I've been taking a creative writing course for the past few weeks and I wanted to share a little bit of the story I've been working on. This is an except from what I hope will be a full story down the line. Basically Caris and Zel are working as scare actors in one of those hard core haunted attractions. On this particular night they're dealing with protesters, an incoming hurricane, and a possibly actual haunting. Let me know what you think.
A Room Without a View
When the power had gone out, all of the electronic locks on the doors had frozen, leaving Caris and her fellow scare actors trapped in the breakroom. Heath was still across the room, pounding on the door, and Rochelle was attempting to soothe Katy over on the couch. Jay continued muttering obscenities to himself. Caris felt around on the carpet until her hand touched Deitrick’s. “You okay?” he asked her.
“Just making sure you were still there.” She smiled, even if she was the only one who knew it. “Did anything happen like this last year?”
“Nah, we had drunk people last year.”
“Do you think we could get somebody over the wall?”
“What? Into the storeroom?”
“Yeah. Where our phones are.”
“We wouldn’t even get a signal out here!” grumbled Jay.
“We could use them to see,” said Caris.
Heath’s pounding ceased. “What do you guys think? It’s worth a shot, right?”
A silence passed where people were presumably nodding or shrugging, followed by Rochelle’s jovial chickle. “I ain’t going.”
“Katy,” said Jay. “You’re the lightest-”
“No way in hell!”
“I’ll do it,” Caris said. “I mean, I’m five eleven. If I stand on Heath’s shoulders I should be able to reach.”
Deitrick patted her fingers. “Caris, you’re going to hurt yourself.”
“Yeah. And I’m also terrified of heights. So if the lights come on while I’m up there, I reserve the right to scream like a banshee.”
Heath laughed. “Is that how you got cast?”
Rochelle jumped in. “Girl, don’t you know what a Liberty Lift is?”
Caris was positive everyone could see her blank expression through the darkness. “I’ll go out on a limb and say it’s not when insurance covers your boobs?”
Katy’s disapproving huff could be heard over Heath and Deitrick’s collective laughter.
“You seriously weren’t a cheerleader?”
“They told me I was too tall.”
“But you work out now?”
“I’m a dancer.”
“Hang on.” Rochelle felt around for Heath and groped her way across the room to where Caris and Deitrick were. “Alright, give me your good leg.”
Rochelle positioned her and Deitrick’s hands around Caris’s ankle like a manacle. “Okay, you think you can stand in that?”
Caris flinched as she stepped into her makeshift stirrup. “No problem.”
“Now Heath, you’re going to have to put your hand on her behind.”
“Well, if I have to,” he responded without missing a beat, and Deitrick asked if he could switch places with Heath. But the sadness in Caris’s voice brought the collective mirth to an untimely end.
“Katy, I heard that.”
The darkness of the room felt heavy again, and for a few moments nobody did anything, waiting for Katy to make some sort of acknowledgement which never came.
“What did she say,” asked Jay.
“It doesn’t matter,” said Caris, returning to the task at hand. “So is it ‘3,2,1, jump?”
“If that works for you, hon,” Rochelle answered.
“Will it help if I yell ‘woo-hoo’?”
“Only if you’re Daffy Duck,” Deitrick snickered.
“Okay, just give me a second,” she said to the six hands on her foot and posterior. Visions of every part of her face and head plowing straight into the overhead metal paraded through her mind, followed by an infinite possibility of positions in which sprawl onto her castmates thereafter.
A leap of faith. Not her first, and not her last. But possibly the only one she’d ever have to make straight up.
“I’m ready.”
And they all counted down.
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