Gary The Garden Gnome.

Once upon a time, there was a garden gnome and his name was Gary. Gary was 50cms tall and always wore a smile; with his silly little green hat, on top of his round old head. Gary had no beard to hide his blushing cheeks or his large grin. His green coat, black bottoms and black boots kept him warm, even when the wind and rain was hard and it was cold out there. He would stand his arms by their sides, near the pond with the fish, all alone. Poor Gary.

One day, someone kidnapped Gary from his garden! Oh no! Gary was frighten as a figure picked him up and wrapped him in a black bin-bag. "You're not my owner!" Gary would tell the intruder but was sadly ignored. He kept shouting for help from his owner, Mr Stevens, with no luck at all.

Much later, Gary woke up; confused and dazed. "Where...Where am I?!" he mumbled to himself. Suddenly, a hand reached inside the bag. The stranger propped him up onto a brick wall, in front of a beach. Was this...A holiday?! Oh, how Gary dreamed for a holiday in the sun, oh if only Mr Stevens would listen to him...

The stranger walked in front of Gary and then turned. He was wearing brown loose shorts and a loose blue t-shirt. His feet were encased with brown straps attached to something Gary wasn't familiar with. His kidnapper's eyes were blocked by a pair of sunglasses. "Smile!" he told Gary and oh how Gary would grin if he wasn't already smiling as much as he could. Suddenly, he lifted a device to his right eye, pulled a button and there was, out of no where, a blinding white light for less than a second.

When he was back to a hotel room (something Gary always saw in the holiday booklets he found in Mr Stevens's house while he was out), the stranger was writing how Gary was having so much fun on holiday onto a postcard and even placed the picture of Gary at the beach into the envelope with the postcard so Mr Stevens would get both the picture and postcard together for sure!

Gary visited a lot of places, some really hot and some really cold (which the kind stranger bought Gary a nice blue puffy jacket so he may feel warm). After each stay, his carer would send a postcard and picture of Gary at each location to Mr Stevens so he may see the joy Gary was having. Oh my was Gary having the time of his life and he wished this would never end.

Sadly though, Gary had to go home. The stranger had to go home after his holiday, although he was kind enough to return Gary to his place in the garden at night. Even with his goodies in his small little bag. He even gave Gary his own little pair of sunglasses!

Mr Stevens noticed in the morning how Gary suddenly was there again; his grin from ear to ear, a pair of sunglasses on and his luggage by his side. He came out in a huff, puffing "where have YOU been?!" to Gary. Oh, Gary had seen Mr Stevens in a terrible rage, but not towards him! Never towards him! He didn't mean to be kidnapped and was only making the best of the situation! He did keep in contact with Mr Stevens to make sure he knew Gary was okay. Mr Stevens grabbed the sunglasses and threw them over the fence just behind Gary. He then grabbed Gary's bag and tore it open with his giant hands. "WHAT IS THIS?!" he shouted, his face going the colour of tomatoes in the summer which scared Gary even more. He didn't want to be hurt! "Please don't hurt me!" Gary begged Mr Stevens. He then collected all of Gary's gifts and his bag and then put them in the plastic black bin next to the side-gate where his saviour came through.

Gary felt sad for the next few weeks, what had he done to deserve Mr Stevens's rage? He was a prisoner to the kidnapper. If anything, Mr Stevens should be making sure Gary was okay but all he was concerned with was his new possessions and where Gary had been. This sadness turned to rage. How DARE Mr Stevens destroy his few belongings?! Gary had not once upset Mr Stevens in over ten years and this is how he repays him?! He gets annoyed AT him and then destroys the only items Gary could consider his own.

Two months after Gary's holiday, he decided to exact revenge the only way he felt would truly punish Mr Stevens for his crime against Gary. Late at night, after the last light in the house had gone out, Gary snuck in the shed. He took the string from the top shelf. He then ran to the back door of the house took the house key from under the flower pot, something Gary had witnessed Mr Stevens do many times. He then unlocked the door and went inside.

Gary reached for a tea-towel which was slung over one of the kitchen chairs, taking great care as to not knock the chair over. Gary just needed something to cut the string...Ah ha! Gary's eyes spied upon a knife rack upon the kitchen counter. He manoeuvred a chair next to it, making as little noise as possible, and climbed on top of the chair. He then reached over and gripped his stubby fat fingers around one of the handles. Gary nearly fell off or knocked the rack over as it easily slid out of its block of wood. He touched the blade with his index finger and smiled inside. Yep, it'd be sharp enough.

He crept upstairs, the towel slung around his neck like a scarf, ball of string in one hand and knife in the other. He knew which room Mr Stevens slept in due to the loud snoring reaching around the open door to his room. Gary placed the ball of string against the door and pushed it a little. A feeling of relief went over his body like cold rain after a hot summer's day as he heard no creaking.

Gary crept around the corner and stood in awe. There was his owner, sleeping. Suddenly, Gary felt almost pity for the man, as he snored away. He wanted to leave, put everything back and see if he could convince Mr Stevens to like him again through affection and love. This was quickly shaken off with the undeniable logic of "this HAS to be done".

Gary started by wrapping the string around Mr Stevens's bed so his arms would be caught under the covers and unable to move. He kept wrapping around, Mr Stevens still in a deep sleep, until he was sure that was enough; then wrapped two more times to be sure. He tied it up extra tightly so Mr Stevens wouldn't interrupt what had to be done. He had to be taught a lesson, one that he would never forget.

Gary then got the string, knife and tea-towel ready. When he was sure, he curled his fingers into a fist and punched as hard as he could into Mr Stevens's chest. As soon as his mouth opened, Gary shoved the tea-towel and begun wrapping string around his head as to make sure the tea-towel stayed in. He must of under-estimated his strength because Mr Stevens begun crying his eyes out as Gary cut the string with the knife, tied it up and threw the ball aside. Now, the real fun would begin.

Gary started by putting the knife to Mr Stevens's throat and whispering into his ear, a hoarse aged low voice as though he was experienced in this field, "This is for all the pain that you have inflicted upon me over the course of ten long years". Gary begun by shoving the knife into Mr Stevens's arm, causing it to bleed and Mr Stevens to yelp in pain. He began yelling harder with a red face. Gary smiled at this and told him "if you think help is coming, then think again. Now, there was a story my ma would tell me in front of the fire, oh...How did it go..." Gary sat there, pondering on Mr Stevens's chest for a moment and then said "ah, I think I know. My grandma, what a big ears you have!" Gary brought the blade to Mr Stevens's left ear and said "All the better to hear you with!" He then gripped the ear in his left fat little hand and begun to slice the ear off, ripping it off once half of it was cut off. He then placed his knife aside completely, put his left palm against Mr Stevens's temple and ripped off his right ear with his right hand.

Gary threw the ear aside off the bed. Mr Stevens was still screaming in pain, oh my does he learn slowly. "Now lets see, what was the second part...Oh, I know this! What big eyes you have Grandma! All the better to see you with dear!" Gary gripped the knife with his right hand again and held Mr Stevens's head still with the left. He begun bringing the blade down onto his right eye slowly. Mr Stevens kept blinking, as though expecting this to be a dream and to wake up; or as though he could bat the blade away with his eye lashes. The blade came closer, and closer, and close. Mr Stevens's eye-lids came down like a pair of gates, as though the skin would protect his eyes. The knife blade went easily through the lid like paper but took some force to persuade it into the eyeball. Gary's owner was now crying blood out of his right eye as Gary begun scooping as much out of his right eye-socket without digging too deep. "You know what, I'm going to leave your left eye in, just so you could watch me". Gary felt good, a sense of feeling powerful, of watching his human victim suffer; watching him bawl his eyes out as his left eye looked around in panic. Sometimes, his eyes would meet Gary's in an accusing look or a look as though he was deeply sorry and wanted to be let free. Oh no, there was no better pleasure than exacting his revenge on Mr Stevens.

"Now, the third line, I know this well: Oh grandma, what big lips you have! All the better to kiss you with!" Gary knew this would be tricky without letting the tea-towel loose but he knew what had to be done. He started to cut around Mr Stevens's lips; they were hard to cut free, as the blood slowly begun get in the way of Gary's cutting. After what seemed like thirty seconds of frustration, he managed it. "Ah, there you go!" as Gary threw the lips off the bed. He looked at Mr Stevens's eyes...Oh no...They were glazed...Gary had killed him...

For a few seconds, Gary had felt sorry. He didn't mean this to happen...He really didn't...He then felt a sense of happiness as it dawned on him that someone would find it. No one could arrest him, they wouldn't even suspect him, may as well leave them something to look at with awe. Gary started by cutting the strings free, removed the tea-towel and the bed sheets so he could marvel at his handy work. He set to work by tilting Mr Stevens's head back and started to cut through his neck. The blood began gushing all over Gary's hands as the skin was separated by the kitchen knife. Soon, there was little enough skin left that with a tug with his head in Gary's hands and his shoulder under Gary's boots, his head became free. Gary fell backwards, head in hands, onto Mr Steven's chest and then rolled off accidentally onto the floor; Clumsy Gary. After Gary got to his feet, he threw the head aside. He had done what he had wanted to do to the head; but the rest of the body? Oh there was much more to do.

He began stabbing into the ribcage, between the ribs, and breaking each rib. Some ribs needed some personal persuasion using Gary's bare hands but most broke easily enough after some wedge-work with the knife. Finally, when Gary could, he reached in and started removing each organ. When they wouldn't come straight away, Gary gave it a few stabs as to cut it free of a few veins, arteries or anything else that held it in its place. Once Mr Stevens's chest was empty, Gary cut downwards and started to disembowel him. Once Gary was done hollowing out Mr Stevens, there was only one thing else to be done. After that, he just had to clean himself up and then sit back at the pond.

Mr Stevens's corpse was found the following night after that morning police was called when the neighbour's boxer, notorious for it's barking all night in the garden, was found collapsed due to rat poison. At first, it was a simple "neighbour killed my dog" case for the police, when they noticed the dog was feasting upon a heart large enough to belong to a pig, a cow or a human being. Mr Stevens was the first to be questioned due to his open dislike of the dog, but after the door wasn't answered and no knowledge of him leaving the house that day, the police broke in. Due to a lack of finger prints and no one to pin the murder on, the case was close.

Gary stood there; now clean thanks to that nice warm bath he poured for himself, with the same grin around his old wrinkled round face that he had been having since last night. Perhaps even since before last night, except the grin was a little wider and, perhaps, a little more sinister.

This was a story I wrote initially to try to return to my writing roots of gore stories but also adding something new. Instead of making it constant gore, dark and so on, I thought I'd try contrasting it. Starting out with a story like out of a children's book and ending up with something I'd write a year or two back. I'll probably edit it up, maybe, and then post it in as a full version on another website. As always, comments are always appreciated.

In case you're wondering, this isn't part of any monthly contest but just me on my own bat.