Saturday 4 September 2010

Mrs. Jenny Matlock's Saturday Centus: Week 18 - It was a Dark and Stormy Night

Jenny Matlock

Mrs. Jenny Matlock's Saturday Centus: Week 18
- (With an extra 100 words at the bottom of this post!)

This is a themed writing meme.

You can use UP to 100 words (not including the prompt) to tell your story. It can be fact or fiction. The only restrictions are: The prompt must be left intact AND you cannot split up the words in the prompt.

WEEK 18 PROMPT

It was a dark and stormy night.


It was a dark and stormy night. The lights went out, and I was alone with just my cat. The howling wind rattled and whistled through the old wood frame house. As if I were blind, I groped in the darkness to find the cupboard where I knew I kept the emergency flashlight, candles and matches. Lightning flashed and I saw that the cupboard was bare. Who has done* this? I asked myself as thunder roared outside. The cat meowed loudly out of fright, and I turned around and saw...


Best wishes,
Anna

P.S. Scroll down to another 100 words!

First Commenter: Terra of
sittingonanoak


*P.S. Sorry about my verb forms!

By popular demand, I am writing 100 more words:

...the glare of headlights. I could see them through the kitchen window. Someone is coming up the drive. Who could that be? At two in the morning? My nearest neighbours live miles from here. I heard a car engine stop. My cat weaved nervously around my ankles. I heard footfalls first crunching on the gravel drive and then on the wooden porch. The door bell was not working. Someone rapped mightily on the old wooden screen door. As my kitty hopped up and perched on my shoulders digging her claws into my knitted woolen sweater, I called, 'Who is it?'


32 Comments:

Terra said...

Oh Anna, when my fingers first hit the keyboard this morning I was banging out something very similar to this chill tale you tell. THen I backspaced it all and put my head somewhere else completely! I am glad you posted this...I love the suspense the feelings...

Unknown said...

Way to leave us hanging! I think the cat is in on it. Can never trust cats. LOL!

Unknown said...

@Terra
Ah Terra, There's room for lots of gloom and doom here! Can't you post you first thought as a little 'PeeEss'??? I would love to read it too!
I was just glad that Deckside-Cheryl had a humourous take on this.
Pretty please, include you gloomy suspense text too.
It is probably BETTER than mine!
Hugs,
Anna
------
@5thsister
Hi Polly,
Good thought. You mean the cat is just feigning freight?
Hugs,
Anna

Cheryl said...

I loved that you left us hanging. Great job.

Funny thing is I'd never have thought to go with suspense or gloom with this. It's such a funny line to me. All I can think of is Snoopy on his doghouse.

Jenners said...

Aaaaaaahhhhhhh! The Scary Flashlight Thief Strikes Again!!

Love the ending!

Koby said...

WHAT... What did you see??? Ohh, I want more.

Unknown said...

@Jenners
Hi Jenners,
Thank you. That is so funny! Thief indeed! It is something even more sinister!!! Read the next comment:

------

@Koby
Hi Koby,
Believe me. You don't really want to know. Have you ever read anything by Stephen King? It's something just horrible, something that Stephen King would dream up or see in a nightmare!

Best wishes,
Anna

jeff campbell said...

Well done...of course I want to know what was there?? Please...Peace

Unknown said...

@Jenners
Hi Jenners,
I have left a comment on your post, if you don't mind I am posting some of it here:

I don't know whether to laugh or cry.
I don't feel that the line 'It was a dark and stormy night' is as hackneyed as the rest of you seem to feel. It still has a freshness to me because I have lived so long outside of the English-speaking world. I still have something of a child's perception of the English language.
I could cry because this means that no matter what I write it is trite!
Or laugh.

Best wishes,
Anna

Unknown said...

@Jeff Campbell
Hi Jeff,
I left a comment on your post.
If I may I would like to post part of it here:

I spent the morning reading about the Brontë sisters before I even knew were going to get this wonderful gloom&doom prompt! Love it!
You would like to know what my protagainist saw? I haven't the foggiest what she saw. (I'm still struggling with getting everything spelled right!) Maybe you could shed some light on the matter?
An UFO? A monster? A tax-
collector?
Hugs,
Anna

jeff campbell said...

Perhaps what was there is better left to the imagination...as for the prompt being hackneyed...only may seem so...yet look where it leads us...it lead me to a place where I reside...

As for your use of language...actually quite good...

Viki said...

Very good Centus. I loved the suspense.

Bookie said...

Nice suspense for this week...

jfb57 said...

Fantastic post! Really atmosperic!You'll have to write the rest though!

Ann said...

I can feel the chill up my spine. I'm afraid to turn around to see just what it was that was hiding in the darkness. I do hope you'll continue with the story.

Lourie said...

Okay I just swallowed my gum! Yeah you did good! Don't worry about verb form. I always mess that up too...and don't even get me started with spelling.

Tina said...

Hejsan igen! Detta var valdigt bra. Jag laste att du tycker at din Engelska inte ar sa vuxen, men det har du fel. Jag skulle aldrig gissa at du var Svensk fran vad du skriver. Du ar hemskt duktig! Sakert pa Svenska ocksa!
Tina

linda said...

OOOOOH! spooky creep! or is it creepy spook? which ever, great story and the dangle is driving me goofy, give us a hint!

Susan Anderson said...

Biting my fingernails here...

=)

Jenny said...

Anna! You come back here right this minute and don't leave me hanging.

It is the middle of the night and I have insomnia and now I'm scared, too!

Cool use of the prompt! Loved this little story.

Thank you for linking.

People Who Know Me Would Say: said...

You could easily write a 2nd chapter for this one! Nice job!

Tgoette said...

That was very cool, Anna! I love a suspenseful Centus! I hope we get to hear what happens next in a future Centus. We're all on the edge of our seats here! Great job!

Unknown said...

I, for one, am glad you have kitty for protection. Yet you still leave us hanging and hungering for more! You are good!

Viki said...

The second Centus was just as suspenseful but who is it LOL?

Jenners said...

If you keep going with this, you'll have a novel in no time!

Cheryl said...

Left hanging twice? Are you insane?

Don't answer that. I'd rather use my imagination.

Malisa said...

Wow, you could do multiple 100 word additions to your story! I would really appreciate another 100 words now. Don't tell me those headlights belong to the evil sheriff who is a secret mass murderer! Let them belong to a kindly widow from church bringing over some homemade jelly! :)

I just posted two assignments on one post! I'm bad, but visit me anyway!

Malisa

Unknown said...

Forgive me for hopping over a few of you nice people. I will reply to every who leaves comment. I just thought I would save this comment that I left on Malisa's blog:

Love your stories!
Thanks for visiting my 'cliff-hanger' SC-post.
I am thinking about writing another 100 words and revealing who knocked on the door. But that still leaves us with the mystery of why the flashlight, candles and matches are gone from the cupboard and also why the lights went out.
We have still to see whether or not the telephone is in working order!
Thank you for your moral support. It is really fun/great/necessary to have bloggy-friends that are also biten by the wannabe-writer-bug. We need to cheer each other on.

And, you, Malisa, really have a wild imagination. I may need some help from you, since I usually think in such a humdrum manner.

Don't worry about being late. I am CONSTANTLY late! Do what you can, that's all.

Best wishes,
Anna

Kat said...

Great suspense Anna! But I really need to know who was at the door :) Another 100 words please! Sorry I'm late, but I just posted mine. I try not to read any of the stories until I'm done with mine, so I don't change direction. Kat

RockiBottom said...

I really like that you went with the eerie and mysterious take on the prompt. You did it well.

~Lissa said...

Oooh creepy! I love the open ending! It really sent my mind wandering, wondering who could it be and what would happen. Good job.

Tina said...

very spooky. there is something about animals sensing danger that makes it all that more eerie doesent it. shiver!

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