I hope the story below is alright. It took a while to write, I'm very much out of practice with the whole short story writing thing. The nice thing about writing novel-length stories is that you get to postpone the ending until you can really come up with a good one. With short stories, wow, they come round fast. But hey, at least you can end on an ambiguous note and there's slightly less of a feeling of disappointment for the reader. Probably.
The story below didn't offer up one ending. I had about five different ones. A couple of gruesome ones, one fairly elaborate, and a couple that were just awful. I have to credit my good friend and collaborator Martin Parsons for helping me to get to the one I finally used. I do like it. I was determined to write a non-horror story (although it is a bit, isn't it...), so the next story will probably be scarier.
Anyway, I won't say more as it's right below for you to read. To compensate for the delay, here's a scary poem for children that I wrote a long time ago but I still like. Until the next post, then.
The creature in the forest
Knows the road you take
The creature in the forest
Always stays awake
The creature in the forest
Knows you’re far from home
The creature in the forest
Knows you’re all alone
The creature in the forest
Doesn’t care if you’ve been good
The creature in the forest
Only wants his food
The creature in the forest
Thinks that this is fun
The creature in the forest
Will chase you if you run
The creature in the forest
Is an enemy of light
The creature in the forest
Lives to tear and bite
The creature in the forest
Knows the road you take
The creature in the forest
Knows you’re still awake
For some reason, this sort of reminds me of Into the Woods or some of the Brothers Grimm stories. I think it would work well in a film. Interesting rhythm.
ReplyDeleteThank you, that's nice of you to say! I do think it works best when read out loud.
ReplyDelete