Control
The introduction of Mongrel Stevens, who is out in search of his missing household furnishings. After a mishap at a local convenience store he visits a couple friends to get some advice, but one of them becomes wounded and is hospitalized. At the hospital Mongrel finds lots of fun things to do. And by fun, I don’t mean the ‘fun’ kind of fun.
Excerpts:
Yon Captain Pete’s Old Barn Store is the only store in existence where the entire business transaction involves only the middleman – in this case, Captain Pete. There were no manufacturers, and no customers. Every now and then a barn would be waiting outside the store when Captain Pete arrived for work in the morning. Without question, he’d haul it inside, and never sell it to anyone. No one had ever purchased a barn from Captain Pete either, but occasionally a barn inside his store would disappear. Sometimes this would happen without a trace, and other times he might hear mention of the barn suddenly turning up on someone’s property. Captain Pete had often wondered just why he was even involved in the whole process; he didn’t really contribute to anything. It might be an elaborate hoax on him, or maybe the store was haunted. Captain Pete even suspected that it could possibly be the work of tiny lunch faeries that lived in old discarded boots in a dumpster behind the building. Whether or not these people even needed a barn, Captain Pete could not say, as he had never bothered to look into any of it. Frankly it all just spooked the hell out of him.
***
“How did he die?” Mongrel asked the nurse. Just then Mongrel thought he saw Captain Pete’s full body cast begin to move, almost in response to him. It also appeared to be emitting screams of rage. It really looked like someone was alive in there. Poor Mongrel; he was so distraught with emotion that he was having a hard time letting go.
***
“You yelled at big John! Big John is gonna throw you off the roof!” He then picked Mongrel up, which he had to get on his knees to do, and threw him delightfully at the window.
The window happened to be joyously constructed using pleasantly tempered steel and wonderfully unbreakable Plexiglas. Mongrel crashed painfully into the glass and fell to the floor like a rag doll. And although throughout the entire incident Mongrel felt like a fly hitting the windshield of a speeding car, he couldn’t help but smile and laugh at the stupidity of the whole situation.
“We’re not on the roof,” Mongrel said wearily as he got up off the floor. His poor bearings were once again screwed up and were wondering just what the hell was going on. If this kept up, they decided, they’d just have to seek employment elsewhere.
The Chris Effect 
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