Finish The Story

The following is something I orignially posted on my Flickr account...it is a true story of something that happened to me this past summer. I know what really happened next, but i'd like to challenge you to finish the story in a more imaginative way than "then we left" Happy Writing-John

Finish The Story

A Day at the Theater

The gravity of my situation had not occurred to me until I found myself squinting through the pitch blackness that lay before me. The air was different in here, only moments earlier when I stood outside it was a hot summer day, and now as I stood trying in vein to peer through the darkness that was ahead of me it was at least ten, if not fifteen degrees cooler. I knew two things for sure: one, there was nothing directly in front of me and I could safely take my next step, and two, it was a bad decision to wear sandals this morning. Suddenly the thought occurred to me, I have a camera, with a flash! I could use the camera to illuminate my way. Sure it would be a little strobe light-ish, but it beat the heck out of not seeing anything. I held my breath and prepared to take my first step into the darkness ahead of me. As I stepped through the doorway a quick WHOOSH of air blasted me from the darkened room, as if someone had just opened a door on the far side of the building creating a draft, but I was here alone…or was I? The unmistakable musty smell of decay filled my nostrils as it never had before, even seconds ago. I quickly took a step back and pondered my first step into the dark chamber more cautiously.

“Hello…” I called out into the darkness. No response came back. The air felt almost heavy as if it were somehow pressing against me. I noticed for the first time that I was breathing harder. I thought I could here movement from inside the darkness. I was still for a moment standing, listening for something, anything to confirm my suspicion until I heard movement behind me.

“John is everything okay?” a familiar voice from behind me called. It was Hayden, a seventh grader from our church youth group. We were supposed to be cleaning the alley way outside, picking up litter for the upcoming Daniel Boone Days festival. Instead, while waiting for Jake, another student, to return with more garbage bags to fill, an open doorway to an abandoned theater caught my attention. I peered inside to see a set of concrete steps leading to a vast darkness. The stairs were only partially obstructed, by the door that the crumbling doorway used to hold. Always looking for my next great photo opportunity I callously ventured through the doorway and up the only partially blocked steps. Now I stood before the vastness of the uncertainty ahead of me, my mind railing, trying to figure out my next move.

“John what’s up there?” Hayden again asked from the bottom of the steps.

“Uh, nothing…” I responded, not sure of what to say. Don’t worry Hayden just listening for ghosts or a crazy homeless guy. Somehow I thought that nothing would be the best answer.

Then, as if activated by a switch the atmosphere from inside the empty theater changed, it had eased, becoming somehow more normal feeling. As Hayden began ascending the stairs behind me I quickly snapped four photos of the inside of the theater.

Finish The Story...

Finish the Story

This is a story I started a few years ago. It features Eli Fitzpatrick as a sophomore in high school, his older sister Madylin a senior in high school and takes place in 2005. Some of the references I made in the first paragraph cannot be attributed to a 15 year old, but I liked them so I left them in.~John


Wadsworth Manor loomed over Cleveland Street like some long forgotten statue that had been there so long it seemed it grew out of the very ground it stood on. No one I knew could remember the last time anyone had been seen going into, or coming out of the old place, yet as I stood gazing at it, well behind the iron fence that surrounded the lot, I felt as though the broken windows were eyes peering into my very soul, sensing the tiniest bit of fear that resided there and mocking me for being afraid. The exterior of the house was weather beaten had more wood showing than Paul Ruben at a porno, and yard that had not seen the least bit of pruning since Nixon was president. In spite of the blistered paint and cracked boards I could still sense the past majesty that the old place must have held back in its day. The sun was sitting behind the old place casting a haunting silhouette against the autumn sky, and as I stood there lost in my thoughts I could have sworn I had heard some one call my name from inside the house. A whisper at first, and then a bit louder…

“ELI! Mom says you need to get home right away…she’s pretty upset that your not answering your cell phone, she’s tried to call you like a hundred times.”

It was Madylin my older sister. She was on her cell phone with mom, as she walked down the sidewalk toward me. “Here, she wants to talk to you…” Mady said handing me the phone. I answered the phone and proceeded to converse with my mother, but my thoughts had already begun to drift back to that dilapidated old house, and wondering why it was in its present condition, who had lived there and why did no one live there now.

“Are you listening to me?” my mothers voice interrupted my thoughts.

“Yes, I’m listening to you.” I said as I began to walk home. The sky was getting darker and the wind had picked up a bit as my sister and I walked the last few blocks to our house. I put all thoughts of the old place to the back of my mind as we walked in the back door.

II

“Eli wake up!”
I opened my eyes and saw my mother staring back at me. I looked around my room and quickly remembered that the last thing I did was to sit down at my desk and check on my My Space page. That was at 10:30 after I had finished my homework, now it’s light outside and my moms yelling at me.

“Wha—“It was the only intelligent thing I could muster.

“It’s 7 o’clock in the morning” mom informed me “You’ll be late for school if you don’t get up now!” My mother was an invaluable source of information.

I got up and stumbled into the bathroom, the light was painfully bright.

Finish the Story