October SSOTMC

[skullreken]

Okay so the ancient feast of Samhain is approaching and you know what that means, scary movies costume parties trick or treat, and of course Horror Stories. This month's challenge is to write a Horror with no minimum word count and a maximum word count of 5000 words, simple and fun right?

• All writing styles are acceptable.
• Subjects such as sex are acceptable but must be depicted tastefully. Overly descriptive details or anything equating to a pornographic novel will be removed.
• Scripts must be paragraphed with a gap of one line between each paragraph.
• The scripts must be posted in this thread before the closing time on the last day.
• Writers will be allowed to edit their scripts after posting them but not after the closing date.
• If you are dissatisfied with your entry you may replace it with another submission before the closing date.

Scripts must be submitted by midnight GMT on Thursday the 1st of November.

[RebbieChan]

Alright! Horror!
Somehow I feel like anytime a theme is happy, I write something dark. I hope I don't write something happy when I actually want to write something dark! XD

[skullreken]

remember guys, the overall winner of the competition gets an amazon voucher, so what are you waiting for? You have nothing to lose and some spending money to gain :p

[SeriousSean]

Just a short one.

I could hear them speaking outside my room.

“Are you the new doctor?”

“Yes. Tell me of the patient.”

“Of course, sir. As it says in his file, we received him about two months ago. His family has been unable to provide any illuminating information. He has not spoken a single word since he’s arrived.”

“I have read the file. I was perhaps hoping for something a mite more personal.”

“I’m afraid there isn’t much to say. He’s never spoken a single word, his eyes never focus on anything, he won’t eat himself but accepts food when it is fed to him. There are times when he starts screaming and trying to hurt himself, and he won’t stop until he’s sedated. We’re used to dealing with those who are… unwell, but this patient just strikes me as particularly eerie, although I couldn’t say why. I’m sorry I couldn’t be much help.”

“May I see the patient? Is he violent?”

“Oh, no, sir. As far as I can tell, he’s never harmed a fly. Always good to be careful, though.”

“Of course, no harm in being careful, is there?”

“Let me get the door for you.”

The bolt scraped open and the door swung inward. A man swam up into my peripheral vision. He crouched near when I sat up in the corner of my room with my legs stretched out before me.

“Hello Robert, I’m Doctor Madison.” He paused for a moment, his unfocused form shifting something from underneath one arm to the other. “I understand that you recently took a trip to Crest City.”

I trill of fear travelled down my spine like electricity and a whimper escaped from between my lips. I closed my eyes for a long moment. Endless plains under clear blue skies, I told myself. I clung to the image inside my head. That’s all there was and all there ever would be. Endless plains under clear blue skies. When I opened my eyes again, I was calm.

“Yes, I can see it in your eyes,” he said, leaning closer.

Endless plains under clear blue skies.

“Oh, yes. I couldn’t quite believe when I’d heard, but now… how can I deny it.” His voice had become a reverent whisper. He reached out slowly to touch my face, almost as if he was fearful that I would shatter if he was not gentle. The moment his fingers brushed me, I slid myself to the opposite corner of the room, my back never leaving the padded wall.

Endless plains under clear blue skies.

He moved next to me again. “We are not allowed in the presence of our Lord. Only the priests are allowed to bask in His eternal glory, and even they are not allowed to see Him.”

Endless plains under clear blue skies.

“You looked upon our Lord, did you not?”

Endless plains under clear blue skies.

“Tell me, please. I beg of you.” He reached out and took my face in both of his hands. I flinched and tried to pull away, but his grip just tightened. “What did He look like?”

Endless plains under clear blue skies. Endless plains under clear blue skies. Endless plains under clear blue skies. Endless plains under clear blue skies. Endless plains under clear blue skies.

I clung to my illusion, chanting those words again and again. But it was far too late. His words and seeped through the cracks, opening me up to that terrible malignant alien presence. It oozed through the cracks of my delusions like sludge. Suddenly it was there before me in my sanctuary. The skies had darkened to the pale grey of dead flesh and the grass had all withered and died. Countless, multifaceted eyes bubbled up to the surface of its skin, some of them bursting like pustules only for another eye to rise pimple-like from beneath the surface. These eyes, all of them, looked into my being, stripping it bare and exposing it. Soon those eyes were all there were. It was hundreds of miles from me, yet I knew that it was truly looking at me, regarding me with its terrible alien intelligence.

And it occurred to me that I was shrieking and flailing and kicking. Men piled into the room to pin me down. Then came the needle and sweet, dreamless sleep.

* * *

Endless plains under clear blue skies, I soothed to myself. Again and again. It was all I needed, that precious little word inside my head. It was the only thing I needed to think about. Everything else was so pointless. There was a slight breeze that carried the pleasant scent of spring to me.

Outside my room there were whispers, but they didn’t matter. Somewhere far, far away a door opened. Something grabbed me beneath my shoulders and hauled me up, dragging me from the room. Soon there was a breeze rustling through my hair. Hands ushered me into a small dark space, and I heard the engine of an automobile roar to life. For quite a while, I was there in the dark with the roar of the car’s engine and the rattle of the road all around me.

Eventually, the sounds stopped and once again light entered the world. Men came and pulled me up out of the car. They freed me from my straitjacket and left it lying in the dirt beside the vehicle. I could smell the sea. I squinted in the light. Something was wrong. When my eyes adjusted to the light I realized that my surroundings looked familiar. The men were ushering me towards a large, squat building on the other side of a poorly maintained road. It suddenly occurred to me that the last time I’d been here, it had been dark. I began screaming and struggling, managing to twist free momentarily. They knocked me down and grabbed me by my legs almost without slowing down. I grabbed and the street below me, pulling up loose pieces of concrete but never finding and purchase.

They had to pry my fingers away from the door frame as the dragged me inside, repeating for each door we passed through. Before a large, steel door, the men who’d been pulling me along passed me off to four other men dressed in black robes. They had no eyes. The men with no eyes dragged me through the steel door. Behind it were smooth concrete and a spiral staircase. As we went further down, my screams and struggling gave way to resigned whimpers. Down, down we went. The air grew damp. We reached another steel door, twin to the first. Two men pushed it open while the other two shoved me through.

I had expected my feet to meet concrete, but they came down on empty air. When I hit the bottom, I heard my limb snap beneath my weight. My scream of pain rang out, echoing for what seemed forever. I sat in the dark, waiting for my eyes to adjust, and when they did I could see thousands of multifaceted eyes staring at me.

[RebbieChan]

I ended up not finishing anything, and what I did end up writing wasn't horror at all >_> I know it doesn't qualify but I'll post what I had anyway.

Hell. I remember being told by the monks who ran our temple that Hell was a punishment for those who spent their lives in sin. I never realized we could be judged so young. I woke up from another life to find Hell on my doorstep. The devil made no tempting promises, I never felt like a pendulum swinging between morality and sin. I simply took my first steps into this world and was lost.

In an instant my life played out before me. A downward spiral, figures.

It started when I was very young, so young, that for a long while I could not remember it happened. All of time is but a cycle, spiraling forward to no end, leading my beginning as my middle and perhaps my end my beginning.

Thus, it began with an event that occurred when I was sixteen on a night that I could not forget even if I tried.

---

Maxwell felt something move against his back. Sleep fell away in discomfort. He didn’t bother to open his eyes. He lightly pushed her further away from him with his foot. Pulling the blanket around him again, he got comfortable again.

She hit him. “Sis,” Max whined, turning over. Instantly he was awake. Something wasn’t right with her. Her arms were outstretched from each side, her legs locked and body rigid. Her face was reflected in the moonlight streaming from the one small window, hanging high on the wall. The room was lit in a pale hue.

Old wooden floor boards creaked as he sat up on his knees. He knew to some extent what was happening. He also knew that there was nothing he could do to help her.

Her fingers twitched. Like a pulsating force, her body shuttered and jittered, spasms crawling up and down her spine.

“Get out,” Max whispered, “break the sleep.”

Could she hear his voice? He watched her face intensely, searching for a reaction. Nothing. Maxwell opened his mouth to speak again when he saw movement. From her eyes bled a black dye. In two perfectly straight lines, the black marks crawled down the sides of her face and melting into the cracked flooring. Two lines stretched up her forehead and down her cheeks.

“What is this?” His voice shook. Shakily, he rose to his feet. His socks slid and caught on knicks in the floor panels as he ran. Thumping down the hallway he banged on the door directly to the left of his room. Then, the door across the hall.

Steps bowed as he skipped down them. “Master!” He shouted. The circular hallways seemed to narrow in the darkness. The empty space cluttering around him. “Master!”

Candles flicked on, warm light filling the tower.

“Ester!” He heard the shouts echo down through the floors. “Back out, you have to back out!”

Maxwell rounded on the Master’s door as the monk himself came out. He didn’t have to ask. Max didn’t need to explain. In seconds they were on the third floor, pushing into his room.

“Ester!” Mahdi kneeled over her, his cries hauntingly fitting the scene. The older boy’s cleanly shaven head bowed over her, his dark skin contrasting against her pale sickly complexion. It seemed strange seeing all the monks without their robes. Without them, they seemed like just a bunch old bald guy in pajamas.

“Step away from her,” the Master’s voice surprised him. The confidence was there, but there was something else underneath; fear.

Mahdi’s eyes lifted up to the Master. He rose to his feet and stepped back. The Master stepped forward, kneeling down next to her. His lips moved, fast and silent. He outstretched his hand, hovering it in the air above her forehead.

Maxwell’s eye shifted from face to face in the room. Sadness filled the older monks’ eyes, confusion and fear filled the faces of the younger. His eyes fell on Mahdi. The older boy glanced back at him. His face was rigid, his eyes wide, his fist clenched. He was scared, Maxwell knew his friend well enough to see that much, but he hid it well.

Setting his feet firmly apart, Maxwell straightened his back. He would show no fear.

The Master’s hand clenched into a fist and bowed his head. His eyes flew open and he shouted, “close your minds!” He swung around, making sure to look each and everyone in the eye. “All of you!”

Panic arose in Maxwell faster than before. He shot looks around the room, watching as each and every monk brought themselves into a meditative position.

“Maxwell!” The Master’s voice made him jump, “you too!”

“Y-yes Master,” Max managed to stutter out. He fell into a cross-legged sitting position, clapping his hands together. He quickly found it difficult to focus. His heart pounded in his ears. He could still imagine Ester laying there before him even with his eyes closed. He squinted his eyes tighter.

What was happening? His insecurities and fear overcame him in the darkness of his mind. There was absolutely nothing Maxwell could do. Mahdi could do nothing either. As far as he knew, no monk at the tower could do anything. Was that why the Master told them to close their minds? As to not lose anyone else?

He could feel the others watching him. By now they must have already done it. All those hours practicing meditation lead to results after all. Come on already! He knew getting impatient only hindered him, but he could feel himself shaking. He wanted to open his eyes a be somewhere else, somewhere where none of this was happening.

Maxwell lifted his eyelids, expecting to see his same old room. Instead he opened his eyes to a foggy field. The grass grew at the same height as his head. The moon shone from above. That wasn’t what was supposed to happen. Instead of closing his mind off completely, he had opened and let someone in.

Focus, focus, focus! Maxwell closed his eyes again. He pressed his palms closer together. Go back, go back!

He heard a scream.

“Ester!” Maxwell shouted. He clambered to his feet, the grass now grazing his waist. She was there, somewhere in that same dream.

He ran forward, following where he had heard the sound. His feet pounded against the dirt. It soaked through his socks and chilled his feet. A shiver ran up his spine. He had never felt a dream so real before.

To his left the ground had shifted, rotating itself into a corkscrew. His eyes attracted to in instantly. Something had happened there.

Maxwell darted towards it. As he drew closer he spotted a rocky rise just behind the corkscrew. Not wanting to test the realism of the dream, he ran around the corkscrew towards the rise of land. Just as he made his way around he spotted her.

Ester was a little ways up. A cloaked figure stood before her. She was being raised up by an unseen force, her arms hanging high above her. Maxwell felt himself fill with anger.

He closed his eyes, folding his legs and clapping his hands together. He opened his mind to a new dream, a dream of his own. He imagined himself as a hero, like one from comics and movies. Tall, strong, handsome, confident, everything he wanted in himself. He locked on to that image in his head.

When he opened his eyes back in the dream, he had become that person. He charged forward, drawing the blade at his side. Whoever it was, whoever had tortured his sister was going down.

The figure turned, looking down at him. Maxwell froze in his tracks. Suddenly that second persona of himself had fallen away. He was immobilized completely.

Maxwell felt a rock in his stomach. What had he been thinking? His heart raced, beating like it was about to climb up his throat. All he could see was the glint of the moon in the figure’s eye.

His arms twisted, bending back against his will. Maxwell let out a shout. He didn’t even try to fight it. He couldn’t. He knew he couldn’t. There was so much pressure bearing down on him in that one moment. It took the breath from him. It pressed against his chest and his temple, trying to work it’s way in.

It was too much. His mind went fuzzy. His heavy eyelids fell.

A jolt, like someone had pushed him off the edge of a cliff, and he was back in his room. His eyes were wide with fear, his body shaking and covered in sweat. The Master crouched before him, his hand firmly on his shoulder. “Close your mind,” he spoke firmly.

Maxwell closed his eyes. “Think only about your breathing,” the Master’s voice soothed him and he concentrated. In, and out. In, and out.

He felt his mind close off to that world, his pulse finally back to a normal pace. “Thank you,” he told the Master. He stood up and took in the room. He had woken from a nightmare to another nightmare. The black lines had taken over the room in intricate lines Max did not understand.

“We have to separate,” the Master was saying, “Ronald and Ilyas will go together. Jacob and Mathew. Mahdi and Maxwell…” Max turned his head towards Mahdi. The older boy simply nodded and moved closer to him. Max felt his heart quicken again.

“…Sinead and Morten. Keep your minds closed. Keep your eyes open.” the Master was very quick. His plan seemed already well thought out. “Do not try to contact anyone. You are no longer monks in body, but in spirit alone. We must blend in a hide for now until we can return.”

Maxwell watched Mahdi’s face. His sharp cheekbones moving ever so slightly as he clenched his teeth. Max wondered what he was thinking about. Did he understand?

“We are under attack,” the Master continued, “do not let them find you.” Maxwell shuddered. He remembered the cloaked figure, how helpless he had felt. The Master didn’t have to tell him twice.

---

The night seemed strangely quiet, almost peaceful. It was time for alarm and Max sat at the edge of his bed, calmly waiting as Mahdi packed his bag. “We must be quick,” the older boy murmured. Maxwell nodded mutely. He couldn’t get the sight of the other room out of his head.

Was it right to leave her there? Leave, only to save himself? He glanced sideways at Mahdi, who gave him a reassuring smile. “Master will take care of Ester, have faith.” Maxwell let out a small, tense laugh in response. “We must follow our Master’s wishes for now,” Mahdi concluded, throwing his bag over his shoulder.

“Okay,” Maxwell spoke softly, his eyes falling once again to the floor.

Why would anybody attack them?

Mahdi clapped his back. “Don’t be so down, it’ll be fine!”

Maxwell’s heart ached, but he brought himself to smile. “I know.”

He followed just behind Mahdi as they started down the stairs. Brushing his hand against the walls, Maxwell wondered when he would be back. The tower was his home, the monks were his family, never had he been away from either.

He watched Mahdi’s back. His shoulders were broad, his arms were strong. Was this what made one a man; leaving home? When would his back look like that, like he was shouldering the burden of adulthood? Maxwell felt a rock in his throat, wishing nothing more than to be man enough not to cry.

They came to the main floor, passing by the kitchen. He could imagine all the monks sitting at the long table, laughing and telling stories. How long would that table remain cold and empty?

Cool air hit his face as Mahdi pushed open the front door. He held it open for him as they stepped out into the night. They followed path worn down in the grass to the dirt road that led off into the unknown.

The stars sparkled overhead, the sky like a dome over the peaceful planes. It was far to normal to be a night of flight. Maxwell took a few quick strides to walk side by side with Mahdi. “Do you know where we’re going?” He asked.

Mahdi stared steadfast at the road before him. “No,” he admitted. Maxwell glanced back at the tower, wondering how good of an idea this was. “Don’t look back, Max. We can’t return, it will only hurt to see what you cannot have.”

“It only hurts a little,” Maxwell said softly. He didn’t hurt from longing, but from letting go. He turned back to face the road ahead with determination. “Are we going to see a city?”

“We’re going to live in a city,” Mahdi corrected him. “We’ll find the biggest one, one with millions of people in it.” His index finger popped up as her turned to Maxwell, a huge smile on his face. “That way no one will find us!”

“Like a big game of hide and seek!” Maxwell laughed.

“Exactly!”

They stayed silent for a while. The sound of crickets filled the still air. For what seemed like miles, the road and fields stretched out. A light breeze swayed the grass at his feet. Maxwell wondered how long they would walk before they reached their destination.

“Mahdi?”

“Yeah?”

“What is the biggest city in the world?”

Mahdi frowned, “I don’t know.” He sighed, “maybe, maybe somewhere in China.”

“I don’t know Chinese."

[skullreken]

Right guys I've been really busy this month but I wont unload my University woes on you

This months winner is Sean I liked the simplicity of his story, however that was also it's main weakness it was too short and sweet I think a good deal more could have been squeezed out before it ended up at the pit. That said, it was so enjoyable to read that perhaps that's felt a little cheated by it's length

Rebbie's story was good there was a sense of being ill at ease in it that could have made for a good psychological horror but it took a different direction. Although the story was quite interesting it didn't stick to the constraints set by the challenge.