City of IF

[kkdestiny]

OCTOBER SHORT STORY COMPETITION

Alright my pretties~ Now that activityhas started up again, and Halloweeen is marching closer, I fgured I'd start up another competition for us >: )

Prizes

- 1000 Fables
- A sweet announcement of your winning in the Halloween Edtion IFQuirer

And for this competiton, we'll be allowing members to throw in their own prizes. This can be any prize that you feel like you can deliver on, such as your readership for a chosen SG!

Noni has offered up readership for the first 3 chapters of a winner's SG :)

RULES

1) This is a short story competition and therefore there is a word limit of 4500 words. Please keep within this limit!
2) The theme for this writing competition is Halloween Night! (ooo~ spooky spooky :3)
3) Minor swear words are okay, but please try to keep it to a minimum.
4) There is no required prompt for this competition! :3
5) The closing date for entries will be October 25th. After that period, it's time to vote for your favourite entry. Voting will last until Midday October 29th.
6) The competition is open to absolutly everyone. :)
7) All entries must be posted to me via PM, so that each entry is anonymous!


If you understand the rules, then feel free to start your writing! :)

LET THE COMPETITION BEGIN!

[PopeAlessandrosXVIII]

Yaaaays! I love short stories :P

[Lebrenth]

Will there be a minimum limit? I'm tempted to write a three sentence short story in hopes of winning by default.

[kkdestiny]

Im not sure how writing with 3 sentences would lead to a default win...but even if you did write something that small, it wouldnt really be anonymous anymore :/

[Lebrenth]

The only likely way a submission that small would win is if it was the only submission, in which case anonymity is not a concern :)

[kkdestiny]

ah well, I dont think it'd be th only one..biz seemed excited when I posted this up.

[kkdestiny]

This is the post for the 24 hour mark! 24 hours left to get your short story handed into me for the ompetition

(it was supposed to go up an hour ago,sorry. I thought I posted it.)

[Novelest_Ninjagirl]

It's a bit late, but I'd like to throw in my readership for at least 3 chapters as a prize. This includes horror, something I very rarely read! Note: I do mean the first 3 chapters.

[kkdestiny]

Alrighty, I'm noting it down :)

[kkdestiny]

Alrighty!

So for October, I guess there's no need to hide behind the spooky mask of anonimity (or however you spell it), we only have one entrant!

So our winner by default is Seraphi, and here's the winnng story!
--------------------------------------

Arial does not like Halloween.

She has nothing against the people that celebrate it. In fact, she still carves pumpkins and decorate her porch with gauzy cotton to imitate spider webs, still buys candy to pass out to the neighborhood children and smiles when she opens the door to greet them.

But once the fun is done she returns to living in the remnants of a nightmare. On Halloween she can’t bear to eat, and the only way she sleeps is by taking a double dose of her allergy medication. She finds herself looking over her shoulder twice as often, checking that the locks to all her doors are firmly in place. And she never, ever goes near the basement. Even on normal days she avoids it. Afterall, that’s where…. She pauses, closing her eyes and holding her breath. It is best not to think of that now or she won’t get any sleep at all, medication or not.

Sighing, and checking the locks for what she is sure the tenth time that day, Arial readies herself for bed. When she is done slips under the covers, mumbles a quick prayer, then drifts slowly to sleep.

*****

Laira lives for Halloween.

Or more like it is the only time she lives at all. It is a night of freedom that she can only experience once a year, and one that she takes full advantage of.

She wakes up smiling and stretching, excitement already pumping through her veins. After a quick shower she pulls on the black tube dress she keeps hidden in the back of her closet behind the baggy sweaters and ripped blue jeans. A bold swipe of color on her lips and she is ready to go.

The crisp night air makes her breath a ghostly white, and goosebumps prickle at her skin. She walks several blocks from her home until she reaches the bust stop and rides the blue line into downtown. She saunters through the streets until she comes across a worn down brick building that hosts a hole-in-the-wall club. The colors of the strobe lights bleed onto the street and the pulse of the music shakes the cement beneath her feet. This looks like as good a place as any, so Laira steps into the building and heads directly for the dance floor. She doesn’t need the alcohol the bar is offering; she wants to move, to writhe, to find someone that’s feeling as alive as she is.

It doesn’t take her long. There is a lovely number in a blue mini skirt and silver tube top who sways her hips like music was made just for her. One dance turns into several and Laira doesn’t bother to learn her name, it doesn’t matter, not when they are busy running their hands over each other on the bus as they travel back to Laira’s house. They make it as far as the sofa in the living room before they can’t wait anymore and they collapse in a flurry of limbs, clothes flying and breaths hot.

Later, they lie together, the air gone quiet except for their steadily returning breaths until a loud gurgling echoes through the room. The girl laughs.

“Was that your stomach?”

“Yeah. I haven’t eaten yet.”

“Let’s see what we can find,” the girl says as she gets up, sliding on her underwear and padding to the kitchen. Laira follows suit and watches as she rummages in the freezer. A sound of triumph escapes her when she finds a pizza. She sets the oven to heat and then turns around. “So now what do we do while we wait?”

Laira walks up to her. “You wanna hear a story?”

“Is it gonna be scary?” the girl asks in a mock spooky voice.

“It is Halloween, isn’t it?”

The girl nods and laughs and Laira takes this as leave to begin.

“Our story happens on this very night, ten years ago, in this very house. A simple family of three - a father, a mother, and a daughter - are tucked away in their beds, heads pillowed by dreams. But as they sleep a shadow slinks through the hallways.” As Laira says this she gets closer to the girl, grabs her hips and starts walking her slowly backwards.

“It calls to the parents with the sweetest of voices, lures them from their beds and into the kitchen, step by step by step until they stand before the open basement door. And then-” she pushes the girl backwards into the very basement door she speaks of, causing her to squeak in surprise “-it pushes them down the stairs.”

“Now the father, he breaks his neck, which is no fun at all. The mother, though, she just breaks her arm. She’s dizzy from the fall, but she stands quickly, tries to plead with the shadow.

“The shadow isn’t interested in listening. It already has a crowbar in it’s hands. It moves quickly towards the mother, swings out, breaks her knee cap. The mother collapse and the shadow does the same thing to the other leg, and then it keeps going, keeps flailing and smashing until there’s nothing left but pulp.

“The mother can’t move now, barely has enough struggle left to keep breathing, so the shadow throws the crowbar away and kneels next to her, breaths deeply the coppery tang of blood in the air, opens it’s mouth and-”

Laira dips her head down and bites the girl’s neck. The girl jumps and squeals and Laira laughs.

“Scary enough for you?”

The girl bats at her playfully, embarrassed by her reaction. After a few moments she asks, “Wait, what about the daughter? What happened to her?”

“Oh, her? She still lives here.”

“But you live here.” Her eyebrows draw down in confusion and then spring back up when it dawns on her.

“Wait are you saying---are you her?”

“I am. Kind of?“ Laira cocks her head to the side.

“What does that mean?” She laughs again. “You’re just trying to creep me out now. That story isn’t even real, right?”

Laira doesn’t answer

“Right?”

“Hm...who knows, maybe it is?”

The girl giggles skittishly, but her smile is gone. “Alright, alright, you definitely creeped me out. So stop joking. We should put the pizza in.” She tries to move, but Laira keeps her boxed in, crowds her against the door.

“I’m not really in the mood for frozen food anymore. I was thinking...something a little fresher,” she whispers as she reaches behind the girl, twisting the knob to open the basement door and pushing her.

The girl’s eyes go wide and her mouth opens in a wide ‘O.’ The scream does not come until her back hits the stairs. She tumbles to the bottom, groaning when she hits the concrete. When she tries to move she gasps and squeezes her eyes shut in pain.

“Wow, you hit it pretty hard,” Laira says as she pads down the stairs, “but I’m glad you didn’t die like my dad.” She tilts her head as she watches the girl try to crawl away using only the power of her arms. “Oh? Can’t you move your legs?”

Liara walks over and grabs the girl’s hair, drags her across the floor to one of the metal support beams of the house. She grabs zip ties from atop a table against the far wall, secures the girl’s arms and hands behind the pole. She returns to the table once more and comes back with a serrated knife that she flips lovingly between both hands. Straddling the girl’s useless legs, she sits on the floor and traces delicate patterns across her bare skin.

“Now this might hurt a bit, but pain is the other side of pleasure, or so they.” She licks her lips and begins to carve into the girl’s skin. The girl whimpers and moans, tries to free her arms, but her struggling is futile. Laira continues to saw at her skin, cuts off a strip from shoulder to shoulder along the collarbone. When she is done she drops the knife and holds the flesh in her palms, watches at the blood pools there and dyes them a deep red.

“What a lovely color,” she whispers as she brings the strip of flesh up to her mouth and takes a bite.

*****

Arial awakes with a start, pain pinching her gut. She flings her covers to the side and sprints down the hallway, barely managing to make it to the bathroom before she voids the contents of her stomach. She coughs a little when she is done and rests her cheek on the coolness of the toilet seat, clumsily reaching up and flushing before the sight and smell makes her vomit again.

Always. It is always like this the morning after Halloween.

“Maybe...if I moved?” she mumbles to herself. It is a question she has posed to herself many times, but each time the answer is the same.

No.

Despite the lingering trauma of her parents’ death, which she is sure has everything to do with her aversion to, and unfathomably upset stomach during, Halloween, something inside of her refuses to let her leave.

Arial sighs and, once she is sure her stomach will not revolt on her again, stands. She shuffles over to the sink, washes her face and brushes her teeth, and then heads downstairs to the kitchen. Out of habit she cautiously peers around the corner to make sure the basement door is shut, then she moves to the stove and puts the kettle on for tea. She leans against the countertop and rubs absentmindedly at her stomach until the kettle clicks, signaling that the water is done. She pours the steaming liquid into a cup over a teabag of rooibos and hibiscus, watches as the water turns a deep red. Her lips twist into a smile as she licks her lips and takes a sip.

[Novelest_Ninjagirl]

Fantastic story, absolutely 10/10 would never read right before bed again. 0.0 it didn't seem scary until I was already super in it. Oh dear.

[Seraphi]

*cackles* False sense of security for the win! I'm proud of you for reading, though, Noni, considering your aversion to the horror genre :3

[Novelest_Ninjagirl]

I figured surely I can handle a short story, right? XD Oops there. Fun read though.