Blind Shrike
With the help of a blind swordswoman, tattooed Spyder begins a gleefully dark journey from the alleys of San Francisco to the depths of Hell, from the Bardo Lounge to the Bardo Realm.... [First published in the Infinite Matrix, www.infinitematrix.net, April 2005.]
Approx. 85,734 words.
lying nearby in the alley. Together, -Spyder and Lulu got very, very drunk.
Four
Traffic Jam
It was light out when Spyder woke up, but his eyes refused to focus, so he couldn't read the time on the Badtz-Maru clock-radio near the bed.
His head felt as if someone had scooped out his brains and filled his skull with broken glass and thumb tacks. When he tried to sit up, every part of his body ached. He rose slowly to his feet and walked stiffly to the bathroom. Spyder's shoulder throbbed and when he switched on the bathroom light he saw why.
There was a long gash running across his shoulder and down his chest. He had a black eye, a swollen lip and his arms and ribs were spotted in livid purple bruises. Spyder remembered the scene in the alley. It wasn't a dream. He had been mugged.
Blood from the gash had dried on his skin, gluing part of his white wife-beater to his chest. Spyder stood under the hot shower until the blood softened and the water soothed his kn
