A Vincent Price Welcome

     Thank you for visiting my blog!  Over the past month I have come up with Twelve chilling excerpts from which I hope to grow entire stories. I call it: #sinistercountdown.  For now enjoy my very own pictures and twisted sense of writing for Halloween.  You can always follow my writing and pictures on this blog or look for my user name: eatinganelephant on Instagram! 

http://instagram.com/eatinganelephant

Now scroll through my blog to older posts and leave a comment if you'd like! Hope you have a terrifying Halloween! And no I did not take that picture of Vincent, were not that good of friends.

Brother and Sister

     Streetlights flickered on and off while rain fell lightly on black asphalt roads. The neatly trimmed hedges along either side of the sidewalk grew darker with each passing minute. 

     "Hansel you're walking too fast! It's too slickery for my shoes." To prove the point Hansel's sister Gretel slid through a shallow puddle. 

     Neon lights flickered between water droplets, they were alone it seemed. 

     "Did you hear that?" Hansel's hands tightened around Gretel as the unmistakable slosh of feet echoed off locked store fronts. 

     "He's followed us." Gretel began to shake at her own words. Unbidden, both moved quickly, skirting puddles as their plastic rain jackets whipped behind them. 

     "There! See that store! I think it's open, there's a light on!" Gretel fought down rising bile as she scanned shelves and shelves of brightly packaged items through large windows. The foot falls grew louder as their follower splashed heedlessly through puddles. 

     He was getting closer. 

     They reached the door, which was cheerfully frosted to look like a waterfall. Large curved door handles seemed to reach for their open hands. Hansel hesitsted, 

     "This isn't right." 

     "Hansel this is no time to think, we're going to get caught by Him!" Hansel reached out and grasped the brightly colored door. It stuck fast to his skin, as if coated in sugar. 

     "It's sticky...Gretel, I think it's made out of-" Before he could finish the statement Gretel pushed him inside, the door clicking shut behind them. "-candy."

 #sinistercountdown

The Witch

     The rain had subsided, clouds breaking apart to reveal a deep azure sky. They walked me down the main street, hands bound in thick iron cuffs. 
     "Curse thee, wicked woman!" A crowd has gathered in the slick thoroughfare, they brandish burning torches and baskets of rotten food. 
     "How dare thee bring the wrath of the Almighty upon our people!" 
     A priest dressed in black from head to toe brandishes a worn bible, "Thus saith He that those caught in lying and secret combinations with the Devil deserve unending torment!" 
     I stare at the sky, saying a last goodbye to clouds above me. My God has forsaken me, I am surrounded by lies and treachery. More shouts sound as I continue my path, crossing the main square and onto the steps of the town hall. 
     A woman pushes to the step below mine and spits in my face, "It was thee who brought on the plagues, the fires and worms and rotting crops! The Devil can have thee!" 
     These people have no idea what is about to happen, I am the last stone holding back the tide, if I go IT will take every last one. 
     Up flights of stairs and onto a small balcony, my life is to end on a projection of stone, where a noose swings in the gentle afternoon breeze. 
     "Have ye any last words oh Witch?" The hangman asks as he lifts the rope up and around my neck. 
    "They will never learn." 
A firm hand pushes me into open air.
 #sinistercountdown

Resolved to

Voices hissed through dried leaves that still clung to brittle branches. 
     "Come to us." They called, rustling in the cool autumn air. "Come." 
     The small boy stood before the gnarled and twisted tree. It towered over him, branches twisted into a sinister smile. Seth was told never to play next to the Whispering Tree because it would learn your secrets. 
     "It took your father one day." His mother had said, staring out the kitchen window as they sat at the table. "It learned about the darkest part of him and the next day I found him, curled at its roots, his body covered in tangled bark and leaves. 
     "Blood was everywhere. The police said it was suicide, but I knew better. It was that tree." Seth remembered a solitary tear had run down her cheek, falling from hollow eyes. 
     "I promise mom, I promise I will never go near the Whispering Tree." But today, Seth knew he had to break that promise, even though it would mean his death. 
#sinistercountdown

The Meeting

     The table was set, boiled water having been placed by a servant moments earlier. The man obsessively straightened a tray of biscuits, alining it perfectly with the cream container. 
     "Now we are ready." 
He muttered to the room at large, glancing at the gold brushed teapot. It glinted menacingly in the lap light. A gentle knock echoed in the room, "Let him enter, Gerald, the gentleman is expected."
     He glanced one last time at the dragon weaving it's snake like body across the clay surface of the pot. A suited man entered the room, scanning anything everything he could get his eyes on.
     "Ah yes Mr. Holmes, delighted to meet you at long last."
     Mr. Holmes stared quizzically at him, and the red curtains behind the man. "Don't be so courteous  Moriarty, we both know exactly why we're here." 
     Professor James Moriarty smiled, "The game is afoot then!"
 #sinistercountdown

Rememberance

     As the shadows deepen within the great hall one picture seemed to stand out most of all. 
     "Isn't that the one father would always turn around at night?" The speaker turned to her brother,"Said it gave him the willies when he'd walk by it." 
     Charles' eyes widened with horror, "I can see why Sophia. Look!"
     Sophia followed his tremulous finger. The painting had change. She screamed. Her mother's face looked out, eyes sunken, papery skin pulled taught over smiling skeletal teeth. The Witch, it seemed, had lived on.
 #sinistercountdown

Creature

     I'm being hunted, my skin crawls as I feel a single pair of eyes seeking me out.
     "Aaarrrrrooohh!!" It's getting closer, I need to get to the water. My feet slip over wet stone as I hear the thing panting, air sucking down its snout, claws slashing a path through dense foliage. It can smell my blood, my fear. My foot steps into a cool current and I slip down, down into a deep pool.
     "Aaaarrrrooh!!" Water swallows up my head, filling my open eyes, "I hope I'm not too late." #sinistercountdown

The Grove

     Drums echoed within his head, thundering all around the darkness. His body shift side to side as if dangling over an open abyss.
     Boom. Boom. Boom. 
     "Where am I?" Was what he wanted to say but his tongue, it seemed, had swelled inside his mouth. He opened his eyes, fear energizing his body. Colors swirled around his head. Below him ground passed by quickly. Piles of pine needles and leaves stared back at him as he traveled upside down.
     "Mmph!" Gagging, he drew in a deep breath, cool air stinging his nostrils.
     I am upside down. He thought, as the smell of smoke filled his nose.
     Boom. Boom. Boom. 
The drums sounded louder and clearer now. He looked up, tears stinging his eyes as he saw his hands and feet tied to a thick wooden pole. 
     What is going on? Why am I here? Who's doing this to me? 
     Boom. Boom. Boom. 
     Two tall figures stood in front of and behind him, breathing heavily and grunting with the effort of carrying his body. In the dimness he saw their outlines, huge arms and heaving backs, thick horns curling back over their heads. 
     "Mmmrrphng!" His shout did little, but elicit a sharp grunt from the form at his feet. Their pace quickened. 
     Boom. Boom. Boom. The light began to brighten, dancing over the trunks of passing trees. A cloud of smoke passed over the three figures. The man looked past the figure hauling his body. Ahead of him flames danced in an open pit, great branches piled on one another, blacked by heat. 
BOOM. BOOM. BOOM. 
     Figures danced in the light, twisted and shimmering around the open flames. His entire body started to shake. He could see two large iron poles, with forked tops, on either side of the fire now.
     "Hhhrrrghng!" He screamed, but only strangled fear leaked through. "I'm going to die." He though, as the light became unbearable to his eyes. 
     I'm going to die. 
The men holding him lifted the pole even higher, flames reached for him. 
     BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! 
     I'm going to die.
#sinsitercountdown

A Portal

     "Sammy we're not suppose to go in there! Mum told us not to!" Mark dug his heels into the dirt as his older sister dragged him towards the watershed's open door. 
     "Stop it! Let go! You're hurting me!" He twisted his arm, but his sister's fingers dug into his skin. The boy cried out, "why are you doing this Sam?" 
     His sister stopped, her head turned to the dark recesses of the shed. "I'm not your sister." 
     "What?" Mark fought down a sob, ears burning from the deeper, more menacing voice coming from Sammy.
      His sister pulled tighter on his arm, continuing to drag him towards the sun worn building. It's single door yawned open, waiting for him. 
      "Wh-who are you?" She gave no reply, merely bent his arm painfully and force him to face the door, feet stopped inches from the darkness. 
     "Who are you!" 
     He looked back into a face he'd never seen, his sister's blond hair falling over a darkened brow. Black pits glared into his face. 
     "The Gatekeeper."
 Mark felt himself thrown through the doorway into the waiting dark. 
#sinistercountdown

An Afternoon in October

     The leaves whispered above me as I laid under the cool shadows of a tree. 
     "Rest, rest." The tree called with every breath of wind. I found myself lost in the moment, unaware of all around me. Which is why when I heard the screaming, I didn't immediately jump from where I lay.
     Something dripped on my face and arm. Curious I opened my eyes. The leaves swung in the late afternoon breeze, red gold in the sunlight, blue sky unrelenting against the autumn colors. 
     The screaming continued. 
     Another drop fell from the bows above, splashing down onto my nose. A metallic tang filled my senses and I quickly raised my hand to my face. I wiped the liquid from my skin, smearing it over my cheek. It was warm and clung to my skin unlike ordinary liquid that fell from the sky. 
     More drops fell on me and I stood up slowly, a drop landing square in my open mouth. My stomach dropped and heart began to race. 
     It was blood. 
     Blood. 
     Blood was falling from the tree. 
#sinistercountdown

Luck Runs Out

     Hands reached out with broken nails and bloodied fingers, swiping blindly through the shattered window. Moans of the dead filled the air as she screamed, "Open the door, open the door!!" 
     His hands fumbled for the key, scraping it against the lock. Behind the two figures wood groaned under the weight of a hundred bodies. 
     "I've got it!" He shouted, "I've-" CRACK! The door gave in, ragged corpses piling in like a mountain of sand. At the same moment the key caught in the lock snapping in half. 
     "-Got it." The woman screamed. 
#sinistercountdown

Tracking the Lost

     They hung there, the smell of rot and decay clinging to their ivory surface as once had muscle and sinew. A diminutive figure on horse back raised a hand to the sky, shielding his face, "We must turn back Master, the Fates have left us their sign." 
     A raven cackled maliciously on a nearby branch. 
     "It is too late Igor," said the slender woman that stood beside her steed. She looked upon the grinning bones, cloaked in crimson, "The predator has become the prey." 
#sinistercountdown

A Debtors Due

A metal spade scraped across dirt and stone, thundering down onto a warn wood lid. 
     "Don't do this! It wasn't me!" Soil continued to pour down heedless of muffled cries. The single pool of light filling the space darkened as he twisted, brushing against damp walls. 
     "Don't. Don't, d-don't bury me alive!" 
#sinistercountdown

Happiness

Happiness is:

Foraging in your own backyard

Eating strawberries leaves and all

This face

Knowing these little hands are my entire world