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