showed a silver flask of whiskey, waving it slightly to his old man, before commenting with his brightest grin, and licking his purple lips,
-When I thought this little silver baby with it’s vintage golden content was the most precious thing I could grab from your grave, I come to the realisation that your good old bones taste like cheese straws so full of marrow they are.
Calling out his companions at once, Zachary Wilton-Cough shouted, pointing at his father,
-Guys! Snack time! Cheese straw bones down here!
Forgetting his intentions to pick up all his pieces of shattered bones within his top hat at once, Abraham legged it out of there as fast as he could.’
The Compendium of Characters
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- Book Dedication
- This comprehensive nomenclature will be ordered by the chronology of the published books and within it by the alphabetical order of the characters. Following the ‘Who’s Who’ of characters, you will find a ‘What’s what’ section, a list of created or combined words with their meanings. There are a fair few occasions where I applied this poetic license to fit closely to the heartbeat of the story or a particular individual within it. The last sections are the peep-holes to the future publications relating to those stories, spin-offs, prequels or next instalments to look forward to. It will offer the tangible glimpse of what is coming next or what happened before.
- Published the 21st of October 2014, this short story was born like many of my stories within the midst of a nightmare. I remember still vividly hearing some chilling noises, some eerie music, sad laughter, stuck in the darkness of a long box. I pushed the door open to realise that I was in my coffin. A cowardly glance outside revealed a hilly cemetery, a moonlight night and other corpses rising from their graves, some dragging others to do so. I was freaked enough at the sight to lay back in the safe darkness, thinking that it must be a bad dream and that it will all pass. But someone saw me, someone recognised me, called my name out loud and opened my coffin lid wide open. In front of that half decomposed cadaver, my heart seemed to fail to beat any longer. I closed my eyes of fright and I woke up in my bed safe and well. I was not exposed in a coffin, exhibited to other dead people, I was in my bedroom with for only witness, my black cat Mystic blinking her yellow eyes at me peacefully from the other pillow.
- It-666’s story can not be told in one sentence not even in one book. It has a fateful spin to it which will last for as long as it is meant to last. It is determined.
Hair Rising, Heir Raising, Erasing
- Illegitimate daughter of Abraham Wilton Cough and Amelia Bates, Abigail was not conceived out of love. She is a pure mistake, simply made by her respective parents out of drunkenness. Despite her controversial conception, even unborn she is a blessing to all. To her guilt ridden father, the mere fact that she is the growingly visible result of his action within the belly of the Widow Bates caused his nagging unrest and prophetic nightmare on his death bed. Her unseen presence pushes the proud Abraham first to admit that he did commit mistakes during his lifetime. With her mother playing the spiritual guide to the departing soul of Abraham, they help him to go from admission to making amends, passing by the acknowledgement of his errors.
- We meet Abraham Wilton-Cough as a skeleton in the feverish nightmare he is having on his death bed. Our Anti-Hero rise from his coffin to reluctantly follow the Widow Bates on a journey to discover what happened to his heirs.
- Her shrieking voice is the dreaded and familiar one which guides Abraham Wilton-Cough during the night of the rising dead. Born Elroy, the widow Bates has the privilege to be Abraham’s impoverished neighbour. Always in the now and know, Amelia is his perfect guide.
- Angela is the beautiful yet suffering wife of Abraham Wilton-Cough. Present by his death bed, she hold his hand until his last breath. She is the recipient of his last orders, the soldier that can execute his last wills, which starts with burning the ones he had written previously with a lawyer and friend, with a cold and calculating heart: The very will which would have seen her become totally destitute and dying on the church steps of Wilton Town’s church a very bitter winter night, the 23 rd of January 1866.
- Private Harry Bates is the quintessence of absent characters. Talked about, missed, grieved, his lack of presence, nonetheless affects the other characters in many ways. Like a missing link the life of Harry Bates can explain and shed light about the lives of others and their behaviours. Let’s take the example of the always well informed Amelia Bates to illustrate the point. She has developed that trait of her character because of the military career of her husband. Harry is the determining factor behind a self taught Amelia who reads the newspaper to know if he is still alive, which part of the world he is located, which battles he faced, their results and consequences on the world and people, and trying desperately to guess when would he possibly be able to come back.
- Briefly mentioned, she is the character which presents Angela to Abraham in one of her tea parties, warning him to not fall in love with the Italian shop keeper’s daughter. Aunt Josephine is the would be keeper of old generations and old fashions yet to still be in fashion herself and for her parties not to be obsolete, she has to invite the new generation which brings life to the old town and the like of Angela. Angela is like a mirror of herself in her younger years, an up and coming socialite to be watched.
- Josiah by his imaginary piano/organ/organic instrument, playing beautifully and powerfully, is a pure vision. The youngest son of Abraham Wilton-Cough symbolises all the children who had to endure the will of their parents as their own. If they do not do so, they end up beaten up badly.
- Noah M Wilton is the revered character, founder of Wilton Town, ancestor of Abraham Wilton-Cough. We hear about him first, mentioned proudly by Abraham who boast to be the eleventh removed from him. Larger than life, Noah takes shape and form in a formidable statue in the delirious dying dream of Wilton-Cough. As Abraham catches his breath at the base of the colossal brass effigy of his ancestor, he regains stock of who he is, who he came from but also the courage to face his own future, hence the judgement for his mistakes.
- The character of Father Odell looks after his parish like a shepherd after his flock. Ready listener of their ailments and tribulations, he offers to them the comfort of an educated comprehension, wraps their shoulders by his understanding and instead of letting them face their worst nightmare alone, he leads them to forgiving solutions to their dilemmas.
- Father of Abraham Wilton-Cough, Terah is just mentioned by him with great pride. This character is not elaborated in this story. From the association of two powerful families, the Wiltons and the Coughs, Terah is a member of the third generation. His important wealth handed down to his son made him own half of Wilton Town. Still not enough, Abraham endeavoured to increase his fortune by creating the first bank of the town.
- Doctor Vincent Valdi is another character barely mentioned in the story. At the bedside of the dying Abraham Wilton-Cough, he is monitoring his last hours, unable to save him.
- What can I say about Zach? The first time you encounter him you will not like him a tad. I wrote him with his sheer stupidity aligned with his false cleverness. Zachary Wilton-Cough is a character as daunting as a sponge which was left to absorb vitriol until it is so poisonous, your guts instinct are to just leave it there and ran away without dealing with it or squeeze it out of the bullshit it is full of.
- Wilton Town is a whimsical place with a far-West feel to it. Created out of the sheer wilderness of a large, dark and strange forest by the broad axe of Noah M Wilton, it represents all the hope of a better future that people do carry with them. However it didn’t quite synthesise itself on the ground, despite Noah and his followers’s best will and efforts. The hard working and generous Noah provided them with the free land, built the houses, designed a small town out of the treasure of their surrounding seas of trees.