‘When We Die’ by Tyner Gillies

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From Pulp Literature Issue 47, find an excerpt of ‘When We Die’ by Tyner Gillies, first runner-up for the Jack Whyte Storyteller’s Award. Want to know how this story ends? Find the rest in Issue 47, Summer 2025.

When We Die

by Tyner Gillies

“Uh, Sarge?”

Sergeant James Kennedy looked up from the collision report he was reviewing to the young black-haired call-taker who stood in the door to his office. Her name was … Meena? Ameena? Amria? Getting old was a pain in the ass, and he couldn’t remember shit.

“Yes, my young friend,” he said, in lieu of her name. “What can I do for you?”

“Uh, there’s a guy on the phone insisting on speaking to the watch commander.”

James frowned. “Did he say what he wanted?”

She shook her head. “He was very polite. Says he has something important to discuss, but he won’t talk to anyone but you. I mean, he didn’t say you specifically, but he only wants to talk to the watch commander.”

The plaque on the door to the office he shared with three other sergeants certainly said ‘Watch Commander’, so James figured he must be the man.

“Okay. Put him through, I guess.”

She gave him a relieved smile and turned back to the small room that served as Daviston Detachment’s radio room, where the single dispatcher and two call-takers worked. A handful of seconds later, the phone on his desk rang.

“Sergeant Kennedy, Daviston RCMP,” he said when he picked up the receiver.

“Good evening, Sergeant,” said a deep, not unpleasant voice on the other end of the line. “Is this the watch commander?”

“It is,” James said. “What can I do for you?”

“And you’re the highest rank in the city? The man in charge?”

James did not like where this was going. Generally, when someone was looking for ‘the man in charge’, they wanted to bust out a ridiculous conspiracy theory, like the Prime Minister was in league with Nazi terrorists and had sent a gang of raccoons to search their garbage for personal information.

James let out a long sigh. “Yes, that’s me, I guess.”

“Oh, excellent,” the man said, sounding relieved. “I need some advice, and I didn’t know where to turn. I figured the Mounties were the way to go.”

“Right,” James said, drawing the word out. “And what do you need advice on?”

“I’m trying to decide if I should end my life.”

Find the full story in Pulp Literature Issue 47, Summer 2025

Tyner, who also writes under the pen name Ty Caleb, is a full-time police officer and most-of-the-time writer from BC’s Lower Mainland. He has released four novels with independent Canadian press Dark Dragon Publishing out of Toronto. He has an ongoing love affair with short fiction, has several stories published, and reads his own short fiction on his YouTube channel Ty Reads To You. Tyner’s story ‘Of Siege and Sword’ appeared way back in Pulp Literature Issue 1, and ‘The Lord of Lawn Ornaments’ was seen more recently in Issue 24. He is repped by Stacey Kondla at The Rights Factory.