Matt started this group (Halloween Prank Chat)
Matt added Sylvie (@Sylv) Oliver G (@lord.of.oliver) Jake (@jakes1)
Jake renamed this group (Trickses before Treats)
Matt
Ok guys you know what to do
Sylvie
God no enough with the toilet paper
Oliver
There is never enough TP
hey is Derek coming?
Matt added Derek (@cddanforth)
Jake
So I heard the Andersens are giving out caramel apples this year
but Mrs. Skinner isn’t giving out any candy
So you guys wanna tp her garden gnomes or what
Derek
TP is so outmoded Jake
Jake
Outmoded is outmoded Derek
you got a better idea?
Matt
ok ok settle down
Oliver has the tp, flamingos and tomatoes
Ive got a few severed limbs
Derek
Wow Matthieu
Plastic or real?
Matt
It’s Matt
and no, plastic you ghoul
Also they were on special what can I say
So we have supplies if anyone needs em. But stock up on candy too
Oliver
And keep anything with pb away from Jake cause he might die
Jake
Probably not but my mom would def kill you
Matt
max damage you’re allowed is tp & tomatoes guys
Ok we ready?
Oliver
Let’s gooo
Sylvie
Hey guys Lily’s parents have cookies
Oliver
I am so there
Jake
Anyone want to head over to Skinner’s now
I have some of Matt’s tomatoes
Derek
Let’s do it
Oliver
eyyy Derek give us a good play-by-play
Like Dickens maybe
Sylvie
Yeah give us lots of words Derek
Derek renamed this group (All Hallows)
Derek
Clouds scudded across the sky like fitful spirits, unavenged and weary, dragged apart by the merciless wind. That same wind drove the drifting leaves from their trees and down the lonely streets, rattling like unclaimed bones, and all about the town men shivered and thanked kind Providence for the warmth and silence of their own dwellings.
A few desiccated jack-o’-lanterns lit the way for the two boys as they crept up the weed-encrusted path
Srsly Jake stop opening chocolates she’ll hear
Jake
Want one?
Oliver
ok Sylvie and I flamingo-ed Trevor’s lawn
Matt did you bring an extra pillowcase
Matt
Where r u i’ll give it to you
Derek
Plastic pumpkin lanterns on strings bobbed sadly overhead. The shrieks of disappointed children pierced the air at intervals, accompanied by the opening and shutting of doors, the greetings of neighbours, the jeers of rival mischief-bent bands, all the while the dead leaves stirred, and darkness and cold settled a little deeper on the roads.
Surprisingly silent for their age and occupation, the boys crept between the shadows, shuddering with laughter, scattering tomatoes and chocolate bar wrappers. They wound long sheets of white paper around lampposts and railings, bedecked statuary with judiciously placed tomatoes, and planted plastic severed limbs in bare garden beds like undreamt-of perennials.
Sylvie
Nice
Jake
Ok Skinner and Askins done
how bout the Baileys gate cause they’re gone?
Oliver
Yeah sure I have lots of stuff left
Lets throw some limbs in there too
Matt
Robertsons are doing apple-bobbing anyone wanna try?
Derek
All Hallow’s Eve! Who could fathom the layers of shadows, the strata of ghosts, the dread that laces the air like smoke? We mock death and yet fear it; we see our own faces in the crudest of jack-o’-lanterns, and picture the candle in our brains: melting away, burning down, the flame so hot and so fragile. We are all younger on that night; our fears become those of our forebears, and we shrink from the cold and the dark.
Sylvie
Wow that’s dramatic
Jake
Guys I have so much candy
Matt
Ok guys good work. Lets wrap it up
yes Oliver pun intended
Sylvie
My curfew’s 11 I gotta go anyway
Matt
We can go through the woods its faster that way
Jake
It’s cold in here
Oliver
I said u needed your winter coat
also you sound like an elephant
Sylvie
I lost my flashlight
Matt
We’ll get it tomorrow just use your phone
Derek
With the wind dying and the hour close upon eleven they entered the woods, darting between the black skeleton-like trees, listening for one another’s footsteps in the sudden silence…
Jake
Did you guys hear something
Sylvie
Prob just that wind Derek keeps talking about
It’s picked up again
Jake
I heard it again
Oliver
Naw it’s nothing
Derek
No I heard something too
Sylvie
Like what?
Derek
Big, animal
clumsy
Oliver
Maybe a deer?
Jake
Guys I saw it
Matt
Was it a deer?
Jake
Maybe
I saw antlers
there it is
Guys I don’t think that’s a deer
Sylvie
Why?
Jake
too tall, looks like a person
I saw antlers though
Matt
Ok I’m on the other side now
Where are you Sylvie?
Sylvie
Here
I’m through now too and I see Oliver
Jake where you at?
Jake
Still in here
guys I saw it again and it’s def not a deer
I’m gonna check it out
Matt
not now Jake
it’s too late
Sylvie
Where’s Derek?
Matt
Derek?
talk to me Derek where are u?
Derek
In the woods there lies a king
And at his side some other – thing –
All the world is found beneath
his kindly eyes and tearing teeth
Oliver
Derek that’s not funny
is Jake with you?
Derek
I know not
Matt
Derek srsly stop it, can you come out
Jake where are you?
Jake
I can almost see it
Derek you there?
Derek
Yes
Oh
I see it
Sylvie
guys I don’t care what you think you’re seeing it’s probably dangerous
come out for gods sake
Derek
I see it
The king he wears a crown he is man and beast both, the fears of neither and the desires of both, the desire to be what he is above all
As the two of them approached the hollow in the woods a mist appeared before their eyes, as if to take their sight; yet it cleared, and the place where they stood was light as day, and between the trees there lay a path down to the stream. They followed
Jake
Guys it’s a person
With antlers on his head
Like a crown I dunno
Matt
Jake get out
now
this is not good
Derek you too
Jake
Wow he’s tall
This is weird guys
Derek
He pierces and points the way, he is beginning and end
They approached him and said enough, it is enough
He is time out of time he has no voice it is not needed he was not meant to be you must not look him in the eye for he will blind you
Oliver
enough Derek you idiot stop it
get out
Jake
I can’t see
Sylvie
I don’t like this Jake drag him out if you have to
ugh that wind’s awful
Derek
The wind rose again, sending bare branches dancing and creaking. They advanced on the place where he had lain, and it seemed to them that the bier was all of silver, composed of the moon itself. He raised the knife and the scythe and they saw that in them were imprisoned several stars untimely ripped from the heavens
Jake
Guys I can’t see
Guys I
Derek
The wind howled and died
There are no words
nothing no words left
Gone
Matt
Jake?
You okay?
Sylvie
You still lost?
Matt
Jake check your phone
Missed call
3 missed calls
Derek
I can’t get out can’t get out
can’t see
can hear him though he’s coming
Oliver
Jake is?
Derek
o no no no
not Jake
Oliver
Where’s Jake?
Derek
Gone
he’s coming you should go
can’t get out can’t get out
Sylvie
Derek get out
Derek
Can’t.
all gone
The rest is silence
Matt
Derek? Where are you
What the hell does that mean
Derek
Derek?
talk to me
Missed call
Missed call
This was an entry in the Macabre Monday Halloween Writing Contest. Thanks to those who hosted, as well as all the guest judges!
That was very well done! but what was the thing in the woods...ive said it before and ill say it again. stop going into the woods at night. have they never seen ANY horror films!!!!
very interesting style. i can imagine some found footage being used to tell this story very affectively. hearty congrats and well deserved. 👌
Oh man what a clever idea for a framing - with the chat being punctuated by those superbly written bits by putting into the mouth of a character. Genius. Really great work.