Werewolves, Vampires, Cannibals, Oh My!

Submitted into Contest #59 in response to: Set your story in a small town where everyone is suspicious of newcomers.... view prompt

43 comments

Science Fiction Thriller Funny

"Werewolves."

She glared out the window, eyes on the moving van ahead of her.

"Vampires."

Her friend was eating French fries from a KFC bucket, dark blue Converse resting up on the dashboard. They were playing the game where they guessed who the newcomers were.

"Cannibals."

She laughed and smacked her friend in the shoulder. They knew better than to play the game. If the Mayor heard them, he would surely be upset. "Definitely not. That would be a stretch, even for us." She plucked a French fry from her friend's bucket and popped it in her mouth. It tasted like cardboard. "Where were we headed to, again?"

"Party."

"Oh," she made a sharp left turn onto Atwood Street, "Right."

They'd never been huge fans of parties; either of the girls would have preferred to stay at home sipping from giant cups of hot chocolate, whispering about the unattainable movie characters they were in love with. This party was different because the newcomer, the oldest son, would be there and everyone wanted to find out what made him tick, what his wiring was. They pulled into the biggest house on Atwood Street. It was gray and made of bricks and smelled like a chlorine explosion despite the fact that there hadn't been a pool there in ages.

"Ready to go in?" She smiled at her friend and climbed out of the car, long limbs already cold in the fall breeze. "I should have worn a sweater."

Her friend shrugged, pulling the sleeves of her own sweater closer around her shoulder. "Guess so. Let's get going, though."

They approached the house, rang the doorbell, and the party's host, a guy from school, answered. "Hey, didn't think you two were the party types."

She said, "We're not," at the same her friend said, "Things change."

Hm. It wasn't like them to be out of synch.

"Well, ah, come on in." The guy waved them into the house. There were people everywhere; lounging on sofas, sitting in laps, swinging from chandeliers, digging around in the kitchen, hiding in dark corners of the basement- basically it was a normal day on Atwood Street. A day like any other.

Every other.

"What should we do first?" The blue Converse friend, the one she remembered knowing, asked. She shrugged at her. What did they know about parties? It wasn't part of their programming.

"Maybe we could find the new guy. Ask around, see what they know."

"What would they know that we don't?" It was a good idea, though. "But we can ask." They began to walk around the party, asking everyone if the newcomer had actually bothered to show up. No one could tell them much, just that he was a bit odd.

"He laughs a lot."

"He has a unique style."

"Weird kid, dudes, weird kid."

This only made the girls all the more curious.

The food table was filled with snacks and candy and dessert. She and her friend ate a lot of it. It didn't do much. Didn't make them full, didn't make them hungrier. Just was. They just were.

The party's music was a softly pounding thunderstorm, reverberating through the walls of the house.

"They should change the music. This sounds old."

"It really does." Her friend handed her another plate of cake. "The DJ probably needs to be updated on what's new." She smiled, white teeth turning disco colors under the flashing party lights. "What the kids like these days, no?"

The food table lurched. The girls looked up to see the newcomer staring at them with scuffed shoes and weather beaten eyes. She didn't recall ever seeing such raw emotion in eyes, but there it was and it worried her. This boy was no ordinary addition to the town. He was odd indeed.

"Hey, sorry, I'm Nash." He had acne peppered skin and a light scar sliced across his jaw. Also, a name. This boy had a name. It was Nash. The girl and her friend turned in unison. Odd, odd, so very odd and yet they were both enthralled. Not a vampire. His teeth were crooked and stuccoed with spinach pizza, but not sharp enough to cut through flesh. Not a werewolf, either. He wasn't sniffing around the food table, wasn't itching to howl at the blatantly full moon out that night, didn't have the nails that curled like wheatgrass at the ends of his fingers.

His hands looked like they played the guitar.

"And you guys are?"

"We live here." She said.

"Yes, we live here in town." Her friend said.

"I meant like names. People here are super weird about giving them. I haven't gotten a single person's name since the minute I hit the door and to be honest, the whole party's giving me weird Twilight Zone vibes." He pulled at the collar of his t-shirt. "Like, is Rod Serling going to pop out of the women's bathroom and tell me I'm in a simulation for science or some weird crap?" He stopped talking when he realized neither of the girls had said a word, but they weren't laughing at his joke, either. They were staring. "Haha, really great acting." They didn't blink. "Bet you girls are a lot of fun to have staring contests with. Half the town acts like they don't have eyelids."

"You should get going. Maybe parties are not your scene."

"Actually, parties are super cool. I thought I'd make some new friends, not find the lost city of Antartica." He chuckled softly. "You know, cause everyone here's so cold."

"We're not cold."

"I didn't mean it offensively, it's just that you guys aren't the most welcoming crowd."

"Hm, well," she cracked her left thumb and it made a hollow popping sound, "We haven't reached that level yet."

"Haha, so you do know how to make jokes!"

"Yes." Her friend smiled. "We like to tell jokes. We play games and we are best friends. Why did the chicken cross the road?"

"Uh, to get to the other side?"

"Wrong. To get to the idiot's house."

"Oh, okay." Nash didn't get the joke.

Her friend continued, "Knock knock."

He rubbed a nervous hand across his face. "Who's there?"

"The chicken."

"Ohhh, very subtle. Calling me an idiot. Nice, nice. Usually I wait till I know someone a bit better before they can demean my intellect, but it's cool. Good to know you lot aren't complete robots."

She popped another finger. Her friend picked up a paper clip and stuck it through her cheek.

"This has been, what, freaky? I don't know. I'm going to go, though. See you guys around."

"Will you be here tomorrow?"

"Yeah."

The girl nodded. She knew that. They would all be there tomorrow.

They always were.




September 13, 2020 00:07

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43 comments

Jubilee Forbess
00:08 Sep 13, 2020

don't mind me, I'm experimenting. :)

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Amany Sayed
02:23 Sep 13, 2020

Well, you should do it more often! I don't think you've ever written something that didn't end up awesome, this is no exception! Love it!

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Jubilee Forbess
02:57 Sep 13, 2020

Thanks, Amany! I may have a story with lots of poems incorporated into it soon! :) Hope you're doing well with prompts top.

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Amany Sayed
03:11 Sep 13, 2020

Looking forward to it! :D Actually, not having much inspiration with the current ones, but there's still time!

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19:41 Sep 15, 2020

Just a random note: Your answer to random statment in that quiz.... “ ah but to be a teacup, ever rolling down the turnip green days of yore, what would you give to be a potted plant, seeking squirrels forevermore.” THAT’S JUST AWESOME Be proud, Rhonny. Be proud.

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Evelyn ⭐️
19:28 Sep 14, 2020

WOW!!!!! Loved this story so much I read it more than once! Also love the new profile picture! Ok, you are almost at 70 stories! Congrats!!! Part 2????? I mean I want a part 2 to all of your stories, they are all so good! Ok now for the story! I rate it a 10/10. 1. For detail 2. Creativity 3.Amazingness 4. Literally NO MISTAKES 5. A great ending 6. A great beginning 7. Everything else!!!!! Great job Rhondalise!! Hope to read another one of your stories soon!! Also if you have time, could you please check out my new story?

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Jubilee Forbess
20:47 Sep 14, 2020

I sure can! Actually I already did and it was so sweet! Thanks for reading and commenting and I'm so glad you enjoyed it. :)

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17:35 Sep 13, 2020

I PUBLISHED COLOR QUEST!!! AHHHHHH!!! IT’LL LITERALLY BE ON AMAZON IS TWO DAAAYS AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH 🤯🤯🤯🤯🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳 I’m sending this to a whole lotta people... SQUEEEEEEEE (I squee with joy) 🤩🤩🤩🤩

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Jubilee Forbess
20:58 Sep 14, 2020

*squees back in unison!* Aerin, that's so cool! You're an inspiration, you know that?

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21:02 Sep 14, 2020

*squeeeee!* Hehe, thank you so much!! I’m very excited, lol. *squeeeees, this time as bye* BYEEEE

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Sia S
07:06 Sep 13, 2020

Hi Rhonaldise. Upvoted you !!!!

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Sia S
05:50 Sep 13, 2020

Wow Good Job !!!!

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Jubilee Forbess
20:57 Sep 14, 2020

Thank you, Sia! :)

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Sia S
02:06 Sep 15, 2020

:)

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Charlotte Hunt
00:52 Sep 16, 2020

Wowza! Wonderful story, you truly have talent!

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Elliot Thomas
19:07 Sep 14, 2020

We know he's not a vampire or werewolf, but you didn't say anything about him not being a cannibal......

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Itay Frenkel
23:38 Sep 13, 2020

Whoah, I was not expecting that twist at the end! The joke about the chicken was somehow really unnerving and funny at the same time, I've actually been on the receiving end of that one a couple of times 😂 way to go!

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Avery G.
01:23 Sep 13, 2020

Wow, this was good! It was interesting, but different from what you usually write. But I loved it! Great job!

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Jubilee Forbess
20:57 Sep 14, 2020

Thank you, Avery!

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Avery G.
22:30 Sep 14, 2020

You're welcome!

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00:59 Sep 13, 2020

Woooo, this was so great! A really spooky and interesting story—different than what you normally write but I loved it. I adore that joke...I actually used it in one of my stories, lol, One question about the title: never is ‘Avatars’ mentioned in the story; maybe ‘cannibals’? Aweeeesome job, Rhondalise! Keep writing!

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Jubilee Forbess
01:19 Sep 13, 2020

Oh, it's because the girls were both avatars in a video game, kind of.

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Amany Sayed
00:58 Sep 14, 2020

OOOH I GET THE JOKE AND EVERYTHING NOW HOW ARE YOU SO CREATIVE WTH!

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Jubilee Forbess
20:59 Sep 14, 2020

I'm creative because I wrote this at two in the morning after drinking way too much caffeinated peach tea and my dreams were too wild to stay off paper. :)

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Amany Sayed
22:22 Sep 14, 2020

That's just...awesome.

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00:45 Sep 16, 2020

Ooooh, this story was so spooky...but so good. Keep writing!

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Sia S
12:03 Sep 29, 2020

Hey ! I finished my poem! Its at the end of my new story!

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Sia S
11:47 Sep 22, 2020

Hi Rhonaldise 👋 Sia here, I'm writing , like a poem but can't seem to write ahead. Can you help me ?

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Jubilee Forbess
12:55 Sep 22, 2020

Sure sure what do you have so far?

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Sia S
14:07 Sep 22, 2020

Well, This...

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Sia S
14:08 Sep 22, 2020

In a world so dark and distasteful, what do you expect me to be? all I wanted to do was to get up fly free, in a word so dark and cruel , what do you expect me to be ? to be happy and drooling over a pile of money , As I see your status update, I wonder what is fate, Is it luck or destiny ? Or is it free

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Jubilee Forbess
15:38 Sep 22, 2020

so here we've got a good old classic A/B/B rhyme pattern. I like what you have to start with, very solid structure but you could bear to part with some of the extra words because they make it clunky. would you mind sharing if this is a feelings based poem or an idea based poem? That'll help me know where you want to go with this. The last line, you switched patterns, which is okay, but only if you keep that consistent. So it would have to go A/B/B; A/B/B; A/A/B/B if that makes sense.

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Sia S
16:13 Sep 22, 2020

Wow!! THANKS!!! Well, its more feeling-based.

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Jubilee Forbess
16:24 Sep 22, 2020

Okay, so this is something that's going on now? Some of my best (in my opinion) poems and stories come from very deep thought BUT not thinking too much about how everything works out together until I'm done writing. So I would just work on it when you feel like you have more thoughts on the matter. Don't worry about the mechanical stuff, just the (cheesy, I know) heart stuff and things'll click into place. Maybe this is just meant to be a short poem though, and that's okay. Sometimes less words still packs a lot meaning.

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Cal Carson
18:19 Sep 20, 2020

Wow, great story! I totally felt all the mistrust in the two girls. Super creepy, but in a good way! Wonderful read. 😄

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Tariq Saeed
15:45 Sep 20, 2020

You described the first part very well.

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Iris Silverman
14:41 Sep 20, 2020

You had some great lines in here. One of my favorites was the way you described the party's music, "The party's music was a softly pounding thunderstorm." The story flowed so well and felt really nostalgic. Looking forward to reading more of your work:)

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Jessica Primrose
04:30 Sep 17, 2020

I loved this!!! so creative. I loved your bio too.

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DHANANJAY SHARMA
10:14 Sep 20, 2020

https://blog.reedsy.com/creative-writing-prompts/contests/59/submissions/34852/ give a read to mine Rhoundalise Mitza

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