“They think I’m some kind of vampire,” the mayor cackled gleefully in the dark. “But I’m not a vampire at all. I’m a ghoul.”
_________
Notes:
1. Written on July 28th, 2023
__________horror
Tales From The Town #134: The Scream (A Halloween Found Footage Special)
Scene 1: The Hallway Outside Claire’s Bedroom
“Scraaaaaaaaaaaaaeeeeeeeeeee!”
*****
Agnes: What’s wrong? Are you okay in there, Claire?
Claire: Of course I’m okay, Mum!
Agnes: Oh. Well what are you making all that dreadful noise for then?
Claire: It’s fun!
*****
“Scraaaaaaaaaaaaaeeeeeeeeeee!”
Scene 2: Kitchen/Dining Room
“Scraaaaaaaaaaaaaeeeeeeeeeee!”
******
Tina: Mum! What’s that noise?!
Ethel: Someone’s screaming, Mum!
Agnes: Oh don’t worry about that. It’s just Claire.
Daniel: But Claire’s right there, Mum.
The camera turns to show Claire at the kitchen table, eating some cornflakes.
Agnes: Oh…
******
“Scraaaaaaaaaaeeee!”
Scene 3: Kitchen/Dining Room (part 2)
“Scraaaaaaaaaaaaaeeeeeeeeeee!”
******
Daniel: I’m scared Mum!
Ethel: So am I
Tina: And me, Mum!
Agnes: We’re all scared, Tina.
Claire: I’m not scared, Mum! I’m…. DEAD!
Claire removes her head and puts it on the table next to her bowl of cornflakes, before awkwardly spooning more mouthfuls into her somehow still working gob.
Agnes: Okay, we’re all scared except for Claire.
******
“Scraaaaaaaaaaeeee!”
Scene 4: Kitchen/Dining Room
“Scraaaaaaaaaaaaaeeeeeeeeeee!”
******
Tina: It’s getting closer!
Daniel: It’s going to eat us!
Agnes: It is not going to eat us, Daniel.
Ethel: It might!
Daniel: It will!
Agnes: It won’t!
Claire: Yeah, what if it drinks us!
Agnes: Claire! Stop that!
Claire: But what if it does!
Agnes: And put your head back on. It’s disconcerting like this.
Claire: But Mum….
******
“Scraaaaaaaaaaaaaeeeeeeeeeee!”
Scene 5: Kitchen/Dining Room
“Scraaaaaaaaaaaaaeeeeeeeeeee!”
******
Ethel: If Claire’s not scared, we should send HER out to see what’s making that noise.
Tina: Especially as she’s already dead.
Claire: I’m not going anywhere. I haven’t even finished my cornflakes yet.
Daniel: And she’s not dead. She’s undead.
Claire: That just means the same as dead, Daniel. And I am still not going out there.
Ethel: Claire’s even more scared than we are.
Claire: Am not!
Ethel: Am ARE!!
Agnes: Look, there’s no need to argue. Claire’s not scared.
Claire: At all.
Agnes: And no one’s going to go and see what’s making that noise.
Claire: EVER!
Ethel: See? Claire’s totally scared!
Claire: I am not! There’s no such thing as ghosts so there’s no need to go out there, that’s all. And I’m eating my cornflakes so there.
Agnes: And you’re all going to finish your cornflakes, too.
Ethel: But Mum….!
Claire: Yeah, Ethel, eat up. These might be the last cornflakes you ever eat.
Ethel/Tina/Daniel/Agnes: Shut up, Claire.
******
“Scraaaaaaaaaaaaaeeeeeeeeeee!”
Scene 6: Kitchen/Dining Room
“Scraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaae!”
*******
Tina: It’s so loud!
Ethel: It’s so horrifying!
Daniel: It sounds just like Claire!
Agnes: But Claire’s there.
Claire: I am, aren’t I?
Agnes: So it can’t be Claire
Daniel: Unless there’s two Claires!
Ethel: Or four!
Tina: Or even more!
***********
“Scraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaae!”
Scene 7: The Hallway Outside Claire’s Bedroom
“Scraaaaaaaaa-”
**********
Agnes (emerging from the bedroom holding an old fashioned looking tape player from the 1980s): Don’t worry everyone. It wasn’t more Claires. It was just a recording of Claire.
Tina/Daniel/Ethel: CLAIRE!
Claire: I can’t believe you idiots thought it was a ghost! You’re all stupid and I hate you!
Claire stomps off into her bedroom, slamming the door behind her
Agnes: Well, at least that’s all over with. (pause) Wait, why’s she the one annoyed by all this?
Tina: And how did she do that thing with her head?
Daniel: And why was she eating cornflakes? On Halloween?
Ethel (pointing): And what’s that Claire doing scuttling along the ceiling like some sort of crab?
The camera pans up. Everything is a torment of scuttling movement
SCRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAE!
(EVERYTHING EXPLODES)
END CREDITS
_________
Notes:
1. Written in October 2023
__________Support An Accumulation Of Things
If you like the things you've read here please consider subscribing to my patreon or my ko-fi. Patreon subscribers get not just early access to content and also the occasional gift, but also my eternal gratitude. Which I'm not sure is very useful, but is certainly very real.(Ko-fi contributors probably only get the gratitude I'm afraid, but please get in touch if you want more). Thank you!Tales From The Town #133: Eleonora’s Office Lunch
Bread (that was once fresh)
Spread (that contains the memory of butter and/or olive oil)
Apple (taken from beneath someone else’s tree)
Prepare before work
then at lunch eat as quickly as you can.
Try not to think
about anything at all
__________
Notes:
1. Written July 22nd, 2023
__________Support An Accumulation Of Things
If you like the things you've read here please consider subscribing to my patreon or my ko-fi. Patreon subscribers get not just early access to content and also the occasional gift, but also my eternal gratitude. Which I'm not sure is very useful, but is certainly very real.(Ko-fi contributors probably only get the gratitude I'm afraid, but please get in touch if you want more). Thank you!Tales From The Town #112: Nests
Something put nests up all around the town. Weird contortions of twig and wire, string and sinew, thorns, charging cables, washing lines, shoelaces, school ties, the horrible mesh bags they put oranges in at the supermarket.
No one knew why. No one dared ask. The nests were taken down, and everyone hoped that whatever had made them wouldn’t make them again.
But they would. They would.
__________
Notes:
1. Written on April 7th, 2023
__________Support An Accumulation Of Things
If you like the things you've read here please consider subscribing to my patreon or my ko-fi. Patreon subscribers get not just early access to content and also the occasional gift, but also my eternal gratitude. Which I'm not sure is very useful, but is certainly very real.(Ko-fi contributors probably only get the gratitude I'm afraid, but please get in touch if you want more). Thank you!A Sea As Pale As A Dead Child’s Eyes
The boy, Robert, my nephew, had been missing two hours now when I saw him in the harbour, his head bobbing up and down in the water between two fishing boats, as if caught in the ropes that tethered them in place and now calling for help in between the slow swell of the incoming waves.
The breathe caught in my throat, tears welled in my eyes, the shock of it, the surprise, the suddenness of the sight. I didn’t even think, no worries for my own wellbeing, no attempts to call for help. I didn’t even kick off my shoes, simply ran into the water, wading through the waves, clambering across the pontoons floating in the shallows, climbing into and out of boats before diving from a small wooden raft down into the depths of the sea.
A single vision then, clear as a painting, as staged as some devastating tableau. Robert floating in glass, the scene bisected by ropes fringed with weeds, his billowing hair lit by a single shaft of light from above, a bubble of air almost lazily forming between his lips, his eyes a piercing blue sharp enough to cut apart my soul.
I surfaced, coughing, choking, panic and horror and shame, of failure, loss. Clinging to the side of the boat I called his name, “Robert! Robert!”, then dived back down. Dived back under to try again, again, again.
There was nothing there, of course. Oh the water was in turmoil, sand swirling in the maelstrom, shapes redolent of ghosts in the tumult. But in those lifeless waters of the harbour there was nothing more.
__________
Notes:
1. Written on the 8th July, 2022
2. An attempt at a ghost story
3. And based upon a dream