I nod in Misty’s direction and say, “In my own strange way, I did. And I won.”
All the girls look up at me with genuine surprise on their faces.
“I won the contest, and after the final show airs in a couple months, I’ll receive my prize. And I want to share that prize with each of you. Five ways, evenly split between all of us.”
Silent shock pervades for several moments before Pauline says with a quiet excitement that makes her voice tremble, “What’s the prize?”
“A million dollars.”
Pauline whistles. “Shit, I was just hoping to get a shot at acting, but this is even better.”
“But the show can’t begin airing until all the participants have signed release and consent forms to allow the use of their footage. If you want, they can alter your image so no one can recognize your face, and they can even change your voice if you want them to. There’s lines in the body of that agreement to initial if you want your identity to be kept secret.”
Danielle shakes her head and stares at the page, reading it through. She finally says, “I don’t know. Just because you want to pay me doesn’t make it right what you did.”
I agree with her.
“In fact, it almost makes it worse.”
I can’t argue with her at all, so I don’t.
She reads the sheet over again and sighs.
“Then again, two hundred thousand dollars will more than cover what my volleyball scholarship didn’t. I could even buy a car.”
She mulls it a minute longer then reaches for the pen on the table. As she signs her name and initials to the pages, Tricia reaches out and squeezes my hand. She smiles at me.
I smile back.
I can’t remember the last time I did that.
About the Author
Steve Lowe is a former sports writer with the South Bend Tribune and occasional stringer for the Associated Press. He writes weird, dark, humorous fiction which contains just slightly more made-up content than his sports stories. His first book, Muscle Memory, was published in 2010 by Eraserhead Press, and his next book, Mio Padre, Il Tumore, is forthcoming from Bucket ’O Guts Press. His short fiction has appeared in print in Amazing Stories of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, A Hacked-Up Holiday Massacre, Dead Bait, and Abomination Magazine, and several online venues including Bizarro Central, Three Crow Press, and Unicorn Knife Fight.
Also by Steve Lowe
Muscle Memory
Wolves Dressed as Men
Mr. Flashback (writing as Son Porter)
Mio Padre, il Tumore (forthcoming from Bucket ’o Guts Press)
Other Grindhouse Press Titles
#009 — Sunruined: Horror Stories
by Andersen Prunty
#008 — Bright Black Moon: Vampires in Devil Town Book Two
by Wayne Hixon
#007 — Hi I’m a Social Disease: Horror Stories
by Andersen Prunty
#006 — A Life On Fire
by Chris Bowsman
#005 — The Sorrow King
by Andersen Prunty
#004 — The Brothers Crunk
by William Pauley III
#003 — The Horribles
by Nathaniel Lambert
#002 — Vampires in Devil Town
by Wayne Hixon
#001 — House of Fallen Trees
by Gina Ranalli
#000 — Morning is Dead
by Andersen Prunty
Copyright
Published by Grindhouse Press
POB 292644
Dayton, OH 45429
King of the Perverts
Grindhouse Press #010
Paperback ISBN-13: 978-0-9849692-5-8
Paperback ISBN-10: 098496925X
Copyright © 2012 by Steve Lowe. All rights reserved.
This book is a work of fiction.
Cover design copyright © 2012 by Matthew Revert
Grindhouse Press logo copyright © 2012 by Brandon Duncan
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author or publisher.