Dark Twisted

Rough Draft..the 1st 1,300 words of my novel...hope you like it...:)


Dark Twisted
By Parker Meador

Sara listened as Mark’s truck pulled out of their driveway. She had been awake long before the alarm had gone off. Her sleep was sporadic and filled with nightmarish dreams of Mark trying to kill her and a little girl wearing a beautiful white dress.

The dreams didn’t surprise Sara after the events of the previous evening. It was their anniversary and nothing had worked out like Sara had planned.

Mark came stumbling in late from work, reeking of sweat and booze. Sara pretended to be asleep as Mark entered their bedroom, felt his way to their bedside and emptied his pockets onto the nightstand.

“Hey, you asleep?” asked Mark in his best whisper.

“Sara, you asleep” slurred Mark, a little louder this time.

“HEY! HEY! YOU ASLEEP!” he belted out.

“I was until you woke me. Why did you do that Mark?” asked Sara.

“Cause I felt like it. That’s why! I don’t need a reason in my own house!” was his answer.

“It’s my house to.” Sara mumbled into her pillow.

“What did you say?” asked Mark.

“Do you pay the bills? Do you work? Do you bust your ass 6 days a week?” He didn’t wait for an answer.

“Hell no you don’t!” He dropped hard onto the bed, almost sending Sara into the floor.

“You’d think after all these years you’d learn that.” Mark growled as he kicked off his work boots.

“13 years to be exact” said Sara. Mark’s elbow dug into Sara’s side sending a painful wave in all directions.

“I think that’s enough backtalk,” declared Mark.

Sara felt relief that Mark had left for work but her side still hurt and she felt sick at her stomach. With visions of her dream still filling her thoughts, Sara couldn’t remember the last time she had a good dream or one that felt so real. She thought, the young girl in the snow white dress must have been her. Her mother had made her one just like it for her 10^th birthday. She loved that dress and the way it made her feel. It made her feel pretty and loved. She hadn’t felt those feelings in a very long time.

Sara felt like if she didn’t get up and do something she would die laying in that bed, going over every detail of one of the worst anniversaries in her often troubled marriage. What a sad thought that this wasn’t the worst. She had to get up and get moving now before the weight of the whole ordeal crushed her.

She didn’t feel much like breakfast so she decided to see if there was enough soiled laundry to start a load. What she found in the bathroom made her wish she was back in the bed. She was glad her nausea from before had passed.

There in the bathroom floor was a pile of Marks handiwork, a soaked bathroom towel on top of his putrid work clothes. She soon found out that he must have gotten up during the night and found the leftover ham, cheese and biscuits she had prepared for their dinner. All his favorites now discovered thrown up under his clothes. He had been a busy boy overnight. Sara slowly and carefully placed each vile item into the laundry basket. She soon discovered that things could always get worse as her left sock turned yellow. Just something else Mark couldn’t get in the toilet. This experience just took over first place on the all-time list. It would have been nice to compile a list of her favorite anniversaries and not the opposite.

After spraying the clothes down with a mixture of rubbing alcohol and water, she headed to the basement, never so eager to get a load of clothes going.

She felt the cool rush of air from the basement just seconds before she noticed the door was left wide open. She dropped the basket and started calling Miss Prissy as she hurried down the hall.

“Here kitty kitty, here Miss Prissy. Here Prissy!” She called out not expecting and answer.

Miss Prissy was a good cat, a smart cat but when she got a chance to head down stairs and chase mice, she was dead to the world for a couple of days.

Mark had left the door open but Sara couldn’t figure out why. He didn’t go in the basement unless he had no other choice. He called it the dungeon and sent Sara down whenever he needed something. The most popular excuses for not going were because if he fell, he couldn’t work and that they would lose everything and he didn’t want to breath in deadly mold spores. Sara knew those were just excuses to cover up the fact that for whatever reason he was scared. It was for that reason that Sara loved and cherished the basement. It was cool, quiet and most importantly Mark free.

She continued down the stairs hoping she would see Miss Prissy but not holding out hope for such a sighting. It was a large space filled with many feline hiding places.

Sara loaded the last of the contents of the basket and was reading a note from Mark’s pocket when she heard the floorboards above her head start to creak and moan. Thoughts of murderers, psychos and rapists filled her head. Mark would never come home from work without calling and he had the only other key to the house. She knew it wasn’t just the old house settling because this old girl was settled out.

She ran to the base of the stairs and carefully climbed to the top. She reached for the doorknob, trying to keep her hand from shaking but it was locked. She almost lost her balance but used the knob to steady herself. Someone was definitely here. This door didn’t lock automatically. It had to be locked using the key that was hanging on the wall at the end of the hallway.

Sara was locked in the basement by someone but at least she wasn’t alone. She heard Miss Prissy at the bottom of the stairs. The last 24 hours had been hell. Terror now filled Sara. She realized she had left her cell phone in the bathroom. Maybe Mark had tried to call. Maybe he was teaching her a lesson. He hated it when she didn’t answer her phone quickly. She tried to calm herself, hoping that Mark was up to this and not the axe rapist she had conjured up in her mind just seconds before. She didn’t know whether to call out to Mark or finish the laundry and hope that he would unlock the door before he left again. She could finish reading her romance novel that was getting quite good. Mark hated those kinds of books with a passion. He often said, “Why would you read that crap when you have me?”

“Why indeed?” she thought as she suppressed a small laugh. Not much too laugh at these days. She was a prisoner in her own home and now a prisoner in her own basement.

She wouldn’t let herself believe it could be anyone but him. That would be too much for her fragile mind to take, especially after the last few days. If she was going to be locked in the basement at least she had Miss Prissy to keep her company. Sadly Miss Prissy was her best friend and only source of love. She turned. She needed to see her face. She needed the calming effect, her cat had on her.

There was no Miss Prissy at the bottom of the steps. There stood a small child wearing the white dress from her dreams, her childhood. It hadn’t been her wearing the snowy dress in her dream. It was this little girl.

Sara was overcome, the stairwell spinning. She fell downward towards the little girl. Light turned to blackness. Isabelle had come back.

It Follows

SOMETHING I JUST WROTE FOR U!....."The pain of the rocks beneath my bare feet had become a numb tingle. Whatever had been chasing me was gone or had stopped moving. "Its" steps were heavy and had drown out my own. I had to keep moving. The direction didnt matter. I only wanted to move quickly away from my last step. I was afraid of being caught and what that would mean and I was afraid of what my feet might look like after sprinting across the sharp gravel for such a long period of time......I've been walking for what seems like an hour now. The sun is rising. That is some comfort. New day and all I guess and the shadows dancing away to play another day. I finally stop and look back for the first time and there hovering in the air is the creature. It has been flying behind me this whole time. I guess it got tired of running after me. I guess it doesnt want to wait another day to play."

Ollie Onion

"Mom. Why do onions make people cry?" asked Ollie Onion.
"Because we are onions dear", said mom.
"I don't want to make people cry mom, " said Ollie Onion.
"But that is what we do ," said mom.
"So if I don't make people cry, does that mean I am not an onion."
"Don't worry sweetie, when the time comes, you will make others cry and you will be great at it, just like your father and his father," said Ollie Onion's mom.
"Oh, I'm not worried about it mom, maybe I just wont make anyone cry, maybe I will make them smile. Who knows maybe I will make them laugh," replied Ollie.
Mommy onions mouth popped open and she let out a big gasp. "Oh no Ollie! That isn't allowed. We are never supposed to make anyone smile and certainly not laugh. You shouldn't say such things. An onion making someone laugh. That would bring great shame to our family and the Onion Community."
"If I can't make others happy, then I don't want to be an onion anymore. I'd rather be a tomato or corn." Ollie ran away from his mom just as she was fainting.
Ollie ran and ran across the huge garden where he lived. He knew he wasn't supposed to leave the onion area. Onions kept to themselves for the most part. They didn't get along with the other veggies.
He spent the whole afternoon just exploring the garden and meeting and talking to all the friendly veggies. He asked everyone he met the same thing. "If I stop being an onion, then what can I be?"
Russell Sprouts told Ollie he could become a teacher like he was and he could shape and mold all the young seedlings that grow and live in the garden.
Zander Lee didn't know what to tell Ollie but he did say being a tomato wasn't all that exciting. He should know he said. He had been one as long as he could remember.
Paw Tato said he should be himself and be be whatever he wanted to be but that at the very least, he would always be an onion.
Tom A. Tow told Ollie that he should be a comedienne.
"What's a comedienne?" asked Ollie. "It is someone who tells jokes and makes others smile and laugh, " said Tom.
"That sounds fun," said Ollie. "But I don't know any jokes".
"I have an idea. Ask all the new friends you have made today, if they know any jokes you could use and make up a few of your own and then we will have a comedy show. We can invite the whole garden. See if you can get your friends and family to come."
"Maybe it will change their minds about letting you choose to be who you want to be."
Ollie loved the idea of being a comedienne. It's just what he wanted to be. He knew his parents and the other onions would not be happy. Onions make people cry and that is that. Ollie thought that if he could just change his parents minds, then maybe, just maybe, he could change the others and that would be a good thing.
Ollie spent the next week collecting and writing jokes. His family and a few of the other onions agreed to come and see Ollie's show but they made it clear it would only be for this one time and that they are not happy about this nonsense of him being a comedienne.
The day of the show finally arrived. Word had spread about the show, not just in the garden but throughout the farm.
Veggies, farm animals and even Farmer Brown came to see this Ollie Onion that everyone was talking about.
"Afternoon everyone. Good to see you all. Thanks to Farmer Brown for planting us here in this beautiful garden. Get ready to have your funny seeds tickled. Making his debut here here in the garden, an onion who needs no introduction."
"Then how will we know who he is?" asked Grump Pea.
"Oh right!" said Tom A. Tow.
"Here he is, the one and only Ollie Onion!".
Ollie was very nervous as he stood at the top of a potato mound. Everyone clapped politely. Everyone, except the onions, who looked like they would rather be chopped than be here.
"Thank you for coming today," Ollie said, clearing his throat.
"Why did the chicken cross the road?" asked Ollie.
"To get to the other side so he wouldn't have to listen to you," shouted one of the roosters, making all the animals laugh. Ollie took a deep breathe and looked straight at the rooster. "Why did the rooster run away?
"I don't know," replied the rooster.
"Because he was chicken," answered Ollie.
The animals continued to laugh but now the veggies joined in.
"I better move on to another subject. I don't want to be known as a comedihen".
Ollie really had their attention now.
"What is green and can jump a mile a minute?" asked Ollie. A grasshopper with hiccups was his reply.
"What did one tomato say to the other?" asked Ollie.
"I don't know," said Tom A. Tow. "What did he say?".
"He said you go ahead and I will ketchup."
Tom rolled onto his back and was holding his sides.
"How do you fix a cracked pumpkin? A pumpkin patch of course."
The farmyard was filled with laughter. Everyone was enjoying themselves. Everyone except the onions who just sat and stared.
He told joke after joke. Veggies were rolling around between the rows. The animals were jumping around and having the best time. Ollie even made milk come out of one of the cow's nose.
Still nothing from the onions.
"I'm glad everyone is having fun," said Ollie looking straight at his parents. "I was a little nervous when I first came out. I was afraid you might laugh."
"I decided not to make any jokes about Farmer Brown. I like water and fertilizer too much. Seriously though, Farmer Brown's a great man. He is always outstanding in his field. Thank you very much. I'm Ollie Onion.
The whole farmyard stood on their feet and applauded Ollie. Farmer Brown was slapping his knee. The chickens were clucking it up. Tom A. Tow gave Ollie the thumbs up. Paw Tato was as proud as he could be of his new little friend.
Ollie's parents noticed how much fun everyone was having and they didn't know what to think. They loved Ollie very much and wanted him to have a good life. Then Ollie's mom noticed something. Her eyes darted from one veggies face to another. Then she looked at the farm animals and finally at Farmer Brown. It was an interesting thing she noticed. She leaned over and said something to Ollie's dad. Ollie noticed something was happening. Then Ollie's dad looked around at all the faces. Then both of Ollie's parents looked at him and smiled. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. He smiled back and his day was complete. But what changed their minds? Sometimes in life you can get to the same point by traveling a different road. Everyone in the farmyard had been laughing so hard, tears were streaming down their faces. Ollie had made more cry at once than any onion in history. The word spread throughout the Onion Community. The onions started looking at things differently. They started talking with the other veggies and life was never the same for them. Ollie Onion had changed their world with laughter and that was a good thing.