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ZD Writing Competition: Round 43 - Results

Which Entry is Your Favorite?

  • Entry 1

    Votes: 2 33.3%
  • Entry 2

    Votes: 3 50.0%
  • Entry 3

    Votes: 1 16.7%

  • Total voters
    6
  • Poll closed .

Spiritual Mask Salesman

CHIMer Dragonborn
Staff member
Comm. Coordinator
Site Staff
Welcome back to another Writing Competition on this spooky month of October! With Halloween approaching, it seems fitting to have a potentially scary theme, which will be:

Nightmare

Write a story involving a nightmare, whether the story takes place within the bad dream, or is set in reality where the memories of the dream are having repercussions, it's totally up to you!

Submit entries to me via DM by October 28th, 2022 at 11:59 PM EST (GMT - 4).

I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with!
 

Spiritual Mask Salesman

CHIMer Dragonborn
Staff member
Comm. Coordinator
Site Staff
Happy Halloween ZD! Looking for some bone chilling stories tonight? We got you covered with these three entries! Voting will end on Tuesday, November 8th, 2022 at 11:59 EST (GMT -4)!

Dysoneiron

I've found early man, on the lobe of the liver,
Had a polypus nodule, it seems,
My thesis, on reading, is sure to draw shivers,
The organ in question influenced their dreams.

Or perhaps less influence, as act as the key,
Or a bridge spanning unconscious gulfs on its spindles,
To realities just beyond closed lids we see,
When the humor produced by that organ, sleep kindles.

Our ancyent forbearers, then, wore not the fetters,
Which debase so the dreams of today,
The man I convinced, through a series of letters,
Proffered the catalyst that opened the way,

An archaeologist, illy reputed,
Who's delving in caves on some unnamed isle,
Yielded matter in jars which, when reconstituted,
Proved a third queer color of arcane bile.

This fluid he exchanged for an oath on my soul,
His identity I'd take to death,
Would both of our spirits be dragged to Sheol,
E're his name should escape on my breath.

Though atrophy eons ago stole the node,
Which the fifth of the humors, secreted,
I held in my hands now, the last of the lode,
Who's secrets anon would be ceded.

I consumed at twilight that extant liquor,
Expecting an acute eukrasia,
It coagulated in my mouth like Neolithic ichor,
And caused me to doubt my present necrophagia.

But when my head that night was laid to rest,
A phantasm gripped my somnolent mind,
And excised my psyche like mem'ry, repressed,
Like Christ restoring sight to the blind.

Where once were scattered memory shards,
Cogent, coherent, my night quest became,
Consistent within, in every regard,
I saw sleep as to waking, the same.

Newly awakened, I consciously dreamt,
Like men of the eldest era,
So tangible was it, the question was begg't,
Which reality was the chimera?

And when in the morn, I passed back from dreams,
And the last of the fifth humor had passed from my blood,
I saw that men now could but sip from the streams,
But in past days, they drowned in the flood.
"It's called the Dream Devourer."


I read the words slowly, my hand trembling as it held the page of the book open. It was old, barely held together nowadays. A hidden tome tucked away in a dusty corner of the library.


As part of my college literature class we had to find an old legend to analyze and write about. Something mostly lost to time, the professor had said. I found myself scouring the internet for a while, before realizing that if it's on the internet then it's probably something a lot of people have already heard. I wanted something new. Well not new - old. Something ancient that hadn't been read by any current, living human. So, my task led me to the university library. This massive building of bookshelves looming over you, almost drowning you in their waiting stories.


I had the librarian loan me a key to the backroom. The place they kept some of their oldest books, protecting them behind lock from the uncaring hands of hungover college students pulling last minute all nighters. Yet, despite requiring permission and key, the books in the room weren't taken super well care of. Not like something you might see in a museum. You could see the worn spines lining bookshelves, struggling to contain the pages within. The entire room smelt of dust.


It was within that room, on a bookshelf probably not perused in some years, that I found exactly what I was looking for. The outside was unassuming - a small, plain, leather cover. There was another piece of leather, this one cut into a small strip, that wrapped around the book and bound it closed. Just by the looks of it, it seemed as though this was an old journal. But once you opened it, it quickly became apparent it was more than just a journal. It was someone's research. Flipping through the pages revealed a sort of archive of a village no longer on the map. There were recipes, drawings of various plants labeled with their usage, instructions on how to make clothing, and so on. But the most interesting section - and the one I needed the most - was one that jotted down stories passed throughout the town. There was one about how man came to be, a common cornerstone of religion. Another about how the town got its name. Then amidst all of the other benign tales was one that caught my eye.


This story was immediately different from the others. There were some sections scribbled out completely. Not just the typical mistake being corrected here and there. But entire sentences were covered with dark black ink. And the writing looked more rushed. Some words smashed into others, making it a bit difficult to read upon first glance. This must've been something interesting. And so I started to read.



"Over the past several fortnights the peopleofth is town have had great tragedee befall them. I started to look into these cases my self. Whole families wipedoutfrommadness. They slowly lost their minds an easily succumbed totheirhist eria. Some taking their own lives quickly, others just forgetting how to live it appears. Just locking thyselves in their homes and descendingin to the darkness of what has filled theirminds. The (redacted) family was sl(redacted). The babe of thefamily was found (redacted).


After thorough research into theeseacounts I now knowwhatwea re fac ing. It's called the Dream Devourer. It enters (redacted). Thisth ingfeeds on trauma an pain. One small event hapens an d soon it isinfecti g the whole town. I have bene trying to get somee rest forthepas tfe w nights, but it is always ther. Evn when awake it comes. I see thehorros of somthi ng nott of thisworld. I cannott d othis anee longr."



There was a small bit more after that bit instead of being scribbled out with ink, this was unreadable due to a dark stain. I could make out a letter here or there but nothing to make any sense of what was beneath. Though it didn't matter much because I had found the perfect legend for my paper. Sitting alone in this room, surrounded by ancient books, made the reading even spookier. I couldn't wait to freak my professor and classmates out with this old tale. It's like something that would be told around a campfire in hushed whispers! I grabbed my notebook and transcribed what I had just read for reference, since I couldn't take the book with me. And back to my dorm I went to start on my paper.


I worked on it for a good few hours. Losing myself in the writing, making sure I told the story as eerily as I could. Afterwards, I passed out for the night. Quickly falling asleep after such intense focus and energy was put into my paper. And that's when it happened.


Three years ago I lost my mom to cancer. It came quick and progressed fast. I was in my senior year of high school, and dealing with the stress of that as well as the declining health of my mother put me in a dark place. We were close my entire life, and now I had to watch as she withered away in front of me. By the time she passed, she had lost so much weight she practically looked like a skeleton wearing a suit of her skin. Her eyes were gaunt, sunken into her face. Her lips were thin and pale. She barely had any energy to eat or even talk.


The night after I wrote about the Dream Devourer, I got my first glimpse of what it was capable of. I had the worst nightmare of my life. I had went to visit my mom's grave, except as I was kneeling next to it and talking to her, a boney hand grasped my shoulder. I turned and saw my mom…or what was supposed to be my mom, standing there. Her flesh was rotten, hanging off the bones in places. Maggots infested some of the wounds. She looked as if she had came straight out of her grave. She told me how painful her death was. How every moment of the cancer spreading through her body was agony. And then she said that it should have been me instead.


I woke up bawling. I had never had a dream like that in my life. And never once had my mom mentioned any of those things while she was still alive. She would have never wished to see me like she had been. I remember her saying over the years how the worst thing to her would be seeing one of her children go before she did. So where did those awful thoughts come from?


I emailed the professors of my morning classes and told them I was sick and wouldn't be attending. I needed to pull myself together before I could face anyone. But after a while I calmed myself and made it to my afternoon classes. Though I didn't retain anything that was taught, as I was lost in my own head.


That night I was afraid to fall asleep. I didn't want to see my mom like that again. But eventually tiredness overtook fear and I drifted off. My dream originally started fine. I was at the beach with some friends, having a nice summer bonfire at night. As we sat around the flickering flames someone said they saw something wash ashore. Being curious, I walked towards it but as I got close whatever it was started to crawl towards me. I paused, trying to get a better look of whatever it was in just the faint moonlight and light from the fire. Suddenly its head snapped up and looked at me. It was my mom, covered in seaweed and barnacles, drenched with sloughing skin. She crawled towards me like some twisted creature, grabbing for my legs. I screamed and tried to run away, but couldn't find traction in the sand. As I felt her cold, wet hand clasp my ankle I shot awake. I was trembling, too scared to get out of bed. So I curled in the fetal position and started to cry. After a bit I was able to calm myself enough to do more than just lay there and cry. Though I wish that I hadn't. Because as soon as I was back to reality, I felt something itchy on my leg. Something…damp. I threw back the cover and saw a piece of seaweed wrapped around my ankle. That's when I really lost it. I became hysterical. I turned on all the lights in the room. I barricaded my door. And then I grabbed a baseball bat and slunk into the corner, jumping at any little sound or shadow.


I stayed awake the entire rest of the night. My eyes stinging from the lack of sleep and all the crying. The joints of my hands sore from the tight grip I kept on the bat. Once the first rays of light shone through the window I loosened my grip a bit. I stood and talked myself through what happened. Then I decided the best way to try to forget about it was to just get ready and go about my day as normal. After all, I had to present my paper that afternoon and I wasn't going to let all the hard work poured into it go to waste.


In class I waited to go last to read my paper. The others were more traditional legends - cryptids, haunted houses, people who performed amazing feats. Finally it was my turn. I slowly made my way to the front. All of the eyes on me felt overbearing. It was as if they thought there was something wrong with me. And I guess there was. But I began…




"It's called the Dream Devourer."


And now as I near the end of this paper, I stand before all of you. But there's one thing I did leave out. You see, there was a stain covering part of the page. A dark stain, with a faint smell of iron after all these years. But it didn't exactly obscure everything. The author of that story continued on to explain the Dream Devourer a bit more. He said that it can only invade your dream once you know of it. Spreading the story of the creature allows it to wedge its way into your mind, to take it over. And so, as he became the last remaining person of his town, he decided to write down his experience. Then, he took out a knife and slit his own throat, so that he could escape the terrors the Dream Devourer had brought him. And so that he could make the legend die there.


That is, until I found this book. Until now it had been contained in these pages. The town was wiped out, this journal found and packed away for a long time. But reading that story, it allowed the creature to awaken, with me as its first victim. And now, it can feast on all of you as well.
Late Night Looney Tune
It was 10:00 PM, far past her bedtime. Siy carried Stitch in her arms as she silently shuffled down the stairs. Her parents didn’t know she was out of bed. She grabbed the remote control from the stand next to the couch and turned on the TV, turning the volume down low so it didn’t wake up Mom and Dad. Siy set her plushie on the right side of the loveseat and plopped herself next to it.

As the theme to Looney Tunes played, she began to realize this wasn’t really the show she loved. The theme tune slowed down as the screen turned black and white with a title card reading:

DAFFY’S BIG DEAL
This must be one I’ve never seen before, she thought. The titular duck appeared on screen, doing his normal, wacky hijinks. For the most part, this was a normal episode of Looney Tunes and Siy was enjoying it. That was until Daffy stopped in his webbed tracks and turned to the camera.

“You aren’t supposed to be up this late, aren’t you? I’m sure you know full well what you’re doing.” Siy scratched her head. “Do you like scary things, Siy?” She shook her head at Daffy’s question. “I’ll show you some scary things! Then, maybe you’ll learn not to stay up this late!”

It was then all hell broke loose, as bright, frightening images of the Looney Tunes flashed on the screen while the volume jolted way up. A terrifying corrupted tune played through it all.

My name is Daffy
I am the D-Daffy Duck
Crazy, wacky-
Wacky, LOONEY
The looniest toon of all
The looniest toon of all
The looniest toon of allThe looniest toon of allThe looniest toon of allThe looniest toon of all


“GO BACK TO BED, SIY! OR YOU’LL BE STUCK WITH ME FOR ALLLLLLLLLLLL ETERNITY! HAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAA!

The repeated line “The looniest toon of all” and the images of scary Looney Tunes characters caused Siy to start running away from the TV. But when she went up the stairs, she found herself in the living room again only this time more aggressive.

The looniest toon of allThe looniest toon of allThe looniest toon of allThe looniest toon of all

Siy saw Daffy leap from the TV. Daffy wasn’t his cuddly self anymore, now larger with red eyes and sharp teeth. He pounced on top of her and roared.

“MWAHAHAHA! SHOULD’VE GONE BACK TO SLEEP WHEN YOU HAD THE CHANCE! RARRGHH!”

Daffy went for Siy’s head and everything went dark.

It was 8:00 AM. An alarmed Siy bounced awake and ran down stairs to the living room. Nothing was on the TV. The terrifying Daffy was nowhere to be found and the song was replaced by the sound of sizzling bacon.

“Good morning, sweetie! Are you alright?” asked Natalie, her mother.

Siy nodded. “Yep. I just had a nightmare, that’s all.”

She sat down at the table and ate her breakfast. Back in her room, her Daffy plush fell onto the floor. It’s eyes began to glow red and it adjusted itself to sit up.

“Crazy, wacky, looney, the looniest toon of all...! MWAHAHAHAHAHA!”

THE END

Below I am also featuring a piece written by @Hyrulian Hero which was created a few months ago for the writing comp, but did not fit the theme at the time, he posted publicly in the past, but it feels fitting to at least feature it in the competition on today of all days!
June 3

I don't think she even knows I exist. Dale let me pretend to smoke his cigarette while she walked by on her way home. I'm sure I looked cool, I just can't seem to catch her eye. Dad is out for crab season again but before he left, he bought me a Wii U, one of the special Zelda ones with the gold designs on the game pad. It included The Wind Waker remake so I'm going to start playing it tomorrow. Speaking of tomorrow, it's the last day of torture before I get out of that academic Alcatraz.

June 4th

So it turns out The Wind Waker remake is basically the same game, just with a couple of tweaks. I guess it looks better too. She walked by on our side of the road today, Dale and me were sitting on the stoop when she went by, debating whether Frog from Breath of Fire or Wart from Link's Awakening had better artwork so I think I looked pretty casual. We've been sitting here every school day for weeks but I don't think she noticed me. Until today! Me and Dale were pretty loud because he's a freaking idiot and thinks that Frog looks more like a toad so I think she looked over because we were almost screaming at each other. She totally winked at me!

I only played a little of The Wind Waker tonight because I was kind of distracted. I'm like collecting pigs and I gave up after trying to get the sword from this hippie dude who wouldn't give it up. Laundry day.

June 5th

She didn't walk by today. I don't know why I thought she would, we're all out of school but I thought for some reason that she'd be out. I basically gave up after a while and got some mac and cheese for lunch. It's the off-brand stuff, dad says he's not made of money. Why's he always out working if he's not making enough to buy real Kraft?

June 6th

I met up with Dale at the park and we played Risk. There's a big map of the world painted on the blacktop behind the school and the countries are all there so we have been planning to do it for months. We only played for like an hour and a half and we'd only just picked all of our countries and placed our troops. We took a picture so we can remember where our troops are but I doubt we'll ever actually finish the game. Besides, I might just lose the picture, I'm absolutely sure he's going to hold Australia till the end of time.

Toilet backed up today, I spent forever cleaning it up.

June 7th

I swear I saw her on the next street over today! I kind of snuck out but like casually to see if I could see where she was going. No dice but it was exciting to see her again. When Dad called today on the ship's phone, he asked about the Wii U. I think it means a lot to him that I enjoy it. I told him I've been playing every day, I just got to a windmill island. It reminds me of the one from Ocarina of Time where that creep is playing a phonograph or whatever.

Weird coincidence, the pirate chick in The Wind Waker winked at me. It reminded me of when she winked at me the other day.

June 8th

Today was rough. I've been use to seeing her walk by every day and now I feel like I have some kind of obsession. Even when I'm just relaxing, I see her where she isn't. Like that pirate in The Wind Waker, at the end of the aisle at the store, in my dreams; I'm actually not sure it's healthy. And I'm not sure if I love her. It seems like my mind is getting more desperate for her.

I went over to spend the night at Dale's. They got a new fire pit and we roasted got dogs and marshmallows. The dude's got both parents and doesn't even notice how cool they are. I brought my Wii U over to his house and after he went to bed, I played The Wind Waker some more.

June 9th

Last night I got the Tingle Bottle from a prisoner. It's supposed to let you send messages to other Wii Us but when you try to use it, it's just a message about how you can't do it anymore. Went to sleep and had weird dreams. I usually do when I don't sleep in my own bed. She was in my dreams and so was that Zelda game. Still, I risk these weird dreams because summer is only so long and there aren't many sleepovers during the school year.

Tonight I played it again and something weird happened. A Tingle Bottle washed up on shore, that's not supposed to happen, right? I ran over and picked it up and there was a picture inside. No message, just a picture of the sea. The sender's name said "Kat". It was a nighttime pic with stars and the moon but nothing really interesting other than that. It worries me that there may be a bug in the game. Nintendo is usually so thorough with their play testing. Was it really possible that something was still running behind the scenes on their servers? Maybe a Nintendo staff messing around? Dale told me once that his uncle worked at Nintendo. I wouldn't put it past him to mess with me.

June 10th

The toilet backed up again. I called Dad and he told me to check out the crawl space and see if there was anything obvious with the pipes. He said if I tap on them, I might be able to at least figure out if there's a clog or something. I freaking hate spiders but I hate the house smelling like sewage even more. I grabbed the flashlight and entered the dungeon. I tried to pretend like it was a dungeon from the Wind Waker but that didn't help much.

It was slow going because I had to make sure there wasn't anything nasty every inch of the way but I checked out the pipes underneath the bathroom and couldn't find anything obvious. No bad patch jobs, no leaking pipes and no roots strangling them. Dad said that happens sometimes. As I was making my way back to the hatch, I saw her walking by on the sidewalk through the screen vent. I scuttled over to the vent as quick as I could, discounting the acute likelihood of putting my hand on a spider or a centipede, but by the time I got to the vent, I had lost sight of her. When I got out of the crawl space, I even ran out to the sidewalk and looked down the street but she wasn't there.

I moved the TV and the Wii U over to the window before I played this evening. I'm not going to miss her again.

June 11th

More weird dreams last night. I dreamt that I was Link on an island on the Great Sea and my only companion was that girl pirate. But she wasn't just that girl pirate, it was also her. I don't really know how to explain it but it was definitely both of them or maybe just her, I don't know. It's hard to remember exactly what happened because I don't think a lot of it made sense, but I clearly remember her giving me a wink just like that pirate does in the game. That game is on my mind so much now, it's really addicting. Unfortunately, I may not be able to play it for much longer.

There was another glitch today and it had to do with the Tingle Bottle again. Another one washed up on a shore on some island, I can't remember the name. There was another picture of the ocean. Totally nondescript, just the horizon line and a curl of wind against the backdrop of a starry sky and moon. The sender was Kat again. If the servers were still running, wouldn't I be getting a random assortment of senders? It gets worse though . This time, the icon for my Tingle Bottle in my inventory turned into the Tingle Tuner of all things from the original game! I'm wondering if maybe there's some kind of data breakdown and some of the original code was left in The Wii U version. I'm going to try to figure it out tomorrow after Dale and I hang out.

June 12th

Hot dogs at Dale's house again this evening. When I got home, I called Dad and talked for a few minutes. He said the skipper had gotten word of a jackpot a day out so they'd be out a few extra days at least. Instead of heading back tomorrow, he's likely to be gone until the seventeenth at least. It's not like I'll starve to death or anything but I miss him.

I haven't been able to find anything about the Zelda glitches online. It seems like no one else has run into anything like this. Another bottle washed up though and inside was another picture of the ocean at night. Kat again. I looked out the window at our moon and imagined I didn't have to be so alone, that maybe she was looking up at the same moon and thinking the same thing.

June 13th

Last night was so bad. I don't think I shut my eyes from 11 to 6. I read about sleep paralysis in health class but this was like...bad. I woke up like right after I shut my eyes. There was this incredible pressure on my chest and I felt like I couldn't breathe. My room was pitch black but as I stared straight ahead, unable to move, I saw her. She was in my room, sitting on my chest, constricting my lungs, stealing the air from them. I was so scared, I thought I was going to die. I imagined my face turning blue and my eyes bulging and Dad returning to find my pale body lying in bed like he found Mom. And he'd cry and swear and ask God why I had to die and I'd feel guilty for dying while he was gone and putting him through more grief.

But I didn't die. I don't think I slept or breathed last night, but I didn't die. I didn't sleep, I didn't even blink. In the darkness, I kept my eyes locked on hers and didn't close them for a second. It was the worst nightmare I've ever had and I think I was awake while I was dreaming it. In the early hours, as the faintest light from the early, pre-solstice sun began to illuminate my room, she started to fade. She faded further and further until I could only see her eyes, because mine hadn't left them. Just before she disappeared completely, I swear one of her eyes shut just before they both became completely imperceptible.

I couldn't go back to sleep, not even in the daylight. That was the most scared I've ever been. I wanted to play The Wind Waker to give me something to focus on but I went for a bowl of cereal first. It took me almost two hours to finish my soggy frosted flakes but by the time I had, I was ready to forget about the night. Wearily, I turned on the Wii U and picked up where I'd left off. Another bottle had washed up and another picture of the ocean's nightscape appeared on my screen.

There definitely was a progression. I had noticed yesterday that the moon in the picture seemed to be waxing further every day and this picture continued the progression. Just a few days from full prominence. My Tingle Bottle icon was still a Tingle Tuner and it gave me an idea. The only reason I can imagine the Tingle Tuner showing up in the Wii U version of The Wind Waker is that either it is a fragment of code left over from the original or that maybe the developers had at one point intended the Tingle Tuner to be useable in the Wii U version.

Out of sheer desperation for something complex to occupy my thoughts, I hooked up my GameCube controller USB connector to the Wii U. I dug my GameCube/Game Boy Advance cable out of a box in the attic and along with it, my Game Boy Advance. I stole the batteries out of the remote and hooked everything up. I thought maybe if there was code left over for the Tingle Tuner, maybe a fragment of functionality might still exist.

It does. When I hooked up the Game Boy Advance to the Wii U, it recognized it immediately. The error code about the Miiverse doesn't show up anymore; now an onscreen keyboard comes up on the Game Boy Advance and prompts me to write a message to put in my Tingle Bottle! This must have been the original stand-in for the gamepad! I wrote a message using the Game Boy Advance, "Who are you?". If it's a staff member (or Dale's uncle) at Nintendo, they're going to be so surprised that somebody's responding!

I'm so tired but I don't know if I want to sleep tonight. That dream terrified me last night but I still can't stop thinking about her.

June 14th

I didn't sleep. She was there again on my chest, sapping my rest and my air. I could tell this time that she was smiling. Not a scary smile like she was enjoying my torture, but an innocent smile, like nothing was out of the ordinary. There she sat all night, eyes locked with mine, smiling while I burned with terror inside, every moment feeling as though I would die for lack of oxygen.

I'm exhausted, my body feels incomplete, like I'm a visitor from the realm of death, trespassing into the world of the living. I ignored Dad's call today, I can't talk to him. Or anyone for that matter. Someone rang the doorbell earlier, probably Dale. I couldn't even muster the energy to answer it. It took everything in me to roll over and hit the power button on the Wii U.

There was a bottle on the beach. I opened it to find a picture of the ocean backed by a night sky and swollen, gibbous moon, nearly full. Along with the picture was a single word that I think must have been an answer to my question from the previous day. "Kat". Well that didn't tell me much, but it did confirm that I was communicating with someone and not just bits of leftover development data floating around. "But who are you? I didn't know this service was still available. I'm using a workaround to send messages via the Game Boy Advance!"

June 15th

I just want to suffocate. All night, her eyes, I can smell her breath, it smells like an open grave. My throat is swollen shut and my eyes are dry, sleep feels like a forgotten acquaintance. My mind is full of barriers and walls, thoughts end in different places than they ought. The hair on the back of my neck won't settle, every direction my mind goes ends in bed last night.

I asked her. I asked her who she was. A voice that sounded like a viper shedding its dry skin. "Katrina." Her lips didn't move but she said it and she winked at me. My eyes grew wet but they burned as if my tears were tainted with blood.

When she faded and the morning dawned, I inched over to the Wii U at a snail's pace. I dreaded to turn it on but something primordial drove me to start the console.

The picture in the Tingle Bottle was that of a full moon gleaming in the sky surrounded by an array of stars. Blue spirit flames engulfed an ethereal vessel with tattered sails and a sere pennant flying above. A message accompanied this photo as well, a message that will keep me from sleep even if Katrina doesn't visit me tonight: "I love you and I'll be seeing you soon."

"I love you and I'll be seeing you soon." Came my dad's voice over the answering machine. So singularly focused was I on the message in the bottle that I hadn't even heard the phone ring. I jumped up to answer the phone, my vision going immediately black for lack of sleep. After a moment, I crawled over to the phone and hit 'replay'.

"I'm sorry about the internet, I forgot to pay the bill last month so I'm sure you've been bored out of your mind without it this past week." That would mean the Wii U couldn't have been connected to the internet? "Listen, we were headed out to that jackpot when a squall came up. It pushed us off course a bit and we came upon an abandoned vessel. You wouldn't believe we could see this ship in the storm with no lights on it. If it weren't for the full moon, we would have motored right by!" I finally talked to Dale about Katrina today. He never once saw her walk by the house while we sat there. In fact, he says I would just 'space out' sometimes when we were there on the porch but he swears up and down that he never saw a girl walk by. "We have an obligation as seamen to check out suspect vessels so we moored ourselves to her and I went aboard." That first wink she ever gave me is burned into my head now, it's all I see. "The ship was completely abandoned save for a single passenger, a girl about your age. I'll be out of service soon but I wanted to tell you that I'm bringing her back; she'll stay with us until we can find family to return her to. She says her name is-"

I slam the phone down on the hook. I don't need Dad to tell me her name. I already know.
 

Hyrulian Hero

Zelda Informer Codger
Joined
Oct 6, 2016
Location
SoDak
Nice job, Minish.

@ExLight it's nothing much, just the Greek word meaning "dream" and the prefix "dys-" generally meaning bad. I think I want to write a short story about the poem since it's probably the most esoteric thing I've ever written, what with the focus on humorism and obtuse language.
 

Morbid Minish

Spooky Scary Skeleton.
Forum Volunteer
Wow Minish, that was morbid

Lol, thanks. That's generally the style of writing I go for so I was pretty happy with how this one turned out.

Nice job, Minish.

@ExLight it's nothing much, just the Greek word meaning "dream" and the prefix "dys-" generally meaning bad. I think I want to write a short story about the poem since it's probably the most esoteric thing I've ever written, what with the focus on humorism and obtuse language.

The writing of your poem was very beautiful despite the theme. I am jealous of your style!
 

Hyrulian Hero

Zelda Informer Codger
Joined
Oct 6, 2016
Location
SoDak
@MightyMario yours felt like an actual experience put to paper (or digits I suppose). It feels like exactly how nightmares take place in real life.

@Morbid Minish I'm not sure if it was intentional but the way words in the book were staggered and running together made it feel unsettling.

Also, This certainly wasn't my best poem but I'm tickled pink at rhyming "eukrasia" and "necrophagia".
 

Morbid Minish

Spooky Scary Skeleton.
Forum Volunteer
Congrats to Minish! Excellent story!

Thanks. Yours was great as well! It felt very creepypasta-esque to me with the song.

@MightyMario yours felt like an actual experience put to paper (or digits I suppose). It feels like exactly how nightmares take place in real life.

@Morbid Minish I'm not sure if it was intentional but the way words in the book were staggered and running together made it feel unsettling.

Also, This certainly wasn't my best poem but I'm tickled pink at rhyming "eukrasia" and "necrophagia".

It was intentional! I wanted it to give the sense of the words being hurriedly written down, while the author was also descending into madness.

Your vocabulary is intimidating. Haha. It made the poem have a sort of old timey feel to it. Like it would be something I'd be analyzing in a literature class long after it was written. Which I would actually love to analyze something like that in a literature class!
 

MightyMario

The Vengeful Warrior | Drawn by Uwu_Oocoo2
Joined
Mar 27, 2020
Location
Florida
I guess mine did sort off dip into the “creepypasta” territory, and I’m not complaining, though the story is supposed to be more kid-friendly because it’s coming a child’s imagination. Everything’s kind of cartoonish because that’s how Siy would dream of things.

Like in the end where Daffy turns into a huge monster with sharp teeth, it’s meant to evoke a vibe of classic Looney Tunes where a character would turn evil and become huge or menacing (ex. Monster Tweety in Hyde and Go Tweet or Melissa Duck in the Duxorcist).

Anyway, I’m glad you all enjoyed my story. I look forward to the next Writing Competition!
 

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