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Published: 2011-03-23 14:48:45 +0000 UTC; Views: 582; Favourites: 9; Downloads: 4
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Description
It was a cold February morning. There was snow on the ground and wind in the trees. Jeff Mosley's bedroom was as messy as usual, full of items "borrowed" from various stores. Since it was Saturday, his various alarm clocks from Sharper Image hadn't been set. Around ten, he got out of bed and went downstairs for breakfast. His parents, as usual, were at some important business meeting. Why the hell did they always work on the weekends? At least this gave Jeff an excuse to go to the mall alone. After a meal of cereal and milk, Jeff got on his bike and rode a few blocks to return it. He never kept one bike for too long, it's former owners would recognize it. Jeff discreetly parked the bike in it's owner's backyard, then walked off towards the mall, an empty backpack over his shoulder.His first stop was Sharper Image, he had a sort of tradition about it; he would always pick one product he didn't have already, and the newest, most expensive alarm clock. He was convinced they came out with a new one each week. Luckily, Sharper Image was crowded. He found an alarm clock with "iPod docking capability," and, when supposedly kneeling to tie his shoe, popped it into his backpack.
After taking a compact air cleaner, (ten times the power, one tenth the price,) Jeff proceeded onto GameStop, on his way there, he saw a security guard interrogating a ten-year-old boy who had just come out of F.Y.E. and set the alarms off. As Jeff passed the guard looked at him as if he had taken something. Which, of course, he had. But Jeff still didn't like the way the guard looked at him, so he hurried along to his next stop.
Once in GameStop, Jeff pulled out a notebook, and asked the man at the desk if he could look through the back part of the store for a "school report on how such fine businesses are organized." He was given permission and while in the back room, took a Wii, a Gameboy, and the-latest-Wii-game-that-is-coming-out-tomorrow. Jeff thanked the clerk and said that this was really going to help his report.
As Jeff moved on to the Apple store, he felt a chill down his spine. Looking around himself, he noticed that the Mall Cop was on a Segway, and was just thirty feet behind him. Their eyes locked, and something wasn't right. There was nothing in those eyes. Just a black hole and yellowed whites. Jeff turned tail and headed straight past the apple store and into Borders. Jeff found a suitable, uncrowded row, removed his backpack, opened it slightly, sat down, and slipped book after book into it. Then someone tapped his shoulder, an employee, holding out his hand, said, "Give them back, and this never happened"
Jeff bolted. He ran down the up escalator, accidentally pushing the creepy security guard off the side, to Jeff's amazement, the guard somehow managed to grab onto the side rail, and began hoisting himself up. Anxious to get away from the scene before the guard could chase him, he took off through Sears, and came to a halt at a bench outside. He ripped open his backpack, put on a new jacket and a baseball cap, stuffed the whole wad of cloth and stolen merchandise into a bush, and pulled out his newly acquired Gameboy. The super-human security guard ran outside and asked him if he'd seen a "Filthy thief with a backpack" Jeff pointed towards Newbury Comics and the guard ran off, yelling into his walky-talky for backup.
Jeff decided it would be unwise to remain at the mall anymore today, so he set out back home with his backpack over his shoulder.
A few blocks away from the mall, Jeff saw a bike and helmet lying in the front yard of someone's house. He took it. Just five minutes into his leisurely ride, Jeff looked over his shoulder and saw him, the security guard who almost fell off the escalator. Jeff sped up. Glancing behind himself again, he was alarmed to see that the guard, who was walking, seemed to be gaining on him. Jeff sped up again, and, forcing himself to look straight ahead, took the long way around to his house, hopefully the guard would give up eventually. As it started to get dark, Jeff looked behind himself again, nothing. Satisfied, Jeff turned onto his street. He checked his watch. It was mere minutes before midnight. He hadn't meant to be riding this long! It was like time had sped up as he was riding. He looked around him, those houses weren't even on his street! He rode up to the nearest street sign, it was blank. He cried out, and fell backwards into a pile of melting snow. He was too scared to get back on his bike, so he started running back the way he came. He could have sworn there had been more streetlights. But the closer he got to the main road, the more streetlights flicked off in front of him. He thought he saw the glint of a badge in the darkness.
"Hello?"
There was no reply.
"Are you a police officer?"
The last light went out.
He screamed.
And then every single light came on, bathing the street in an unnatural day-light.
The mall cop was standing in front of him. Just, standing. Jeff was transfixed. The guard grinned, and his uniform and skin peeled away.
You can still hear the screams of the thief whom death claimed on The Street With No Name.
The End
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Comments: 7
SanguineAthena [2011-07-27 06:56:35 +0000 UTC]
Hey I am just going through the Horror Stories catalog. Props to the idea of making feedback questions for readers; I'm probably going to have to steal that. It probably cuts down on the "It wuz relly gudd!11" type of comments a lot I bet.
I would say that it ends a bit abruptly, in answer to your question, though I'm pretty sure someone has mentioned that already. I wouldn't shorten the time in the mall though. Maybe Death has some sort of motive for targeting Jeff, or taking him to an unfamiliar street? Just if you plan on rewriting it.
And this may be sort of a lame consideration, but your prose is meticulous and that's suuuch a treat for me!
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Benerror In reply to SanguineAthena [2011-07-27 15:28:41 +0000 UTC]
The questions thing is required for the story to be submitted to Written Revolution, and I also had to critique another story which had already been submitted. It's a really good system for getting intelligent feedback on one's stories, you should try it out.
I'm... thinking of rewriting it. Though I'm not sure what I'll do. Someone else suggested I write it as a fable, and in that case the motive would be simply that Jeff was stealing. *Scolds self for completely ignoring your advice GAH* If I choose to rewrite in the same style, I'll think up a (slightly) better reason.
I'm terrible at putting detail into things, so I just pretend it's detailed by using lots of words.
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Pianocanival [2011-03-27 03:57:12 +0000 UTC]
Well I must say from first impression I liked it ... Usually when I am about to read stuff from the Written Revolution or any other group I tend to read the first lines and if they don't seem to drag me I simply delete it. I was about to do the same with this when I thought "Well, what the heck?" and gave myself the opportunity to read the first parragraph. Now I know it was a good choice ^^. Congratulations on this story, it is really good and drags you from the beginning to the end without losing the *oomph* of good works.
Now for feedback.
Name: Well, I don't think it is really important his name as the fact that the reader can actually know who is Jeff by reading his name again. Sometimes I pass over some books where the character has X name and I can't simply remember it through the book, because it seems to me unimportant. Fortunately, your character jumped that barrier right away.
Death menacing? well, certainly it was menacing. Although, I expected a different ending. Like he being in jail or something like that, didn't expect to read him dead.
various labels of Death overthought? nope, just right. Enough to give it emotion but not enough to say something like "GAH! C'mon! this is c**p !!" ... So, in that sense a very good balance.
Sorry for Jeff? I think it's pretty difficult to feel sorry for a character you barely know, specially if it hasn't hit you in the emotions ... so, no, not particularly sorry for his death.
Nightmares over this? Ha! No way, Jose I'm getting nightmares at this. It lacks a little bit the suggestion of being rude or raw or the print of some writers to mark over you with certain terrifying ideas.
gah! last question? XD Proportion was correct. I think it is more important the proportion in words (say 5 parragraphs of stealing vs 3 of chasing to give an example ) than that actual proportion in real-life time ( say character stealing during 3 hours and being chased during 2 days ). I hope that makes sense.
Anyway, I hope the little review and feedback critique helped you out ^^.
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Benerror In reply to Pianocanival [2011-03-27 12:00:31 +0000 UTC]
Thanks for the review I'm glad you liked it.
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whitefox00 [2011-03-26 21:39:40 +0000 UTC]
Uhm, so Death killed Jeff because he stole a bunch of stuff? The summary sounds like a fable. I'm not sure if that's the effect that you were going for. The story itself is pretty cool though. I like the use of specific locations (his trip to the mall, where you show us how he steals stuff), all though I think by being too detailed you date yourself a bit. It's not always a good thing. "A book store," or "a popular video game store" would work just as well for the stores he visits, and also be more accessible. Ditto for the "game consoles".
- Jeff isn't the most exciting name, but it isn't too important. Depending on which style you're writing, he doesn't even need a name. If this were a fable, for instance, he would probably just be called 'the thief'. As it is right now, there's not much of a conflict inside of Jeff; he doesn't feel bad for what he does, and he doesn't change over the course of the story. If it weren't specifically about him, he'd be a very minor character.
- I don't think you embodied Death with more than one label. Just the security guard and "Death". It's a cool idea, though. Like if Death was different people at different points of the story. It would add some suspense, I think - these different (seemingly unrelated) people that all seem to know something about Jeff.
- It did seem like quite a few items for Jeff to get away with stealing. I don't know how any of that works, though (I've never tried it).
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Benerror In reply to whitefox00 [2011-03-26 23:52:51 +0000 UTC]
Thank you for the review. I'm glad people actually take time to read this.
What I meant about different "labels" for death were "Superhuman security guard" and other words preceding security guard. I was wondering if they felt forced, or didn't work well.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
whitefox00 In reply to Benerror [2011-03-27 00:55:57 +0000 UTC]
Oh.
Hah, I don't think they were forced. I barely noticed them, except "super-human security guard", but that was in a good way. The alliteration was cool. It's awesome when people mix poetry and prose techniques; even something as small as that.
You're welcome!
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