You're right, there are overlaps, but each are also wildly different. The plumbing theme was a tough challenge, but everyone did such a wonderful job with it. Truly impressed!
Another wonderful creepfest! You are so good with child characters, by the way, you perfectly portray their over active imaginations and casual cruelties and fear of reprisal for secret transgressions. The things that follow us into our adulthood dreams are the most terrifying, though.
Thanks Sean… means a lot coming from the master of horror! @Sandolore Sykes and @Brock Eldon helped me get the subtle shift from dream to narrative and back to dream to make more sense and keep it right. just a thoroughly excellent experience throughout and all the other stories? AMAZING!!
Wow…thanks Ken! this story was fuelled by childhood events…and also strange coincidences…like a letter from the sewage company the day before sum flux prompt arrived saying our local drains were being blocked and they would find the guilty households… and then also whilst walking down the street i found this…the green string while I was polishing up the story.
I'm so delighted that I got the sense of creeping dread right!
Excellent, Nick! Man, you have a way with words. I particularly loved the memories. They felt so real, but dreamlike at the same time, just as it is when you remember something from childhood. Top-notch writing.
Thanks Troy! the end sort of morphed a bit ... the main feeling was the "monster" lived as guilt about gweedo and dreams in the plumbing of the mind. also just a hint of ... maybe Saffron is an incarnation of the monster ...
just a flicker of the nictitating membrane...also there's a species of crocodile thats sort of got a latin name that made me think up Saffron as a name.
I love these types of stories! A youthful mistake kept secret that never leaves the protagonist. Nice one!
Do you have a confession for us, Jessica?
Many… haha
Another phenomenal story! Loved. It!
Thanks Liz! really pleased with it myself 😀
Oh, this is brilliant! That feeling of dread deep in my chest as I read the final lines! Excellent story, Nick!
Thanks William! It was a bit twisty back and forth with dreams and memories but i think the thread runs through it...
i love how theres so much overlap in all our stories so far... guilt, evil deeds, nasty disgusting things in the pipes...even string!
You're right, there are overlaps, but each are also wildly different. The plumbing theme was a tough challenge, but everyone did such a wonderful job with it. Truly impressed!
Nick and William had some pretty surprising overlaps--but yes, from wildly different narratives!
I appreciated a lot about this. The use on onomatopoeia and the related use of imagery that changes slightly each time it’s brought up! Good stuff
Thanks NJ! i loved your story omg the horror!
Another wonderful creepfest! You are so good with child characters, by the way, you perfectly portray their over active imaginations and casual cruelties and fear of reprisal for secret transgressions. The things that follow us into our adulthood dreams are the most terrifying, though.
Thanks Jeannine! so glad you liked it!
That last line is my favorite! I love this piece 😁
Nick, you do dialog right, always, and the characters are perfect. Damn that string!
thanks MP! spent many years being a mean kid in a village full of mean kids heheh. And now im just a nice guilt wracked old man
You’re welcome, your prose was good in this one! Kids are cruel. Crocodilos are crueler…
they jus misunderstood...we all gotta eat... glok glok glok...
A haunting blend of memory guilt and surreal horror that lingers like the smell of drains.
Thanks man! Means a lot to me that this got likes from such discerning writers as your good self!
I love this genre of story where something really weird happens when the character is a kid. it is particularly terrifying and unsettling. well done.
Thanks EJ! that tunnel really exists...but nobody went missing in it...so far as I know...
You're a master of suspense... and dread. I held my forehead in my hand the whole way through, eyes wide at what was coming. That was just fantastic
wow! what an endorsement! thanks Ashley! totally makes my day when someone likes my words. best feeling! 😆
Damn, Nick! This is tight. Well done!
Thanks Sean… means a lot coming from the master of horror! @Sandolore Sykes and @Brock Eldon helped me get the subtle shift from dream to narrative and back to dream to make more sense and keep it right. just a thoroughly excellent experience throughout and all the other stories? AMAZING!!
Yeah, everything I've read so far is great. You all killed it!
Masterful. The creeping dread I felt reading this is a rare a precious gem you pulled from a deep place. Loved it!
Wow…thanks Ken! this story was fuelled by childhood events…and also strange coincidences…like a letter from the sewage company the day before sum flux prompt arrived saying our local drains were being blocked and they would find the guilty households… and then also whilst walking down the street i found this…the green string while I was polishing up the story.
I'm so delighted that I got the sense of creeping dread right!
Almost as if it was meant to be. If so, you couldn’t have nailed it down any better. Perfect all the way down.
This is ridiculously good. Love the voice
Excellent, Nick! Man, you have a way with words. I particularly loved the memories. They felt so real, but dreamlike at the same time, just as it is when you remember something from childhood. Top-notch writing.
thanks Garen! makes me so happy that you read and enjoyed this. 😀
Love how it all strings together.
Not what I expected, in the best way possible!
Excellent!
thanks Caitriana!
Great writing. I expected Gweedo to somehow come out and the end was definitely one that surprised me. I loved it.
Thanks Troy! the end sort of morphed a bit ... the main feeling was the "monster" lived as guilt about gweedo and dreams in the plumbing of the mind. also just a hint of ... maybe Saffron is an incarnation of the monster ...
He finally admits it!
just a flicker of the nictitating membrane...also there's a species of crocodile thats sort of got a latin name that made me think up Saffron as a name.
I fully felt it, Nick… I was never fooled by her fun. I could see a lizard glint in her pretty little eye.