z

Young Writers Society


Night Terrors



User avatar
713 Reviews



Gender: Male
Points: 7740
Reviews: 713
Sun Jul 13, 2008 5:32 am
BigBadBear says...



I have wanted to post this for quite some time now, but I never really knew if I should. This is for the CIA contest.

I CANNOT ACCEPT GRAMMAR REVISIONS. THIS IS PURELY FOR THE PLOT AND CHARACTERS, AND ANY OTHER STUFF THAT THIS NEEDS. Knowing that, however, I cannot submit an edited version for the contest. Sure, it'll make the story better, but I cannot accept any grammar revisions.

Thank you.

Night Terrors:

This story is out of my comfort zone. It is experimental, and hopefully I've been able to pull it off. I am posting this in the Advanced Critiques purely because of the formatting. This story needs to have this special formatting in order to get the correct emotions across. This story revolves around you. Yes, you. You are the MC. You are a father of two (Joan and Troy) and you are married to a lovely wife, Lynn. Joan, one night, approaches you with the all-too-heard phrase, "Daddy, there's a monster under my bed."

And then the horrors begin.

-

I dunno how long this is going to be. It might be thirty pages, it might be fifty. All I know is that this is my best written story yet. I'm going to include chapters 1 - 4 in the attachment below. Please feel free to critique them to your heart's desires. I want this to be the greatest it can be.

Again, please do not include grammar revisions. Thank you.
Attachments
Night Terrors 1- 4.doc
(56 KiB) Downloaded 124 times
Just write -- the rest of life will follow.

Would love help on this.
  





User avatar
1258 Reviews



Gender: Female
Points: 6090
Reviews: 1258
Sun Jul 13, 2008 6:14 am
View Likes
Sam says...



[copied from last page]

Holy goodness, Jared, I love you. The last page is brilliant—it’s very e.e.cummings, portraying the thoughts as they happen, instead of in chronological order, so it feels more genuine and not just an artistic rendering of events.

Also, I love the formatting on the different people’s dreams—that was sooo cool. This whole thing was amazing, which is definitely a compliment considering the choice of POV. I know this probably felt like giving birth to write (trust me, I know the feeling—not the birthing but the writing XD), but you did so well with it. It’s abstract and outside the box and just lovely in general. The different characters you portrayed, as well, came through really clearly, especially the deaf son.

The only thing I wanted a little more of was resolution of the father’s issues before you switched POV to their nightmares. You begin real-time narration of the reader as the daughter, but don’t really explain why—it feels arbitrary, considering you had a storyline going with the dad. Just mention that he’s sleeping, or something, so that we can move on to the next part without feeling like we’ve missed something.
Attachments
Night Terrors 1- 4.doc
(70.5 KiB) Downloaded 68 times
Graffiti is the most passionate form of literature there is.

- Demetri Martin
  





User avatar
516 Reviews



Gender: Female
Points: 890
Reviews: 516
Sun Jul 13, 2008 6:20 am
chocoholic says...



Wow! I didn't critique it because it was really good. Like, really good.

he only thing I have to say is, it really began to confuse me near the end. You seemed to swap people a lot, and I wasn't sure what was going on. I think you should make that more clear (but don't ruin the atmosphere when you do)

Your writing and plot are amazing. I loved it. I've got no chance of winning this competition if I decide to enter it now.

Is this all or is more coming? Let me know if you post more, I absolutely adore this story!
*Don't expect to see me around much in the next couple of weeks. School has started again, and it'll be a couple of weeks before I've settled in. If you've asked me for a critique, you will get it, but not for a little while. Sorry*
  





User avatar
402 Reviews



Gender: Female
Points: 6517
Reviews: 402
Sun Jul 13, 2008 7:25 am
Clo says...



Wow, what a treat this was to read! What a wonderful, new take on a story this is. I don't read much - pretty much no - second person. So this was interesting!

I think you've got the sentence structure down with second person perspective. Short, concise, and yet not immature. The only thing you need to be wary of is the use of "you". Obviously when you're using second person, "you" is gonna be the star with the most appearances. But try to structure your sentences in a way that it doesn't appear as much, doesn't appear such a frightful amount that it dazzles the readers eyes (in a bad way). You don't do that here, but you still could probably clip out some you's upon a rewrite, alter some sentences.

I also love the dad's advice to the girl about the monster near the beginning. Adorable, and just what a parent would say!

I don't think the dad would believe her brother is the one doing it. As a father, and being late in the night, he would think his little girl would be acting out, being a nuisance. He would probably get annoyed and short with his daughter, tell her to quit playing around and to get into her bed.

The change between perspectives is also strange in the second person. You become used to being the dad, feeling his mindset, and suddenly you're a child. That text itself is amazing - the perspective of the child - but it's strange since you were the dad previously. Perhaps some sort of transition is called for, since I do like the child's perspective?

I don't really like how the nightmare words are bolded. It's over the top - unless this was a requirement of the contest. Then I understand. ^_^

Okay, so that's all I have to say about that. It is written very well and I just overall enjoyed it. Thanks for asking me to look at it! Ask me to look at your stuff anytime! You're a brilliant writer!

Thanks! C:
How am I not myself?
  





User avatar
160 Reviews



Gender: Male
Points: 3925
Reviews: 160
Sun Jul 13, 2008 2:58 pm
Krupp says...



This is probably the most haunting piece I've read on these forums..

I really don't have much to say, besides that it was a very impressive story that's been written exactly how I would've done it.

If you're still writing this, I look forward to more.
I'm advertising here: Rosetta...A Determinism of Morality...out May 25th...2010 album of the year, without question.
  





User avatar
189 Reviews



Gender: Male
Points: 1040
Reviews: 189
Sun Jul 13, 2008 5:36 pm
Jon says...



hi big bad bear, i'm here as you requested and i have to say, brilliant just brilliant, since you don't want us to crit the grammar, i won't, although i did absolutly love it the second to the last page was a little confusing with the ice rink and the bed and this and that, i think that was the only part that you need to work on is the last part really.

WHAT I THOUGHT

i was on the couch, alone, reading the newly printed out story and i was loving it. however i was alone, but comfy and when the story came to where the doors was opening and shutting i actually became afraid, which on your part is good because that means you got all the emotion to jump from your characters onto me. i thought the scariest part was the drawing that the little girl drew or the monster drew which ever.

CHARACTERS

i loved your characters and i don't think really anything needs to be changed about them

Things That I Thought Should Be Altered

when the parents were fighting and the boy was down stairs how did he know they were fighting? he is deaf!!!!

and there is one more thing that didn't make sense towards the beginning but i can't remember what :shock:

but i figure if you just go back and read it you'll see it


overal this was almost perfect just those minor things

good job

keep writing like this your good at it this way

---Jon---
Gay Writing/Support Group. Gay or not, spread the word!

Support GLBT people -- God does.

Got YWS?
  





User avatar
713 Reviews



Gender: Male
Points: 7740
Reviews: 713
Sun Jul 13, 2008 5:45 pm
BigBadBear says...



Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you! Everybody has boosted my ego! XD

Okay. No one seems to understand this part, so I'm going to post it for the world to hear. Er... read.

THE NIGHTMARES ARE ALL IN ONE POV.

Yes, I said it. You remember the nightmares with the divorce and the monsters and Lynn? They are all the MC's nightmares. He had those nightmares in different points of his life, and now they are coming back to haunt him. So, no, it's not the childrens' nightmares.

-Jared
Just write -- the rest of life will follow.

Would love help on this.
  





User avatar
1176 Reviews

Supporter


Gender: Female
Points: 1979
Reviews: 1176
Tue Jul 15, 2008 9:22 pm
Twit says...



The prologue reminds me too much of the beginning of each Animorph book. ‘Keep reading because only that will save you,’ type thing. Nothing bad with that, just something to think about, sa?



A few times, your tenses didn’t seem to make sense. Like here:

You knew it was watching you, waiting for you to fall asleep. So you don’t. Staring, horrified and with wide eyes, you never fall asleep.


From the first sentence, it seemed as though it should have been, “So you didn’t.” Then the next sentence was back in present, and it got a little muddled.

Same here:

You grew up. Fears vanished as if they had never existed. Your mind matures, throwing away childish horrors.
You get married.


Here you have “vanished” and “matures”. Conflicting tenses, it makes the understanding a touch tricky.



“Did you…” You turn back to face your daughter. “Did you close the door?” She shakes her head innocently.


“Innocently” seems off here, same as when you used it before. Whenever I see/hear anyone described as innocent, it makes it seem as though they’re pretending that they haven’t done something when they actually have. I don’t know, it could be just personal.


Coooooolo-oolo. Very creepy. The 2nd person was handled very well, as it can get annoying after too long.

Great story, and I'd love to read more! :D
"TV makes sense. It has logic, structure, rules, and likeable leading men. In life, we have this."


#TNT
  





User avatar
1125 Reviews

Supporter


Gender: Female
Points: 53415
Reviews: 1125
Wed Jul 16, 2008 6:05 pm
StellaThomas says...



All my comments are inside, darling. I used purple, not red. Some of them are pretty useless, but I hope the others gave you a hand :D

-Stella.

OH FLIP!

It won't allow .rtf, and because of conflicting computers that's the only format I could get it into! Damn, damn, damn. I've got it all done, I really do. Does anybody here know what I can do?

*headdesk*

I'm so sorry! Agh... I really do have a good critique in there...

Okay... I know you don't want us to do this, but I'm just going to put the whole thing, plus my comments, in a quote box. I'll try and put all my comments in bold. Touch wood this will work...

Hey Jared!

I know that Nate said to put all our corrections in red... but to be honest red gives me a headache, so I hope you don't mind that they're in purple instead :D. Okay, this is probably going to take a while. I haven't changed the format, just the font to make it easier for me to read... hope that doesn't bother you.

So you'll get this crit eventually! I won't do grammar, like you asked, but I will give style a thorough thrashing, if I can!

For now,

Stella.




Night Terrors
















BigBadBear






If you want to live, never let your eyes wander past the margins of these pages. Focus on these words. Your sanity and your life depend on it. You need to realize that nothing is going to be the same again. Nothing. Face the fact that you’ve never seen them; that you’ve never taken a moment to see the horrors of the darkness.
You’ve never had the night terrors. And you've got me hooked.




Nothing


will



be

the



same.












If you want to live, keep reading. I will. (sorry, I'll stop making silly comments now. I will.)
1

As a child, you were afraid of the dark. You curled up in your blankets, your pulse rushing. You felt the white Interesting and unusual colour to use for fear. fear rush through your cold skin. You knew it was in your closet. Under your bed. Behind closed doors. You knew it was watching you, waiting for you to fall asleep.
So you don’t. Staring, horrified and with wide eyes, you never fall asleep.
The night terrors can’t get you if you’re awake. You know that.
Night terrors are real.
Keep reading.

You grew up. Fears vanished as if they had never existed. Your mind matures, throwing away childish horrors.
You get married. Buy a house.
And the fears start all over again.

“Daddy, there’s a monster under my bed,” your daughter exclaims, taking a firm hold of your hand. You notice her skin is cold, and her face is pale.
“It’s nothing. Here, let me show you.” You lift her up into your arms and carry her to her room. You switch on the lights. Her closet door is open, so you shut it.
Putting your daughter down, you kneel to the ground and look under her bed. It’s too dark to see anything. You look up and the first thing you notice is that her closet door is open again.
“Why’d you open the closet door?” you ask your daughter, pointing. Her eyes are wide and innocent.
“The monster did it, Daddy. Didn’t you see him?”
You sigh and stand up. “There’s no monster under your bed. Now go to sleep.”
“Of course he’s not under my bed! He just went into my closet! Daddy, can you tell him to go away?” she exclaims, eyeing the closet.
It is dark in there.
You run your fingers through your daughter’s thin, brown hair, and she latches to your leg.
“Tell him to go away. He says that he’s going to eat me if I go to sleep,” she whimpers.
“He does, does he? Well, the next time he says that, I want you to tell him, ‘Whatever you say!’ and go back to bed. Okay, sweetie?” you tell her. She sucks her thumb.
“But he doesn’t listen to me.”
You sigh. “Then ignore him. Okay?”
“Daddy, can you please just look in the closet?”
You look over into the room. The darkness, you know, is what’s frightening her. You decide to turn on the light in the closet. Standing up, you walk to the room.
Just before you flick the switch, your daughter screams. You turn around.
“He just went back under my bed!”
You sigh again.
“Listen, honey, would it be better if I left the lights on?” You flick the closet light on, revealing a small room full of princess gowns and shoes.
You look into your daughter’s eyes: They are still wide with terror.
“Can I sleep with you?” You shake your head at her question.
“No. The bed’s barely big enough for Mom and I. Now get to sleep. Want me to tuck you in?” you ask, placing your hands on her shoulders. You direct her to bed. She clambers in and slips between the sheets, and you tuck the blankets under her frail body.
“Daddy?”
“Hmm?”
“I love you.”
“I love you too,” you whisper gently.Can I tell you a story about my childhood? Of course I can. I used to have a recurring dream every single night (involving friendly trolls getting killed by a flood) and when I woke up I used to just go and sleep in Mum and Dad's room. Our bed wasn't very big either, so Dad would sleep in my room instead. So at the moment I'm kind of "Oo-er"ing over the "I love you," thing, because he seems selfish to me, just from personal experience. She smiles and looks at the closet.
“The monster went back into the closet,” she says, and points. You look back and are stunned.
The door is shut and the light has been turned off.
“Did you…” You turn back to face your daughter. “Did you close the door?” She shakes her head innocently.
“I told you. The monster went back into the closet.” Your daughter pulls the blankets up to her chin and squeezes You don't... squeeze blankets. Well, you do, but they aren't squeezable as such. You more kind of... clutch onto them for dear life. them. “Can you make him go away?”
You are speechless. It hadn’t even been a minute ago that you had brought your daughter to bed. You might want to try rephrasing that, it sounds awkward. You had left the closet door open, with the light switch on.
Standing up, your eyes never leave the closet door. It’s painted white, just like the rest of your daughter’s room. Her entire room?!?! Sorry, but there's no border of flowers, the walls aren't pale pink? In my mind, my daughter's room is looking bare. There are the faint traces of crayon where she had colored on the door.
From the bed to the door seemed seemed? Seems, surely? Sorry, is that grammar? Sorry! like a mile, when it was only a few steps away. Your outstretched hands brush the cold knob. You pull away.
You can feel your daughter’s stare on the back of your neck. Everything pauses as you grip the freezing knob.
You turn it.
It’s locked.
“Did you lock it?” You are amazed that you could find words. You look back to your daughter who is shaking her head.
“Then who’s in here?”
“Daddy, I already told you.”
“Told me what?”
“The monster! The monster went from under my bed to the closet!”
“Listen, honey: There’s no such thing as monsters. Now tell me who locked this door!” Your tone is rising. You are clenching a fist.
“The monster locked it! I saw him!”
You see no further use yelling. Breathing deeply, you walk to her bedside. Her brown eyes glare at you.
“Who is this monster, then? Is it your brother?” Your son is supposed to be asleep. He has a fever.
“No! I don’t know who the monster is. All he keeps Either "All he says" or "He keeps saying", not a weird combination of both. saying is that he’s going to eat me when I go to sleep,” your daughter whines. “And then I told you to tell him to go away, but he keeps hiding from you! And now he’s—” That last bit is awkward. "I told you to tell him to go away, but you won't because you can't see him, he keeps hiding from you!" Something like that, peut-etre?
Her eyes stare at the closet door. Her eyes acting of their own accord? Nah. She's just staring.
“He’s gone.”
You are speechless again as you turn around to discover that the closet door is open.
The light is on. Thank the mercies for long summer evenings, it's only twilight at the moment, if it was dark I'd be curled up trembling!

Your MC, at the moment, seems to be... alright. I don't believe in monsters anymore, and my daughter shouldn't either, but I'm naturally scared at what's happening. I love her, but I won't switch rooms with her (!). I don't know, I'll say more when I read on, but right now, it IS dark outside, so toodle-oo, see you in the morning (AFTER I've been to the dentist, scary stuff that is too!)

-Stella x











2

Well, it's afternoon now and I spent an unscary morning running errands so here we go!

Nightmares are described as a terrifying dream in which a dreamer experiences helplessness, extreme fright and sorrow. Psychological terrors are the most common ways that nightmares occur. Claustrophobia and other such mental states are usually the main focus of nightmares. Children frequently have these ‘night terrors’ while still in their younger childhood. Perspiration, shivering and violent jolting are usually caused by them. Had a lot of them.
Nightmares are sometimes results of wild imaginings. Children often let their imagination roam free at night, making every shadow into a monster, ghost, or other frightening figure. It is not uncommon for the imagination to make anything out of everything.
-Alexandra Bennington


You wake up with your daughter breathing on your face. Her arms and tightly wound around your arm. Your wife is out of bed—probably making the morning coffee.
Your daughter is beautiful. Five years old, thin brown hair and puppy dog eyes. They are shut behind frail eyelids. Her skin is like her mother’s: tan and smooth. Her body is entangled with the sheets. The bedspread covers her small legs. That last sentence is just a bit odd.
She had been born premature. Weighing at roughly 1 1/2lbs, she was put on a ventilator for the first three weeks of her life. And even then she had been beautiful. Her small body was like a jail cell, imprisoning her soul.
She had not been expected to live longer than a month. This is certainly interesting, and it's good background, I'm just wondering if it's necessary or not.

“Lynn?” You say as you enter the kitchen. Your pajamas are loose and you pull them back up to your waist.
Lynn stands in the corner of the kitchen, by the toaster. She is sipping a mug of steaming coffee, reading the newspaper. She looks exactly like Joan. Her beautiful tan skin and brown hair, straight and thin. Her batting eyelashes and her chocolate eyes always melts your heart.
“Hey, Tim,” You know, I was thinking, wouldn't it be more... engaging if you didn't give him a name? As the whole thing is written in second person, it would make it easier for the reader to put themselves in the hero's shoes. On the other hand, the name makes him a real person. Oh I don't know. Perhaps I should go with my first instinct and say get rid of it, but it's up to you, ultimately. she says, and resumes reading the newspaper. With her index finger, What other finger do you generally point with. Or is it a very prominent sort of "Come to me" point? I think you could just say "She points." she points to the counter, where there is an extra mug. You graciously pick it up and put your arm around her. She looks at you and smiles. You kiss her and then look at the newspaper.
“Anything new?” You take a sip of coffee.
“Nope.”
“Has anyone called about the house?”
“Not yet.”
“Our real estate agent sucks,” you whisper, and Lynn laughs. She squeezes you and leans her head on your shoulder.
“It takes time. We’re in no rush. The new house hasn’t even started construction.”
You nod and walk away, swiping a stool from under the counter. Squatting in it, you remember the night before.
“I need to go to Home Depot and get a new door for Joan’s room. It was acting up last night,” you say, sipping more coffee. It is hot and scalds your tongue.
“What?”
“Last night, Joan came and told me that her door kept opening and shutting. I went in there and it opened fine, but before I knew it, it locked itself. I got it open with the key, but I think we need a new door. I don’t want Troy to get trapped in there.”
Troy is your deaf son. He is four years old, and currently sick with the fever. His hearing condition has left him permanently deaf. What started out as a minor hearing infection when he was younger turned out to be something unchangeable. Gosh, my children's lives are tragic.
“How could a door lock itself?” Lynn asks. Her eyes are focused on you.
“I don’t know.” You shrug. “I’m going to Home Depot, though, later today. I might take Troy with me. He loves that store. Is his fever almost gone?”
“Yeah. I checked on him this morning. He’s doing a lot better. I’m going shopping for the Fourth of July. What on earth do you buy for the Fourth of July? Really? Do people do that? (that's not really a question you need to answer, I thought I'd just tell you what I thought). If you’re taking Troy, then I’ll take Joan.” You nod and finish the last of your coffee. You stand up and put the empty mug in the sink, kissing Lynn on the way to the shower.

Troy gazes silently out of your truck’s window as you speed towards Home Depot. You watch him out of the corner of your eye.
He looks like a miniature you, just like Joan is to Lynn. He has dark brown hair and olive green eyes the size of acorns. The child has a curious expression on his face. It lit lights, sorry, tense consistency is dangerously close to grammar. up as soon as you pull into the Home Depot parking lot.
Troy smiles and coughs out a laugh, pointing excitedly to the building. He recognizes the bright orange letters. You grin and nod.
Parking the truck, you also take a piece of paper with door measurements. Troy jumps out of the vehicle and races towards you with wide arms. You pick him up and put him on your shoulders.
He feels invincible. How do we know that? It's a lovely thought and a beautiful image, but how do we know it? We're not him.
Troy laughs and smiles all throughout the building, pointing at various tools. You mouth the name of the tool and create signs with your hand. He doesn’t quite grasp sign language yet, but you do it anyway.

Troy follows you into Joan’s bedroom. You have just come home from the store. There is a new door in the back of your truck. Troy decides he will help you. He is carrying three screwdrivers.
“Put them in the toolbox,” you say, and point to the set on the ground. His eyes follow your finger, and he nods.
You look at the closet door. It’s locked again. Taking the key out of your pocket, you unlock it and open the door.
Troy screams a blood-curdling scream. Fear flushes through your body as you whip around.
“What?” you yell, your eyes frantically looking at your son. Troy points to something on his arm. You can’t make it out. It’s a small hole, almost like a sting. Troy, then, points to the ground, where you see a dead bee.
You groan and pick him up. He is screaming in your ear as you rush him to the bathroom. You set him on the counter, wiping away tissues and toothpaste as you search the drawers, looking for tweezers. Mercy, but that frightened the daylights out of me... Also, you should never use tweezers on bee stings. Gosh, Jared, don't you know that? *rolls eyes*
He screams and you wince. There was something about his scream that frightened you. Perhaps it was that you have never heard a deaf child scream before Troy. He is normally a very quiet kid.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry! Just hold on!” You dig furiously through the drawers, throwing items at the walls as you find them. You see a glint of light, and instantly you know you’ve found them.
“Right here. Okay, hold out your arm.” You know he can’t hear you, but you speak anyway. Troy is holding out his arm, tears stinging down his cheeks. The bee sting is small—just nicked him.
“Troy. Troy. Troy, look at me,” you say and his eyes travel to your lips. “It’s not going to hurt. I promise.” His wavering eyes don’t trust you.
“One,” you whisper, and dig the tweezers through his skin.
“Two!” you yell and yank the stinger out of Troy’s arm. He screams again, shielding his wound with his body.

* * *
The new door is installed, and you stand back to make sure that the hinges aren’t crooked and the door is standing straight. You can hear Troy softly playing in his room, across from Joan’s. softly? Quietly? You don't play softly...
The door looks great. You test it out and make sure that it doesn’t lock on its own. It doesn’t. Smiling, you place the screwdrivers and screws back in your toolbox. Before you leave the room, something catches your eye.
There is a black book on Joan’s small vanity. The desk is littered with playthings. Plastic food, hairbrushes, Barbies. The only object that stuck out is the black notebook. You walk over to the vanity and open it up. It looks beaten and well used.
On the first page, you notice your daughter’s handwriting. It is difficult to read because she is so young, but you can make out her name. It is colored in pink crayon. You flip the page over and see Joan’s doodles and scribbles. It is messy and disorganized. You are about to close it, when you flip open to a last page. I'm frightened again.
When you see it, you freeze. Horrified and shocked. You question yourself if your daughter really drew this. It would’ve taken her hours.
You shut the book, but still remain where you are standing. The picture she had drawn disgusted you. You do not know how a five year old could have drawn such a horrifying image.
There is a loud crash coming from Troy’s room, and you jump. It takes you a moment to realize what happened, and then you make a mad dash for his room.
“Troy!” you shout as you shove his door open. Your son is on the carpet, crying. You sigh and pick him up.
“What happened?” He motions over to the bed and leans back on your shoulder, sniffling.
“Did you fall off?” Troy reads your lips and shakes his head. He points back to the bed. You set him on it, but he squirms and tries to get back into your arms. He is shaking, violently.
“What’s wrong? What happened?” you question. Troy doesn’t answer. “What happened?”
The picture that Joan had drawn keeps flashing into your mind. You don’t know why. Maybe it was the fact that it wasn’t just her that she had drawn. The picture had included Troy also. But that wasn’t the reason that the picture had horrified you.
Both Joan and Troy were being hung. Their necks were almost severed. Ew, ew, ew... Your daughter had detailed the blood dripping from the nooses around their necks. Both of their eyes are crossed out, signifying death, like in cartoons. The nooses were attached to the gallows.
Blood had leaked to the ground, and it had pooled up.
Off to the side of the gallows was a figure. It had been hard to determine who or what it was. Joan had colored it black. It was draped in a robe of some sort. The only other color was the red eyes. Terrified now.
You know you need to find out why Troy is crying, but your mind is only focused on the drawing. Your innocent daughter wouldn’t draw something as grotesque as that. You needed to have a word with her.
Troy is pointing to his bed, again. No, wait. As your eyes follow his finger, you realize that he’s not pointing at his bed. He’s pointing under it.
You remember Joan telling you there was a monster under her bed last night. When you had been tucking her in, it had apparently switched from her bed, to the closet, and back. Right before you had left, it had run out of the room.
Figuring it was just your daughter’s imagination, you never gave it a second thought.
Underneath Troy’s bed is dark, even though the lights are on. Your son is still pointing to into the eerie darkness, still violently shaking. Even more scared. Woops, disappeared for half an hour to eat dinner, the atmosphere is totally lost.
Wild imaginings begin to haunt you. Everything is so crystal clear, it is like déjà vu. While staring into the darkness, your mind is plummeting into the abyss of the unknown. Transfixed, your nightmares begin.
And they won’t ever stop once they start.


Gosh, but that frightened me. I reckon you should give up the novels and concentrate on writing horror movie scripts, I would certainly go to see them -and I don't like horrors!

Okay, I will admit, the plot is feeling a bit sort of clichéed at this point. His children are bringing back the horrors of his past, that sort of thing. Also, I do think that having a premature baby who's still frail and a deaf son is slightly OTT. Just slightly. But I am enjoying it. Onto Ch.3...
















3


You are crouching on the carpeted stairs, listening. You don’t want to listen. You don’t want this to happen. It shouldn’t be happening. It hasn’t happened. It isn’t going to happen.
It’s happening.

“Lynn?” you ask, holding out your hand. She laughs and slides out on the ice with you. She clumsily falls. You laugh and Lynn picks herself up. When she finally reaches you, she grasps your hand and shivers.
“It’s so cold!” she says, and you face her. Her beautiful hair is slickly pulled back, Actually, personally I would go for her looking a bit flyaway, straggled, unperfect, you know? and her breath is frozen in the air. It is only you and she at the ice rink. It is a golden moment. You had to pay extra for the hour alone with her. You can feel the bulge of the small box in your jacket.
“Lynn?” you ask again. Her small eyes look at you endearingly. Her plump lips are pressed together.
“Yeah?” she breathes. Everything is frozen. Not even a snowflake would break the silence. ...Snowflakes don't make noise anyway, do they? Or do you mean that you can almost hear them falling it's so quiet. No... I don't know. It's a pretty phrase but it doesn't make much sense.
Before you can ask the question, you hear a gunshot. Unexpected. It comes at such a surprise that your legs shake. In result, both you and Lynn fall to the ice.

“I’m going to kill you. I’m going to kill you.”
Dad had told you not to listen to him, so you try to tune out his voice. It is coming from the closet, but you know that he can perch himself on the ceiling and crawl above your bed. He has nasty claws and teeth as sharp as needles. You know it can tear your skin apart.
But you also know his weakness. He cannot kill you if you are awake.
“I’m going to kill you. I’m going to kill you. Just go to sleep, my friend. It won’t take long. It will hurt. It’s going to burn.”
“No!” you stammer. “You’re not real!” Turning your head into your pillow, you can hear him slowly opening the closet. You can feel his long, yellow nails scraping against the door.
“I’m going to kill you. It’ll only take a moment, but boy, it’s going to hurt. It’s going to kill.” I sort of prefer the idea of a nameless, bodiless fear. Also, how can he have both claws and nails?

“I hate the way that you treat me, I hate the way that you go out and buy beer and get drunk when I need you to take care of the kids! I hate the way that you… that you…” Mom cannot even finish her sentence. She is bright red in the face and glaring at Dad. She has a suitcase on the table, and clothes litter the area.
Dad pounds his fists on the counter and yells at her. “Well, you know what? I’m sick of you! I’m so tired of your cock-and-bull stories about how I’m the bad parent here! I’m so,” –Dad swears here, a word that you dare not repeat- “sick of the way that I’m always blamed! You’re the parent that doesn’t give a crap about how we raise our children!”
“Me?” Mom gasps, putting her hand to her chest. You can see her red eyes and the tears glistening down her cheeks. “Me? I’ve done nothing!”
“Exactly!” Dad roars, swiping away Mom’s suitcase from the table. He walks over to her, but she runs across the kitchen. “You don’t do a thing around here!
“No! No, you stay away from me!” she yells. Her voice is faltering.
“I want you out of the house!” Dad cries and throws some clothes at Mom’s face. She chucks them at the ground.
And then she sees you.

“Lynn!” You cry, and more gunshots are fired into the skating rink. Everything is happening so slowly. You are sliding and slipping on the ice, desperately trying to pull Lynn up. She seems too stupefied to react to anything.
You can hear the bullets echoing off the ice and ricocheting. You are bound to be hit any instant.
Suddenly, Lynn is on her feet. You grab her hand and move your legs—when you discover your skates aren’t working. It’s all a nightmare. Everything was going wrong. Inconsistent. Sorry.
“Hurry!” you roar and pull on Lynn’s figure. More gunshots. More echoing. Lynn isn’t moving.

You pull the blankets over your head. The man’s voice isn’t going away. Even if you ignored him, he would still be there.
Through the thin blankets, you can see he is holding a serrated knife.
The man is small and dark. You can’t see any of his features, but you can smell him. You could recognize that scent anywhere. The stench is overwhelming, and you have to plug your nose to breathe.
“I am going to kill you. Just a few more moments and it’ll all be over.”
Your blood begins pumping. The night terrors aren’t real, and you know that. They are all just your imagination. They are just a simple fear that you cannot get rid of.
The knife is being raised above your body. You watch it out of the corner of your eye. The silver glints and shines in the moonlight.
You hold your breath and close your eyes.

You freeze as Mom’s stare pierces through you. Your mouth is hanging, and your brother is clutching onto your hand, squeezing. There will be nail marks where he has squeezed.
“I’m taking the children,” she mutters. Your dad doesn’t try and stop her. “I’m taking them to my mom’s.”
No one is talking, although you know that both of your parents are screaming.
“Are we getting a divorce?” The cold words snake through your body. Your worst fear suddenly comes to terms. The separation of your parents would be devastating. You try and stop it. Perfect. Every child's real worst fear.
“No!” you cry, as you fling yourself up the rest of the stairs. Dad sees you and holds his breath. You glare at him and your mother.
“No! I won’t let you get a divorce!”
“Tim, this is not your decision! This is between your mother and I!” Dad roars, stomping his foot. “Go to your room!”
“Carl, no! I’m taking them to my mom’s! Tim, Brandon, come on!” She grabs a hold of your wrist, and you struggle to escape. Her fingers are bony and solid. Your younger brother comes racing up the stairs.
“No!” you yell and slap your mother’s hand. She pulls back, and you seize the opportunity. Sinking your teeth into her fingers, she screams.
You don’t even know what happened when you feel the sharp pain in your head. Someone had hit you, and you begin to feel dizzy. You hear shouting and yelling and crying and roaring, and then you collapse in your mother’s arms.

Lynn is dead. She is sprawled on the ice, her eyes closed. There is a bullet hole in the side of her skull. Blood leaks from it and dyes the ice red.
The gunshots cease to fire anymore, leaving you to your misery and your nightmare.
Everything begins to fade out.

You are whimpering. The knife is directly above your head. The man freezes, holding the blade.
It is cold in the room. Your window is open. That, you know, is how the monster entered your room. The revolting smell travels through your nose, and you grimace.
You are still trembling under your blankets. They are thin, so you can see the man standing at your bedside. He is wearing a black robe, draped over his figure. Red eyes emerge from the darkness of the hood.
Should you call for help? Would your parents reach you in time? Would they save you? Would they make the monster go –
The knife suddenly plunges down and cracks through your skull. You can’t even feel the blood as it oozes down your pale face, and drips onto your bed sheets.
The monster exits out of the window, licking the knife clean.

I'm taking a moment to catch my breath. That was stunning, good job. I'm guessing these are all his nightmares. It was difficult to discern the true from the imaginary though. Was that the effect you were going for?












4


I believe in everything until it's disproved. So I believe in fairies, the myths, and dragons. It all exists, even if it's in your mind. Who's to say that dreams and nightmares aren't as real as the here and now?
-John Lennon


You are dead.


No. Not yet. You still have more time.


They can’t get you if you’re not asleep dead. You know that. You’ve known that your entire life.

You are trapped in your own imagination.

get out get out get out


“I’m going to kill you. I’m going to kill you.”

Lynn is dead.
We’re getting a divorce.

Night terrors will kill you.
Open up the d o
o r.
Let us in.






I know you said no formatting issues, but I think "get out get out get out" would be cool as all just one word.

Okay, so your plot so far is very, very gripping, as my useless and annoying comments will have told you. I'm just worried that it might become too cliché, be careful with it.

Your characters... right.

Tim seems well developed in the basics. Your narrative makes it easy to connect with him, but when we take a step back to look at him, I can't find him quite human.

He loves his children, he loves his wife. He's handy. He has a past. He's had nightmares when he's a child. All in all, he's a pretty average guy.

That's just it. Nobody's average.

Look, you don't need to tell us everything, but I sort of felt that you didn't know him inside out. Perhaps you do. I don't know. Does he like raisins? Is he afraid of spiders? All the little everyday things that make us human. That's the problem with horror movies, none of that is dealt with.

Apart from that, it was all good. Are you putting more up? Please do! I'm dying to know what happens!

(By the way, I was in Kilkenny the other day -loooong story, but we went to rent a movie while the parentals were having boring conversation and guess what we rented? Run Fat Boy Run!)

Okay so.

Hope I've been helpful and that reading all my comments hasn't been a complete waste of your time...

Feel free to PM me if you have any questions about anything I said!

-Stella x



Phew. Sorry, all your formatting will be lost in that, but I read it as it was.
"Stella. You were in my dream the other night. And everyone called you Princess." -Lauren2010
  





User avatar
135 Reviews



Gender: Female
Points: 890
Reviews: 135
Fri Jul 18, 2008 1:56 pm
niccy_v says...



Omg i love you! This is super awsome! Love it so much.

*blush* i remember thinking monsters were under my bed when i was little and got to sleep in my parents bed that barely fit us all. You really brought this to life and played around so well with emotions that wow, it's amazing.

Description is simply perfect, and the dialogue remains consistent and flows nicely throughout the entire plot. I love the last page. It's quick and quirky and draws a quick, complete ending to that bit of the story. You chopped and changed so fluently i never once lost track, which is something i find hard to do in my own stories.

You've got such a great story here, i really look forward to further chapters. Please hurry i want to read on! You've developed the characters brilliantly, plot is strong, and there isn't all that much i can say to improve on. Here and there simple errors i've managed to pick up on.
Writing gives my life purpose
  





User avatar
37 Reviews



Gender: Male
Points: 890
Reviews: 37
Thu Jul 24, 2008 4:36 am
Sexy Sadie says...



My God! Wow! I really don't know what to say to make this any better. I really enjoy your writing, I've only been on here three days (yes, I think?) and I've already ran across two of your works, Fat Boy and Night Terrors.

Now back to Night Terrors. Brilliant (I love that word, don't you?). The little girl was a winning character and the man, father, was also very good. I liked the deaf little boy too, my nephew is deaf and I would have to say you described him very well.

Anywho, I really liked this. Are you going to add on? If you do, PM me because I would really enjoy reading more.

Sorry this wasn't a real crit, it's late and I'm tired.

-Sadie
  





User avatar
896 Reviews

Supporter


Gender: Female
Points: 240
Reviews: 896
Fri Aug 01, 2008 11:52 am
PenguinAttack says...



Okay, Boy. It’s taken me uber long to get to this and I assume everyone else has gotten to all the juicy stuff anyway. But I’m going to try and do what I can to help you with this. ^^

Firstly. I did like this... kind of. I liked the idea. I didn’t particularly end up liking the narrative.

To begin with:
I stopped reading after the first page. To be completely honest. I started it but then I just had to stop. It was a little rehearsed, a little too much. It certainly didn’t hook me at all. I’m not even curious as to what happens next. I think that you mention the night terrors too early. You’ve got yourself trying to be mysterious but you steal the mystery away by telling us what we are to fear straight off.

So, when I continued (fiercely ignoring that first page) I liked your starting line “As a child, you were afraid of the dark” This appeals to both my reading style and my interest. I like the tone and the manner of this.

But, you have a few slightly noticeable info dumps and while they’re not as noticeable as they could be – nice work on that, by the way – they are still a little obvious. I’d suggest dispersing the material a little. We don’t need to know all that all at once, do we? For example:

“Troy is your deaf son. He is four years old, and currently sick with the fever. His hearing condition has left him permanently deaf. What started out as a minor hearing infection when he was younger turned out to be something unchangeable.”

I’d definitely suggest trying to stretch this out. The mentioning of sign language later on is a brilliant and simple way of telling us the boy is deaf. A mention afterwards would work. I didn’t like the “Troy is your deaf son” because “I” should know that already. You shouldn’t have to tell me again.

I hated the bit about the pictures. It was just so... ludicrous. You tried to make it mysterious but I honestly just rolled my eyes a little and was like... “eh, it’s a picture of them dead. Got it.” Before you ever mentioned the actual image. Just tell us straight away, we can handle it. We can be shocked as we’re meant to be. And we don’t have to muck about with slightly odd concealment.

I don’t think I want to see the knife, either. I think that it would be more shocking, more hurtful to me as a reader if it was more sudden. There’s warning but I don’t know how or why. That would be a delicious pain, as a reader. It’d be hard to really evoke, but I think you could do it. ^^ I also think that making the monster a man is a little... ick. I’m not sure why, but it humanises the horror a little, and I don’t like that. Nightmares are made from bogeymen and irrational fears. A *man* cannot move that fast and a *man* is not so cunning. I think if you made him into a spectre, not quite defined, maybe he’s manlike? I just feel as though you’d do better without him being human. Human we can justify and understand – even if we still are repulsed by the idea – but real monsters no one understands or can justify. And that’s what nightmares are made of, no?

I like your last line, sort of. I’d have liked to see something like “licking the blood clean” but that’s just my aversion to the knife idea on its own.

This is obviously a bit of a general look at the story. Those are the elements that really got to me. I like how you told the tale. First person works well and the narrator is not too invasive on the individual.

If you’d like me to give this a more in depth critique, looking at more specific lines and paragraphs, tell me and I’ll get to it.

*Hearts* Le Penguin.
I like you as an enemy, but I love you as a friend.
  





User avatar
31 Reviews



Gender: Female
Points: 890
Reviews: 31
Mon Aug 04, 2008 3:05 pm
mirandamaddness says...



Whoa!

I'm not gonna be able to sleep tonight! All the childhood memories are coming back to me now. I even realize my imagination is relatively the same now, so yes, I'm still afraid of the dark, but I like it too. It sush an...ambivalent...feeling.

*shivers* I swear at parts my blood ran cold and my heart stopped.

Yeash I'm a wimp! I guess I was never one for scary stories...but I find them a comic relief somehow. I laugh at myself for being so afraid.

Well, apart from my nightmares, your story did it's job. It freaked the freaking heck out of me!

I'll notify if I have nightmares!
*The Self Proclaimed Queen of The Maddness Minions*
GOT YWS? (cause I sure do)
"Everyone has a song that tells about themselves, but I have an entire soundtrack."
~Anonymous
  





User avatar
438 Reviews



Gender: Female
Points: 2999
Reviews: 438
Wed Aug 06, 2008 11:41 pm
JFW1415 says...



A critique for entering the grammar contest for CIA.

Before I Read

Hey Jare! I'm sooo psyched to be reading this! I've been waiting for AGES. XD

If I say something about spacing that's simply because I'VE messed it up, please ignore me. It's hard critiquing pieces with a certain format, as I add so much red text, which spaces it out funny. I'll try to fix how I space it out, but I'll probably mess up.

After I Read

Overall Comments

I have none. *Claps* I freaking LOVED this, Jare. I'd give you a hundred stars if I could.

Ooers – I have a comment! Yay! XXD

Go back to the narrative with 'me' and Joan. This needs work. Use description and emotions and physical actions to your advantage – show me the sweat, the cobwebs, let me hear the door creaking open slowly. Make me SCREAM, 'cause frankly, I wasn't scared at all. Not for this entire thing.

Other than that, I ranted to you in the actual piece. It's amazing, but make sure you look over my line edits. (There are a lot.)

Good job with the formatting, Jare. Only a few places where it was useless, but other than that, it was great.

*Gold star*

PM me for anything.

~JFW1415
Attachments
Jare's.doc
Here you go!
(90.5 KiB) Downloaded 60 times
  





User avatar
1464 Reviews

Supporter


Gender: Female
Points: 83957
Reviews: 1464
Thu Aug 07, 2008 2:06 pm
JabberHut says...



Baer!

Thanks for doing the CIA contest, blah blah blah... I love you, and here is your critique for entering.

Yay.

So. I rather loved this. Not gonna lie. I had the hardest time finding stuff to complain about. It was creepy, like the others have said. My heart raced at certain moments. It was awesome.

I think the flow was a little disrupted, but I mentioned that in the crit.

Um.

I gotta shower.

So, here it is.

Keep writing!

Jabber, the One and Only!
Attachments
July2008IV.doc
(78.5 KiB) Downloaded 50 times
I make my own policies.
  








Remember, a stranger once told you that the breeze here is something worth writing poems about.
— Shinji Moon