Previous Challenge Entry (Level 2 – Intermediate)
Topic: Write in the MYSTERY genre (04/05/07)
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TITLE: A Screech in The Night | Previous Challenge Entry
By Nathan Perkins
04/12/07 -
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I was sound asleep and heard a blood curdling cry just outside my window. I sat up with a start. My heart was racing. I had to force myself to find the logic in this noise. I stared intently into the blackness around my room tuning my ears to any sign that would tell me what the noise was.
A moment passed and I heard the boys down the hall, my son and his friends, laughing nervously. Instantly, I was relieved. It had to be them just playing around. It was two in the morning and I really didn’t want to frighten my neighbors with these horrific prank noises. So I took my nerve deprived leg and wobbled to the room where the boys sat up whispering.
“What are you guys doing?” I asked.
“Did you hear that noise?” my son said.
Certainly they were trying to pull me into their prank. “You mean that scream?” I asked. “That’s Vietnam Vinnie.” My eyes squinted and I started to whisper to add the frightening emphasis. Then I went on to make up the story of a crazy war vet that stalked our neighborhood at night.
“Even though you may see him carrying a gun around he’s never shot anyone.”
I only went a little further with my story when we heard the scream again. The teens all jumped and looked at me as if they really thought my story were true. I quickly turned on the room light to see who was missing.
No one was missing.
With a shaky voice my son asked, “Dad, that wasn’t you?”
“No” I admitted to them that I didn’t scream the first time either. Now I had to stop playing along because they were not playing. It was time for me to be the brave dad instead of the cool dad. “What do you guy’s think it could be?” I asked.
“I don’t know” said Thom. “Your story about the war vet was real convincing.”
“Well, I made that one up. Sorry.”
The sound came again. The boy’s moved to a new level of scared. My son said, “I don’t know what it is but it’s freaking me out.”
I decided that I was going outside to investigate. I wasn’t sure I had the nerve. But I felt I had to give some assurance to these teens that everything was ok. I went in my pajamas and bare foot out the front door towards the mystery sound. I stayed on the porch and listed.
I waited a long time and heard and saw nothing. It was probably ten minutes with out a sound or sign of where the noise came from. I was too scared to go off the porch or to admit to the teens that I was scared. So I waited.
I was getting cold and uncertain of what I should do. I started making little noises to see if I would get a response. Finally, I decided to speak. If there was a crazy war vet running around I wanted him to think that I knew he was there.
“Get out my yard!” I said trying hard but failing to hide my trepidation.
I heard what sounded like a large object drop from the tree. I didn’t hit anything. It only rustled the leaves. It didn’t even hit the ground. I looked towards the sound, startled and saw a shadow that grew larger within a second as it appeared to fall in slow motion.
Finally, I recognized wings and the square shaped body of an Owl. With that I breathed a sigh.
The mystery was solved. I headed back into the house. I wanted to make the experience last for the teens up stares, so I mimicked the screeching noise as best as I could. I think they were scared witless. The real owl howled back from a distance. Knowing what the noise was, made it a pleasure for me to hear it again.
As I walked up the stairs, I heard my sons feeble voice ask “Dad is that you?” Hearing how scared he sounded I wondered if I had taken the prank to far to ad my own screech. So, I said it was an owl and we all laughed off our nervous energy and in minutes every one was asleep.
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A couple of spelling errors (typos)? "Quite" at the opening should be "quiet" and later on "upstares" is used instead of "upstairs"--also some punctuation errors.
Terrific use of suspense--though from the title I suspected the culprit might be a screech owl. That title really grabbed me, by the way!