The following is a short RP created by Ezra Yesterday of the DWM.
It ran from December 2011 to April 2012.
It ran from December 2011 to April 2012.
The imagination is a dangerous thing . . .
Cliff Hanger
Cliff Hanger
Posted by Ezra Yesterday on December 3, 2011
This first Horror RP will be something of a game as well.
The Rules are:
Each post must end with the main character in some form of immediate peril.
The following post must address and resolve the previous peril before moving on.
Flashbacks and behind the scenes plot exposition are both allowed and encouraged, but must occur after the previous peril has been dealt with.
Long posts may be broken up, but the post arc must follow the rules above.
Try to keep up the continuity...if a character is a beefy rookie Policeman early in the story, don't change it into an old Jamaican woman later... at least not without sufficient explanation.
And finally, Cliff is our main character/victim of circumstance, try to focus on his story and make the peril his, but keep in mind: he can be hurt and terrorized, but not killed. All other characters are subject to torture, mutilation and death.
NEW RULE: In order to keep people from responding to the same peril and risking a possible Temporal Implosion, post your name as a placeholder so everyone knows you are working on a reply to the most recent post.
|Note: this does not mean you can hold up the flow for days while you work out what to write. If you can't get done in an hour or so, please be courteous and either post an update saying when you will finish, or if something unavoidable has come up, remove your name.
|Note: The Second: If multiple people attempt to post their names at the same time, tie goes to whoever has their name listed first by the DWM computer system...so refresh the page and make sure you are next up before you write a reply.
The main idea is to have fun, make an interesting story... and stick it to the next writer in line.
Reply by Ezra Yesterday
Robert Clifton Hagar was, quite possibly, the most boring man in existence.
He was completely average, in height, weight and coloring. He had a quiet droning voice that he never raised above normal speaking levels, no matter if he was in a church or at a sporting event.
He had 12 identical suits, shirts and ties, all in shades of grey; he wore the same thing every day...and had for as long as anyone had known him.
He followed an exact routine, was never late, never early and his desk was never cluttered.
He worked for a large international accounting firm, but he was not merely an accountant, his job was to audit the expense reports that every traveling accountant in the company submitted.
Accountants were interesting compared to him; not that anyone would ever do so, because very few people took note of his very boring existence.
He was.. well, "happy" was not a word that ever applied to him... but he was satisfied that it should be so.
His life was exactly as he wanted it to be.
It was 11:55, time to go to the same corner diner he always did for his same boring meal.
He straightened his desk, put on his coat, and left the office... for the last time.
*************
As he rode the elevator down with the lunch crowd, one of the company lawyers, Stu Biggins, spoke up,
"Hey, Cliff Hanger! How's it going?"
This too was boring routine. Stu never once, after learning what it was, missed the opportunity to make that joke of his middle name. Just as he never failed to set up the next one...
"So, Where do you want to go for lunch?" Stu knew the never changing schedule that Robert [he never thought of himself as Cliff] followed, but he found it hilarious to ask anyway, so he could make his joke.
"I'm going to the Diner." Robert droned.
"What? The Diner again?!? That's like the 5th time this week.. and its only Tuesday... HAHAHAHahahaha."
The doors opened, so Robert was spared the trouble of answering.
He walked out into the overcast day, Idiots and their jokes completely forgotten [also routine] and headed down the street toward his destination.
He passed the open end of an alley, took two more steps and then he did something completely out of character for him...
He stopped.
He had walked this exact route for years, and had never once deviated in speed or direction in all that time, much less stopped... but now he had too. He knew this street better than anyone else possibly could, and so he knew that something was suddenly, dreadfully wrong...
Because there Was no alley in this part of the street
That space was where a Chinese grocers shop had stood, quietly doing business, for longer than he had lived here.
As this astonishing and unnerving realization hit him, and before he could begin to turn and look to see if he had imagined it. someone grabbed him by the back of the neck and hauled him bodily into the Alley That Shouldn't Be.
The attacker shoved him face first against a wall and leaned in so close he could feel the moist, fetid breath stir the hair on his neck as they whispered in a oddly accented, unsettling voice...
"Mmmmm...lunch...'
Reply by Therese
Robert Clifton Hagar thought his time had come. He closed his eyes and whispered a prayer, awaiting his demise.
Then, hearing a deep resonating growl, he slowly opened one eye to see a huge menacing shadow cast upon the wall just behind, and next to, his assailant’s.
His captor, glancing round, also noticed the large shadow followed by the snarling and was momentarily distracted, giving Robert just enough time to make his move.
In a split second he brought the heel of his foot up as violently as he could muster, smashing it into the groin of the creature with the fetid breath.
There was a groan as it released it’s grip on Robert and grasped it’s dangling bits in pain.
Yes, the creature had nards.
Taking advantage of the situation, Robert Clifton Hagar took off at a sprint, followed by his shadow savior, a small stray dog which had wandered into the alley just in the nick of time.
Robert continued running as fast as his legs would carry him, the small dog following at his heels.
He glanced for an instant over his shoulder, to assure he was not being pursued, just in time to see the alley closing in on, and crushing his enemy to the sound of it’s final blood-curdling screams.
The Chinese grocer’s shop was there once again with no sign that anything had ever been amiss.
Smiling smugly as he continued his escape, Robert failed to notice the open manhole directly in his path until it was too late.
His feet still moving but no longer making any surface contact he was, for a brief second, frozen in mid air.
And then he fell into the darkness.
Reply by Bran Caedamon Conal
Robert plummeted down. He could smell the foul water below him, his chest hitting the rim of the sewer, but as he continued to fall his head struck several of the rebar ladder rungs knocking him unconscious. He reached the bottom with a splash the dog at the opening of the manhole whimpering softly before wandering off to beg elsewhere for scraps.
When robert awoke he didn't know the time, but it was definitely late. some part of him fretted because his perfect schedule had been ruined, his days work unfinished. He slowly sat up his hips were in the running sewer water, which smelled strongly of rot, and human waste, his suit ruined. His upper half had landed on the little side walkway. his chest ached, but his head screamed in agony. reaching back tentatively he found a large lump where his head had hit, a little blood oozing from the wound. He staggered to his feet fighting through the complaints of his body. He looked for the ladder to climb out but found the wall perfectly smooth except for 2 rungs about 9 feet above him. For the first time in his life he raised his voice above speaking calling out for help. after several failed attempts he gave up, looking up and down the tunnel for any possible sign of escape, seeing nothing but darkness.
After looking up at the circle of light above him he finally decided to follow the water flow figuring it would lead to a plant, or run off that would give him access to freedom. He walked left along the catwalk. After a few steps he was swallowed by perfect darkness his eyes unable to adjust to the total lack of light, so he was forced to move slowly feeling along the ground and walls. Suddenly his hand touched something long and smooth like a branch. He felt along it until he felt something soft and squishy. Still slightly damp. he continued to feel along whatever it was until he stumbled upon something small and rectangular. He took it into his hands and felt it discovering it was a zippo lighter. He flicked it open and spun the wheel a couple times before it took to flame. He smiled thankfully at the flame before raising it up to see what he had been touching.
He nearly dropped the lighter and gave a quick shout of shock when he saw the rotted and shredded remains of another man. He had been dressed in black leather, appearing to be a biker, but his skin was a light shade of grey, and over large parts of his body it looked as if something large had been chewing on him. Robert looked at the corpse for a few more seconds before he turned his head and wretched into the feted water feeling what remained of his breakfast and stomach bile come up and out. His eyes watering, both from the effort, and from fear. If something chewed on this man, how much longer till it came for him. he wouldn't have to wait long to find out.
From up the tunnel from which he came he suddenly noticed the manhole light disappear. He didn't hear a lid slide into place or anything, it was like someone had flicked off a switch. He looked down the tunnel raising the lighter up trying to figure out what was going on. At first he heard a couple plops into the water, some scratching, even a very distant squeak. Robert sat there his breath coming in quick gasps as his eyes strained to see into the darkness past the flames light. Then he saw a glint of gold. Then another. Then he started to see hundreds of little gold pinpoints of light, at first they seemed random, then he noticed they were in pairs. Then into the light of the flame walked a large fat rat. It looked at him and sniffed then hiss and moved forward quickly jumping trying to bite at robert's leg. He gave another scream turning and taking off at a run down the tunnel the sounds of scratching, splashing, and squeaking as the rats gave chase, there hungry hisses chasing him through the darkness.
Reply by Ezra Yesterday
As he ran through the horrible darkness, the feeble light of the zippo cast sinister, flickering shadows and weak reflections before him. He could hear the ravening beasts skittering behind him, like a hungry avalanche, quickly gaining. As he continued to run he could see a sickly greenish glow ahead, in the distance. Heartened by the new illumination, he increased his pace.. which was fortunate, since he suddenly realized the glow came from the bottom of a pit cut completely across the floor of the tunnel he was running down at full speed.
Using his new momentum, he kept running and then leapt over the chasm, barely landing on the other side, the far rim of the opening under his arms, against his chest and his legs hanging into space. He turned his head and watched the huge mass of rats run headlong into the pit and plummet downward to...
Actually to where was a great question, now that he had a bit of time to think. The green glow was coming from a swirling, eldritch vortex of what appeared to be slow moving energy. Looking down, the effect was like looking down into a giant blender making Asparagus and Toad-skin smoothies.. with some kind of toxic waste thrown in for color and that special glow.
Once he had caught his breath [at least as best he could while hanging by his upper arms over Satan's Lavatory] he attempted to pull himself up.. and realized he couldn't. Every time he shifted enough to try and wiggle upwards, he started to slide backwards as his grip started to fail. As he began to panic, he looked around for something to grab onto... and realized there was an access ladder a scant 3 feet to his left.
Slowly, carefully.. Painfully... he inched his way over and finally got first one foot onto a rung, then the second one joined it.
As he put his full weight onto it in an attempt to climb the rest of the way onto the raised metal platform, the ladder bolts two rungs up snapped and the ladder swung free with a horrible shriek of metal, tilting back and out to a 45 degree angle, leaving him hanging from his hands over the very center of the glowing anomaly.
As he opened his mouth to say something [either a curse or prayer... even he didn't know yet] the rung supporting his weight snapped, and he plunged downward, to the sound of maniacal, ethereal laughter.
Reply by Bran Caedamon Conal
He fell through the swirling vortex. He waited with held breath to splash, but he just kept falling his eyes closed. He fell for what felt like forever before he slammed into solid ground roughly. He gasped as the air was forced out of his lungs, while he laid there trying to get his lungs working again he looked around him. He was no longer in the sewers, the tunnel from which he fell was even gone, no sign of the vortex remained. He was in what looked like a cave underground gut out of the dirt. The walls where dark brown and seemed damp, from the ceiling hung roots from unknown plants. The only light was coming from torches placed 4 feet apart around the room.
Once he had regained the ability to breath he slowly climbed to his feet and looked at the floor. Unlike the walls the ceiling it seemed to be made out of a perfectly level piece of stone, no cracks or dips anywhere he could see or feel. Off to his left he saw motion and quickly spun thinking the rats had joined him in the small room, but there laid a young woman probably half of Robert’s age. She had blonde hair with blue tips; her skin was pale, and smooth. She wore a tight mini-skirt, and a grey tank top. She slowly stirred and rolled over opening her bright blue eyes and glanced around. They were suddenly filled with fear when she realized she didn’t know where she was and she quickly scrambled to her feet pressing herself against the wall roughly. “Where are we? Who are you?! What’s going on!?” she said getting more and more upset as Robert stared at her in stunned silence. But before he could answer there were three more loud thuds. Robert spun around and sees two more guys, one black the other Hispanic, and an Asian girl lying on the ground coughing and looking around scared. Before any of them could begin asking questions the voice that Robert had heard while he fell answered their questions.
“Welcome to the game. Before you ask who I am, I will tell you I have no real name. I have been here from almost the beginning. I was the second thing to exist, the creation of the first. Some have called me the judge, Anubis, Hades, the name you humans have given me lately is Satan. My job is to test and judge you. For you have all be found wanting in the eyes of the creator.” the voice paused as if letting them adsorb the info they had been given. The white girl hugged her knees against the wall and began crying; the Asian girl sat in what appeared complete shock no emotion on her face. The black man was searching the walls trying to find a way out, while the Hispanic sat on his knees praying to god in Spanish, probably asking for forgiveness and to be saved from this apparent hell. Robert probably should have been doing the same as any of them, but he found himself oddly calm and focused taking in every word looking for any clues to give a hint as to the truth of their situation, and captor. “Now the creator doesn’t want me to kill you outright, and I’ve been doing this long enough to have found an efficient way of doing this. You are in the center of a maze of sorts. Inside of this maze other then you will be creatures that will test your mental, emotional, and physical strength. Some of the creatures you’ll know well. Others not so much. In the maze you will also find others such as yourselves still trying to earn their right to keep living. Let the game begin.” the voice said suddenly there was a grinding and the wall slide up revealing an old fashioned door.
“Well I guess we start moving.” said Robert.
“No man! Fuck that! I’m not going anywhere! You heard the devil, theirs demons out there bro!” said the Hispanic who was still on his knees praying. The white girl was still sobbing softly shaking her head back and forth. The Asian girl stood up and sighed heavily. “He’s right. There is no obvious way out, and Herald has been searching the walls since we got here and obviously hasn’t found anything.” she said motioning to the black man named Herald. She turned and looked at Robert and held out a hand “my names Mayling, but you can call me May. What’s your names?” she asked looking at the others Robert gave his name, the white girl said her name was Brenda, and Herald officially introduced himself his voice holding the stereotypical lisp of a homosexual. “What about you? What’s your name?” Robert asked the still praying Hispanic. He paused for a moment as if thinking about it, before saying “my names Jose, but my gang calls me twiggy. God man I don’t want to die here man!” he said trying to fight back sobs.
“We need to get moving before whatever’s out there comes to find us.” said May. But before Jose could object again the room began to rumble, and the back wall began to slowly shift pushing them toward the door. “Or the room itself kills us!” Herald cried out running for the door struggling with the old latch, the wall drawing closer and closer. Everyone gathered around the door so that as soon as it opened they could all leave. “Come man! Hurry up! It’s getting fucking closer!!” Jose shouted pushing against Robert’s back as if he was in control of the door. The all growing closer and closer forcing the group tighter and tighter into the space in front of the door which was to small for all of them to hide in to avoid getting crushed. “I can’t get it open the latch is rusted shut!” screamed Herald as he began kicking and punching the door savagely.
Reply by Ezra Yesterday
Robert stood in the middle of the swiftly panicking group and looked for an alternative to trampling, followed swiftly by the crushing promised by the slowly advancing wall. He looked up, hoping for a ladder, or possibly a lever or button, something.. Anything that would serve to stop the mechanism… and spied, instead, a regular series of holes in a line across the roof of the small opening where they were all clustered.
Puzzled, he peered upward more intently, and as the torch on the approaching wall came nearer, the flickering light picked out the gleam of needle sharp points, as of ice picks, or very sharp, tapered…
“Spears,” he croaked out, realizing what he was seeing. No one reacted, so pointing upward he repeated himself in a louder voice, “Spears…Hey Guys, there are Spears…Over our Heads!”
So saying, Robert began pushing his way to the back of the group, which was easier than it seemed, since everyone else was ignoring him, and trying to get at the door, and supposed freedom. As he stepped out into the room once more, he heard a loud
*CLICK*
And the entire flagstone floor of the vestibule full of strangers behind him and the ten foot section where he stood surrounding the doorway suddenly dropped half a foot down into the floor, making them all stumble, and May actually fell to the floor with a yelp.
There was a metallic screech and the sound of more, different machinery grinding to painful, hate filled life… And large, dull black, cruel tipped spears began to slowly emerge from holes in the approaching wall.
The spears had the immediate effect of stampeding the now screaming, terrified strangers further into the “safety” of the doorway.
Robert, who had stumbled to one knee, was about to whirl and join them, when he noticed a pattern in the stone of the floor. It had deep grooves worn into the floor where the uneven bottom of the wall was shoving forward, but the grooves stopped a foot or so short of the 10 foot section of trip plate they were standing upon. A quick look showed that the advancing wall spears would stop a good 4-5 feet short of the other wall. The Doorway Was A Trap!
He stepped forward with purpose now, and grabbing Jose, the closest to him, by the shoulder he roughly spun him and pulled him close. As he thrashed and screamed like a wee little girl, Robert firmly and precisely slapped him across the face.
“That,” he said quietly and distinctly, pointing up above the others heads, “is a trap! Look Up!”
Jose turned ½ way in the indicated direction, and as Robert’s eyes flickered toward the spot where his own finger was pointing, Jose spun and punched him low in the stomach. Then, taking Robert by the back of the head, he shoved the gasping would be saviors face down to meet his rising knee.
As his consciousness faded, Robert heard “Nobody lays hands on Twiggy, Bish!”
To Be Continued...
[Note, since this is such a long post, I'm splitting it in half]
Reply by Ezra Yesterday
***************
He couldn’t have been out very long, because he was awake and just sitting up when the trap door-way sprung shut.
With a loud, metallic snap, like the triggering of a mousetrap large enough to kill a Range Rover, all the spears above the heads of the rest of the group slammed downward, and into the floor… Miraculously missing everyone, even Jose, who was just reaching the area of the doorway.
The reason for the “miracle’ quickly became clear. The Spears were a cage, designed to trap anyone who was in the space next to the door. In this case it was everyone except Robert, Jose and May, who from the looks of her had apparently crawled out toward the spear wall from beneath the stomping feet of the others in self-defense.
With a growled, “Let me in!”, Jose grabbed two of the spear/bars with his right hand, as if to move or bend them. There was a flash of light, and a mixed smell of zone, burning hair, and just a hint of BBQ pork as he stood and thrashed against the electrified bars for a good two or three seconds.
Then, with static-electrical *SSSNAP* from the bars followed by a stuttering, guttural grunt from “Twiggy”, his hands seemed to spring out and from the bars he was holding, and his forearms bounced up hard against the next two out from the ones he had just let go. He staggered back, still twitching spastically and shouted in pain and surprise, and held up his arms, suddenly both covered in and actively pumping blood.
He screamed.
His arms both… simply Ended…. Just short of the where the joint of his wrist had been, sliced off as if by a scalpel. Hair still smoldering, arterial spray weakening with each heartbeat, he crumpled to the floor before their horrified eyes, whimpering as he bled out his last.
With a sudden, painfully loud grinding noise, the forgotten wall behind them ground to a halt, and the heads of the spears protruding from it stopping roughly six inches short of Robert’s left ear.
Everything was silent except for the gently weeping Brenda, as Mayling with great calm slowly picked up Jose’s severed appendages and placed them gently on his now forever still chest.
Robert had a sudden and horribly strong urge to giggle as he remembered the last thing Jose had said to him. He was saved by this undignified, completely out of character, [and quite possibly mind shatteringly unstoppable once started] urge by a swift and horrible, new development:
There was a click from the door behind the two people still cowering as far from inside the Razor-Cage™, followed swiftly by two more, and an insistent, loud and regular ticking sound.
With a shriek of mingled delight and panic, Herald said, “Look! The rust is gone from the doorknob… and the hinges, too! let’s get OUT of here!!”
Robert and Brenda both yelled in unison, “NO!! but they were too late to divert disaster.
Herald reached up and twisted the now prefect and brightly shining door knob and twisted.
With the sound of a giant spring releasing its tension, a solid rectangular battering ram of solid stone, masonry and a fake door the exact same dimensions as the cage leapt forward 3 feet and smashed into the screaming occupants, catapulting them through the razor sharp bars to land as small diced bits on the far side.
As Robert stood frozen in horror, and May looked on inscrutably, the ticking continued for another 30 seconds, unnoticed until it stopped with a loud:
*DING*
And the Razor-Cage™ retracted slowly into the ceiling, still dripping gore.
May suddenly spoke sharply and stamped her foot like a spoiled little girl, making Robert jump, “Well, that was no fun… No fun at All!”
She looked at Robert, evil red light seeming to ooze from her deeply sunken, solid black eyes.
“Well,” she purred, her voice suddenly taking on an otherworldly, sickening and horribly evil, yet at the same time decadently pleased tone, “except for the part where you got my little joke. Wasn’t it Delicious?”
Robert, in shock, horrified, wrung out and quite beyond rational thought, due to the events that had transpired since he left for his lunch, simply stared blankly at her.
[Normal… Human, Lunch!!!, a small locked away yet still functioning part of his mind shrieked beneath all the layers that were simply gibbering]
“You know!” She said, waggling her hands, her face and voice suddenly morphing into a perfect copy of Jose,
“ ‘Nobody lays hands on Twiggy, Bish!’ ”
She giggled, a literally, Biblically Satanic sound, and continued, as her body slowly stretched and contorted, growing into a huge, Demonic [capital D] form.
“Well, now mortal,” it said conversationally, as if talking about the stock market...
[with the mouth on its beautiful, human sized Asian female face... said small face centered in the middle of its huge, slimy, writhing in places, disgusting head]
“How shall I destroy you?”
Reply by G.A. Jack Hammerquist
Without warning a trimmer begins to cause the various body parts, dust and anything not nailed down to do the gig across the floor. "What!" screams the demon. "This is not fair." He stomps his cloven hoof on the ground. Meanwhile Robert it trying to figure out what next is going to happen to keep him from his lunch hour. Robert is doing what Robert does best he is compartmentalizing. His mind might have snapped if not for this human trick that Robert has mastered. He no longer sees the dead body parts dancing across the floor nor the demon. He just wants to get back on his normal routine. A voice both louder than thunder and soft as a whisper blast through the room. The demon drops to his knees for no apparent reason that Robert can or can't see. Seeing as how he is totally focused on the little earthquake and staying up right while wondering if the ceiling is going to fall on his head. The voice that Robert can't hear speaks loud and clear to the demon. "I have plans for this man send him on his way." The demon bobs its head, yes LORD whatever you say. With that the quake ends and the foul creature stands and whirls on Robert. Once again in the form of Mayling. She studies Robert for a moment then an evil grin spreads across her face... literally a hideous mouth full of sharp teeth has stretched from ear to ear and a slimy green tongue flicks out. "HE said to send you on your way but HE did not say where I had to send you so have fun and enjoy your trip Robert Clifton Hagar. "Hearing his name spoken he turns in time to see the young Asian woman raise her hands and with a theatrical flourish there is a flash of sickly green light and Robert finds himself standing on the deck of a well appointed cruise ship. He turns and breaths out a sigh of relief and his breath steams into the air. Suddenly Robert feels the cold biting chill of the winter or northern climate. He slowly turns to look at his surroundings. The sky is dark with twinkling stars stretching across the night sky. A crescent moon hangs in the nearly cloudless sky. It is cold but not dangerously so. And he is on board a nice cruise ship, without a ticket I might add. And above all he has missed his lunch hour. Shaking his head he looks once more about and heads for a port hole which shines it's warm glow across the deck. He wonders closer to look in. Ashe draws nearer the sounds of old classical music fills the air. Moving closer still he looks inside to see well dress men and woman dancing the night away. Their tables left empty, the staff making the rounds.."Growl!" Robert turns to look about him wondering where such a fearsome sound came from. "GROWL!" Robert ducks and hides from the windows light pressing his back against the wall. His heart pounding he throws his arms around his body to ward of the growing cold and to help keep his fear from completely taking over. "growl." Goes Roberts stomach. He looks down and realizes it was his own stomach that was making those noises. He laughs as the crazy fear passes and he once again sighs in relief.
Robert decided that if he is on a cruise ship then at least he can get something to eat. Just then a bell begins to ring up near the front port side of the ship. Voices can be heard shouting but what they are saying is taken by the sudden lurch of the ship. Robert is thrown from his feet to go sliding across the deck like a shuttle puck from that silly game they play on ships of old. He places his hands on the deck to rise and finds he is laying on broken chunks of ice. He stands shakily and turns to look to the port side. Yes there it is an iceberg and on the wall to his right a round life savior with the name of the ship printed boldly across its face. H.M.S. Titanic. "Do enjoy your trip Robert" he hears floating through the air. Turning to the voice he sees two disembodied eyes glowing red and looking right at him then they close and are gone.
This first Horror RP will be something of a game as well.
The Rules are:
Each post must end with the main character in some form of immediate peril.
The following post must address and resolve the previous peril before moving on.
Flashbacks and behind the scenes plot exposition are both allowed and encouraged, but must occur after the previous peril has been dealt with.
Long posts may be broken up, but the post arc must follow the rules above.
Try to keep up the continuity...if a character is a beefy rookie Policeman early in the story, don't change it into an old Jamaican woman later... at least not without sufficient explanation.
And finally, Cliff is our main character/victim of circumstance, try to focus on his story and make the peril his, but keep in mind: he can be hurt and terrorized, but not killed. All other characters are subject to torture, mutilation and death.
NEW RULE: In order to keep people from responding to the same peril and risking a possible Temporal Implosion, post your name as a placeholder so everyone knows you are working on a reply to the most recent post.
|Note: this does not mean you can hold up the flow for days while you work out what to write. If you can't get done in an hour or so, please be courteous and either post an update saying when you will finish, or if something unavoidable has come up, remove your name.
|Note: The Second: If multiple people attempt to post their names at the same time, tie goes to whoever has their name listed first by the DWM computer system...so refresh the page and make sure you are next up before you write a reply.
The main idea is to have fun, make an interesting story... and stick it to the next writer in line.
Reply by Ezra Yesterday
Robert Clifton Hagar was, quite possibly, the most boring man in existence.
He was completely average, in height, weight and coloring. He had a quiet droning voice that he never raised above normal speaking levels, no matter if he was in a church or at a sporting event.
He had 12 identical suits, shirts and ties, all in shades of grey; he wore the same thing every day...and had for as long as anyone had known him.
He followed an exact routine, was never late, never early and his desk was never cluttered.
He worked for a large international accounting firm, but he was not merely an accountant, his job was to audit the expense reports that every traveling accountant in the company submitted.
Accountants were interesting compared to him; not that anyone would ever do so, because very few people took note of his very boring existence.
He was.. well, "happy" was not a word that ever applied to him... but he was satisfied that it should be so.
His life was exactly as he wanted it to be.
It was 11:55, time to go to the same corner diner he always did for his same boring meal.
He straightened his desk, put on his coat, and left the office... for the last time.
*************
As he rode the elevator down with the lunch crowd, one of the company lawyers, Stu Biggins, spoke up,
"Hey, Cliff Hanger! How's it going?"
This too was boring routine. Stu never once, after learning what it was, missed the opportunity to make that joke of his middle name. Just as he never failed to set up the next one...
"So, Where do you want to go for lunch?" Stu knew the never changing schedule that Robert [he never thought of himself as Cliff] followed, but he found it hilarious to ask anyway, so he could make his joke.
"I'm going to the Diner." Robert droned.
"What? The Diner again?!? That's like the 5th time this week.. and its only Tuesday... HAHAHAHahahaha."
The doors opened, so Robert was spared the trouble of answering.
He walked out into the overcast day, Idiots and their jokes completely forgotten [also routine] and headed down the street toward his destination.
He passed the open end of an alley, took two more steps and then he did something completely out of character for him...
He stopped.
He had walked this exact route for years, and had never once deviated in speed or direction in all that time, much less stopped... but now he had too. He knew this street better than anyone else possibly could, and so he knew that something was suddenly, dreadfully wrong...
Because there Was no alley in this part of the street
That space was where a Chinese grocers shop had stood, quietly doing business, for longer than he had lived here.
As this astonishing and unnerving realization hit him, and before he could begin to turn and look to see if he had imagined it. someone grabbed him by the back of the neck and hauled him bodily into the Alley That Shouldn't Be.
The attacker shoved him face first against a wall and leaned in so close he could feel the moist, fetid breath stir the hair on his neck as they whispered in a oddly accented, unsettling voice...
"Mmmmm...lunch...'
Reply by Therese
Robert Clifton Hagar thought his time had come. He closed his eyes and whispered a prayer, awaiting his demise.
Then, hearing a deep resonating growl, he slowly opened one eye to see a huge menacing shadow cast upon the wall just behind, and next to, his assailant’s.
His captor, glancing round, also noticed the large shadow followed by the snarling and was momentarily distracted, giving Robert just enough time to make his move.
In a split second he brought the heel of his foot up as violently as he could muster, smashing it into the groin of the creature with the fetid breath.
There was a groan as it released it’s grip on Robert and grasped it’s dangling bits in pain.
Yes, the creature had nards.
Taking advantage of the situation, Robert Clifton Hagar took off at a sprint, followed by his shadow savior, a small stray dog which had wandered into the alley just in the nick of time.
Robert continued running as fast as his legs would carry him, the small dog following at his heels.
He glanced for an instant over his shoulder, to assure he was not being pursued, just in time to see the alley closing in on, and crushing his enemy to the sound of it’s final blood-curdling screams.
The Chinese grocer’s shop was there once again with no sign that anything had ever been amiss.
Smiling smugly as he continued his escape, Robert failed to notice the open manhole directly in his path until it was too late.
His feet still moving but no longer making any surface contact he was, for a brief second, frozen in mid air.
And then he fell into the darkness.
Reply by Bran Caedamon Conal
Robert plummeted down. He could smell the foul water below him, his chest hitting the rim of the sewer, but as he continued to fall his head struck several of the rebar ladder rungs knocking him unconscious. He reached the bottom with a splash the dog at the opening of the manhole whimpering softly before wandering off to beg elsewhere for scraps.
When robert awoke he didn't know the time, but it was definitely late. some part of him fretted because his perfect schedule had been ruined, his days work unfinished. He slowly sat up his hips were in the running sewer water, which smelled strongly of rot, and human waste, his suit ruined. His upper half had landed on the little side walkway. his chest ached, but his head screamed in agony. reaching back tentatively he found a large lump where his head had hit, a little blood oozing from the wound. He staggered to his feet fighting through the complaints of his body. He looked for the ladder to climb out but found the wall perfectly smooth except for 2 rungs about 9 feet above him. For the first time in his life he raised his voice above speaking calling out for help. after several failed attempts he gave up, looking up and down the tunnel for any possible sign of escape, seeing nothing but darkness.
After looking up at the circle of light above him he finally decided to follow the water flow figuring it would lead to a plant, or run off that would give him access to freedom. He walked left along the catwalk. After a few steps he was swallowed by perfect darkness his eyes unable to adjust to the total lack of light, so he was forced to move slowly feeling along the ground and walls. Suddenly his hand touched something long and smooth like a branch. He felt along it until he felt something soft and squishy. Still slightly damp. he continued to feel along whatever it was until he stumbled upon something small and rectangular. He took it into his hands and felt it discovering it was a zippo lighter. He flicked it open and spun the wheel a couple times before it took to flame. He smiled thankfully at the flame before raising it up to see what he had been touching.
He nearly dropped the lighter and gave a quick shout of shock when he saw the rotted and shredded remains of another man. He had been dressed in black leather, appearing to be a biker, but his skin was a light shade of grey, and over large parts of his body it looked as if something large had been chewing on him. Robert looked at the corpse for a few more seconds before he turned his head and wretched into the feted water feeling what remained of his breakfast and stomach bile come up and out. His eyes watering, both from the effort, and from fear. If something chewed on this man, how much longer till it came for him. he wouldn't have to wait long to find out.
From up the tunnel from which he came he suddenly noticed the manhole light disappear. He didn't hear a lid slide into place or anything, it was like someone had flicked off a switch. He looked down the tunnel raising the lighter up trying to figure out what was going on. At first he heard a couple plops into the water, some scratching, even a very distant squeak. Robert sat there his breath coming in quick gasps as his eyes strained to see into the darkness past the flames light. Then he saw a glint of gold. Then another. Then he started to see hundreds of little gold pinpoints of light, at first they seemed random, then he noticed they were in pairs. Then into the light of the flame walked a large fat rat. It looked at him and sniffed then hiss and moved forward quickly jumping trying to bite at robert's leg. He gave another scream turning and taking off at a run down the tunnel the sounds of scratching, splashing, and squeaking as the rats gave chase, there hungry hisses chasing him through the darkness.
Reply by Ezra Yesterday
As he ran through the horrible darkness, the feeble light of the zippo cast sinister, flickering shadows and weak reflections before him. He could hear the ravening beasts skittering behind him, like a hungry avalanche, quickly gaining. As he continued to run he could see a sickly greenish glow ahead, in the distance. Heartened by the new illumination, he increased his pace.. which was fortunate, since he suddenly realized the glow came from the bottom of a pit cut completely across the floor of the tunnel he was running down at full speed.
Using his new momentum, he kept running and then leapt over the chasm, barely landing on the other side, the far rim of the opening under his arms, against his chest and his legs hanging into space. He turned his head and watched the huge mass of rats run headlong into the pit and plummet downward to...
Actually to where was a great question, now that he had a bit of time to think. The green glow was coming from a swirling, eldritch vortex of what appeared to be slow moving energy. Looking down, the effect was like looking down into a giant blender making Asparagus and Toad-skin smoothies.. with some kind of toxic waste thrown in for color and that special glow.
Once he had caught his breath [at least as best he could while hanging by his upper arms over Satan's Lavatory] he attempted to pull himself up.. and realized he couldn't. Every time he shifted enough to try and wiggle upwards, he started to slide backwards as his grip started to fail. As he began to panic, he looked around for something to grab onto... and realized there was an access ladder a scant 3 feet to his left.
Slowly, carefully.. Painfully... he inched his way over and finally got first one foot onto a rung, then the second one joined it.
As he put his full weight onto it in an attempt to climb the rest of the way onto the raised metal platform, the ladder bolts two rungs up snapped and the ladder swung free with a horrible shriek of metal, tilting back and out to a 45 degree angle, leaving him hanging from his hands over the very center of the glowing anomaly.
As he opened his mouth to say something [either a curse or prayer... even he didn't know yet] the rung supporting his weight snapped, and he plunged downward, to the sound of maniacal, ethereal laughter.
Reply by Bran Caedamon Conal
He fell through the swirling vortex. He waited with held breath to splash, but he just kept falling his eyes closed. He fell for what felt like forever before he slammed into solid ground roughly. He gasped as the air was forced out of his lungs, while he laid there trying to get his lungs working again he looked around him. He was no longer in the sewers, the tunnel from which he fell was even gone, no sign of the vortex remained. He was in what looked like a cave underground gut out of the dirt. The walls where dark brown and seemed damp, from the ceiling hung roots from unknown plants. The only light was coming from torches placed 4 feet apart around the room.
Once he had regained the ability to breath he slowly climbed to his feet and looked at the floor. Unlike the walls the ceiling it seemed to be made out of a perfectly level piece of stone, no cracks or dips anywhere he could see or feel. Off to his left he saw motion and quickly spun thinking the rats had joined him in the small room, but there laid a young woman probably half of Robert’s age. She had blonde hair with blue tips; her skin was pale, and smooth. She wore a tight mini-skirt, and a grey tank top. She slowly stirred and rolled over opening her bright blue eyes and glanced around. They were suddenly filled with fear when she realized she didn’t know where she was and she quickly scrambled to her feet pressing herself against the wall roughly. “Where are we? Who are you?! What’s going on!?” she said getting more and more upset as Robert stared at her in stunned silence. But before he could answer there were three more loud thuds. Robert spun around and sees two more guys, one black the other Hispanic, and an Asian girl lying on the ground coughing and looking around scared. Before any of them could begin asking questions the voice that Robert had heard while he fell answered their questions.
“Welcome to the game. Before you ask who I am, I will tell you I have no real name. I have been here from almost the beginning. I was the second thing to exist, the creation of the first. Some have called me the judge, Anubis, Hades, the name you humans have given me lately is Satan. My job is to test and judge you. For you have all be found wanting in the eyes of the creator.” the voice paused as if letting them adsorb the info they had been given. The white girl hugged her knees against the wall and began crying; the Asian girl sat in what appeared complete shock no emotion on her face. The black man was searching the walls trying to find a way out, while the Hispanic sat on his knees praying to god in Spanish, probably asking for forgiveness and to be saved from this apparent hell. Robert probably should have been doing the same as any of them, but he found himself oddly calm and focused taking in every word looking for any clues to give a hint as to the truth of their situation, and captor. “Now the creator doesn’t want me to kill you outright, and I’ve been doing this long enough to have found an efficient way of doing this. You are in the center of a maze of sorts. Inside of this maze other then you will be creatures that will test your mental, emotional, and physical strength. Some of the creatures you’ll know well. Others not so much. In the maze you will also find others such as yourselves still trying to earn their right to keep living. Let the game begin.” the voice said suddenly there was a grinding and the wall slide up revealing an old fashioned door.
“Well I guess we start moving.” said Robert.
“No man! Fuck that! I’m not going anywhere! You heard the devil, theirs demons out there bro!” said the Hispanic who was still on his knees praying. The white girl was still sobbing softly shaking her head back and forth. The Asian girl stood up and sighed heavily. “He’s right. There is no obvious way out, and Herald has been searching the walls since we got here and obviously hasn’t found anything.” she said motioning to the black man named Herald. She turned and looked at Robert and held out a hand “my names Mayling, but you can call me May. What’s your names?” she asked looking at the others Robert gave his name, the white girl said her name was Brenda, and Herald officially introduced himself his voice holding the stereotypical lisp of a homosexual. “What about you? What’s your name?” Robert asked the still praying Hispanic. He paused for a moment as if thinking about it, before saying “my names Jose, but my gang calls me twiggy. God man I don’t want to die here man!” he said trying to fight back sobs.
“We need to get moving before whatever’s out there comes to find us.” said May. But before Jose could object again the room began to rumble, and the back wall began to slowly shift pushing them toward the door. “Or the room itself kills us!” Herald cried out running for the door struggling with the old latch, the wall drawing closer and closer. Everyone gathered around the door so that as soon as it opened they could all leave. “Come man! Hurry up! It’s getting fucking closer!!” Jose shouted pushing against Robert’s back as if he was in control of the door. The all growing closer and closer forcing the group tighter and tighter into the space in front of the door which was to small for all of them to hide in to avoid getting crushed. “I can’t get it open the latch is rusted shut!” screamed Herald as he began kicking and punching the door savagely.
Reply by Ezra Yesterday
Robert stood in the middle of the swiftly panicking group and looked for an alternative to trampling, followed swiftly by the crushing promised by the slowly advancing wall. He looked up, hoping for a ladder, or possibly a lever or button, something.. Anything that would serve to stop the mechanism… and spied, instead, a regular series of holes in a line across the roof of the small opening where they were all clustered.
Puzzled, he peered upward more intently, and as the torch on the approaching wall came nearer, the flickering light picked out the gleam of needle sharp points, as of ice picks, or very sharp, tapered…
“Spears,” he croaked out, realizing what he was seeing. No one reacted, so pointing upward he repeated himself in a louder voice, “Spears…Hey Guys, there are Spears…Over our Heads!”
So saying, Robert began pushing his way to the back of the group, which was easier than it seemed, since everyone else was ignoring him, and trying to get at the door, and supposed freedom. As he stepped out into the room once more, he heard a loud
*CLICK*
And the entire flagstone floor of the vestibule full of strangers behind him and the ten foot section where he stood surrounding the doorway suddenly dropped half a foot down into the floor, making them all stumble, and May actually fell to the floor with a yelp.
There was a metallic screech and the sound of more, different machinery grinding to painful, hate filled life… And large, dull black, cruel tipped spears began to slowly emerge from holes in the approaching wall.
The spears had the immediate effect of stampeding the now screaming, terrified strangers further into the “safety” of the doorway.
Robert, who had stumbled to one knee, was about to whirl and join them, when he noticed a pattern in the stone of the floor. It had deep grooves worn into the floor where the uneven bottom of the wall was shoving forward, but the grooves stopped a foot or so short of the 10 foot section of trip plate they were standing upon. A quick look showed that the advancing wall spears would stop a good 4-5 feet short of the other wall. The Doorway Was A Trap!
He stepped forward with purpose now, and grabbing Jose, the closest to him, by the shoulder he roughly spun him and pulled him close. As he thrashed and screamed like a wee little girl, Robert firmly and precisely slapped him across the face.
“That,” he said quietly and distinctly, pointing up above the others heads, “is a trap! Look Up!”
Jose turned ½ way in the indicated direction, and as Robert’s eyes flickered toward the spot where his own finger was pointing, Jose spun and punched him low in the stomach. Then, taking Robert by the back of the head, he shoved the gasping would be saviors face down to meet his rising knee.
As his consciousness faded, Robert heard “Nobody lays hands on Twiggy, Bish!”
To Be Continued...
[Note, since this is such a long post, I'm splitting it in half]
Reply by Ezra Yesterday
***************
He couldn’t have been out very long, because he was awake and just sitting up when the trap door-way sprung shut.
With a loud, metallic snap, like the triggering of a mousetrap large enough to kill a Range Rover, all the spears above the heads of the rest of the group slammed downward, and into the floor… Miraculously missing everyone, even Jose, who was just reaching the area of the doorway.
The reason for the “miracle’ quickly became clear. The Spears were a cage, designed to trap anyone who was in the space next to the door. In this case it was everyone except Robert, Jose and May, who from the looks of her had apparently crawled out toward the spear wall from beneath the stomping feet of the others in self-defense.
With a growled, “Let me in!”, Jose grabbed two of the spear/bars with his right hand, as if to move or bend them. There was a flash of light, and a mixed smell of zone, burning hair, and just a hint of BBQ pork as he stood and thrashed against the electrified bars for a good two or three seconds.
Then, with static-electrical *SSSNAP* from the bars followed by a stuttering, guttural grunt from “Twiggy”, his hands seemed to spring out and from the bars he was holding, and his forearms bounced up hard against the next two out from the ones he had just let go. He staggered back, still twitching spastically and shouted in pain and surprise, and held up his arms, suddenly both covered in and actively pumping blood.
He screamed.
His arms both… simply Ended…. Just short of the where the joint of his wrist had been, sliced off as if by a scalpel. Hair still smoldering, arterial spray weakening with each heartbeat, he crumpled to the floor before their horrified eyes, whimpering as he bled out his last.
With a sudden, painfully loud grinding noise, the forgotten wall behind them ground to a halt, and the heads of the spears protruding from it stopping roughly six inches short of Robert’s left ear.
Everything was silent except for the gently weeping Brenda, as Mayling with great calm slowly picked up Jose’s severed appendages and placed them gently on his now forever still chest.
Robert had a sudden and horribly strong urge to giggle as he remembered the last thing Jose had said to him. He was saved by this undignified, completely out of character, [and quite possibly mind shatteringly unstoppable once started] urge by a swift and horrible, new development:
There was a click from the door behind the two people still cowering as far from inside the Razor-Cage™, followed swiftly by two more, and an insistent, loud and regular ticking sound.
With a shriek of mingled delight and panic, Herald said, “Look! The rust is gone from the doorknob… and the hinges, too! let’s get OUT of here!!”
Robert and Brenda both yelled in unison, “NO!! but they were too late to divert disaster.
Herald reached up and twisted the now prefect and brightly shining door knob and twisted.
With the sound of a giant spring releasing its tension, a solid rectangular battering ram of solid stone, masonry and a fake door the exact same dimensions as the cage leapt forward 3 feet and smashed into the screaming occupants, catapulting them through the razor sharp bars to land as small diced bits on the far side.
As Robert stood frozen in horror, and May looked on inscrutably, the ticking continued for another 30 seconds, unnoticed until it stopped with a loud:
*DING*
And the Razor-Cage™ retracted slowly into the ceiling, still dripping gore.
May suddenly spoke sharply and stamped her foot like a spoiled little girl, making Robert jump, “Well, that was no fun… No fun at All!”
She looked at Robert, evil red light seeming to ooze from her deeply sunken, solid black eyes.
“Well,” she purred, her voice suddenly taking on an otherworldly, sickening and horribly evil, yet at the same time decadently pleased tone, “except for the part where you got my little joke. Wasn’t it Delicious?”
Robert, in shock, horrified, wrung out and quite beyond rational thought, due to the events that had transpired since he left for his lunch, simply stared blankly at her.
[Normal… Human, Lunch!!!, a small locked away yet still functioning part of his mind shrieked beneath all the layers that were simply gibbering]
“You know!” She said, waggling her hands, her face and voice suddenly morphing into a perfect copy of Jose,
“ ‘Nobody lays hands on Twiggy, Bish!’ ”
She giggled, a literally, Biblically Satanic sound, and continued, as her body slowly stretched and contorted, growing into a huge, Demonic [capital D] form.
“Well, now mortal,” it said conversationally, as if talking about the stock market...
[with the mouth on its beautiful, human sized Asian female face... said small face centered in the middle of its huge, slimy, writhing in places, disgusting head]
“How shall I destroy you?”
Reply by G.A. Jack Hammerquist
Without warning a trimmer begins to cause the various body parts, dust and anything not nailed down to do the gig across the floor. "What!" screams the demon. "This is not fair." He stomps his cloven hoof on the ground. Meanwhile Robert it trying to figure out what next is going to happen to keep him from his lunch hour. Robert is doing what Robert does best he is compartmentalizing. His mind might have snapped if not for this human trick that Robert has mastered. He no longer sees the dead body parts dancing across the floor nor the demon. He just wants to get back on his normal routine. A voice both louder than thunder and soft as a whisper blast through the room. The demon drops to his knees for no apparent reason that Robert can or can't see. Seeing as how he is totally focused on the little earthquake and staying up right while wondering if the ceiling is going to fall on his head. The voice that Robert can't hear speaks loud and clear to the demon. "I have plans for this man send him on his way." The demon bobs its head, yes LORD whatever you say. With that the quake ends and the foul creature stands and whirls on Robert. Once again in the form of Mayling. She studies Robert for a moment then an evil grin spreads across her face... literally a hideous mouth full of sharp teeth has stretched from ear to ear and a slimy green tongue flicks out. "HE said to send you on your way but HE did not say where I had to send you so have fun and enjoy your trip Robert Clifton Hagar. "Hearing his name spoken he turns in time to see the young Asian woman raise her hands and with a theatrical flourish there is a flash of sickly green light and Robert finds himself standing on the deck of a well appointed cruise ship. He turns and breaths out a sigh of relief and his breath steams into the air. Suddenly Robert feels the cold biting chill of the winter or northern climate. He slowly turns to look at his surroundings. The sky is dark with twinkling stars stretching across the night sky. A crescent moon hangs in the nearly cloudless sky. It is cold but not dangerously so. And he is on board a nice cruise ship, without a ticket I might add. And above all he has missed his lunch hour. Shaking his head he looks once more about and heads for a port hole which shines it's warm glow across the deck. He wonders closer to look in. Ashe draws nearer the sounds of old classical music fills the air. Moving closer still he looks inside to see well dress men and woman dancing the night away. Their tables left empty, the staff making the rounds.."Growl!" Robert turns to look about him wondering where such a fearsome sound came from. "GROWL!" Robert ducks and hides from the windows light pressing his back against the wall. His heart pounding he throws his arms around his body to ward of the growing cold and to help keep his fear from completely taking over. "growl." Goes Roberts stomach. He looks down and realizes it was his own stomach that was making those noises. He laughs as the crazy fear passes and he once again sighs in relief.
Robert decided that if he is on a cruise ship then at least he can get something to eat. Just then a bell begins to ring up near the front port side of the ship. Voices can be heard shouting but what they are saying is taken by the sudden lurch of the ship. Robert is thrown from his feet to go sliding across the deck like a shuttle puck from that silly game they play on ships of old. He places his hands on the deck to rise and finds he is laying on broken chunks of ice. He stands shakily and turns to look to the port side. Yes there it is an iceberg and on the wall to his right a round life savior with the name of the ship printed boldly across its face. H.M.S. Titanic. "Do enjoy your trip Robert" he hears floating through the air. Turning to the voice he sees two disembodied eyes glowing red and looking right at him then they close and are gone.