Five Tales of Terror

For tomorrow, come on back with a tale of up to 1,500 words including the following (bold 'em for the judge, please and thank you):


MANGLE
CONFUSION
TWELVE
WINK
READY


Each entry receives a handsome GP bonus and a review from me,

Five Tales of Terror

     Tiffany ducked just in time. A second later and the big hairy hand would have hit her head. She took off and ran deeper into the woods. “Stop!” Bradley shouted. “You don’t want to go in there. The Beast will kill you too.”

     Without stopping Tiffany shouted back. “I don’t believe in The Beast. I’ve never seen it. In fact, I have never even heard it and I live right next to this wooded area.”

     “I haven’t seen or heard it either, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.” Bradley started running after her. “There have been at least fifty people who have entered these woods but never came back out. I don’t want you to be the next one.”

     “You are just trying to scare me. Isn’t that why you dressed up as The Beast?”

     Bradley was getting closer and closer to Tiffany. He reached out to grab her, but all he got was a whooshing sound as air passed between his hand and her fairy princess costume. “I thought you were ready to come into the wooded area after dark. It looks like I was wrong. Maybe you should have gone Trick or Treating with the other kids.”

     “I’m not a kid anymore. I have breasts now.”

     “You don’t have breasts.” Bradley started to laugh. Tiffany stopped and looked at him in anger. “You have bumps with nipples.”

     Before Tiffany could respond to that Bradley pointed above her head with a shocked look on his face. The Beast was standing right behind Tiffany. It looked like a large bear with fangs hanging over its puffy mouth.290

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     Mitch jumped out of his seat. Not because of the ghost dog on the movie screen in front of them or from the girl seated next to him, but from a pair of small arms that suddenly wrapped around him. “What are you scared about? The movie hasn’t even gotten to any of the scary parts yet.”

     “I’m not scared. I just did it to scare you. It looks like I did. You almost hit the ceiling you jumped so high big brother.”

     “I didn’t come anywhere near the ceiling. I wasn’t scared. You just surprised me.”

     “It sure did look like I scared you. Didn’t you think he was scared Karen?”

     Karen looked at Roberta seated behind Mitch, then at Mitch. “Why did you have to bring her on our date?”

     “I had no choice. It was either that or no date at all. Besides, she loves scary movies. The scarier the better. She is going to love this one. It’s the scariest one I have ever seen, and I have seen them all.”

     Roberta leaned in between Mitch and Karen. “I don’t think it’s scary. When is it going to start getting scary?”

     “It’s going to start getting very scary in a few minutes. Just sit back and watch the movie. If you don’t want to watch it I think, there’s a Little Mermaid-like movie playing next to this one.”

     “That’s a kid’s movie. I’m not a kid.”

     Karen suddenly spoke. “Was that a wink? It looked more like a blink to me.”

     “Blinks are with both eyes. That was only one eye.”
“I want a dog just like that one?” Roberta pointed at the ghost dog floating on the movie screen.

     “No, you don’t. That’s a very evil dog.”

     “It doesn’t look evil to me. I want it. Can I have it?”

     “You sure acting like a kid now. Are you sure you don’t want to go to the movie next to this one?”

     “No, I don’t. I want this movie to be scary.”

     “It will be soon. When it starts it will be none stopped scary after that.”

     A few minutes later Roberta got what she wanted. The ghost dog attacked a little boy about Roberta’s age.

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     Andrea shivered and gripped the hand she was holding on to even tighter. “I didn’t realize this was going to be so scary.”

     “What did you expect. Of course, it’s going to be scary. It’s a haunted house. If it’s too scary for you I think the door is thataway.” Vincent pointed to the darkness behind them.

     It was almost complete darkness back there as Andrea turned to looking in that direction. Only the street lights from outside stopped them from being in total darkness. “I didn’t say that I was scared. All I said was that I didn’t think it was going to be this scary.”

     “I don’t even understand why you brought her here. She’s still a kid.” Lance and Wilma walked behind Vincent and Andrea. Both Lance and Wilma had their arms around each other. Each held the other tight as they walked down a spooky smoke filled hallway.

     “Andrea begged our parents to let her come. She told them that she was coming with or without their permission, but she preferred to have it. The only way they would let her is if I agreed to take her.”

     “I’m not a kid. I’ll be twelve in a few months.”

     “You sure are acting like a kid. If you want to leave then go, if you don’t then stay. It doesn’t really matter to me.”

     “I never intended to leave. I’m staying.”

     Just then Dracula jumped out of the darkness right next to Andrea. She screamed and scampered to the other side of Vincent. “Oh, good. Young blood. I haven’t had any young blood in a very long time.”

     Andrea started to laugh. “You’re right big brother. This place isn’t scary at all.

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     Patrick looked around where he was at very slowly. “Where am I? How did I get here? I don’t remember. The last thing I remember is going to a Halloween party. Only I don’t think I ever got there.”

     “You look like you are in total confusion.” Patrick looked at Nora standing next to him.

     “I am. What happened to me.”

     Nora smiled. “You really don’t remember, do you?”

     “No, I don’t. Tell me how I got here. This is a swamp. There aren’t any swamps anywhere near our house. The closest one is about five hundred miles away.”

     “You went to a party. Got drunk. Then headed home. Only you didn’t go home. You went in the opposite direction until you ran out of gas. Then you started walking through this swamp for some gas. Once your cell phone started working you call me for help.”

     “Why did I call you? You are barely a teenager. You’re not old enough to drive. How did you get here?”

     “I’m not really here. You are so confused that you are only imagining that you are talking to your sister. I’m not your sister. I am a Swamp Monster.”

     Patrick closed his eyes. “This can’t be happening.” When he opened them he saw what looked like a creature that appeared to be a wet soggy dirty salad.

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     Samantha veered to her left to avoid a lightning bolt that shot out of nowhere right in front of her car. She lost control of that car in the downpour rain storm. The car went over an embankment and started somersaulting down a long steep hill.

     The last thing that Samantha saw was her three children in the back seat. Douglas and Harris were about thirteen and fifteen respectfully. Ellen was about ten.

     When the rescuers finally got to the wreckage it was a mangle of car and body parts. The car no longer looked like a car and the family of four were no longer in one piece. They were all part of each other now.

     “This is definitely the car we were told to be on the lookout for.” Franklin held up a damaged license plate that was barely readable. It was almost as destroyed as the family and car it was once attached to. “It’s a good thing we don’t have to identify them personally. I don’t think we could.”

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     Connie looked around the campfire at about fifty boys and girls ranging in age from eight or nine to about fourteen or fifteen. “Did every here like the scary stories that we told tonight. I hope so because I did.”


Word Count = 1,363