OCTOBER 2020 75-Word Writing Challenge -- VICTORY TO DANNY MCG!

[The Judge]

RULES:

Write a story inspired by the chosen theme and genre in no more than 75 words, not including the title

ONE entry per person

NO links, commentary or extraneous material in the posts, please -- the stories must stand on their own


WHEN WRITING YOUR STORY, PLEASE REMEMBER THIS IS A FAMILY-FRIENDLY FORUM

All stories Copyright 2020 by their respective authors
who grant the Chronicles Network the non-exclusive right to publish them here


The complete rules can be found at RULES FOR THE WRITING CHALLENGES

Contest ends at 11:59 pm GMT, 23 October 2020
Voting ends at 11:59 pm GMT, 28 October 2020

You do not have to submit a story in order to vote -- in fact, we encourage all Chrons members to take part in choosing a winner


The Magnificent Prize:

The Dignified Congratulations/Grovelling Admiration of Your Peers
and the challenge of choosing next month's theme and genre


Theme:

TOO LATE


Genre:

WOODLAND HORROR



This thread to be used for entries only. Please keep all comments to the DISCUSSION THREAD


We invite (and indeed hope for) lively discussion and speculation about the stories as they are posted,
as long as it doesn't involve the author explaining the plot



** Please do not use the "Like" button in this thread! **​

 

[Kerrybuchanan]

Rabbit in Wonderland

Branches reach like hands, snagging, slowing, draining Rabbit's battery. Its internal clock like the fading heartbeats of a dying beast. Tick… tick… tick…

One mission: to find the hole and plug it. Stop the influx of nightmares and save the humans' dreams.

Shadows everywhere. Essential systems only now. Blinded. Deafened. Mute. Is this fear? Is this what humans feel?

Failing. Falling. Braced for impact.

Softness. Damp soil enveloping, cascading, settling.

Silence.

Mission accomplished.

Tick… Ti–

 

[JJewel]

By the light of the silvery moon

Young couple, full moon, cheap wine, a perfect evening.
Nice spot in the woods, their clothes scattered wilde.
Until come charging through the clearing.
A great wolf on two legs, silvery blade held above his head.
The couple ran screaming, their rumps all a jiggle.
The wolf stopped and raised his head, removed the mask revealing young Ned.
Hey, Doug, he called, the LARP is on hold, just scared a couple, their running for home!

 

[Wayne Mack]

Wolf Evolved


“It is time,” rasped the head of the pack.

“Why now?” asked the beta.

“We cannot go down the path of our cousins, the canines. We now know and understand and Man is not our friend.”

The alpha wolf looked at the pups playing at his feet. His snout shot up, sniffing the air.

“Run!”

The smoke billowed in. Embers popped. The tree sap boiled. The pack tried to run. Too late.

 

[Ashleyne]

THE WOODCUTTERS


Music accompanied disco lights, pulsing through the trees. Low inhibitions, loud screams, Justin couldn’t wait. ‘Cept, through the clearing, there were only his two brothers. “Where’s everyone?”

Dale yelled. “Th’aint no one left.”

“Nah, fam, I spent weeks planning this. I’m supposed to kill my first victim.”

The mush Chuck wiped on his shirt flashed disco colours. “We got carried away.”

Dale said, “There’s plenty more victims. Now, whaddya say we go trick or treating?”

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Murderer's Moon

A killer stalked the forest. He moved slowly, almost silently, patiently seeking a victim foolish enough to remain in the woods after dark. There are always the young, who think themselves immortal.

After hours of searching, he found her, asleep near an ancient oak. He moved nearer. Some instinct for survival made her leap to her feet and run, but there was no time to escape. The hunter sent a bullet into the doe's heart.

 

[Danny McG]

Spade Baddies

The giant evil robot chased the nekkid wimmin in the woods they were screeming and hid but too late so they got found and the robot pulled them to bits and then he went back into his spaseship and eat some cake and gave some to his dog and then he played with his dog.

The end.
Danny age 7

 

[-K2-]

Of Futures Past

He looked to his once strong shaking hands that wielded ax and saw, torch and dozer. Hands that cleared forests and shaped the land for agriculture, industry…progress. A future built with sweat, hard work, and determination. A future come as he sweat, worked to breathe, determined to change a tomorrow gone.

His eyes panned to rich soil now dust, lush bounties withered, and he bemoaned the past, in a future he made.

Who knew?


K2

 

[BT Jones]

Alyssa

Jack

“Another one’s gone!” said Alyssa, wheeling around.
“Ooh, Cabin in the Woods!” said Jack ghoulishly, doing ‘horror hands’ as he left the room.

Alyssa looked again, certain a second tree – the ‘lovers’ one bleeding sap – had vanished.
Then she noticed the window frame had changed. Mahogany wood now. She stepped back.

‘Squelch’.

Spinning about, she saw a familiar message, ‘Laura

Danny’, in the sap-soaked slats.

Then the floor opened and swallowed her whole.

 

[Droflet]

Salvation.

With power dropping the shuttle hit the ground hard. Then they awaited rescue.

His oxygen read four minutes. Ten year old, Sara's, seven.

Misshapen creates ventured from the forest, their claws scraping the hull.

Through his helmet he heard the sound of an approaching shuttle. At least ten minutes out. Too long.

He plugged his O2 supply into Sara's tank. It read ten minutes.

"Remember, sweetie, breathe shallow."

"Yes, daddy."

Then the darkness took him.

 

[Daysman]

Out of the Woods

"Steady there! You okay, Miss?"

"Protesters in the treetops…"

"You're from the encampment?"

"All still now…"

"I'm Constable Edgar. Your shirt, is that blood?"

"Ancient stone, marked and worked by Neolithic man, stained again today…"

"We should go back to the security cordon, get you some help."

"It wants the machines… it needs to stand free from this woodland scab…"

"Let me take your bag… it looks heavy."

"Do you want the new road? Officer?"

 

[wagtail]

My Special Place

It’s handy, living near the woods. I’ve got a special place in there where I can hide from Jimmy when he gets drunk and mad.

Tonight I didn’t hide.

Tonight I let Jimmy follow me right on up to my big old oak tree. He never saw the leg trap, but I made sure he saw the axe.

“I’m sorry, baby,” he said. “I’ll stop drinking this time, I promise. Baby? Baby? Ba…bbbby...ggghh…”

 

[Cat's Cradle]

“Running Won't Save You”

He flees in darkness through woods – something terrible dwells there.
Memories recede ... flames, a witch ...
Pastries? He flings away a croissant and runs.
~

Her doorbell chimes. It’s that wild-eyed young man again.
“I’ve told you before – you cannot escape the Forgetting Forest by crazed runnings. To get home, walk the pathway. Your memories will return.
“Also, I’m no witch – I’m a baker with warts.”
He screams and runs into the woods, ignoring the well-maintained path.

 

[M. Robert Gibson]

This Ain't No Picnic

If you go down to the woods today,
you're sure of a big surprise.
If you go down to the woods today,
you're probably going to die.

There's danger down in the woods today,
you better not stay too late.
If you stay out in the woods today,
you'll suffer a grisly fate.

For every beast that ever there was
will gather there for certain because
today's the day the maniacs wield their axes.

 

[mosaix]

Anything For A Laugh…

I’m moving as fast as my big feet allow. Roots tangle and trip.

Ah, here’s the path. I hear slow, cautious, rustling, footsteps. If she’d moved any faster I’d have missed her.

I’m stepping out, back towards her, into a patch of moonlight. Now turning around. Slowly. All smiles of course.

She’s recoiling in terror and screaming, but I’m stepping closer, arms outstretched. She’ll be quiet soon.

Mustn't get blood on the clown suit.

 

[Bren G]

A New Hope

Rachel Rabbit thumped her foot upon the mushroom and addressed the animals in the clearing. Of every kind, their eyes wide with terror.

“Humans! They rip our trees to stumps, skin our fur and gorge on our meat.”

Antlers and ears, antennae and mandibles – moved in unison.

“But… ” The crowd stilled. “An ally comes from the forest. A virus. Contagious and virulent. They’ll infiltrate their homes and slaughter them. Rats - mobilize and bring death!”

 

[Luiglin]

There’s a party in the woods, can you come?

He stepped into a clearing that did not live up to its moniker.

Body parts, like jigsaw pieces tossed away in frustration, lay strewn around a campsite decorated in visceral red.

The beers, his contribution and which he’d cradled with care all along the twisty forest path, crashed to the floor.

“Too…” a breath hot and moist in his ear, “…late.”

“Damn it,” he shouted, “You could have saved at least one for me.”

 

[Guttersnipe]

How Did It Go Again?

"No!" squalled the hideous witch. Hansel was gone. Gretl grinned. How had the witch let the boy
escape her sight?

"I'm too late!" she moaned, flinging herself to the floor.

Gretl licked a globule of blood, serpentine tongue over dagger-like teeth.

"I gave you all the candy that you could want and you eat your brother! I will curse you!"

"History is flexible," said Gretl, and ate her poor aunt.

 

[chrispenycate]

Do they know it's Christmas time at all?
​

Ignoring a family of winter-plump, asylumless squirrels, the dog-fox scrabbles the compressed tyreprint where his den had once opened. Vixen and cubs there, but no access,

Everything speedy - deer, birds, hare, marten - already fled, even hibernating hedgehogs disturbed in their dreams of tree-quakes as entire fir copse corpses are loaded onto lorries, destination: fairylit festivities.

Neat rows of habitat transformed into stump stubble.

Christmas? We know about the season of goodwill.

 

[Marvin]

Everyday Horror

They left this morning; but later than planned.
Too late to be travelling on this nowhere road. Darkness now added to the relentless rain. The trees on either side, closing in, never ending.
Too tired to react to the fallen branch.
Too late to say goodbye as the car flipped over.
Little Rachel, safely in her special seat, jolted painfully awake.
‘Mummy... Daddy...?’
The wind through the trees was her only reply.