Week 20 something paragraph contest.

[ponytail]

Don't know how many weeks we've done this for sure! I really enjoy writing and reading everyone's paragraphs, I'm so glad we are still doing this. With that said, here is the new sentence:

Scritch, scratch...it was just a faint sound, but oddly disturbing.

[LindaM]

Scritch, scratch...it was just a faint sound, but oddly disturbing.  I couldn't quite determine where it was.  Sitting in a classroom building but no where near a classroom, it couldn't be chalk on a chalkboard could it?  No -- we only have white erase board markers.  Scritch, scratch!  There it goes again!  I know it is an old building but it couldn't be mice.  We have never had those, have we.  I can't take it anymore.  I get up from my desk and go to the hall.  There are 20 students coming down the hall with a game.  And the noise the game makes:  scritch, scratch as they pass the device down the row of students.

[trouble405]

Scritch, scratch...it was just a faint sound, but oddly disturbing. Amanda sat up straight and muted the television.  She had put the Miller children to bed over an hour before and was watching TV waiting for the parents to return home from an evening of dinner and dancing.  She listened intently and heard it again!  Scritch, scratch.  What was that sound?  And from where was it coming?  Amanda quietly looked in on both children to confirm they were still sleeping soundly. As she neared the door to the basement, the sound got a little louder.  Yes, it was definitely coming from that area. Scritch, scratch  -- Scritch, scratch.  Her hand trembled as she reached for the glass door knob.  Her heart was pounding.  At that moment she heard a tiny muffled meow. Then she heard more tiny sounds.  As she opened the basement door she saw them.  Newborn kittens!!! The Miller's sweet basement mouser had babies!!! 

[Snowbird]

Scritch, scratch...it was just a faint sound, but oddly disturbing.  It was the second time she heard the noise, but the first time it only lasted a moment.  Now it had continued for at least ten minutes and it seemed to be coming from the basement.  It couldn't be him.  She had felt his pulse before she closed up the wall in the little room in the corner.  She had not been strong enough to dig a hole in the hard dirt to bury him since he had deprived her of enough food to sustain her strength.  If ever there had been a man worth killing it was her husband Herman.  He was an evil man, keeping her locked up with little food when he was away and keeping her chained to him when he was home.  She crept down into the dark, damp basement and walked to the wall that hid his body.  The scratching was louder.  "Herman, is that you?" she asked.  "Please let me out of here. Paula, I'm hungry.  I promise you I'll be better if you will just take down this wall." he said in a weakened whisper she could barely understand.  "I thought you were dead," she told him.  "But maybe it is better that you aren't.  Now you can die slowly and I think I will enjoy listening to your desperate scratching as long as it last."   

[Outlast]

Scritch, scratch...it was just a faint sound, but oddly disturbing. On the whole, she had to admit that spending a night in a haunted house hadn't been her best idea ever. She probably would've been better off tackling her anxiety issues the old fashioned way... with drugs. Anyway sleep clearly wasn't in the cards so she switched on her flashlight, the one source of light she'd been issued and re-opened the glossy brochure she'd gotten in the mail, 'Are you scared of the dark?' it asked, accompanied by a cartoon of a terrified child huddling under its bed sheets, 'Come to Murder Manner and conquer your fears and anxieties...' Right, she muttered, and gain a whole set of fun new nightmares while you're at it. She read on about the man who'd abused and starved his wife until she'd suddenly snapped and walled him up alive behind a brick wall in their basement and how she'd sit down there knitting in time to his faint scritch scratch scritch...when suddenly her batteries started to fail. The bright light went dim and then out and the disturbing scratching sound returned, this time louder and more distinct. Scritch, scratch... scritch, scratch... scritch, scratch... the sounds were as regular as clockwork as they echoed down the dark halls. She hoped it was just a recording the tour guides piped through to keep the scare seekers happy. But a recording couldn't explain the warm breath she was suddenly feeling on her neck and she could swear the scratching was now mixed with the click clack click of knitting needles...


 

[trouble405]

                     

[ponytail]

The winner of this week's paragraph contest is.....Outlast. Thanks for a very scary paragraph! Please put up another sentence for us!

[Outlast]

Thank you Ponytail!

I feel like I should share the prize with Snowbird since I re-wrote my paragraph to work off of hers when I read it just before I posted mine. So thanks for walling up 'Herman' Snowbird! It really made my paragraph. 


New paragraph below...

The scientist's wife looked warily at her son. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but something was very wrong with her baby...

[ponytail]

The scientist's wife looked warily at her daughter. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but something was very wrong with her baby...Her little girl's skin was too smooth, her cheeks too rosy. Those fingernails...too blunt, and that hair...too fine and curly. She picked her up as the small one began to cry and hushed it with her crooning buzz. Something was wrong with her baby's voice. There was no hum to it, no deepness, no vibration. She carefully traced her cheek with one long claw, and watched as the baby turned her face to look at her with her round brown eyes. Really now, where had those come from, hers were golden, and they had a slit pupil, not a round one. Ktudeksyityh sighed, and gathered her newborn to her carapace.

[Snowbird]

The scientist's wife looked warily at her son. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but something was very wrong with her baby boy.  The ears seemed a little higher up on his head than they should be and there was a subtle bit of fuzz on his face.  Oh well, probably her imagination.  After all, he was the first born and she knew that as a new mother she was probably over anxious.  She laid him in his crib and tip-toed out of the room.  Her husband was already asleep and snoring loudly as she entered their bedroom.  This was a good time to sneak down into the basement where he had his lab.  He never allowed her to go there but she often did when he was sound asleep to look at all the strange things in the test tubes.  She slipped silently down the stairs and looked around.  There was a large rat in a cage she had never seen before.  It looked a little odd as the ears seemed to be on the side of its head.  When she awoke the next morning she was surprised that she had not heard a sound from the nursery.  Usually her little boy was crying for his bottle.  She walked toward the nursery door and placed her hand on the knob.  What a strange noise she heard?  It went "squeak, squeak, squeak".

[trouble405]

The scientist's wife looked warily at her son. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but something was very wrong with her baby. Mary and her husband had tried for years to conceive without success.  Living in a remote location with no access to other human beings made it impossible to go to a fertility specialist so her husband had decided they would attempt invitro in their own lab. There had been many attempts that failed previously but finally everything seemed to go right!  But now, 10 weeks since her precious baby boy was successfully delivered something was off.  There was the beginning of a soft furry substance covering his skin. And his eyes - they started out a beautiful dark blue but now they were getting darker and darker so you almost could not see the pupil anymore.  If she didn't know better she would think the baby was part ape!  But that was preposterous!!! Her husband would never experiment with her eggs!  Or would he???

[Outlast]

The scientist's wife looked warily at her son. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but something was very wrong with her baby... it wasn't glaringly obvious, her husband certainly hadn't noticed anything, but their baby simply wasn't acting the way they'd programmed it to. The Babybot 3000 was supposed to be the perfect baby; it would coo and burble when held properly, laugh at all your jokes and sleep peacefully upon lullaby command and all without spit-up, dirty diapers or growing up and leaving you. Sure it did ALL those things, but there was just something underneath it all that she couldn't quite put her finger on. The way her baby looked at her was just... wrong somehow and she could swear she'd caught glimpses out of the corner of her eye of it walking under its own power, but when she went to check it was always exactly, innocently where it was supposed to be. It thought it had them all fooled! Well, she said, hefting her heaviest wrench, a mother knows best. She entered the nursery.

[Outlast]

I know it's kind of bad form to toss the hot potato right back at the person who gave it to you, but Ponytail... you had me at carapace. Great work this week ladies! 


Ponytail please post the next starting sentence.