on our current victimology: stories

A collection of 14 pieces of Crime/Noir Short/Flash Fiction (previously released anonymously as part of the "Out of Bullets, Throw the Gun: Round One" competition.Pablo D'Stair is the author of "they say the owl was a baker's daughter: four existential noirs", "bleed the ghost empty", and "Trevor English"https://m.facebook.com/TheBarnNovel/On a narrow stretch of desolate beach hundreds of kilometres away from the closest civilization stands an enormous, ancient, wooden barn. Inside, sixteen people of varying ages and backgrounds struggle through icy cold winters, stifling hot summers, and a feast or famine supply of the basic necessities of life, waiting to be chosen. From every surface, surveillance cameras record every moment.There is only one rule to life in the Barn: No one can ever leave. Not willingly.Ash, the youngest of the inhabitants, has never known a life outside of the Barn. He, like most of the others, has been trapped here for as long as he can remember. Alongside his best friend Michael, Ash leads a relatively comfortable and privileged life compared to the others. As he ages however, Ash slowly begins to realize that life in the barn isn’t at all what it seems to be.When the unthinkable happens, Ash is left with a tough choice: to either continue to lay low and stay quiet as others are taken from the barn instead of him, or to step up and volunteer himself to visit the infamous Mr. Irvine, potentially subjecting himself to a life more captive and horrific than anything he could have imagined.Contains some coarse language and inferences of sexual assault that some readers may find disturbing