Round 14

I Love Halloween!


And so, to honor this wonderfully dark holiday, I have invited a friend of mine to do the honors and start Round 14.


I would like to introduce you all to Ralph.

Ralph lives under my bed.

When I was little he used to like to scare the hell out of me, but you know, as I got older we kinda became buds.


So last night I was laying in bed... and Ralph was under it... and I was pondering how to begin this round, when my old pal Ralph said that he might be able to help.

You see he is a master of all things scary.

So, well, I guess they're all yours Ralph






Hello my lovelies and welcome to the monstrously wonderful Round Fourteen.

I'm expecting lots of tricks AND treats for this round.
I know you won't let me down... otherwise I might have to pick up a couple of my ghoulfriends and make a stop under your bed tonight! heheh

The Wicked Wench... a girl after my own heart (if I had one) has turned in her word list for our scrutiny.

I think you'll find her choices amusing...


CONSTERNATION
FABULOUS
ARDUOUS
EDIFY
STITCHES
INCLINE
RAFTERS
AMICABLE



Now isn't that so sweet... heheh
Such FABULOUS words... I'm almost swinging from the RAFTERS!

Well my dear BATTY girl... that just won't do!

Not at a time as special to me as Halloween.

So what's say we put a catty little spin on The Olde Town Wench and send this thing spiralling into the macabre.

The genre for Round 14 is HORROR!

All stories must be scary... and believe me... I know SCARY!

Don't disappoint me... I just so happen to have a bag of hungry black spiders to turn loose on anyone who dares to offend my demonic senses.

Muwahahaha


When the clock strikes twelve on Friday night, the forum will be closed for voting.


Anyone who has not submitted a story can be expecting me to arrive under their beds at 1AM sharp...

or maybe the closet... I do so love closets!







Alex and Jack had been dating on and off since they were sixteen, but this recent breakup had turned what started as an amicable split into something dark and painful.
For Alex the breakup had become arduous, and frankly, exhausting.

It wasn't like they had never broken up before? This was just the first time that SHE had initiated the split-- and Jack was pissed!

At first she felt kind of sorry for him, but now he was REALLY losing it.
Jack was already inclined to get violent with her when he felt that she was challenging his authority. He used brutal tactics to edify his masculine strength over her. And it had worked for years. She was terrified of him.

When she started going out with Brad Feckinger, or Peckinger or Fuckinger, as Jack liked to call him, she thought it best not to let Jack know.

This had been no easy feat considering that Jack had taken to following her around everywhere, and popping up unexpectedly when she was out with her friends.
She and Brad had done a good job of sneaking around behind Jack's back, at least until tonight.

They had decided to go out to dinner then head to the old school house, to be alone and probably make out in Brad's car. She invited her best friend Tammi to come along. Tammi was worried about 'the Jack situation', as she called it. She had begged Alex to get a restraining order or something, but Alex was afraid that it might aggravate Jack more. He was bound to give up on her sooner or later and find someone else to terrorize.

So tonight Tammi had come along, dragging her boyfriend Larry with her.

The night had started off fabulously. They had gone to Dominic's Pizza, Jack's least favorite restaurant, and had pizza and beer.
They drank way too much, but it was the first time that they were actually out in public together as a couple and it felt good. Brad kept her in stitches all evening, he was really funny and he could do the best impressions. Larry was starting to get wasted and kept making Brad do impressions of some of their friends. Then he did an impression of Jack, and not just any impression, he did Jack nancing around like a girl, complaining about how the humidity was making his hair frizz. Alex was laughing so hard that at first she didn't see Jack sitting at the booth in the corner. When she finally stopped laughing and turned towards the loud boom from the corner booth it was too late. Jack was out of his seat and striding towards the door.

"What the fuck was he doing here?" Tammi asked, her words slurring together.
"I don't know" Alex answered. "Maybe we should just call it a night, what do you think?"
"Screw him", Larry bellowed a little too loudly, causing heads to turn in their direction.
"I say we go to the school house and party!"

They paid the bill and went out the back door of Dominic's. They didn't see any sign of Jack as they crossed the parking lot towards Brad's old, beat up Toyota.

Larry tended to think the girls were a little dramatic about 'the Jack situation', but even he had to admit it was getting out of control when he saw the headlights of Jack's truck following them up the dirt road to the school house.

Alex was terrified and wanted to turn around and go home, but Larry said to keep going and he would get out and talk to Jack when they got there.

And he did. And they hadn't seen him since. As 15 minutes dragged into half an hour they began to realize that something was seriously wrong.

"I'll go check on Larry", Brad said to the two terrified girls in the car with him.
"No", Alex was scared and didn't want to be here any more. "Let's just go get the police."
"Oh my god! We are not leaving Larry here with that freak!" Linda was getting hysterical and starting to sound desperate. "I'll go get him", she said grabbing the handle and flinging the door open wide.

As the light came on inside the car, Brad saw Alex's face. Her mascara was smeared on her cheeks; she had a look of consternation on her normally perky face.
He looked up at Tammi standing in the open door. She was absolutely petrified. "Forget it. I'll go", he said with a sound of bravado that he wasn't really feeling. He made the girls lock the car before he left them.

When another fifteen minutes had passed and there was still no sign of Larry, or Brad for that matter, the girls decided to do what Alex had asked in the first place and head back to get the cops.

As Alex climbed into the driver's seat she reached down to turn on the ignition.
No keys.
"Oh Jesus, fuck!"

She glanced at the rearview mirror and saw the hunched figure of Jack staring back at her through the tinted glass.

She let out a loud scream just as a crowbar came slamming into the passenger's side window. The blow shattered the glass and hit Tammi hard on the side of her head, making a trickle of blood run down the side of her face. She stared at Alex with a dazed look on her face, as if she didn't know exactly where she was or how she got here. Jack reached in the window and began pulling Tammi out through the shattered hole. The shards of glass caught on Tammi's jeans shredding through both denim and skin as he hoisted her limp body out of the car.

"I'll be back for you bitch", Jack growled at her through the broken, bloody mess that used to be a window.

She was staring at him, her blue eyes shining in shock, not a sound coming from her throat. She couldn't have made a sound if she tried, it was like her throat was locked tight.
She watched in horror as Jack dragged Tammi's body by the hair, randomly stopping and swinging his crowbar down on her head as he pulled her towards the woods.

When Jack disappeared behind the trees Alex snapped to.
What the Fuck?
She grabbed the door handle and began to jiggle it, forgetting for a moment how to work the old manual contraption.

Then she reached up and pulled the lock and swung the door open wide. In the same gesture she jumped out of the car and started to run as fast as she could, in the opposite direction that Jack went.

She managed to slide her way blindly down a slope of evergreen needles when she heard, first, the crash of Jack's weight on the broken branches along the forest floor, then his harsh breathing as he closed the distance between them.

She was trying to run, but the thick branches were slowing her down.
She could hear Jack right behind her. A burst of adrenalin hit her legs and she began to run faster, then she felt the sharp pain as Jack drove his knife into the small of her back.

She fell to the ground, moaning in pain. Jack grabbed her by the hair and dragged her back to the school house to hang her from the rafters with the others.