CG's Preview Thread

[CG]

I write quite a bit. So below are two previews of two coming pieces I'm working on. If I get enough feedback I might finish - who knows?

~*~

Currently Untitled

The summer holidays were just around the corner. You know that feeling that time was beginning to enter a no-go zone? That time decided to not just stop, but take a few steps backwards? That was the feeling worming itself through the Grade School down Marcus Avenue. The school children were a week away from finally fleeing the grips of education and teachers to three whole months of . . . well, the possibilities were endless really. Many were going on family holidays, camping, others were stuck at home with their parents . . . as said, possibilities for a whole three months of freedom were astronomical to the young children.

Even if thoughts of the summer holidays took up most of their attention spans, there was something else that was floating through whispers and stories shared underneath the jungle gym. There was an old creek bed that snaked itself through the suburbs, and for the past few nights a lot of children in the vacinity had heard horrible noises echoing in the night air. They hadn't been anything to think about at first, but they were slowly esculating to the point of even parents stopping their daily talk about eating your greens to ask themselves if they heard that noise or not. So now the story of a hiddeous monster was being traded at the crafts table by Bobby.

"...'n then I heard it ate the neighbour's DOG!" he exclaimed to his audeince of a handful of girls.

"Golly, must be real big ta eat a dog." mumbled one of the girls, whose name was Alice.

One girl merely scoffed, glancing at her friends. "There's no such thing as monsters," she said confidently, poking at her arts and crafts. She shook her red hair out of her eyes and huffed, trying to get the yarn to cooperate with her pot holder design.

"Yes there is!" Bobby shot back, "Blake saw it! S'got horns 'n everything!" stupid girls, didn't know nothing. Even how to get the blue yarn in her hands to glue properly to the paper.

"He saw it wrong, THAT'S all," the girl insisted. The child beside her sneered.

"Oh yeah, Fraaaaaances, I bet if you'd seen it you'd be scared, too. NotthatI'mscared," he stated.

"I would NOT," she insisted. "Because it doesn't exist."

"Oh yeah?" Bobby asked, frowning at Frances then pointed to her. "I triple dog dare ya to proove that!"

Cue a collected gasp going up from around the table.

Frankie blinked at that, eyes wide with surprise. She then pouted. "Fine," she stated with finality. "I'll go out there and prove to your chickens that it's total nonsense."

"Take a camera or sumthin," Alice said.

"So ya know. If it eats ya we can find it 'n show that it is." Bobby added quickly, much to Alice's annoyance.

Frankie glared at Bobby and snorted in a most unladylike way. "Fine, I'll take a picture of the so-called 'beast'," she agreed. "But I can't wait to see your faces when you're all proven wrong."

Later that day, the school bell having rung loudly and noisily as usual, Alice hurried after Frankie as she pulled her backpack onto her shoulders. "You're not really gonna go after it, are you?"

Frankie gave her a sideways glance. "I said I would," she stated after a moment. "Can't go back on my word, you know."

"Yeah I know. But Bobby's not gonna remember tomorrow. He's stupid like that." Alice stated the obvious, but you know. In case Frankie forgot that Bobby had an attention span the size of an ant.

The redhead just grinned. "Nah, I kinda just wanna put an end to all the rumors floating around, you know? It's probably some racoons or a deer or something."

She puffed out her chest and grinned. "Frankie Foster, Myth Buster." She snorted. "Nah, that's a stupid title."

"Yeah it is." Alice agreed, nodding her head.

Frankie grinned and waved goodbye as she ran ahead. "See you tomorrow, Alice," she shouted, waving furiously. "I'm gonna go get ready for tonight. You'll all see tomorrow how ridiculous the idea of monsters really is!"

How ridiculous it was. Frankie had neglected to take into account the weather for the night before agreeing to go 'monster hunting'. It was painfully humid, one could almost taste the stagnant water in the air. She flicked on her flashlight and started tromping through the woods, more than a little annoyed that her sneakers were getting muddy and gross.

The trees around her were doing a fabulous job of adding atmosphere, their thick leaves restricting any moonlight that could possibly light her way easily without the flashlight. The enveloped darkness also seemed to be full of not just the humity and dead leaves; but you'd swear you could smell 'wet dog'. If that dog happened to be ten times the normal size.

Further away an owl released a harsh screech into the night, and took to flight and vanished up through the trees.

Frankie eeped briefly -- monsters, most assuredly, did not scare her, but owls and rats and snakes and other such vermin gave her the heebie jeebies. She continued into the woods cautiously, trying not to slip in the mud.

The creek wasn't too far away now, and the closest she got, the more pungent the air became. 'Wet dog' turned into 'wet buffalo' in a few short steps, and it was uncharacteristically quiet for a woods known to be full of birds and night animals.

She looked around, trying to shine her flashlight everywhere -- while doing this, she slipped in the mud with a shriek and fell into the creek. Admittedly, it was not deep, nor was the current at all fast, but it was still annoying all the same. She stood up and shook the water and algea from her hands with a loud groan. It was then that she noticed that she dropped her camera with a gasp. "Ooooh, my mom is gonna KILL me," she muttered, feeling around in the water for it.

(tbc)