My friend Nick Evans @poncohtours, writer, journalist, travel organiser, bon vivant and all round great human, once challenged a few friends to write a short story in 333 words. He would suggest a title and off we’d go. We set up a website and wrote a few of these, until other projects got in the way… anyway, here’s the first one I wrote (of course, it’s a horror story).
WE HAVE COME FOR YOUR CHILDREN
The doorbell rings.
Jenny ignores it. Stares at the iPad screen, willing the word flow to become a story stream. She should be in a lecture hall at Uni, but she already knows academia can’t help her. So here she is, in her room lined with books, surviving on Cheerios, living in her Scooby Doo onesie oh so close to finishing her first novel Jemima & Jacque Lose Tomorrow.
It’s brilliant.
‘Effing brilliant!
She just knows it.
The doorbell rings again. She loses the thread of her sentence.
Goddamit!
She stomps into the hall, yanks open the door to reveal three, shrunken old ladies.
– Oh, hello, says Jenny.
The old ladies giggle, swapping mischievous glances.
God botherers, she thinks.
– Oh no, says the first old lady, looking most offended
– Never that, says the second, that’s far to new-fangled.
– We’re here for your children, says the third.
Suddenly, Jenny is stumbling backwards, her head cotton wool dripping ether, her legs overcooked spaghetti.
White light. Her head hurts. She’s on the floor. Looking up at three wrinkly faces.
– I don’t have any children, she mutters, eyes closing.
– Oh but you do, chorus the old ladies.
Jenny wakes with her iPad cradled in her hands.
Nightmare.
Dreaming again.
Working too hard, girl.
Maybe she needs to up her sleep from three hours to five a night.
No.
When the novel was finished. She’ll sleep then.
Her iPad’s asleep. She swipes its screen and keys in her password.
No … no … NO!
Her novel! Where is her novel! She must have deleted it when she slumped asleep.
Keep calm! You’re a diligent writer. Jemima and Jacque is backed up on the Cloud. You may have lost a morning’s work, that’s all.
She navigates to her cloud account. Opens her folder. There’s only one document in it.
She opens it.
A single line of text.
We have Jemima and Jacque. They’re safe now. You can’t hurt them anymore.
