Sins and Severed Heads by Nathan Pettigrew
From Seven Deadly Sins: a PUNK NOIR Magazine series
Sins and Severed Heads
by
Nathan Pettigrew
The seven deadly sins make me think of my wife’s head in a box. Can’t for the life of me figure out why Se7en is her favorite movie, but she makes me rewatch it at least once a year. Kind of like Christmas. She loves her Hallmark movies, and Se7en, but at least the corny characters in the holiday flicks don’t gift each other with severed heads.
Her favorite part of Se7en is when Joe Doe holds Detective Mills at gunpoint.
“Why” I asked one time.
“Because I’m not killing you,” she said. “I’m killing your entire family.”
By entire family, she meant the wife and unborn child that Mills has zero knowledge of.
Way I see it, Mills makes the fatal mistake of separating work from his home life.
Plenty of so-called professionals out there will proclaim work isn’t “real life” while encouraging others to separate the two.
Be very cautious of those folks. Clearly, they haven’t seen Se7en and can’t fathom the idea of someone putting in overtime to destroy their entire world.
Clearly, they’re not losing sleep like I am while terrified of receiving a white box from a peer.
Bio:
Nathan Pettigrew was born and raised an hour south of New Orleans. His story “Yemma” was recently awarded 2nd Place in the 22nd Annual Writer’s Digest Short Short Story Competition. Other stories have appeared in Deep South Magazine, Shooter, Penumbra Online, Stoneboat, Punk Noir, and the bestselling Gone anthology from Red Dog Press, edited by Stephen J. Golds.
Nice one! Now I have something to think about.