Awake and Alone

Written by: watericesage

The Greatest Story Ever Told is one of the latest contests to hit the No Nutritional Value board. Contestants are given requirements for each Chapter and must write an original short story fitting those requirements. All in the hopes of writing 'The Greatest Story Ever Told.'

The critics then review, anonymously, and rate each story out of 10. The person with the lowest rating is then eliminated from the contest, while the person with the highest rating gets their story published in the Pink Ink for all to see!

There are some fantastic writers on PPT and this is a chance for them to shine, I hope you come along and read their efforts here, and be sure to keep an eye out for future entries in the Pink Ink!

This chapter was the last, between Twizzler0171 and watericesage. Each contestant was required to write a sequel to a past story written in previous rounds. Twizzler managed to win, although watericesage came quite close! We are publishing both articles this issue, but for now, here's "Awake and Alone", by watericesage. If you want to read the prequel, be sure to check out the thread!

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Awake and Alone (sequel to Kuristaru's story, Dream Horror)

As Jessica realized with horror that she had been, indeed, bitten, she felt a presence behind her back... and she turned around... to see the vampire.

He muffled her with his devious cloak before Jessica could let out a scream. Jessica found herself wrapped by strong, but bony arms as the vampire dragged her through a window, and into the night sky.

The sky was moonless, and only a few stars were shown, faintly, through the thick clouds. Jessica dared not to look down, she had always been afraid of heights. She was dragged through the sky like a helpless rag doll. She feared to think where the vampire was taking her.

The vampire was ascending, Jessica felt the cold jab at her like a million invisible needles, and her pajamas offered hardly any protection from the wind.

Jessica could barely hear the vampire chuckle... and then he let go. And Jessica plunged down, down, down...

~*~

Jessica sat up from her bed, panting and then wiping beads of sweat from her forehead. She looked around and saw that she wasn't falling to her demise, but in fact, in her own bed.

'It was just a nightmare...'

Her hand quickly flew to the back of her neck, searching frantically with her fingers for the puncture wound... It wasn't there...

Jessica looked at the electronic clock, 2:30 it flashed, she crept back into her blue, polka-dotted covers, but she could not sleep... Jessica tossed and turned in her bed, thinking about that strangely vivid dream... She was afraid of what awaited her if she went back to sleep, but what could she do?

'Confront your fears, that's what Peter would say'

Jessica felt a sting at her eyes at the thought of Peter, even though he had died two years ago, the pain had not yet, not completely anyways, gone away. She couldn't bear to think about him anymore, so she shook the thought away.

'I will confront my fear, I will write a horror story, and it will be a damn good one'

And with that thought, Jessica got up, and turned the light on in the living room. The lights flashed a few times before being completely on. Jessica made a mental note to replace the light bulbs later.

Jessica walked into a kitchen, reached for the shelf above her ancient microwave and got a package of coffee. She dumped the ground coffee beans in the coffee maker and left the kitchen.

Jessica sat down on her couch, and got out her note book. She decided to go with the clichéd Haunted House theme.

'Avery sat alone in her house, watching a soap on the television, munching away at the popcorn she had on her lap. Her parents were away for the weekend, she had the whole house to herself, and she could do anything she wanted... except to throw a party. Avery was content nonetheless, she could stay up as late as she wanted, like she was doing right now. Her favorite soap, (that she rarely got to watch), was on, and the clock was ticking away at 2:30.

During one of the commercials, Avery went for a quick bathroom break, the soda pop she drank a while ago went right through her. Avery had been holding it in, not wanting to miss a single second of her soap.

She had just gotten back from the washroom and before she could settle down back in her couch, she heard a clang in the kitchen. Avery walked to the source of the noise, it seemed that a salt shaker had rolled off the kitchen counter. Avery put the salt shaker back on the counter, she was a bit spooked, but paid little attention to it. She went back and settled in her couch once again, just in time for her soap.

Avery watched as Jim proposed to Enur, and tears filled her dark blue eyes as Enur refused the offer. And then she heard a larger clang in the kitchen...

Avery walked slowly towards the kitchen yet again, reassuring herself inside, she walked in to find that the spice rack had toppled over, many of her mother's dispensers rolled around on the flat counter. She picked up the dispensers and quickly rushed back to her soap, severally spooked now, and I can only imagine how she felt when she heard the kitchen drawers opening...

Avery spun around, just in time to see all the drawers and cabinets opening, plates, pots, silverware... and knives floated up, and flew towards the living room. Avery let out a sharp scream as a pot nearly gave her a concussion, she ran towards the door, but as she reached for the doorknob...

A knife pierced her through the shoulders.

~*~

Two years later...

Jane walked through her new house, she still couldn't believe what price she got this at. Isaac looked around the living room with admiration with her wife.

"Wow! I had kind of expected this place to be a crap hole after I buy it!" she said to her husband, "This place looks great!"

Jane took another step inside the house.'

The coffee maker alarmed Jessica, stopping her train of thoughts, she went into the kitchen to switch it off, and poured a fresh cup of coffee for herself into her favorite Christmas mug. Jessica noticed it was a bit cold, so she struck a match and lit the fireplace. Jessica crawled back into her couch, back to her notebook.

'Isaac looked around the kitchen. "Look at this honey! Look how big this kitchen is! There are many hooks around here so you can hang your moody moods there while cooking." Isaac joked with his wife, "Huh, what's this?"

Jane stopped looking in the bathroom to her husband.

"Is that a knife?" Isaac pointed towards a blade tip, barely visible, behind one of the counters that are not attached to the wall.

"Oh honey, you're right!"

The couple stood there, pondering about the knife, and the decision they had made about buying this house.'

Jessica stopped there, pondering what to write next. Subconsciously, she started biting the eraser of her pencil with her pearly white teeth. When she realized what she was doing, she stopped and spat out the bits of eraser that had embedded itself between her teeth. Jessica had a lot of bad habits, she'd bite her nails, chew on pencils, in fact, her new year's resolution was to stop these bad habits. She turned her attention back to her story... and then she heard a thud in the kitchen.

Jessica was scared half to death, and went to investigate. It seemed that a package of coffee beans had fallen from her shelves, she picked it up and set it on the counter. Jessica told herself that it was just a coincidence, nothing to worry about. She went back to her couch, and looking behind her one last time before she turned her attention back to the notebook.

"Just a coincidence," Jessica repeated to herself, "nothing to worry about."

Then she heard a smash from the kitchen. Jessica was immobilized by fear, she dared not turn around, so she sat with her back to the kitchen for a long time... until the drawers started opening anyways.

Jessica finally turned around to see pots, pans, dishes, silverware and knives rushing in the room, she crouched down and dodged an army of forks, then hurriedly got up and jumped over a saucer aimed for her knees. A knife cut her slightly on the arm, as Jessica reached for her notebook, flinging it in the fireplace, a knife made contact with her skin, drew blood, and fell... as the notebook was being devoured by the hungry flames.

Everything that was once flying suddenly stopped in mid-air, stopping, before falling down and making a terrible racket. She looked at the mess in her apartment. She was scared...

"If only you were still here Peter..." whispered Jessica, "If only you can protect me."

These words Jessica repeated as she found a first aid kit and washed out the wounds with rubbing alcohol, Jessica winced slightly at the pain. She bandaged herself around the arm and the back, still shaken up, she sat down at the couch and looked in disbelieve at the various kitchenware scattered across her living room.

Jessica pinched herself, and again, then again, and when she was finally convinced it wasn't a dream. She started to clean up the mess, gathering the spoons and forks on the ground. It took her quite a while to finish, and her back throbbed every time she bent down. It took a while, but she got it done.

Jessica looked at the clock on her wall, the time was just before four. She looked outside a window and saw a glimpse of the sun coming up. So she went to her balcony, leaned on the railing and watched as the sun slowly made its way above the clouds.