100-Word Anonymous Writing Challenge (#5) - March 2015

[Cat's Cradle]

**PLEASE DO NO POST STORIES DIRECTLY TO THIS THREAD**

100-Word Anonymous Writing Challenge for March 2015.

Please PM entries to me (Cat's Cradle) and I will post them, once I’ve checked the word count.

Mosaix, the champion of February, has supplied the theme/genre choices for this challenge:

Theme: Family
Genre: Horror

Entries must be PMed to me no later than 24:00 (GMT) on March 18th to be eligible.
A poll will then be created for voting, which will close at 24:00 (GMT) on March 22nd.

There is a guessing round to this challenge, as well. I will post a list of all authors who've entered stories after the 18th (plus one additional non-participating Chronner as guessing-bait, and to help foster mystery). Anyone who wishes, please feel free to post a list of guesses matching up authors to stories. I will post a comprehensive list of who wrote what once we agree that guessing is completed. I will mention that guessing is completely optional; anyone can enter a story in the challenge with no obligation to guess later in the event. It's very late, I hope that makes sense!

I will do a word-count on receipt of all stories; should any be over the 100-word limit, I will send a PM back to the story's author, and they will have an opportunity to trim a word here or there, and resubmit the story for posting. I will try to follow the same rules for counting as apply in the 75 and 300 worders.

We can offer no prize save that which any author cherishes most...the admiration, and envy, of those who have been bested in fair wordplay.

Have fun!

 

[Cat's Cradle]

INTELLICIDE

He struggles, upside-down in the net. “Help me down!”

“I can't do that, I'm afraid.”

“Who are you?”

“I'm your new Mummy.” I tranquillise him.


#


It's been two weeks since I injected his brain with my specialised compound: 'Intellicide'.

I stroke his stubble; he drools on my wrist and says “Mummy, want song!”

“♫ Who is Mummy's handsome boy,

handsome boy,

handsome boy?

Who is Mummy's handsome boy?

You're my family.♫”

 

[Cat's Cradle]

School for candles.

“So, with that final blow, Mum’s head slid from her shoulders. At last I could relax!
Ah parents!
Come in. I was telling the children of my childhood.”


"Yeah mum. Sir's family was took over by aliens as stole their 'eads and was eatin their brains fru their necks,"


"It was Arcturan mega zombies, Numskull."


"Hush master Nockers, let your brother finish."


"Yeah!
'E ‘ad to chop their ‘eads off to save em!"


“Quite right Tommy. More tomorrow.
Now. Mrs Addams. Will your son...”

“Nephew!”

“Nephew. Quite!
Will young Thing be joining us at Horseman's nursery next term?”

 

[Cat's Cradle]

Disownment

Jonathan enjoyed killing Uncle Simon. The bones in the old man’s neck cracked as he squeezed.

Cut me out of the will? Let’s see how you like being cut.

Jonathan chopped the body into chunks with a shiny new meat cleaver. His clothes were covered with gore, but he could burn them. No one would ever find out, not the way the fool lived alone, out in the wilderness. He smiled and opened the front door, then screamed and slammed it shut.

Wild dogs, drawn by the scent, surrounded the house. They fed well, on the living and the dead.

 

[Cat's Cradle]

In the Night

The house was dark now. Silent.

She crept along the hall towards Danny’s room. She needed to get him out, keep him safe.

Blood trickled from her nose, she wiped it with the back of her hand, her fingers brushing against the bruise on her cheek, causing her to wince.

Quietly, nervously, she shook Danny awake, and motioned towards the window.

A roar, breaking glass, footsteps in the hall, it was back, it was coming.

She turned, putting herself between the hallway and her son as the door swung open framing a huge, swaying, snorting shape.

“Daddy?” Danny asked.

 

[Cat's Cradle]

Digitus Absentia.


Outside, the bare tree bent before the approaching storm. Within the mansion, all was well with the Addams family.

Gomez blew up toy trains, Morticia trimmed heads from black roses, Uncle Fester recharged, the kids tortured small animals and Lurch lurked. Another normal day. But where was Thing?

Mail call came and went with no sign of Thing.

The family’s concern intensified after a thorough house wide inspection showed no trace of their dexterous pal.

Grandma, rising from nap, noticed the kerfuffle.

“What’s going on,” she asked.

“Thing’s missing,” Gomez said.

Grandma chuckled. “Don’t threat, he’s out getting a manicure.”

 

[Cat's Cradle]

My Little Sister

My little sister is a real terror. She’s done something to Mom and Dad; they don’t see her monstrous acts.

She ate the cat. One day Mr. Fluffles was here and the next… gone. She smiled all the time, but I saw the furry tuft stuck between her teeth.

She ripped up the lounge: Tore cushions, scratched wood. And gave me the blame.

Nights are worse. She doesn’t sleep. Just sits on her bed and stares at me, eyes glowing and fangs dripping ichor. When I’m big enough, she’ll eat me too.

Then she’ll have Mom and Dad to herself.

 

[Cat's Cradle]

Go Alone


“I’m here Mom.”

“Honey, I’m so frightened... So many memories... You were a baby, sleeping on our bed..I saw you fall off the far side..I was sure you’d been hurt, but you fell in laundry and just kept sleeping..I cried….these memories are me..
“No one will ever know that I always draped one end of my scarf lower than the other..it’s an obsession, it’s secret. So many secrets over a lifetime, to make one person. All lost...gone forever...who I was. The doctor says I only have hours, and then what....oblivion..forever….

....Johnny…”

 

[Cat's Cradle]

HEAT



“Dad, what’s that yellow ball up there? My skin feels hot. I don’t like it.”

“Nobody does, Johnny. It’s the sun. It hid all winter, but comes out in spring.”

Each day the sun was hotter, and out longer. Johnny thought he would melt.

“Dad, why don’t we move away? I can’t take this sun anymore.”

“Son, you know we can’t just up and move. This is our home.”

Just then his dad’s head fell right off, and Johnny screamed.

Paul looked outside and saw his larger snowman’s head on the ground. “Dang, I’ll have to fix him tomorrow.”

 

[Cat's Cradle]

The Unwelcome Visitor

Still my heart. Take deep breaths.

I can hear his voice outside the door, speaking softly with Mother. It’s worse when he’s quiet. Low and seething. Like the feel of soiled underclothes.

Maybe he’ll pass my bedchamber. Sister’s room is down the hall.

Please let it be Sister, and not me.

Did I hear the latch? The thunder of my heart in my ears is too loud to tell, and I can’t see beyond the thick blanket over my head. It won’t protect me, but I cling to it with white knuckles.

Please Father, pass me by.

 

[Cat's Cradle]

My Own Designed Exit

Their eyes were empty. Their souls taken by the Afeel's.
The straps around my arms broke skin as I tried to free them. I listened to the footsteps approach me then felt the cold steel circle on my neck.

"You know there is no other way?"

"I do," I said, swallowing hard.

"It's done then, you created this technology and you will die by it!" He squeezed the trigger and I felt the sharp pain in my neck as the Afeel chip flew into my vein.

I watched my family empty in their chairs as my invention slowly killed me.

 

[Cat's Cradle]

Comfort

Reaching out of the battered Camaro trunk, she caresses his stubbly face. He looks troubled. Such a good boy!

“We can’t stay here, boy.” She nods toward the burning house. “Not after what we did to them folks.”

“I’m scared, momma.” His lip trembles.

“Need a hug?”

Nodding, he hauls his huge body into the trunk and shuts it. The chassis groans in protest at the weight. In the dark his breath is fetid and sweet – the smell of stale nachos – on her skin.

As her hands get to work, she sings: “hush little baby, don’t say a word…”

 

[Cat's Cradle]

FITTING IN


No one comes to play with me, and it’s not fair. I haven’t done anything. I don’t… let’s see, where’s Momma’s checklist:

I don’t bite anyone. Haven’t done since I was little and dad bit me back, and caused all the trouble.
I don’t fly. It’s rude and it freaks people out.
I don’t sleep in a box. It’s not hygienic.
I brush my teeth three times a day, I stay in after dark.

So, why don’t they play? It’s rotten of them. Just because we’re the only vampires in the street.

 

[Cat's Cradle]

Hung Out to Die

They hung from rolling boughs like putrid fruit. Mother to the left of me, slug-like folds of flesh sagging from her frame as they lost their fight with gravity. A snake coiled behind the cage of my father’s ribs, its movements making him twitch. My brother hung by his thumbs, stretched and dislocated, skin sallow and grey. And me, I hung there in my pink party dress, knees broken and inverted, as red tears crept down my face.

We never thought he’d do this to us. If we’d known, we’d never have eaten his wife.

 

[Cat's Cradle]

Menu​

She cheated on me, with my own money, and didn't even deny it, trying to blame me. So what else could I do? After, I called a family meal.

"I'm afraid I'm cooking," I told the assembled kids. An appreciative giggle; they'd always enjoyed nights when daddy cooked. "Your mother's left me, no forwarding address. I've done a stew, with dumplings."

"Mother's gone? After thirty years together? I could never do that to a lover." Marga, my eldest, cuddling my grandson, spoke for them all.

"Oh, there's more of your mother in you than you might imagine, girl."

 

[Cat's Cradle]

Arachnofamilia

Delicate toes and fingers feel every tremor in the air; each sound wave caresses the fine hairs on my skin, sending a delicious shudder through my body.

My prey is close, moving the air. Vibrations set me trembling.

A limb moves towards me.

Loading my fangs with venom, I strike.

Not flesh, but hard, impenetrable; not prey, but predator.

A mighty wind pulls at me.

My feet grip well; they hold me firm.

The whole web moves, gathers momentum, flies into a dark tube.

Sorrow. Death.

Hope.

My young still live to hatch, to bite.

To kill.

To revenge.

 

[Cat's Cradle]

Blood is Thicker

After being an orphan all his life, he almost felt complete.

His small hovel was hidden from prying eyes, but the smell was beginning to make his own eyes water.

His eyes glanced over the mason jars lining his crude shelf, and he noted one space left. Grabbing his last jar and his rusty knife, he headed out into the night.

One more person’s lifeblood to make his family complete, because he’d been told that if you were blood, you were family.

Hiding in the shadows, he found someone that looked like they would make a good brother.

 

[Cat's Cradle]

A Lovely Family and Their Cats

"We raised a lovely family, didn't we, Andrew?"

"Yes, we did, Greta. I can hear the cats. They're restless today."

"See how healthy and strong they are."

"They've bulked up very well."

"They'll be ready for their destiny."

"I couldn't be more proud, dear."

"They've been very obedient children."

"Well, not always, Greta. To be honest."

"Children will be children. On the whole, I would say they have been good children."

"I agree."

"Soon, they will fulfill their destiny."

"They will understand it is for the greater good."

"Yes."

"After all, the cats must be fed."

"It's their destiny."

 

[Cat's Cradle]

Welcome Home

“Mum? I’m here. Came as soon as I got your message.”

“Dan! Quiet! He’s sleeping…”

“Who?”

“Jamie.”

“Oh, not again, Mum. He’s dead. The accident? Last year? It was no one’s fault.”

“It was! You know it was.”

“Where’s Dad anyway?”

“Gone.”

“Gone where?”

“Now look, you’ve woken him. I said to keep your voice down!”

“Woken who?”

“I told you – Jamie.”

“What? Look, I’ll ring for the Doc. And where’s Dad gone?”

“Just gone. He had to go… Part of the bargain.”

“Bargain?”

“To bring Jamie back. And so are you…”

“What’s all that? Blood? And that knife… Jamie?!”

 

[Cat's Cradle]

Calling In The Rain.

Back of the woods, the blood mark was high, the dogs scented her.

Their silver teeth snapped, slavering blue acid in burning trails to the ground.

She fought us. Wind tore the trees. Icy sleet pelted down, then boiling rain.

Hell Hound's Witch Trailing don't surrender.
I grinned. Neither did she.

Lightening blasted the stream she flew over, escaping.
My Hounds leapt, snapping, tearing off her wings.

"Fool!" She scourged me, bleeding, dying, "I am the last Witch of our line! The last Weather Charmer, Noah!" My Aunt spat.

I shrugged. Good hunt, though.

Then the rain started... The Flood.