The Surgeon's Assistant (A Halloween horror short story)

The Surgeon’s Assistant

Her quick feet thudded through the empty corridor. The wind howling through the broken windows could not drown out the distinct clang of metal against metal behind her as he ran his scalpel across the cracked wall.

“Where do you think you’re going?” He bellowed, bursting into hysteric laughter.

“Please let me go!” She panted, her back against the wall.

He gestured with his smoking cigar and leisurely puffed the fumes in her direction, filling the hall with a breathtaking heaviness. Lightning set a ghastly light to his blood-stained scrubs. 

Macabre Affairs - 150 words story to the 6th in-thread writing competition

This is another in-thread competition entry that I hadn't posted yet. This one was for the 6th edition, which was finally won by Hannah, who gained her second in-thread victory smacking us all with her incredible skill. She's usually the first to enter too. Don't ask me how she does it, it is beyond me :D.

To read her entry, go to the thread or my post on it.

My entry was slightly inspired by watching the clips for Kanye West's 'Monster' and The Lonely Island featuring Nicki Minaj's 'The Creep' one too many times... That and a late fall-out of Robert Browning's macabre poem 'Porphyria's lover' (which was the google search that gave me the image below).

challenge

once again to write an entry of no more and no less than 150 words containing 5 target words (the ones in bold). For this edition the target words were:

lovely, vocabulary, brother, preserve, reflection.

my entry

"She looked lovely, no question, she did. She always had, as long as he remembered. He looked at his own reflection and shuddered, smoothing his greasy hair. It stuck to his skull, spiking up here and there. Beneath it a face chiselled by angels, but only with Parkinson’s.

She, however, a creature of marble and ocean shades. He carefully wrapped the form’s arm around him. It slid away listlessly. Even in death she would not have him. Her very beauty fled from him, no matter how he strived to preserve it. He brushed her cheeks with rouge, did her hair, clipped her nails, all to no avail. Her mouth turned more to a grimace every day, a taunt. Like the condemning gazes of the common people.

No one had but words of horror in their vocabulary for his relationship. Prejudice... So what if she was dead and he her brother?"

March of the penguin - 150 story, entry to the 5th in-thread writing competition

Since I hadn't put this up yet and I'm busy today, I scheduled this story. It was my entry to the 5th edition of the in-thread writing competition in the Blogger Help Forum (aka 'The Coffee Shop'). I suppose most of you who are active in the forum and participate in the contests have already read it, but for those of you who haven't, here it is.

challenge

write a story of exactly 150 words containing these 5 obligatory words (the ones put in bold): dictator, troop, riding, questionnaire, penguin.

my entry

The contest was finally won by Victoria P. You can read her entry in the thread or in my post on it.

"The new dictator promised his people that he would lead them to victory. The masses were jubilant.

He set off to pound at foreign gates still contemplating one thing: his Arms for the troops. He needed a predator that would inspire trembling in his enemies and still be original. Lions, wolves and tigers, they had become banal. He wanted something fresh to dress his soldiers up as. They would march upon capitals like the animals themselves, mimic its roars making a racket that would incline the boldest to surrender before even a drop of blood was spilled. Their fierceness would be food for legends.

Riding his horse, he thought long and hard, but could not make up his mind. In a fit of brief democracy, he gave out a questionnaire.

A servant handed him an envelope, which he eagerly opened and was taken aback.

“You guys want a frigging penguin?!”"

Entry to third edition of the in-thread writing competition - Witch pâté

Correction: apparently the contest closes tomorrow. Here’s my 150 words entry to the third in-thread writing competition:

Witch pâté

Mixing eye of nute and wart of toad, she felt the sudden urge to dig her nails into the sticky mass, as if it was his back. Leaving her for that whore, how dare he! Luckily her mother taught her just what to do with men like that, like her mother before her. A sort of... family business, you could say.

A little girl cried out: “Tommy, Tommy, where’d you go?” Annoying little brat. She set to grind some cat bones into the goo. Tommy had looked more like a Garfield any way.

How could he leave her? He knew no one could do it like her. That is to say, her way, made for one hell of a pâté!

She spread the paste out over a cracker for the sad looking caged raven.

“Don’t look at me like that, honey, you had it coming. Eat up, it’s your favourite.”

Writing Competition, 150 words - Third Edition (host: Nina)

Okay… For quick writers, you still have till the 19th to enter this competition I should have already told you about had the universe not hated me (don’t get me started on all the things that went wrong this week). Bottom line: assignments, bad karma (?), and computers kicking up enough a.i. to make my life miserable when deadlines pop up. I swear it does that on purpose. Anyways... Here’s Nina’s in-thread writing challenge:

Write a short story of exactly 150 words containing the randomly chosen obligatory words

Mixing

Business
Eye
Grind
Urge

Italicize the story, put the 5 words in bold and post it as a reply in the thread. Vote via the “was this answer helpful, yes/no” buttons at the bottom of each reply. Don’t press no or you’ll go to hell. You will.

To enter or find more info, click the thread link. Good luck!

Sorry for rushing through this, but exams are killing me...

Entry to second edition of the in-thread writing competition

I haven’t yet posted my entry to the second edition of the in-thread writing competition here (which is quite convenient, I seem to have a few time-management problems this exam period, so now I no longer have to worry about today’s post), therefore I will do it now, even though the contest is kind of already over... (See next post for more information and go congratulate Nina)

The challenge was to write a short story of exactly 150 words, containing the randomly chosen words preliminary, yellow, contrary, dying, draw, so here is my submission, which came in second by the way (hooray! :D):

The Babysitter

The atmosphere was tense, the pressure maddening. They eyed each other suspiciously, the predator and the prey. Sweat dripping down their faces...

This time, he’d show her good!

This time, she’d beat him bad!

It would be great, it would be contrary to all expectations and preliminary to all success, winner take all... This was The Long-awaited Battle! They braced themselves for the next move.

“Foot on yellow!” He bellowed smugly. She’d never pull that off...

“Dammit!” It felt like dying, but she made it! A primal savage cry of joy welled up from deep inside her.

Both dug their teeth into their lips, a hardened expression; this was it. It burned. Each muscle hurt, but give up? No, sir, they would NOT!

Their self-elected referee hopped closer on his plaster, calling out: “For God’s sakes, cut it out already, it’s a draw.”

Fool! There were no draws in Twister!

There will soon be a third edition, hosted by this edition’s winner and I’ll keep you updated on that as soon as it’s up.

All best wishes,

Stories Inc.

P.S.: the post with more info on the previous contest should be up today, I try to get it ready in between courses... Yes, it’s a disaster. Please forgive me for not being around as much the coming weeks. I’m also going to try to avoid the forum, because I know what’s good for me. Well, more because if I don’t spring into full action now, it will be utterly hopeless. *sigh L*

Writing competition: here's the challenge! - 150 words short story 'The Vial'

Hello, bloggers!

In for a little challenge? I just started a writing competition (a really tiny one) in the Coffee Shop. To enter, go to this thread and write/post a story of 150 words containing the words remedy, subject, monopoly, report and discipline as your answer. The winner will be determined by voting in the forum (result on Saturday, you can submit till Friday). Good luck to every participant! Here’s an example:

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The Vial

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He carried the vial across the street like a torch. All his life he had looked for it, this remedy... Those that called him mad and left, the lonely years, the humiliation, the deceit, the betrayal, all the sacrifices he made ceased to matter, accumulating in his outstretched hand.

“A monopoly!” The CEO said, a trace of drool along his chin.

“The report was promising: every trace gone in each of the subjects.”

“Lovely.” He listened only to the coins ringing in his head, rubbing his hands. “The Holy Grail of the discipline, mine.”

He groped for the vial with eager claws. Somewhere between vigour to obtain and reluctance to let go, the vessel was flung through the air.

Frantically reaching for it, their hands continued to clash. Both men held their breath as the beautiful crystal of dreams with a jingle like heavenly music, scattered into a thousand pieces.