Richard Wiseman blogs and writes mostly about scepticism – I reviewed his book Paramormality early last year. Today’s curious post from his blog had a short story from a Twitter account called @terrifyingposts. It’s just two sentences long. Click here for the original.
Ok, so here is my effort:
I could not stay inside, hungry and thirsty; it is dark and cold and I am alone now because of them – I still don’t know what they are but the others are all dead. There is one behind the car and I can hear that noise they make, a kind of snickering – it’s all I have been able to hear for three nights solid and I am too focussed on getting around that one that I don’t see the piercing red eyes above me… he flaps his wings, I scramble to my feet and start to run.
Hmmm, ok I have cheated a little by using the semicolon and the dash but still, it is just two sentences. In my mind I imagine a human-sized bat-like creature, almost like a flying xenomorph (alien) but maybe lighter in mass and a shorter head.
A challenge then – would anybody else like to write a scary story in two sentences?
The IRS man knocked on my door. Then it opened.
I agree, yours is far more terrifying… and I don’t live in your country! 🙂
Ah! I should have wrote:
The tax man knocked on my door… 😉
Ha! That was my attempt. (shrugs)
I liked yours, but yes, you cheated. I did get a sense of impending dread, though, so that’s good!
Reblogged this on CJ Moseley's Reblog Blog and commented:
Here’s my attempt:
A slither and nothing more than that, broke the silence in the library, as though of leather gliding of its own volition slowly over wood. I didn’t wait, I couldn’t wait, my instincts and legs conspired against my sceptical mind and carried me towards the doors, but still it was already too late.
Oooh, spine chilling as well as a little abstract!
That’s what I was going for, a sort of two sentence alienness, in a Chulmleigh Mythos tone, sometimes the books are scarier than the monsters… By the way, this blog is just a staging area so I can reboot to my real blog.
Aahhhh, ok. I must admit I haven’t looked at your other blog for a couple of weeks, are you redesigning?
No, why do you think I should? I have been busy with Ironmaster so haven’t been paying it the attention it deserves.
No, it’s an interesting design! When you said “reboot” I assume you were overhauling or something?
Ah, that would be my new phones auto-correct not knowing the word reblog and my dyslexia not spotting the difference… Sorry about the confusion.
Ah a cupertino.
Nice. I would have made “I could not stay inside” it’s own sentence though. I liked what you did with the long sentence though. It has a rushed and frantic feeling to it when you read it. You can really tell that the person is a little disoriented and scared.
Well done.
Then it would have been three sentences! I know what you mean though 🙂
Thanks and glad you enjoyed it!
It’s really nice. Here’s my attempt –
I stood still on the long, dark, and silent corridor, unable to move with sweat dripping my body and the sharp raindrops trying to puncture the roof above that shook with the weight of something. With numbness seizing every part of my body, I forced myself to turn around and run, but cold and damp, it stood against me, only to prove that my fears were true.
Eerie indeed! What do you imagine the weighty something to be? What damage has befallen the building?
It’s interesting, I would have thought that a lot of the two sentence stories people have proposed would leave questions making them unsatisfactory but that isn’t the case, certainly there are lots of questions but the primal fear presented is real and immediate and when gripped by that terror “fight or flight” is all that matters 🙂