One Hundred Words of Horror 2010!!!
My entries for this year's One Hundred Words of Horror meme/game/writing exercise/personal tradition, whatever. I wasn't feeling especially inspired this year, and I don't think any of them match up to my favorites of previous years, but at least I got something.
Were
Every full moon, he felt a compulsion to leave his community and flee to a cabin on the edge of the woods.
Alone, he’d transform into a monstrous beast, devoid of empathy. In that state, he would hunt anything he cared to. Rabbits, deer, and if family happened to cross his path, they were fair game too. He was patient, cunning, and terrible, and could kill one and withdraw, before they knew what stalked them.
Until his true form returned, he felt no remorse. They were mere wolves, after all, and he was now crafty, superior: man with a gun.
… --- …
I’m hanging on by a finger, literally.
It’s the last thing I can move. Everything else is controlled by that thing infesting my body.
I can still watch, through eyes that used to be mine, though I wish I didn’t have to. It’s killed three already. It was horrible, but at least they were strangers. You I’ve known my whole life. I can’t watch that, so I need you to notice me. A long shot is the only shot I have.
Remember the Morse code we learned in Scouts? I hope so. Your life depends on it. Tap, tap, tap.
The Greatest Horror
Nobody died when the greatest horror came to Cleveland.
Nobody died when it slithered out from what seemed like every direction at once, giving some just long enough to scream.
Nobody died when sharp tentacles slithered into their brains and it began reading them, hundreds at a time, like books, poring over their most traumatic memories and forcing them to share.
Nobody died then, and nobody has died yet, despite being encased in putrid flesh for the last twenty years, with other people’s nightmares the only new sensations to hope for.
Nobody died then, but they all wish they did.
Phone Call
"This is Capital Investments, we own the mortgage on your soul…."
"Yes, but the Devil’s got debts, too. It’s ours now. Relax, we’ve handled lots of these."
"Collection occurs at your natural death, and your medical records say that during your valve replacement your heart stopped for several hours. Our lawyers say that counts."
"Because, naturally, without the machine, you’d have died. Please be at our branch office Monday."
"Don’t get indignant, you signed the contract, right there, in blood. If you didn’t want to surrender it, you should have thought of that when you kid was dying of cancer."
------------
I hope some of you participate, even though I doubt many will, I find reading these kinds of thing fun. And if One Hundred Words is too much writing to do, how about 100 characters (or so)? Post ultrashort horror to Twitter using the hashtag #shorthorrortweettheatre like I'll also be doing! (Although most of those will be repeats from last year).
Previous Years of One Hundred Words of Horror: 2009 2008 2007 (the first)
Were
Every full moon, he felt a compulsion to leave his community and flee to a cabin on the edge of the woods.
Alone, he’d transform into a monstrous beast, devoid of empathy. In that state, he would hunt anything he cared to. Rabbits, deer, and if family happened to cross his path, they were fair game too. He was patient, cunning, and terrible, and could kill one and withdraw, before they knew what stalked them.
Until his true form returned, he felt no remorse. They were mere wolves, after all, and he was now crafty, superior: man with a gun.
… --- …
I’m hanging on by a finger, literally.
It’s the last thing I can move. Everything else is controlled by that thing infesting my body.
I can still watch, through eyes that used to be mine, though I wish I didn’t have to. It’s killed three already. It was horrible, but at least they were strangers. You I’ve known my whole life. I can’t watch that, so I need you to notice me. A long shot is the only shot I have.
Remember the Morse code we learned in Scouts? I hope so. Your life depends on it. Tap, tap, tap.
The Greatest Horror
Nobody died when the greatest horror came to Cleveland.
Nobody died when it slithered out from what seemed like every direction at once, giving some just long enough to scream.
Nobody died when sharp tentacles slithered into their brains and it began reading them, hundreds at a time, like books, poring over their most traumatic memories and forcing them to share.
Nobody died then, and nobody has died yet, despite being encased in putrid flesh for the last twenty years, with other people’s nightmares the only new sensations to hope for.
Nobody died then, but they all wish they did.
Phone Call
"This is Capital Investments, we own the mortgage on your soul…."
"Yes, but the Devil’s got debts, too. It’s ours now. Relax, we’ve handled lots of these."
"Collection occurs at your natural death, and your medical records say that during your valve replacement your heart stopped for several hours. Our lawyers say that counts."
"Because, naturally, without the machine, you’d have died. Please be at our branch office Monday."
"Don’t get indignant, you signed the contract, right there, in blood. If you didn’t want to surrender it, you should have thought of that when you kid was dying of cancer."
------------
I hope some of you participate, even though I doubt many will, I find reading these kinds of thing fun. And if One Hundred Words is too much writing to do, how about 100 characters (or so)? Post ultrashort horror to Twitter using the hashtag #shorthorrortweettheatre like I'll also be doing! (Although most of those will be repeats from last year).
Previous Years of One Hundred Words of Horror: 2009 2008 2007 (the first)