midnight writer
01-23-2012, 06:25 AM
I have always enjoyed writing somewhat morbid short stories that explore the darker side of humanity and that is exactly what this story is about. It is the first one I have written in a while and any constructive criticism would be welcomed and appreciated! Thanks for taking the time to read this.
A Prank to Remember
By Stephen Clark
With all of the recent headlines about an escaped convict splashed across the front page of every local newspaper, the group of high school seniors knew exactly what their prank was going to be. They wanted to exit high school with a bang and to leave their mark on a town which seemed to pride itself in being one of the most boring and mundane places on earth, at least to the teenagers who lived there. They decided that they were going to use the recent escape of a multiple murderer who was believed to still be in the area to their advantage.
“There’s been another murder”, Tanya said as she carefully read through the newspaper article on the front page with a look on her face that suggested she was pleased with herself about something.
“Who was it?” Mark asked, wolfing down a slice of pizza.
“It was a high school student in the next town over. They found his body on the football field. He was stabbed to death.” Tanya kept reading through the article with amazement.
“Sick!” Tom said with a disgusted laugh.
“Guys, are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Tanya looked around at the three seniors sitting at the table, her bright green eyes as wide as saucers.
“What are you talking about?” Mark said with a look of utter confusion that seemed to reflect that of everyone else at the table.
“I can’t imagine a more perfect idea for a senior prank!” Tanya exclaimed as she slammed the newspaper down on the cafeteria table. It’s perfect!”
“Isn’t this going a little too far?” Mark said, lines of hesitation quickly spreading across his face as he stared at the headline of the newspaper in front of the group which read “Multiple Murderer Escapes from Belledale Prison”.
“No way, this is exactly what we have been looking for. Everyone is going to be freaked. They’ll be talking about this for years after we graduate.” The devious smile on Tanya’s face wasn’t fazed by the look of concern some of her fellow seniors weren’t trying very hard to hide.
“So who is going to be the victim?” Tom asked, scanning the faces of his three classmates, hoping one of them would offer to take on the role of the sacrificial lamb.
For a few moments it seemed as if the entire cafeteria at BelleDale High School had gone silent, the four seniors exchanging looks that were a mixture of excitement and reluctance. Then suddenly Jeffrey, a seventeen year old with short brown hair, thick-rimmed glasses, and a pale complexion stood up.
“I’ll do it. I mean if nobody else wants to that is.”
“Are you sure, Jeffrey?” Tanya asked, her maniacal grin growing even wider at the prospect of such an eager volunteer.
“Yeah, it’s my chance to be noticed. Unless I do this, everyone is going to remember me as the dorky chess club guy.”
“But what if you get in trouble?” Mark’s look of concern seemed to transfer onto Jeffrey’s facial features.
“It’s a chance I’m willing to take”, Jeffrey said after a few seconds of intense contemplation. “Anyway, what are they going to do, not let me finish school? It’s less than a week until the graduation ceremony.” His look of worry quickly turned to nonchalance as he sat back down with his friends to finish eating his lunch.
“So then it’s decided”, Tom said with a look on his face that seemed to mimic Tanya’s perfectly.
“Come on, Mark. Get into the spirit of things a little!” Tanya gave his arm a playful shove as she took a bite of her mashed potatoes from the vomit-colored tray.
Mark remained silent, only looking over at Tanya with a disapproving stare and then back to his food, grumbling something inaudible under his breath.
“My cousin is going for special effects in film school”, Tanya said. “She can help us turn Jeffrey into the perfect murder victim. This school isn’t going to know what hit them tomorrow morning when everyone comes pouring through the front door to see his lifeless bloody corpse.” Tanya’s fiendish gaze pierced the air, her eyes growing wide and bright with the thought of such a terrible and enduring prank.
Jeffrey shoveled another mountain of mashed potatoes into his mouth, completely absent from the elaborate and morbid symphony being put together by Tanya and the others at the table. Even though Mark wasn’t in lockstep with the rest of them concerning the prank, he agreed to help anyway.
After spending several hours preparing Jeffrey for the epic prank, they put the final grisly touch on what would soon be as close to a murder victim as possible. With red corn syrup covering his torso and a torn up button-down shirt, they were ready to whisk him away to the high school before any students or staff members had a chance to get there, staging the macabre tableau for all to see in the large empty cafeteria.
Tanya and Jeffrey walked side by side, the crisp autumn night engulfing the two as they walked down the residential street which lead directly to the school. Hoping nobody would notice them, they picked up their pace and the tall ominous building came into view. They surreptitiously entered in through an unlocked window on the south end of the school, sliding into Ms. Swanson’s math class. Confident that nobody had spotted them, the two began walking down to the cafeteria where Jeffrey would lie in wait for the murderous scene to be discovered by the entire student body.
“Are you sure you want to do this? Tanya suddenly stopped dead in her tracks, looking Jeffrey in the eyes.
“Absolutely. I want to be remembered by everyone here. Forever.”
Tanya flashed her mischievous smirk and took a small tube out of her pants pocket to apply some last minute corn syrup to one of the open wounds on his chest. “Now lie down and don’t make a sound. The best is yet to come.”
Jeffrey took a deep breath and lay down on the cold tile floor, closing his eyes and preparing to be immortalized in what would go down in Belledale history as the most memorable prank ever executed on behalf of the senior class.
The next day the three seniors who had conspired to dupe their entire student body eagerly awaited the reaction to their masterpiece as they exited the school bus. Once they had stepped foot onto the curb in front of the building they could already hearing the buzzing of students and faculty members frantically shuffling around, trying to make sense of the grisly scene. Their attention was diverted however by the wail of an ambulance pulling up behind the row of school buses.
“We must have really fooled them” Tanya said with a self-satisfied grin spread across her face as she pointed at the flashing lights across from where they were standing.
“I bet you someone had a heart attack when they saw Jeffrey and that’s why they had to send an ambulance.” Tom looked at Tanya and Mark with a smile as they opened the front door to the building.
Mark look worried as he dashed through the front doors of the school to see how everything had played out.
“He’s really dead!” A blonde-haired girl with a look of sheer terror on her face shrieked.
The three seniors pushed their way through the crowd of students which surrounded Jeffrey who was lying on the floor positioned exactly as he had been when Tanya had left just a few short hours ago. Upon closer examination though, the three students could see that all of the fake slash marks and wounds had been replaced by real ones with a pool of blood having accumulated around his lifeless body, now void of any color. Trying not to draw attention to themselves, the group of students slowly backed away from Jeffrey’s body as if they were each in an unbreakable trance.
“This cannot be happening” Mark said, choking on his own breath as he tried to make sense of the surreal situation.
“How the hell did this happen?” Tom looked over to Tanya who had pools of tears collecting in her eyes with the same look of shock that the two others shared.
“I have no idea! When I left him he was fine. Someone must have followed us to the school and…”
“What? Waited till you left and murdered him? That’s ridiculous!” Mark shouted.
Tanya looked up at her two fellow classmates and ran down the long hallway to the right of where they were standing, swinging her backpack over her shoulder and seeking refuge in the girl’s bathroom at the very end.
“I’ll be right back guys,” Mark said to his friends as he ran after her.
Given the gravity of the situation at hand, Mark had no qualms whatsoever about barging into the girl’s bathroom. He stepped foot inside the spacious lavatory, seeing no one at first. Mark heard the muffled sounds of frantic rummaging behind one of the stall doors and stopped dead in his tracks to listen more carefully. “Hello?” he called out into the empty air.
“Mark? Is that you? What the hell are you doing in here?” Tanya said as if she was struggling to hold back a flood of tears.
“I wanted to make sure you are okay. Come on out. Please.”
“The stall door swung open to reveal a distraught Tanya. She held a piece of Kleenex up to her bloodshot eyes to pat away the dampness of her tears.
Tanya picked up her backpack up from the floor when Mark went to grab it out of her hands. “Here, I’ll carry this to class for you.”
As Tanya struggled to get it back from him it fell back to the ground, its contents spilling out all over the cold black and white tile floor.
“Oh I’m sorry, Tanya,” Mark muttered as he began to help her collect the scattered items and put them back into the bag. Suddenly Mark spotted something peculiar which managed to make its way from Tanya’s purse to underneath a neighboring stall door. He opened the door to see a mysterious object wrapped in an old brown rag. Slowly approaching the covered object, he bent down and picked it up with his right hand. The old tattered material unfolded as did a look of pure terror on Mark’s face as he quickly realized what it was.
Mark stared down at a long hunting knife covered in a crimson liquid that shimmered in the light that poured through the windows. His eyes grew wide as he stared down at the object, darting over to Tanya who had her arms folded at her chest, looking over at him with an expression that he couldn’t quite place.
Mark picked up the knife by its black handle, feeling the cold leather texture in his hand. He raised it up and pointed it accusingly at Tanya. “What the hell is this?” He demanded of her as he stood across the room, a white-knuckled grip on the knife.
“He said he wanted to be remembered forever, so that’s what I gave him. Nobody will ever forget him now.”
Tanya picked up her bag with most of its contents in it, smiling at Mark once more before disappearing through the door in front of them.
A Prank to Remember
By Stephen Clark
With all of the recent headlines about an escaped convict splashed across the front page of every local newspaper, the group of high school seniors knew exactly what their prank was going to be. They wanted to exit high school with a bang and to leave their mark on a town which seemed to pride itself in being one of the most boring and mundane places on earth, at least to the teenagers who lived there. They decided that they were going to use the recent escape of a multiple murderer who was believed to still be in the area to their advantage.
“There’s been another murder”, Tanya said as she carefully read through the newspaper article on the front page with a look on her face that suggested she was pleased with herself about something.
“Who was it?” Mark asked, wolfing down a slice of pizza.
“It was a high school student in the next town over. They found his body on the football field. He was stabbed to death.” Tanya kept reading through the article with amazement.
“Sick!” Tom said with a disgusted laugh.
“Guys, are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Tanya looked around at the three seniors sitting at the table, her bright green eyes as wide as saucers.
“What are you talking about?” Mark said with a look of utter confusion that seemed to reflect that of everyone else at the table.
“I can’t imagine a more perfect idea for a senior prank!” Tanya exclaimed as she slammed the newspaper down on the cafeteria table. It’s perfect!”
“Isn’t this going a little too far?” Mark said, lines of hesitation quickly spreading across his face as he stared at the headline of the newspaper in front of the group which read “Multiple Murderer Escapes from Belledale Prison”.
“No way, this is exactly what we have been looking for. Everyone is going to be freaked. They’ll be talking about this for years after we graduate.” The devious smile on Tanya’s face wasn’t fazed by the look of concern some of her fellow seniors weren’t trying very hard to hide.
“So who is going to be the victim?” Tom asked, scanning the faces of his three classmates, hoping one of them would offer to take on the role of the sacrificial lamb.
For a few moments it seemed as if the entire cafeteria at BelleDale High School had gone silent, the four seniors exchanging looks that were a mixture of excitement and reluctance. Then suddenly Jeffrey, a seventeen year old with short brown hair, thick-rimmed glasses, and a pale complexion stood up.
“I’ll do it. I mean if nobody else wants to that is.”
“Are you sure, Jeffrey?” Tanya asked, her maniacal grin growing even wider at the prospect of such an eager volunteer.
“Yeah, it’s my chance to be noticed. Unless I do this, everyone is going to remember me as the dorky chess club guy.”
“But what if you get in trouble?” Mark’s look of concern seemed to transfer onto Jeffrey’s facial features.
“It’s a chance I’m willing to take”, Jeffrey said after a few seconds of intense contemplation. “Anyway, what are they going to do, not let me finish school? It’s less than a week until the graduation ceremony.” His look of worry quickly turned to nonchalance as he sat back down with his friends to finish eating his lunch.
“So then it’s decided”, Tom said with a look on his face that seemed to mimic Tanya’s perfectly.
“Come on, Mark. Get into the spirit of things a little!” Tanya gave his arm a playful shove as she took a bite of her mashed potatoes from the vomit-colored tray.
Mark remained silent, only looking over at Tanya with a disapproving stare and then back to his food, grumbling something inaudible under his breath.
“My cousin is going for special effects in film school”, Tanya said. “She can help us turn Jeffrey into the perfect murder victim. This school isn’t going to know what hit them tomorrow morning when everyone comes pouring through the front door to see his lifeless bloody corpse.” Tanya’s fiendish gaze pierced the air, her eyes growing wide and bright with the thought of such a terrible and enduring prank.
Jeffrey shoveled another mountain of mashed potatoes into his mouth, completely absent from the elaborate and morbid symphony being put together by Tanya and the others at the table. Even though Mark wasn’t in lockstep with the rest of them concerning the prank, he agreed to help anyway.
After spending several hours preparing Jeffrey for the epic prank, they put the final grisly touch on what would soon be as close to a murder victim as possible. With red corn syrup covering his torso and a torn up button-down shirt, they were ready to whisk him away to the high school before any students or staff members had a chance to get there, staging the macabre tableau for all to see in the large empty cafeteria.
Tanya and Jeffrey walked side by side, the crisp autumn night engulfing the two as they walked down the residential street which lead directly to the school. Hoping nobody would notice them, they picked up their pace and the tall ominous building came into view. They surreptitiously entered in through an unlocked window on the south end of the school, sliding into Ms. Swanson’s math class. Confident that nobody had spotted them, the two began walking down to the cafeteria where Jeffrey would lie in wait for the murderous scene to be discovered by the entire student body.
“Are you sure you want to do this? Tanya suddenly stopped dead in her tracks, looking Jeffrey in the eyes.
“Absolutely. I want to be remembered by everyone here. Forever.”
Tanya flashed her mischievous smirk and took a small tube out of her pants pocket to apply some last minute corn syrup to one of the open wounds on his chest. “Now lie down and don’t make a sound. The best is yet to come.”
Jeffrey took a deep breath and lay down on the cold tile floor, closing his eyes and preparing to be immortalized in what would go down in Belledale history as the most memorable prank ever executed on behalf of the senior class.
The next day the three seniors who had conspired to dupe their entire student body eagerly awaited the reaction to their masterpiece as they exited the school bus. Once they had stepped foot onto the curb in front of the building they could already hearing the buzzing of students and faculty members frantically shuffling around, trying to make sense of the grisly scene. Their attention was diverted however by the wail of an ambulance pulling up behind the row of school buses.
“We must have really fooled them” Tanya said with a self-satisfied grin spread across her face as she pointed at the flashing lights across from where they were standing.
“I bet you someone had a heart attack when they saw Jeffrey and that’s why they had to send an ambulance.” Tom looked at Tanya and Mark with a smile as they opened the front door to the building.
Mark look worried as he dashed through the front doors of the school to see how everything had played out.
“He’s really dead!” A blonde-haired girl with a look of sheer terror on her face shrieked.
The three seniors pushed their way through the crowd of students which surrounded Jeffrey who was lying on the floor positioned exactly as he had been when Tanya had left just a few short hours ago. Upon closer examination though, the three students could see that all of the fake slash marks and wounds had been replaced by real ones with a pool of blood having accumulated around his lifeless body, now void of any color. Trying not to draw attention to themselves, the group of students slowly backed away from Jeffrey’s body as if they were each in an unbreakable trance.
“This cannot be happening” Mark said, choking on his own breath as he tried to make sense of the surreal situation.
“How the hell did this happen?” Tom looked over to Tanya who had pools of tears collecting in her eyes with the same look of shock that the two others shared.
“I have no idea! When I left him he was fine. Someone must have followed us to the school and…”
“What? Waited till you left and murdered him? That’s ridiculous!” Mark shouted.
Tanya looked up at her two fellow classmates and ran down the long hallway to the right of where they were standing, swinging her backpack over her shoulder and seeking refuge in the girl’s bathroom at the very end.
“I’ll be right back guys,” Mark said to his friends as he ran after her.
Given the gravity of the situation at hand, Mark had no qualms whatsoever about barging into the girl’s bathroom. He stepped foot inside the spacious lavatory, seeing no one at first. Mark heard the muffled sounds of frantic rummaging behind one of the stall doors and stopped dead in his tracks to listen more carefully. “Hello?” he called out into the empty air.
“Mark? Is that you? What the hell are you doing in here?” Tanya said as if she was struggling to hold back a flood of tears.
“I wanted to make sure you are okay. Come on out. Please.”
“The stall door swung open to reveal a distraught Tanya. She held a piece of Kleenex up to her bloodshot eyes to pat away the dampness of her tears.
Tanya picked up her backpack up from the floor when Mark went to grab it out of her hands. “Here, I’ll carry this to class for you.”
As Tanya struggled to get it back from him it fell back to the ground, its contents spilling out all over the cold black and white tile floor.
“Oh I’m sorry, Tanya,” Mark muttered as he began to help her collect the scattered items and put them back into the bag. Suddenly Mark spotted something peculiar which managed to make its way from Tanya’s purse to underneath a neighboring stall door. He opened the door to see a mysterious object wrapped in an old brown rag. Slowly approaching the covered object, he bent down and picked it up with his right hand. The old tattered material unfolded as did a look of pure terror on Mark’s face as he quickly realized what it was.
Mark stared down at a long hunting knife covered in a crimson liquid that shimmered in the light that poured through the windows. His eyes grew wide as he stared down at the object, darting over to Tanya who had her arms folded at her chest, looking over at him with an expression that he couldn’t quite place.
Mark picked up the knife by its black handle, feeling the cold leather texture in his hand. He raised it up and pointed it accusingly at Tanya. “What the hell is this?” He demanded of her as he stood across the room, a white-knuckled grip on the knife.
“He said he wanted to be remembered forever, so that’s what I gave him. Nobody will ever forget him now.”
Tanya picked up her bag with most of its contents in it, smiling at Mark once more before disappearing through the door in front of them.