Love it!!
Now we know why so many characters so mysteriously changed in temperament or personality!!
Lloyd is spelt o before the y by the way!(it's my RL surname!!)
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| All Hallows' Eve - a Halloween drabble - complete http://the-cbb.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=6806 |
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| Author: | ChubbyMonkey [ Sat Oct 31, 2009 2:47 pm ] |
| Post subject: | All Hallows' Eve - a Halloween drabble - complete |
Just a short drabble to say happy Halloween! It's not very scary, I'm afraid. - X - Matron Gould – or was she Lloyd tonight? – prowled the corridors as a caged tiger prowls the boring confines of his existence. She was similar to a big cat in many ways; hearing so acute she could sense movement at the other side of the building, a tread so light she could sneak up on anyone unnoticed. The only aspect in which she had ever failed was eyes that had never yet needed glasses, having had to wear them for three years in her childhood. Gwynneth hadn’t had to, which was unfortunate, because usually they were indistinguishable; and she had, in fact, tended to crow over her afflicted sister, until a firm dose of cod liver oil had silenced her. A little known fact about her – them – was that they were, in fact, twins. When they had been hired by Miss Bettany they had agreed to go under Gwynneth’s name, and although Winifred occasionally felt sad that she was only known as someone else, she had far too important a job to whine about it. Besides which, Gwynneth hated spineless jellyfish who moaned about everything. In the end, they had devised the system of referring to each other by their surnames – she was Mrs Gould, for she had been married many years ago before the war, but after an immense amount of confusion in the Tirol years they had had to start keeping that system confined to themselves; it had reached the stage that nobody knew who to call Matey! Creaking from the roof above made her stop and stare intently at the patch of ceiling directly over her head. It was All Hallows', the same time every year that things were hardest. During the England years they hadn’t been haunted so badly, and she’d been able to go and work in a boys' school while Gwynn kept a careful eye on things here, but shortly after they moved back to Switzerland she’d received a letter begging her to come. The trouble was that nobody could know that there were two of them; if the spirit guessed he was up against such opposition, he would cause a riot and then the girls must find out. Naturally, as with any situation, there had to be a few who knew about him, his prey, you could say. But most of the time he was contented with getting staff; poor Nancy Wilmot had emerged from his clutches suddenly loving mathematics, of all things. When a louder creak than before rang out, Winifred made up her mind that she would have to go and investigate. Unfortunately, he had chosen a spot just above the bed of noted sleepwalker Con Maynard, and she could guarantee that the imps would have been telling each other ghost stories that evening, given the day. It wouldn’t do for her to start meandering the corridors this night. Without a sound she slipped along to the door up to the attics, gathering her starched skirts about her so that she wouldn’t rustle as she went. The stairs were old and many creaked as her light step touched them; somewhere above a pipe was leaking, the steady dripping reminding her that Gaudenz would have to look at it at some stage. Damp was just what the spirit liked. Hoping that he hadn’t managed to get hold of anyone new yet – it had been three months since Judy Willoughby was captured and tortured into someone completely different to her former self – Winifred gradually opened the plain wooden door that presented itself to her. A high-pitched noise emitted from it as she gingerly shut it again, cursing the lack of oil on the hinges. Up in the attic it was pitch black, even the windows covered by piled up suitcases so that it was impossible to see anything at all. How she wished that Gwynn had taken night duty, she was so much better, but it had been months since she’d last been in the school during the day – and how she complained about noisy Middles disturbing her sleep! – and eventually Winifred had agreed to swap. The faint light hovering underneath the eves at one end attracted her attention, and warned her where the spirit would be. He was always at his strongest in chalets, which was why he was seen so particularly in this school, the very name had been enough to attract him. If only they’d stayed in England, as she’d suggested so vocally to the staff privileged enough to know about her. But Hilda Annersley wouldn’t listen, and she’d been forced to just hope for the best, optimistically keeping her post with the boys’ school (plagued by a particularly nasty poltergeist at the time, though the havoc it could wreak was nothing compared to this monster). “So, we meet again,” she said quite calmly as she advanced on the light at the end, almost blinded by the glare so that she had to fumble with loose boxes of unused exercises books and the other miscellaneous forgotten about by the school. “Who are you looking to steal this time?” “Why?” demanded a lisping voice, a cackle shining through every word. Winifred took another step, trying not to show that her hands had begun to tremble with the aura of mischief about this incarnation. “It isn’t as if you could stop me. Not after I got the untouchable, the heroine. That was why you went to England, wasn’t it, because you knew you were powerless. Whatever changes I make, she has to write them; I have control!” Somehow, Winifred found her eyes drawn towards the slumped figure in the corner, head lolling to one side while she wasn’t needed, eyes rolled into the back of her head so that she was effectively sightless. It was a grotesque image, one that Winifred knew would haunt her nightmares for some time to come, but it had to be like this, she had to try and save the pupils. “Admit it!” sang the voice suddenly, taunting and teasing. Something cold whipped across the back of her neck, making her jump. “I got Joey, didn’t I? Foolish woman, she thought she could write about a jolly schoolgirl, make her the perfect mother and all would be well. But I changed her, made her mine; now she’s forced to write an overbearing, selfish woman who even she hates, and there’s nothing she can do. I’ll get you all, in the end.” “You tried to get Winifred and I before,” reminded Winifred politely, only just remembering in time that she was supposed to be her twin. “I believe that on that occasion you lost rather badly.” Somewhere on the Platz a wolf howled, sending shivers down her spine; the attic was cold, too cold, and she was shivering through her material. But, she reminded herself, they still had the advantage, the spirit still thought that only one of them was at the school. They still stood some chance of winning. “I’ll only take one,” promised the spirit, evil flecking his voice. “Then I’ll go away, leave you alone. Besides, she is nearly spent, she won’t write many more books; two or three, perhaps, but I’ve worn her down. Oh, how foolish you have all been! All this time, and I’ve been slipping in references about a devil and you missed it completely. Now she’s mine!” “Margot,” gasped Winifred, horrified. For years, Joey, who knew about both matrons being appointed, had begged them to keep her family safe. It was why she had given in to the spirit so easily, so that he would leave her daughters alone. And all this time it had been right in front of her. “She’d make a good nun, don’t you think?” whispered the voice in her ear, so close that she felt as if she could have reached out and touched it. “She was always the naughty one, but with a touch of my magic, I’ll change her character completely.” “Nobody will ever believe it,” said Winifred at last, gathering her skirts about her indignantly. There wasn’t even any point arguing, as he had so rightly said the spirit of the author was fading, and he’d never work about such a transformation in the few books she had in her. “Really?” Suddenly, the light snapped out, and she was plunged into complete darkness, blinding after the bright glare of a moment before. Disorientated, she tried to fight her way back through the suitcases, but before she had gone three steps the whole building echoed with a piercing shriek that chilled her to the bone. The EBDism had got Margot Maynard at last. |
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| Author: | aitchemelle [ Sat Oct 31, 2009 3:32 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: All Hallows' Eve - a Halloween drabble - complete |
Love it!! Now we know why so many characters so mysteriously changed in temperament or personality!! Lloyd is spelt o before the y by the way!(it's my RL surname!!)
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| Author: | abbeybufo [ Sat Oct 31, 2009 3:43 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: All Hallows' Eve - a Halloween drabble - complete |
Thanks Ariel - very seasonal 
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| Author: | JB [ Sat Oct 31, 2009 3:47 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: All Hallows' Eve - a Halloween drabble - complete |
Brilliant, Ariel. Thanks. |
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| Author: | shesings [ Sat Oct 31, 2009 3:47 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: All Hallows' Eve - a Halloween drabble - complete |
Maybe not that scary, Ariel, but seriously flaming brilliant!!! Happy haunting everyone
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| Author: | Abi [ Sat Oct 31, 2009 8:58 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: All Hallows' Eve - a Halloween drabble - complete |
| Well that explains a lot! Thanks Ariel!
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| Author: | Lesley [ Sun Nov 01, 2009 9:17 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: All Hallows' Eve - a Halloween drabble - complete |
Explains a lot - thanks Ariel.
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| Author: | Pingaware [ Sun Nov 01, 2009 12:21 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: All Hallows' Eve - a Halloween drabble - complete |
Brilliant and explanatory. Thanks very much! |
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| Author: | jmc [ Mon Nov 02, 2009 6:18 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: All Hallows' Eve - a Halloween drabble - complete |
| Explains so much. Thanks
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| Author: | Millie [ Mon Nov 02, 2009 1:56 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: All Hallows' Eve - a Halloween drabble - complete |
Fantastic, thank you! |
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| Author: | sealpuppy [ Mon Nov 02, 2009 6:51 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: All Hallows' Eve - a Halloween drabble - complete |
Bit late but just found it. Great, thank you. |
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| Author: | leahbelle [ Tue Nov 03, 2009 1:20 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: All Hallows' Eve - a Halloween drabble - complete |
Just found this, too. Great fun. Thanks, Ariel.
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| Author: | Smile :) [ Tue Nov 10, 2009 4:51 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: All Hallows' Eve - a Halloween drabble - complete |
That explains so much, thanks Ariel. |
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