Pennywise  

Imogen Jackson

Benjamin Chandler

Jacob Sherman

Sean King

Perdy Gallop

Sam Becker

English

A knock hits the door, making Clarice freeze. "House keeping!" With gallons of sweat pouring down her neck, she shouts "Go away!" and continues scrubbing. As she does, she sobs in agony, for the blood that pools in the bathtub has stained her pretty blue dress.

She'd woken up like this, she wasn't sure how. Her pretty blue dress was now a crimson red, stained and tarnished by lack of recollection and sought after memories. Ears ringing, she tried to block out the banging on the door, persistent drumming echoing her hollow skull.

"If you don't open this door—" howled a voice from the other side, but she wasn't listening anymore. A nearby window leaked pale moonlight into the room. She opened it & saw the drop to the ground wasn't too far. As the door burst open, she leaped from the window & into the night

below. “Here’s Johnny!” the voice yelled, but it was too late. She had escaped. She ran as far away from the house as possible, not looking back. She ran through the woods in the middle of the night, the moonlight filtering through. She needed to survive. To make it.

She ran onto her street, towards her house, but ran right past it. She kept going, running onto Main Street then out of town. When dawn broke, she was 7 miles outside of town. “All that cardio is really paying off”, she said aloud.

She felt immediately self-conscious, as she noticed a squat pasty man in his 60s sitting on a bench at the bus stop in a heavy herringbone coat. He stared at her, slowly eating his cruller.

"You young," he began without taking his eyes off his pastry, "limit your lives trying to look cool." He reached into his pocket. "Here, have a donut hole and stop caring what others think." She paused, slouched back, accepted the treat, and thought: I am ready to change.

Jelly Plasma Tweed Cardio Cruller

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Kara Camit

During his third night out of town, a travelling businessman discovers a voodoo doll in his hotel room.

A voodoo doll? On his bed? Strange. He didn’t recall putting that there. But look, there’s a note! It said, “Have fun with it now, I know how lonely you can get when you’re away from home — Love, Eileen” The businessman made sure to lock the hotel door and drew the curtains shut.

The voodoo doll had no distinguishing features. Its eyes and mouth were just paint, wearing off. It wore no clothes, had no fingers, ears, or smaller bits. "Well," he said, "Let's see." He pinched the doll's bottom. He felt nothing. The doll was for someone else, but who? Eileen?

Despite the doll's antique features, it felt unsettling. His eyes flickered over the emptiness where there should be fingers. Replaced was a single orange leg, then another, then another. A centipede slithered out territorial of this doll, as if protecting her, or him, from her.

“Oh, hey, buggy bro! With all those legs you must be great at popping and locking! Here, I’ll go first.” Then I busted a move right out of there post haste.

Voodoo Inn

I know there's blood. I can feel it trickling down my leg. Don't look. Keep your eyes up. But naturally, my gaze starts to wander down my leg. A hole the size of a quarter and a fountain of glistening red is there to meet me. In shock, I begin to choke on my breaths.

My vision starts to fade.

I wake up in an unfamiliar room, my head pounding. There’s a single dim lamp, and a window with the blinds shut. I’m laying in a cot, my head on a throw pillow and a red blanket laying over me. I try to sit up but can’t.

My leg! I suddenly remember-

“Hey you, you’re finally awake,” a man greeted me, “Do you know why you’re here?” “No, I don’t quite remember… but my leg, why can’t I move my leg?” “It’s gone,” he replied, “Your leg is gone. Now, what is 9 + 10?” “Twenty on-“ “Wrong! The answer is nineteen eighty four.”

"I don't understand, I have—" I was cut off, both metaphorically and literally with my leg, by this man, or at least I think he was a man. His face was torn and shredded like a cat's scratching post. There was something resembling a beard underneath coats of grease and oil.

“Ssssssilenccce, human! I demand sssilence! You must be quiet now!” The greasy man hissed. “OK I am”, I said. “You jussst ssspoke!”, he said. “Just to say that I’m being quiet, though”, I said. “Then you’re not sssilent! I DEMAND SSSSILENCCCE!”

I nodded vigorously, hoping he couldn't hear my head shake or my heart slamming against my ribs in fear. Slowly the greasy man's skin split from forehead to chin. From it slithered the largest python anyone had ever seen. "Better," the snake said, uncoiling with a satisfied sigh.

I pulled a dagger from the discarded man's robe just as the snake encircled my waist. I thought I was done for until I remembered the copious grease. I used it—and all my strength—to slip from its grip. The wet serpent crashed to the ground, moments before I fatally struck.

Slithering the Light Fantastic

Zoe Becker

Jerry glanced down at the photograph in his hand, then back up again at the woman sitting alone at the back of the cafe.

There was a vague recollection of deja vu but he couldn't place it - she had some similarity to the photo, and yet it was a completely different person.

All at once a blinding light coursed through the space. Jerry and the woman froze. And then a creature appeared, seemingly from the air itself.

It looked like it was from a storybook: large almost begging eyes, pulsating tentacles, warts covering it's... It made him want to vomit.

Imogen Jackson
@imogenjackson

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