The ambulance crew rushed around, wheeling Dominic Parker at break neck speed to the operating room. Blood pumping from his head, his spine weirdly contorted.
All Dominic knew was right now he was alive, how long the situation would be before it changed he could never know but he could feel the darkness approaching, he felt cold, slightly numb.
The doors of the accident and emergency swung open, and in walked two police officers and behind them a small crying women. As soon as she saw Dominic she ran towards him.
“ Dom son, who did this to you?”
Dominic did not answer his mum he just stared into her eyes, he wept ever so slightly, but his mouth remained closed.
The had reached surgery and the doctor turn to Dominic’s mum and said simply, “ Miss Parker you will need to wait here so we can do our job, we will let you know what happens.”

Tricia Parker slump into the chairs outside the surgery area, and placed her head in her hands, tears now dripping on to the floor.
She looked up and saw the police standing there.
“ Why aren’t you finding the person that did this to my boy?” She asked frantically.
“ Miss Parker, I don’t know what you already know, however your son has some wounds on him that look like he has been involved in a fight, however with no skin under his finger nails and what appears to be no defensive wounds on him, I think this may have been rather one sided, and in self defence, whoever it was caused your son to fall.”
“ They have beaten my son up!” She screamed, “ your telling me my son was attacked in self defence.”
“ The ambulance crew said he only had one wound on his body that was not inflicted by the fall onto the rock-” The police man now standing in front of miss Parker suddenly broke off as his radio crackled into life.
“..Officer 2371, come in please.”
The officer wandered down the corridor, along with his colleague.
“ Officer 2371, go ahead.”
“ Officer, we have reports of another boy just being brought into a and e, we believe he was involved in the incident with Dominic Parker.”
“ Roger that we will make our way to the a and entrance, see if we can talk to this kid, do we no his condition?”
“ Not really, all we have been told is he was found collapsed outside the woods, where Dominic was found, he is badly beaten up.”

The two officers ran to the a&e desk. As they got there Tony Sharpe was just entering the hospital, the police walked over to him.
“ How is he, can he talk?”
“ Right now no we have had to sedate him because the pain he was experiencing was too severe.”
“ What are his injuries?”
“ He has some extensive bruising on his ribs, and blood coming from his mouth as he is missing a tooth. He has some extensive bruising over much of his body, he has been in a really battle but I do see any defensive wounds, so we reckon it was one sided.”
“ We might know who did this to him and if so it fits with the story we already have.” the officer stared at Tony for a moment And noticed something in his hand, “ What is that in his hand?”
“ Its his phone.”
“ let me see that.” the officer took the phone and looked at the screen.
It read simply:
Call to 999
At 11:30am

“That is the time the call came in about Dominic, but there was no voice all they said was, someone is hurt in the woods at the back of the school, but they couldn’t say where, looks like we have our other victim in the fight.”

Tony was taken down to x-ray and after many tests, was told he only had bruising. By this time his on mother had appeared in the hospital and demanded to know what had happened. However as yet another call came into the police radio, she was left with no further answers about how her son had come to be in this state.
The police rushed down to the surgery rooms where Dominic had been treated, to find Miss Parker on her knees, on the floor sobbing uncontrollably, with the doctors standing over her their faces full of shock and despair.
As the officers approached the doctors looked up and simply shook there heads.
Dominic was dead.

2 days later.
 
“ Mr Sharpe, can you tell us what happened in the woods please?” The police officer stood over Tony a concerned expression on his face.
“ Dominic started to have a go at me when I walked into school over what he did last month, so I decided to walk off but he followed me and attacked me, I thought he was going to kill me so I grabbed a log and swung.” Tony paused and then hurriedly added, “ I didn’t mean for him to fall off the cliff.”
“ We know Mr Sharpe.”
“ I rung for an ambulance after I saw how bad he was, how is he?”
Tony had only woke up that morning and still did not know that the bully, the one that had been a torment to his life, was dead.
“ I’m sorry Mr Sharpe but Mr Parker didn’t make it out of surgery.”
Tony’s heart dropped.
Would he be arrested for murder?
The biggest question Tony had for himself was why did he feel a tinge of joy at the news he had just been told.
“ Are you saying my son killed Dominic?” Tony’s mum asked, scared of the answer.
“ Mrs Sharpe I do not believe your son meant to kill Mr Parker, we all believe and say it was self defence but we need to know what happened anyway, in case there was anything else that could have contributed to his death.”
“ There wasn’t.” Tony said.

After two weeks Tony was let home no charges could be brought against him, for it truly was self defence. However Tony now had a charge on his life, he had, even by accident, taken the life of someone.
Even though he had fantasized about killing Dominic many times, he never thought he actually would.
Tony’s friend Michael Stanton came over the day Tony got home, as he walked in the room he looked at Tony still slightly wincing in pain.
“ Dude what the hell happened out there, people are saying Dominic is dead and you were involved?”
“ I was, I hit him in self defence and he fell.”
“ Yeah that’s what the school says, the police were in, its all round school, man you have some serious respect from most people in school now!”
“ That’s not the way you want to get respect Michael.”
“ Well you know what I mean, they all thought you were weak and incapable of fighting back but you sure showed them didn’t you?”
“ Michael this isn’t funny, I was involved in a guys death, it was an accident.”
“ Yeah you keep saying that.” Michael stared at Tony as if searching for something.
“ What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“ Nothing I’m just saying I’ve heard that already.” Michael took a deep breath and plundered on “ Was it really an accident mate?”
“ How the hell can you say that, look at me!” Tony was angry.
“ I know I was just saying, I mean if you did I wouldn’t blame you and no one else that knew what you were going through would either.”
“ Well there is nothing to blame.”
With that Tony closed his eyes and Michael left the room.

Each night when Tony went to sleep before the incident in the woods, had been haunted by the face of Dominic. He would relive, every night, the beatings, the trauma, he would hear the laughter.
“ Eww he smells!”
“ Eww he’s a tramp.”
“ Hey rat boy!”
He would relive Penelope sitting next to him in English class. He would relive the day when they were all told the would sit in alphabetical order, the reason he had to endure her constant taunts.
He would relive her and Dominic shouting at him in years seven when he was so scared he wet himself in the school playground.
Now it was different, he still had those nightmares, but now he saw the face of Dominic staring up at him.
“Help…me!” It would say. “ Don’t let me die here, please don’t let me die!”
Tony awoke sweating from head to toe. However when he awoke the images he saw did not vanish. It was almost like they were standing at the bottom of his bed.

Over the next few months the dreams would become more and more vivid, he would relive what happened in the woods every night, but once he swung the log at the head of Dominic he would awake to see his bloody body standing staring at him, his eyes blank and lifeless.
Tony would soon spiral into a deep depression, his only friend in the darkness that had become of his life was Michael.

Tony fell asleep one night six months after the accident, and finally relived the whole event right to its end, the part he had been leaving out for  six months.

Dominic lay on the ground his body in a crumpled heap and Tony stood over him as he begged for help.
“ Please…” Dominic breathlessly asked.
“ No, why should I? You feel that pain Dominic, in every bone in your body?” Tony asked in a tone of menace.
“ Yes.” Dominic murmured.
“ That’s how I feel every time you attack me, every time you punch, kick me or trip me up. I felt like that the day in bathroom at school, hurts doesn’t it?” Tony was angry now, he wanted Dominic to feel what he felt and this was his chance. “ You feel that fear?”
Dominic murmured something inaudible.
“ Ill take that as a yes, I feel that before I walk into school…” Tony trailed of as he winced in pain, but upon taking some small shallow breaths he continued, “ Everyday even before you have assaulted me, I feel that every time I see you walked around the school, I felt that fear when you made me…” Again he trailed off.
“ Please Tony….” Dominic started.
“ I felt that when you made me so scared in the play ground” Tony started his blood boiling, “ When you made me PISS MY PANTS!” Tony ended his sentence in a high shout, right into the face of Dominic.
Dominic whimpered.
“ Go on give me a reason to help you, do what you did to me, remember what that was Dominic?”
“ No.” Dominic’s eyes were starting to feel heavy now.
“ You made me beg, begging for you to stop, begging for my life.” Tony started, “ Now I want you to beg.”
Dominic said nothing.
“ BEG ME!” Tony shouted, “ beg me to stop, beg me to save your life by ringing for help, beg me for your life.”
“ Tony I beg you…please!” Dominic cried desperately.
“ Not quite good enough Dominic, for years you have made me do things I didn’t want to do, for years you have made me beg for everything. Do you want to know the worst part?”
Dominic nodded slightly.
“ It never ended when the school day was done. You see for years I haven’t been able to sleep right.” Tony sat down at the side of Dominic, staring straight into his eyes. “ It never ends when you stop, it follows me home, that dread, that fear. It infest my dreams and turns them into nightmares, it causes me pain even when you aren’t physically there. So tell me when you have had your fun what did think happens?”
“ I-” Dominic started, “ didn’t know.”
“ That is because you never think, all you want is your fun, all you want is your little game and you think its over when you stop. Well guess what your wrong!” Tony moved closer, “ Your dead wrong, you don’t know how wrong your are!”
“ I’m sorry, If you help me,” Dominic mustered up his strength that he had left and said simply, “ I will protect you!”
“ Protect me!” Tony laughed, but soon stopped as his ribs began to scream in pain. “ First you need to protect me from yourself and you cant do that can you, because you cant stop, you love the power don’t you?”
“ I can.”
“ Not good enough! See you in hell Dominic.”  With that Tony stood back up, and began to walk away.
“ Please Tony, help me.”

Tony did not respond he continued limping away from Dominic. He turned to look back at the helpless body laying and the ground and found that his heart grew heavy.
He took out his phone from his pocket, dialled emergency services.
“ Hello emergency services what is the nature of your emergency?”
 “There is a guy, Dominic Parker,” Tony broke off, he fell to his knees, the pain had grown too strong, “ He is in the woods behind Calendale school.”
“ What is wrong sir?”
“ He has taken a fall, I think he is hurt bad.” With that Tony slipped out of consciousness and fell to the floor, his phone still in his hand.
“ Sir?” The voice continued, “ Sir are you still there.”

Tony awoke with a start, and screamed out loud. His friend came running in.
“ What the hell Tony?”
“ I killed him!” Tony sobbed uncontrollably.
“ What the fuck are you on about man?”
“ Dominic I killed him!”
“ It was an accident man!”
“Yeah I know but I didn’t ring the ambulance straight away, if I had he might have been alive now, I wanted him to feel what I felt like.”
“ What?” Michael looked shocked.
“ I asked him if he was scared, I wanted to scare him, I wanted him to feel what I did when he attacked me.”
“ Mate you could not have saved him, they still might have been too late.”
“ Yeah and they may not have been.”
“ I don’t know if he deserved that.”
“ Tony listen to me, you need to keep this to yourself, but as for did he deserve it? Hell yes he did, mate he has made your life hell over the years, he made you terrified to even walk out of the house, you gave him what he gave you!”
“ I what to kill them all every last one of them!”
“ Dude I know how you feel, but it wont help, Dominic is gone there is nothing you can do about it now, you taught him a lesson and no one but you and him needs to know about that.”
Tony stared this friend.
He was right.

Tony never truly let the feeling of guilt go, but he knew he had done all he could. He rung the services to get help. Maybe it was true he could have rung earlier, but through the years of torture and torment he had taken, he just wanted someone else to feel the same.
When Tony finally did go back to school, no one ever looked at him the same again. He was still bullied by some people, however anyone that knew Dominic did now give Tony a wide birth.
Were they scared? Or was it just that because Dominic wasn’t egging them on, they did not ever really want to bully Tony.
Whatever the reason, Tony’s life changed from that event. He looked at people differently, and those that did bully him and invaded his dreams became a fundamental part of his fantasies that he would be able to kill them all, but he never actually acted on them, but it didn’t mean to see he didn’t come close.

Just remember, under the smile, rains tears. When you stop the terror, the trauma of what you do, it doesn’t stop for your victim. It doesn’t end when your victim leaves school, bullying carries scars that stick with those bullied for the rest of their life.
Think don’t bully, and if you see bullying say something!
Don’t be a bully be a friend.

Ghost Rider 2: Spirit of vengeance is Nicolas Cage’s newly released movie by Columbia Pictures. It was relased in 2012. It follows up the story of Johnny Blaze from Ghost Rider 1. The movie ends but Blaze’s power still lasts. And he continues his mission with this power next in Ghost Rider 2. Ghost rider 2 is the 2nd part, there was no other part released after 1.

Ghost Rider 2 released as 3D.

Story plot:

“Johnny Blaze, still struggling with the curse of being the Ghost Rider, is hiding out in a remote part of Eastern Europe when a secret sect of the Catholic Church asks him to save a boy from becoming possesed by Roarke, The Devil himself who put the curse on Johnny. At first Johnny is reluctant to use his power and states that he does not save people; though the represenative of the Church, Moreau, states that his Church is ancient and possesses knowlege that can rid Johnny of his curse in the event that he is succesful in saving the boy.”

You can watch the movie right here on your pc without buying it, just freely download or watch online.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH OR DOWNLOAD GHOST RIDER 2: SPIRIT OF VENGEANCE!

Movie Size: 739.22 MB(Mega Bytes).

Watch the trailer here!

Nick Polk

English 1102

Professor Rogers

23 April 2011

Do the Affects of Revenge Ever End?

            Revenge always leads to tragedy, no matter if the revenge is morally right or wrong. Revenge is an evil that can slowly build up and possess someone to do things him /her normally wouldn’t. Hamlet serves as a great testament to these things. In Hamlet’s culture he was morally right in seeking revenge on Claudius for killing his father, but did this revenge end up going the way Hamlet originally planned and how did the buildup of this evil affect Hamlet throughout the play?

            Hamlet’s culture is responsible for the way Hamlet seeks revenge in the play: “Hamlet is the product of a culture that knew a truth beyond all the confusions and diversities of life. It is certainly logical to look at him in terms of that truth. If it be insisted that we today are too far away from it, then we must be too far away from Hamlet as well, who would survive as a relic of the past and of nothing else” (Davis 3). In other words, Davis believes that Hamlet showed truth in his madness and our generation today would not go to the extent of which Hamlet did to avenge his family, as so this makes our generation today “untruthful” in a sense. If revenge is looked at today it can be seen that it is a waste of time and always ends up wrong, but in Hamlet’s time it was a duty to avenge family. The ghost or Hamlet’s father in the play wants to be avenged and how can a son deny his father something so honorable: “So art thou to revenge, when thou shall hear” (line 8). Once the Ghost tells Hamlet that his father was murdered by Claudius, the fire is lit and Hamlet is set on revenge.

            Hamlet’s determination possesses him and makes him perform duties of which he doesn’t want to perform: “My purpose in bringing all this in is to demonstrate the attitude of Hamlet toward a duty which he does not want to perform, but which honor, circumstances, and chance all require that he perform whether he like it or not” (Davis 43). Hamlet’s emotions come out and you start to see the revenge taking control: “By asking why Hamlet is aroused to react in turn with fear, desire, contempt, and disgust—not only towards Gertrude, but also towards Ophelia and the Ghost—I hope to show that Hamlet’s “problems” lie in his epistemological dilemma spurred by the material manifestations of “the inexpressibly horrible” (Kumamato 48). In the play Hamlet’s mentality has been changed in order for him to carry out these acts. He has turned ruthless and full of anger and expresses it as such by telling Ophelia: “get thee to a nunnery” (3.1 118). In other word’s Hamlet is calling Ophelia a whore and directly shows his determination in seeking revenge.

            Hamlet seems to grow with evil throughout the play and most critics wonder if it has anything to do with the Ghost’s command over him: “Elizabethan ghosts, we are told, could be good or evil / The moral ambivalence of the Ghost’s command is made quite explicit it admits that murder, which is what it seeks, is even in, the best, most foul, Furthermore, the motives for the revenge it seeks are largely private there are many lines of heartfelt anguish at the adulterous relationship between Gertrude and Claudius” (Hughes 395). The Ghost seems to make Hamlet believe that murder will solve everything and that he must kill Claudius to avenge his father, but what if the Ghost is actually the Devil trying to manipulate Hamlet? This would explain a lot of things because someone’s father would not push revenge so hard even back in Hamlet’s era.

            Hamlet was so overwhelmed with revenge that his safe plan of killing Claudius spins out of control. At first Hamlet was like okay, I’m not going to let this get out of control, I’m going to make the killing clean and prove Claudius’s guilt first, but it didn’t turn out the way he planned. Hamlet proves Claudius’s guilt and spots him kneeling and praying while on the way to his mother’s chambers, Hamlet contemplates how easy it would be to just plunge a sword into his back and let things be over with, but Hamlet feels that this would be a benefit instead of revenge as Claudius would go to heaven: “Now might I do it pat, now is a-praying / And now I’ll do’t – and so goes to heaven” (3.3 72-73). Instead of killing Claudius and being through with the murder, Hamlet decides to wait. Hamlet must give Claudius more of a death than the crime Claudius committed: “The revenge killing requires craft because it must equal the outrage of the original crime and satisfy the revenger’s intense feelings” (Brucher 257). Hamlet’s madness wants him to be satisfied in killing Claudius and leave him with a sense that payback has been served. Once Hamlet arrives in his mother’s chambers he hears Polonius cry out from the drapes and mistakes him for Claudius and kills him. This just goes to show that revenge never ends because if Hamlet would have just killed Claudius in the alley then more people would not have to die.

            Claudius is now trying to get rid of Hamlet and plans to kill him in a “friendly” sword fight, but Claudius has a few tricks up his sleeve. Claudius has poisoned the tip of Laertes’ blade and poisoned a drink that he will offer to Hamlet. Hamlet refused the drink and Gertrude unknowingly drinks it, which results in killing her. Hamlet then kills Claudius and Laertes. Hamlet is now left alone and drinks the poison and also dies. This goes to show that revenge always leads in tragedy. Hamlet got corrupted with vengeance which led to the ultimate never ending ride of tragedy: “It is a play about vengeance and how avengers lose their souls, sin, and corrupt in turn” (Lidz 33).

            In conclusion, revenge always ends up spiraling out of control and into tragedy. It will start off with a nice plan of action, but will always end up going wrong. Hamlet started off with a plan of action, but his vengeance led him into getting more innocent people killed, including his mother. Revenge never has a designated area to stop and when it does stop the damage has already been done. Revenge always leads into corruption and greed: “Any satisfaction a man may derive from punishing his enemy is more than outweighed by the utter misery he brings on himself” (Prosser 11). Hamlet’s madness ultimately leads him to destroy himself and others; twice the damage was dealt than originally because Hamlet acted with such vengeance and anger. Hamlet finally admits his madness in the end with an apology to Laertes: “Give me your pardon, sir / I have done you wrong, but pardon’t as you are a gentleman / This presence knows and you must needs have heard / How I am punished with a sore distraction / What I have done / That might your nature, honor and exception, roughly awake, I here proclaim was madness” (5.2 90-96). Hamlet is too late in realizing his madness in the end, however for tragedy has already struck. This all goes to show that revenge never truly ends and when it does tragedy has already struck, so revenge is truly a dish best served cold and should only be pursued with no outside factors or influences.

Works Cited

-Davis, Arthur G. Hamlet and the Eternal Problem of Man. NY: St. John’s UP, 1964.

-Lidz, Theodore. Hamlet’s Enemy: Madness and Myth in Hamlet. NY: Basic Books, 1975

-Prosser, Eleanor. Hamlet and Revenge. Stanford: Stanford UP, 1967.

-Hughes, Geoffrey. “Conscience in Literature” English Studies; Oct76, Vol. 57 Issue5, p395, 15p. Academic Search Complete.

Web. 23 Apr. 2011

-Brucher, Richard T. “Revenger’s Tragedy” Studies in English Literature (Rice); Spring 81, Vol. 21 Issue 2, p257, 14p. Academic Search Complete.

Web. 23 Apr. 2011

-Fly, Richard. “Accommodating Death in Hamlet” Studies in English Literature (Rice); Spring 84, Vol. 24 Issue2, p257 18p. Academic Search Complete

Web. 23 Apr. 2011

-Kumamoto, Chikako. “Hamlet’s Revenge and the Abject” Journal of the Wooden O. Symposium; 2006 Vol.6 p48-64, 17p. Academic Search Complete

Web. 24 Apr. 2011

Nick Polk

English 1102

Professor Rogers

23 April 2011

Presentation Outline

I. Hamlet’s revenge ultimately leads to his demise.

A.        Hamlet is defended in going for revenge by his culture moral ideas. Arthur Davis says in one of his books that “Hamlet is the product of a culture that knew a truth beyond all the confusions and diversities of life. It is certainly logical to look at him in terms of that truth. If it be insisted that we today are too far away from it, then we must be too far away from Hamlet as well, who would survive as a relic of the past and of nothing else” (Davis 3) In other words, Davis believes that Hamlet showed truth in his madness and our generation today would not go to the extent of which Hamlet did to avenge his family.

B.        It is great that Hamlet is standing up for the morals of his era, but to what extent does revenge stop and when it does isn’t the damage already dealt?

Hamlet grows with evil throughout the play and some critics have an explanation of why. Geoffrey Hughes believes that the Ghost is just a tool of the Devil and manipulated Hamlet to act the way he does. “Elizabethan ghosts, we are told, could be good or evil / The moral ambivalence of the Ghost’s command is made quite explicit it admits that murder, which is what it seeks, is even in, the best, most foul,” (Hughes 257).

So as this influence of revenge fires up Hamlet, his plan of making the killing of Claudius sort of clean cut, changes. Instead of killing Claudius while he is praying when it would be so easy to do he decides to wait and kill Claudius when he is sinning that way, he would not go to heaven. Hamlet’s mistake of not killing Claudius here results in the killing of two more innocent people including himself, Polonius and Gertrude. Richard Brucher says “The revenge killing requires craft because it must equal the outrage of the original crime and satisfy the revenger’s intense feelings” (Brucher 257). He stabs Polonius behind the drapes and Gertrude mistakenly drinks the poison and Hamlet decides to drink the poison as well to get rid of the misery. So is revenge really worth chasing after? You never know when it’s going to end and when it does tragedy has already struck.

For the guys out there, you must have heard the phrase – “Hell hath no fury than a woman scorned” and never is this truer the case than with our modern feisty women that we love to hate and hate to love! Just remember that she knows things about you that you might not want released to the general public such as those photos of you wearing makeup as a laugh or the weird sound you make in the bedroom! Girls can be nasty, fickle creatures and if you are going to cross them, you better be prepared!

Of course, guys can be fickle creatures as well but generally they will be less nasty than their female counterparts. A guy that has been cheated on will more likely want to save face among his friends and therefore do his crying in public and his back biting about you in the pub with all of the lads about him. Of course, if you were silly enough to let him take photos of you in compromising positions, you maybe should ask for them back or at least delete them from his phone or laptop if you get the chance otherwise you could find yourself posted on a million and one websites for everyone to see!

The best thing is, of course, not to cheat on your partner but if you are going to make the decision to jump into bed with someone else, at least make sure that your other half won’t find out and if they do, that they don’t have any dirt to dish on you!

For example, Alvin had a lot of ‘power’ in his very narrow dominion, and sought to punish  Edna in various small ways.  He demoted her, ignored her suggestions, treated her as a virtual paracite.  Everyone liked Edna and over time spoke to Alvin about his treatment which forced him to back off certain decisions and resolve them more favourably in Edna’s behalf. 

The fact that Edna had befriended all and sundry, had spent hours canvassing as if a politician looking for votes is hidden beneath the fabric.  Alvin only knows that he was made to look very bad and was impelled to perform more pro-Edna actions then he would have done in a neutral environment.

Edna’s revenge is far sweeter than confrontation and tit for tat.  She has caused Alvin’s status to drop.

During elections at the local PTA a young male incumbent attacked an older woman challenger.   He used a lot of unnecessary terms to ridicule her.  When she won she embraced him and called him her ’son’ with such warmth that it was almost funny, considering what he’d said about his ‘mother.’ 

When you launch your revenge it must seem natural and almost accidental.   It must result in the target  losing more than was gained. 

Revenge should always be taken some time after the incident (s).  The actions should not be connected as a tit for tat but seem to come from some objective place.

For example, some years ago a particular person was especially beastly in circumstances which made the actions unnecessary.   At a point he had made a tender and it came before the Committee and the person he had been unpleasant to, in the most bored voice “I think tender 4 is a better contractor…”  As no one had any particular preference they went with another tender, leaving Beastly quite out in the cold.

There was nothing to link his actions of three years ago to this decline today, and no reason to consider that particular person of any particular power.

Never take revenge when it reduces you to a lower level than your target unless that is your intention

An exciting crime story set in Depression era America, dealing with a brutal revenge committed against a bullying cop by a gangster who just can’t take any more grief and harassment.  He finds himself even having nightmares featuring the bull cop, Mulley.

Luca Torelli finds his every move creating suspicion for Mulley, who arrests him and threatens him frequently, severely hampering his actual crime work. He sets out to get revenge using a doctored handgun, a moll and an accomplice, but a blind man watching nearby may not be as blind as he claims.

The tension is well handled, and the violence is perfectly controlled up to the stark, if a little easy to guess final act of vengeance, but the capture of sleazy diners, police interrogation rooms, and men of cheap violence and short fused tempers is pitch perfect. There are no nice people in the story, which would have made a great James Cagney or George Raft vehicle as it fits their era perfectly well.

Character faces are amazingly well drawn, and I felt as if I could hear the sound of striking matches, fists hitting faces and the crack of the bullet going off at climax.

Here, the law does not win the cop is more corrupt than the killer he pursues and the sense of blindness and poor eyesight is a recurring motif, with Mulley also having a dead eye.

Arthur Chappell

Spoiler space warning .

The sub-plot back story to a second of the Preacher’s fascinating enemies, a boy called Root, with a face that has ended up shaped like a bare backside. Here we have the unfortunate wretch’s pitiful origins. He will end up being known only as Arseface.

He starts out as a well meaning, polite, naïve and slightly retarded hippy in a redneck Southern States community. Though white, he is very sympathetic to the black activism cause at the height of the Civil Rights movement, in the days of Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King. This makes him unpopular with the racists at his school.

The boy lives with, and admires his drunken violent father who beats him up on a regular basis. Many others bully him too, with only one friend seeming to give a hoot for him. Together they steal the cop’s gun and shoot bottles with it. They also take drugs and become blood brothers, vowing to be friends even unto death. They are Nirvana fans, dangerously influenced by the suicide of Nirvana singer Kurt Colbain.  They use the gun to kill a barking dog that annoys them, and then decide to kill themselves. While his friend succeeds, Root fails and blows his face inside out, ending up with the disfigurement that gives him his new identity as Arseface. This may make him one of comic book history’s least likely villains in the making.

When his dad dies, in an incident-involving Preacher, Arseface vows vengeance. Preacher has another unlikely enemy.

Ennis makes the villains in Preacher quite tragic figures rather than power crazed megalomaniacs. They are bitter, unlucky unloved individuals who have a lot of anger to share and kill for. They become likeable.

Arthur Chappell

Follow the road from Pendle east
through forest, moss and moor
when overworld’s portal hangs agape
in the days upon the year,

So many lonely travellers
have passed that way before
and met a vengeful spirit there
in the days upon the year.

In the valley by Wycoller
where mist hangs like a caul
you will hear ancient voices sing
as darkness starts to fall.

An old bridge spans the river there,
only a fool, the stories say,
would cross its span upon these nights
when the dark ones are set free.

From the shadows steps a woman,
her head shrouded by a veil.
She begged me stay a while and listen
as she told her tragic tale.

On one arm she held a basket
covered by a linen sheet
and her head was coyly lowered.
Did she practice some deceit?

Though I tried to sidestep past her
or turn away to leave
she called me with my given name,
pale fingers caught my sleeve.

Then she gently brushed my forehead:
Her soothing voice intoxicates,
men are trapped in her enchantment;
he is lost who hesitates.

She told me of two young lovers
who met in the darkness here
and made their plan for freedom
in the days upon the year,

A young maid, the only daughter
of a stern faced puritan
and a boy whose noble family
bowed to the church of Rome.

The pair met here by the river
when the mist hung like a shroud
but as they kissed she told a secret.
He recoiled and cursed aloud.

Backing away he accused her
of bringing him to shame,
the bastard child he’d got on her
would stain his family’s name.

She said “I have my father’s silver,
who cares for reputation,
we will travel to the Virginias
and there will have high station.”

“I care not for you nor your child,
you gave yourself too easily,
a harlot’s love is worth nothing
but honour demands high fee.”

Drawing his sword he pierced her heart
and took the silver coin.
Lastly he hacked off her head
hoping to conceal his crime.

And while the blood flowed from those wounds
he lifted the body high,
threw it down into dark waters
and quickly rode away.

“My father cursed my soul,” she says,
“I am damned by my falsehood
until I can find one man who has
never betrayed his love.”

She lifted up her hooded head,
no face was hidden by that cowl
only an abysmal darkness.
From the void a banshee howl.

Lifting back the basket’s cover
she showed what lay within
And then I knew this creature for
the embodiment of sin.

A lovely head lay on a pillow,
golden hair stained red with blood,
dead eyes opened, blue as sapphires,
the mouth a pink rosebud.

She threw back her cloak revealing
the wound where once her neck
rested on pale, slender shoulders.
The dead called me from the beck.

Demonic arms embraced my waist
and bore me to the edge
and the voices of the dead called out
from darkness below the bridge.

She held me over that dark water,
asked; and I denied betrayal,
“he lies, he lies,” the voices cried
and the dead hands let me fall.

All men sometime betray a love
when the passion first abates
but in the days upon the year
an avenging spirit waits.

Notes:The story is cobbled together from three local legends, The Grey Lady of Dunkenhalgh, The Headless Hag of Grane, the Haunted Bridge (which is not actually at Wycoller but Mitton does not scan). I added the gothic ending as a bit of spice.
The Days Upon The Year is a very ancient legend. A logical mindset may have wondered why there are 360 degrees of longitude and 365 days in a year. It was not always so it seems, something happened in pre – history that added five and a quarter days to the earth’s orbit. The ancient Egyptians an Sumerians believed these five days were the time in which the Gods were born, in the sense they they came to earth, and at this time of year the barriers between the physical world and other dimensions is open. Old pagan religions saw this not as unholy but as a time for partying, crazy behaviour and unconstrained boffing. The festivities were presided over by the Lord of Misrule and as normal order was suspended a lot of June / July babies looked nothing like the men who ought to be their fathers.
The Overworld is again a reference to the older religion which has no concept of hell. The physical world is the lowest level of existence and therefore the underworld.

Beck is an ancient North of England word for a small river or creek

A caul is the membrane in which a foetus is contained within the womb. It has all sorts of mystical associations which is the reason I used it here (apart from the fact that it rhymed of course.)

RELATED Posts:
Sawney Bean
The Bargeist – Halloween horror poem
Alien In My Bed (audio)
Ghost Girl
Is reincarnation a scientific fact
Bloodaxe Corner

My friend Nicole told me her revenge story from High School. In high school, she was not that popular with the “in” crowd, but she had my own friends and had a good time. There was one girl, Karen who Nicole really could not stand. Karen was one of those rich girls that seemed to have everything. Nicole did not grow up with money. Nicole did not hate her because she had money she hated her because she made fun of Nicole not having money. Nicole’s revenge on her came completely out of the blue.

Her class had just graduated and they had a yearend party, everyone was invited. The party was at a house in a pretty good neighborhood. When Nicole showed up to the party, she was a couple of hours late. While walking to the party from her car Nicole noticed Karen passed out in the car. It seemed like a perfect opportunity for revenge. Nicole found some of the class clowns to help her with her plan. She and the boys went to the store and bought them out of saran wrap. When they got back to the party they wrapped Karen’s car completely in saran wrap and then called her parents. Needless to say Karen got in big trouble. This is a funny story about revenge as no one was hurt in this situation. As adults we cannot carry around that kind of hatred or anger. We have to learn to let that go because the Karen’s of the world may have had affect on us when we were trapped in High School, but they do not now.

Respect your body even if you do not respect your emotions. Acknowledge how you feel when you are carrying around this revenge – your heart racing, your muscles tensing, your whole mind screwed up. Ask yourself if this is the sort of state you want to be in for the rest of your life and consider whether the person you want revenge on is feeling as bad as you. Most likely they’re unaware even of your deep-seated anger. And anger only feeds on itself and gnaws at you; it isn’t harming anybody else.

See my website for a FREE guide to help you start on your emotional healing so you can also heal financially. Visit our website for your FREE Seven Step Guide to Financial Recovery at www.hdpriceinc.com.

Today, the 21st day of September, year of 2011; the justice system of America has committed an obvious act of murder & revenge.

The late Troy Anthony Davis was murdered by the state of Georgia for a crime that was committed to a police officer.

A case that linked no physical evidence to the accused & now dead Troy A. Davis. A case that has had many of the witnesses admit to being coerced & other witnesses admit to seeing somebody else do it.

This a few months after a mother by the name of Casey Anthony was released from jail due to lack of evidence, yet in the case of this white women killing her child there was more evidence than in the Davis case.

Now anyone that knows me well, knows that I hate pulling the race card but its undeniable in this case.

A black man was accused of killing a white cop & evidence or not revenge was had.

I love my country but I absolutely hate its dark side. We can put a black man in the highest position to be had, yet we can’t get justice for a man of the same race.

INSIDE I’M CRYING RIGHT NOW!!!