I thought of a new thing we could do ( I've organised this on a few sites before & it's fun) :
we each write a paragraph, & create a story, that can either be funny, scary or romantic !!
Here's the beginning :
Dusk was beginning to fall..... Hunter was pacing up and down at the rendez-vous point, as no-one had arrived yet. He kept looking at his watch, berating himself for arriving an hour early, yet admitting that this was due to nerves, as this was the first invo he was doing with the group and he wasn't sure exactly how it was going to go........ After all, the problem with only knowing people from the net is a daunting prospect. How would they get on ? What would they find ? Gradually the group started to arrive.....
Kas
Several miles away a 30 year old ex-military Land Rover trundled down a country lane. It's sand coloured bodywork looking quite out of place in this drab, wet autumn afternoon.
To the right the twisted bare branches of Dering Wood scratched at the side of the old Land Rover is if trying to drag it in and consume it. The rain had started to get heavier now. The headlight beams searching out the path ahead, occasionally lighting up the darkness of the woods. Woods that were better known to Kas as " Screaming Woods".
"Where really late now" said Kas looking at Mel who was shining a torch at an old tatty map. "I haven't got a clue where we are on the map but Pluckley can't be that far now" She replied shouting over the noise of the old engine.
Kas reached over to the dashboard and took a cigarette from the damp packet. Kas hated smoking in the Land Rover, not because he was worried about the smoke but more so that the petrol tank was located under the drivers seat. He lit the cigarette and drew in the cool satisfying smoke that his body craved.
Suddenly in the distance a shape appeared. Kas eased of on the accelerator pedel and squinted out into the wet darkness.
"What's the matter" Mel enquired. "I could have swore I saw something in the road" said Kas still squinting with his face only inches from the windscreen. "It looked like someone standing in the road".
Kas relaxed again and eased back into the seat and took another drag of his cigarette.
As he did so a very large glowing ember from the end of the cigarette fell into his lap.
"Oh bollocks" he shouted as he frantically patted at his groin. Looking down he couldn't see where the ember had gone. Thoughts of the petrol tank below started to creep into his mind but suddenly he was drawn away from his thoughts.
"KIERON, WATCH OUT!" screamed Mel. The fraction of a second it took Kas to look up from his lap seemed to happen in slow motion. Terror gripped his face as he saw the hooded figure standing in the middle of the road. The headlights now illuminating the womans pale face. Time seemed to stand still. Not a sound or motion occured. Kas was frozen with fear, his eyes locked on the womans face. Her eyes boring into him. Lifeless eyes.
Her face had no expression as the Land Rover bared down on her.
Like a jolt of electricity surging through his body the enviroment suddendly returned to Kas. He stamped on the brakes as hard as he could causing the wheels to lock and the tyres scream against the wet road below. It was too late though, already Kas knew what was going to happen.
He waited for the thud.
david hobbs
Hunter screamed and leaped to one side almost loosing the long blond wig that he had been wearing to his nieces fancy dress party. The hood saved its fall but hunter landed in something soft and rather obnoxious. dammit he thought Now i have to meet my friends smelling like a farmers wellies.
Bravo
The hooded figure turned. It was a farmer, in wellies.
Kas
The first thing Kas noticed was how warm his chest felt. Unusually warm. There was something else though, something else that he couldn’t quite put his finger on at that moment. His brain seemed fuzzy, like the morning after the night before.
Pain, bloody awful pain. That was it, as he continued to regain consciousness . He slowly opened his eyes. Through the windscreen Kas could see a bright white ball of light. It was illuminating the inside of the cab. Slowly his eyes focused and he realised that the Land Rover was in fact facing upwards and he was looking at the moon.
The rain had stopped and the skies cleared leaving a beautiful star filled night sky. Kas looked in awe at the display in front of him. For a moment he wondered if there was life elsewhere in the universe. Pain, oh yes that was it he thought to himself. His head was pounding and as he lifted his hand to his forehead he discovered the wet sticky feel of warm blood.
Gradually the memory of the woman in the road started to return to him. Had he killed her? he thought in horror, his heart sinking inside with guilt. He couldn’t remember the impact, but he knew she couldn’t have got out of the way. He could still see her face, her black eyes staring straight at him. A shiver went through his body.
He remembered yanking the wheel at the last moment and the Land Rover skidding into the woods. The branches finally claiming their prey as the vehicle skidded out of control, ploughing through a ditch and into the dense dark tree’s of Screaming Wood. Then came the bang and Mel’s cries. Then it went blank.
Mel, Kas suddenly thought as he slowly turned his head towards the passenger side of the cab. The cold black leather of the seat next to him was empty. Fear suddenly coursed through Kas’s body paralysing him for a brief moment. There was no sign of Mel accept one distinctive bloodied handprint on the yellow paint of the door.
Kas frantically tugged at the driver’s door lever, eventually the lock released and Kas fell out, landing on the wet ground with a groan some 5 feet below. From the ground he could see that the Land Rover was at a 45 degree angle against a very old and sinister looking tree. Kas clambered to his feet and made his way as quick as he could the back of the truck. He quickly found his rucksack and removed a very large Maglite from inside. He looked around him but saw nothing but trees.
There seemed to be no way in or out of where the Land Rover had ended up. He searched frantically for traces of tyre tracks that the truck must have left but found nothing. Nothing had been disturbed. Then something caught his eye on the floor. It was something very familiar that he had seen many times it the fort. It’s was Mel’s distinctive size 5 footprint. More followed as Kas searched and a slight feel of relief washed over him that she was alive. He grabbed the rucksack, slinging it over his shoulder as he did and followed the footprints.
Mel S
Kas squinted as he willed his eyes to adjust to the gloom. Shapes seemed to move all around him as he zipped his coat up to his chin and gripped his Maglite tighter. Ahead in the distance a dark hooded figure stumbled its way over the debris of leaves and tree roots that covered the floor. Kas breathed a sigh of relief..Mels ok.. thank god! Quickening his pace he hurried to catch up with the stumbling figure.
"Mel wait!!" he called. The figure stopped dead in its tracks.
Kas
Come on then Hunter. Back at the rendez-vous point.....
