Joseph Cillo Jr.'s Blog: Joseph Cillo Jr.'s Most Excellent Blog

Check out my entry in the Reedsy Short Story Contest, “Home for Christmas.”

https://blog.reedsy.com/short-story/0...

Blind Prophet, Part 1: Free until 12/5/23

For all the superheroes who were never given a chance…

https://www.amazon.com/Blind-Prophet-...

Check out, “The Self-Portrait of Andre Duvall,” my latest entry in the Reedsy Short story contest:

https://blog.reedsy.com/short-story/k...

Check out my latest entry in the Reedsy Short Story Contest, “The Devil’s Hour.”

https://blog.reedsy.com/short-story/p...

So, I entered my short story, “Ghost of Halloween Past,” in the weekly Readsy Contest. Check it out here:

https://blog.reedsy.com/short-story/4...

Check out the trailer for my Kindle Vella Series, Elektra Voltare: Blessed with Awful.

https://youtu.be/o4Ye1R0G_mM

Read the first three episodes for FREE!

Start reading here: https://www.amazon.com/Elektra-Voltar...

I have two, yes two, series up on the new Kindle Vella app! You can check out the first three episodes of each for Free! Plus, get 200 free tokens when you sign into Amazon and search for Vella stories. Not sure how long that will last, so hurry!

Elektra Voltare: Blessed with Awful
https://www.amazon.com/Elektra-Voltar...

Elektra Voltare: Eve of the Memes
https://www.amazon.com/Elektra-Voltar...

These are part of my Edgy Catholic Dystopian Series. Check them out!

Get the Blind Prophet, Part 1 EBook for 99 cents this week on Amazon!

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08...

Savior of a World
An Edgy Catholic Five-Sentence Horror Story
By Joseph Cillo, Jr.

The fires continued to burn, like the everlasting flames of Satan's infernal realm, though no one remained alive to dispose of the infected corpses. They who once fed the inferno with that grisly fuel, those who would have been charged with cutting off the abundant flow of natural gas from the seemingly inexhaustible source piped in from wherever such supplies are held, had themselves expired, victims of the plague they had fought so hard to contain, and now they lay rotting where they had fallen, unable to turn the valve and extinguish the flames of this mockery of hell.

I walked alone among the fallen, the stench of death filling my nostrils, my sins unabsolved, with no priest left to hear my confession, last of my kind, the loss of so many souls laid to my charge, the extermination of all that was human, the guilt heavy upon me, my only hope, perfect contrition. Unfathomable divine mercy, I had tested its depths, and now the dry cough, the fever, the plague of my design, would lead me to the judge to make my plea.

For all these sins yet on my head, I had, after all, saved the planet.

The Visiting Angels of Chastisement
An Edgy-Catholic Fantasy by Joseph Cillo, Jr.

I stood with the angels, one of few mortal lights before the great wall of the ancient fortress, and called upon the saints for aid, as we prepared for the assault. Within, Lucifer enthroned, where once the pontiffs had held court, fathers of the once blessed Church, now the Bride in tatters, betrayed, held hostage and defiled by the fallen men entrusted with her care, who burned with desire, not to serve She to whom they were pledged, but perversely for one another, and to serve the man of sin, the puppet of the one on the throne. The darkness too great, the lights too dim, I heard his mocking laugh. I stood in the breach, as Moses of old, and pled to the Lord of all for mercy, spending myself in prayer and acts of reparation, but alas, too few. My strength gone, my heart broken, my request denied, I hung my head, resigned to the terrible truth; the angels, themselves, would visit the chastisement on those of my kind who had failed, failed to defend the Bride of the King in Her hour of greatest need.