Over the next few weeks, Akio came to Cole’s re-purposed monastery precisely at ten in the morning, then adamantly left—Cole hoped he was going home, whenever he exited—at 3 in the afternoon. The young boy, against Cole’s better judgement, morphed into something of a friend during this short interval, and every time he visited Akio … Continue reading “Good Evil” – Part Three

Cole went to the supermarket on Tuesdays, as had become his habit. Grocery shopping turned into one of his favorite pastimes since the Monday afternoon his mother drearily stared out the window and ordered him to the store to pick up coffee, milk, and graham crackers—the crackers a habit of hers; she slathered peanut butter all … Continue reading “Good Evil” – Part 2

Cole Rankin didn’t believe himself to be evil, but the townspeople in Kirillov would denounce this assumption, including several profanities for good measure. When Cole migrated to the small, Russian town from Venice, Italy, his reputation was disregarded enough, but after the summer of 2020 he became something of a legend—and a terrible one, at … Continue reading Good Evil – part 1