Wednesday Writing Blog Hop!
The picture to this week's Wednesday Short Story Blog Hop was a doozie! Creepy, but a doozie. Once again it's Wednesday and I'm writing a little story. Here's the link to Nicole Pyles' Site: HERE .
500 word minimum, a week to complete the story, must post to Nicole's website, must use the picture (above) and must use five randomly chosen words. The five words for this week's picture are:
Zip
Hymn
Computer
False Teeth
Peacock
Caffeine Cure...
The drone from Larry’s bald tires on the lonely road created an automotive hypnotic hymn as the tired entertainer drove to his next gig 100 miles away. His last show in Studderville, a town so small it lacked even its own zip code, proved less than stellar. Something in his act was broken and had been for a while. He’d fix it if he knew what was wrong, but he didn’t know what was wrong, and that was the worst part.
His aging Chevy continued through the darkened back roads under a waning moon. Larry’s head began to dip…once, then twice as fatigue seeped into the car from the warm summer night.
“Hey! Idiot! Keep your eyes on the road!” Larry’s head snapped to attention as a rush of adrenalin coursed through his veins. “What the…?” Larry said to himself as he turned to look at the interior of the car to find the source of the phantom voice. His gaze confirmed what he already knew. He was alone, except for Jack and Jill, the two mannequins he used for his ventriloquist act. Their expressionless faces continued staring straight ahead, their painted black eyes and whitened false teeth remained fixed, immobile, dead as the light from the car’s dashboard illuminated their features in a ghostly macabre hue.
“What was that?” Larry asked himself. “Must be the fact I haven’t slept in 2 days—no wonder I’m hearing things…I need caffeine.” Larry scanned the winding road and saw nothing but aging tarmac. “Maybe I can make it to Peacock Falls before…”
“You’ll never make it! You’re going to kill us all!”
Larry slammed on the breaks causing two tons of steal, rubber, and plastic to screech to a halt. A half-eaten hamburger, his cell phone, and Larry’s laptop computer flew from the passenger front seat
and landed in a heap on the floor. With a jolt the car came to rest diagonally in the empty road. Larry’s knuckles turned white as he gripped the car’s steering wheel. Crickets lazily chirped outside the car while inside a petrified man heard neither the crickets nor the purring of the car’s engine as the deafening sound of his own rapid heartbeat pounded in his ears. That voice, it was different. It came
from someone—something—else…it was a girl’s voice. Not daring to turn around Larry glanced into the rearview mirror. Jack and Jill were gone.
The trembling began in Larry’s shoulders and continued down his arms until they reached his hands causing his still clutching fingers to finally release the steering wheel. His left hand still shook
as he clumsily grasped the door handle and opened the driver’s side door. Larry began to walk, then run down the street, screaming at the top of his lungs as he frantically ran away, leaving the diminished moonlight to filter through the car’s rear window and fall upon two wooden dummies that had slumped onto the backseat floor of the car.
His aging Chevy continued through the darkened back roads under a waning moon. Larry’s head began to dip…once, then twice as fatigue seeped into the car from the warm summer night.
“Hey! Idiot! Keep your eyes on the road!” Larry’s head snapped to attention as a rush of adrenalin coursed through his veins. “What the…?” Larry said to himself as he turned to look at the interior of the car to find the source of the phantom voice. His gaze confirmed what he already knew. He was alone, except for Jack and Jill, the two mannequins he used for his ventriloquist act. Their expressionless faces continued staring straight ahead, their painted black eyes and whitened false teeth remained fixed, immobile, dead as the light from the car’s dashboard illuminated their features in a ghostly macabre hue.
“What was that?” Larry asked himself. “Must be the fact I haven’t slept in 2 days—no wonder I’m hearing things…I need caffeine.” Larry scanned the winding road and saw nothing but aging tarmac. “Maybe I can make it to Peacock Falls before…”
“You’ll never make it! You’re going to kill us all!”
Larry slammed on the breaks causing two tons of steal, rubber, and plastic to screech to a halt. A half-eaten hamburger, his cell phone, and Larry’s laptop computer flew from the passenger front seat
and landed in a heap on the floor. With a jolt the car came to rest diagonally in the empty road. Larry’s knuckles turned white as he gripped the car’s steering wheel. Crickets lazily chirped outside the car while inside a petrified man heard neither the crickets nor the purring of the car’s engine as the deafening sound of his own rapid heartbeat pounded in his ears. That voice, it was different. It came
from someone—something—else…it was a girl’s voice. Not daring to turn around Larry glanced into the rearview mirror. Jack and Jill were gone.
The trembling began in Larry’s shoulders and continued down his arms until they reached his hands causing his still clutching fingers to finally release the steering wheel. His left hand still shook
as he clumsily grasped the door handle and opened the driver’s side door. Larry began to walk, then run down the street, screaming at the top of his lungs as he frantically ran away, leaving the diminished moonlight to filter through the car’s rear window and fall upon two wooden dummies that had slumped onto the backseat floor of the car.
