Writing Competition. 28th Aug-11th Sept. YOU A WINNA HA HA HA.

[Jack Sheehan]

Hello there all and sundry. As winner of the last competition (by one vote no less) I'm here to start the next compo. This one will be very loose.

No Rules on medium, length or content. I want no restrictions, if people want more time, they can have it. No one wins when there are too few entries.

The title is 'Tonights the Night' or if you like just 'Night'.

Enjoy.

[olafmoriarty]

Good theme. If I get the time, I'll definitely participate.

[DanielH]

EDIT: See below...

[Dualnames]

Bookish Part II(there's part one)

Night came and day left. Or the other way around. It matters little. And it matters more little than that if you imagine that important issues don't really matter, at least not for a big period of time. Example an earthquake happens and people talk about it for a few days then nothing. The same happened for the Bookish Hunt Down Event. People said, "We got to do something we can;t allow the destruction of all books, at least not the porn magazines you fools!!". Then they decided it was pointless and boring to start a rebellion. They even run a simulation of it to see how it would go, and it sucked so they decided to live without books. And it was fun for the first ten years.. no one went to school since there was nothing to learn, however some teachers remember the books by heart, so they were "taken care of". The next ten years was fun, then that night no one would sort of imagine came, a bit late, after two hundred years but anyway, so the night came. In a small cubicle of a small office, of a small floor, of a small building, of a small outskirt of a small city of a small area of a small region of a small country of small continent of a small planet, the unimaginable happened. An error at the main server. A window had popped up and no one was aware what was it. Seemed like something with numbers on white papers. and some letters as well. Anyway, it made no sense to no-one. Apparently 200 years without books can make people forget about anything even forget that they know nothing. Socrates would be totally wise in that period but no-one would notice he would be so. So, they told the problem at their leader. He was panicked for a millisecond, with the very thought that he had spilled his coffee, and then realizing he hadn't he announced that it would then be time to bring to him the list of heroes.

[DanielH]

I'm ready to upload my Entry! Yay! Does anyone have suggestions for a decent free file upload space? It's just going to be an eyesore written out here. (844 words)

[Jack Sheehan]

Just upload it here.

[DanielH]

Here goes...

Night.

    It was a Tuesday, and as James worked hard into the night, he glanced at the clock- 21:00.  That instant, his boss, in a cheap suit knocked on his door and announced- 'It's nine, James.  Your shift ended an hour ago.  Go Home' James always was a workaholic.  He put some files back in a drawer, hit the off button on his computer, and casually walked out of the office.  He gave a brief ‘goodbye’ and a wave to the secretary, Sarah, and opened one of the large glass double doors, underneath the huge Wilson & Co. sign, and began the kilometre walk home.  Despite the fact he could take the bus, or his car, or even his bike, James always walked.  He always enjoyed seeing the city at night.  The sky was quite light- despite the sun having long since set, and it was quite warm, despite being the height of winter.  It was always quite bright at night along the streets.  The roads were always busy, so headlamps always filled the road with a yellow-white light.  Lampposts lined the streets in pairs, giving a bright orange colour to the scene, and the buildings, which always had lights in their windows.  Finally, the stars and moon were often glowing upon the city.  This cacophony of lights was always beautiful in James' eyes, after a long day's work, it relaxed him.  Soon after he stepped onto the street, he noticed the lights were different.  Faded somehow, as if the colour was washed out.  He shrugged it off, it was probably just him being tired, he told himself, and continued home. 
    He stopped again, a while later.  He had just noticed, out of the corner of his eye, an entire building’s lights cut.  Must be a power surge, he unconvincingly told himself.  After what felt like walking a marathon, he looked at his watch.  The spindly glow in the dark dials told him midnight.  Midnight?  James asked himself aloud.  He was normally home by half-past nine!  While he was wondering why he was not home yet, he found the answer- he was lost.  A brief survey of his surroundings proved he was in a part of the city he had never been before- but he was sure he knew the city like the back of his hand.  As a disturbing shiver ran down his spine, James collapsed onto a park bench, tired.  Looking out onto the road, James began to notice that there were fewer cars than normal.  Usually, he could expect the road to be packed by motorists to the point of traffic jams during the day, and not a whole lot better at night.  Suddenly, James felt sick, painfully sick.  He looked across the road.  Faintly, under the dim lights of the lampposts, he could see the name of the building across the road- Wilson & Co. James knew the company worked 24/7, so why are all the lights off?  Not only were those, all the lights off, in the whole building, the whole Street, the whole town.  The only way to see was through the amber light of the faded lampposts, and the one or two cars that drove by.  No, he told himself.  Only the lampposts.  Glancing at his watch- 00:30, he realised not a single car had passed for ten minutes.
    Very suddenly, James was immensely tired.  He could barley stand, and fell painfully onto the hard bench.  Barley able to move his suddenly exhausted muscles under his own seemingly immense weight, he began to fall asleep.  Shortly after, though, he used all his strength to tear his body into an upright position.  Out of the corner of the eye, one pair of lampposts flickered, and faded into black.  Incredibly distressed, and terrified, James turned to face the opposite way.  Another pair fell to darkness, and another, a fourth, and a fifth.  Soon, the only light was emanating faintly from the lampposts on the opposite side of the road, and directly above the bench.  The opposite lamppost died, and James was left scared, and paralysed by both fear and tiredness.  As the amber light above him became weaker, it faded to red, and was soon consumed by the ominous black fog of the night.  Tiredness overcame James, and he collapsed asleep, never to wake.

    It was a Tuesday, and as Sarah worked at her desk, she glanced at the clock- 22:00.  Great, she told herself- she can go home.  As she told the boss of her departure, pushed a large door open, and left, she saw a young man in his twenties across the street, in a suit.  She told herself that looks like James, but could not be, and crossed the road.  As a car flew past the bench, its fog lights illuminated James’ face, and Sarah’s worst fears were confirmed.  The police arrived, and a post mortem was performed on the James’ body, but to no avail.  All they could tell was that he died around ten minutes after leaving work that day.  Cause of death- unknown.

[Jack Sheehan]

Does anyone need anymore time for other entries? I don't like for it to come down to just the two.

[olafmoriarty]

Shuck, I completely forgot about this one. Or, I forgot that the end was so soon.

I'm posting an entry before the 11th, promise, so don't extend the deadline for my sake.

[R4L]

Tonight's The Night - R4L

As the dark, mischievous night takes over a bright and pinkish sunset, and the sunlight starts to fade away and evaporate out of every window and blind of every home in this small town, I sit and watch how the hours seem to turn into minutes. The photo in my hand is a recent love, a beauty of a woman, with long, curly black hair, an astonishing figure, and a smile that lights up the room. I'm reminded of her past and personality as I speak of her. Sexual, physical, and verbally abused, she truly is broken. A wretched mess of pain that has swelled up inside her for all these years...

And how I'd love to make it worse, so that she'd feel what I feel right now as I sit here, downing liquor and sleeping days away while she's off acting like nothing has happened. I want her to feel bad. She has so much personality, yet she seems inanimate in these times. This isn't the woman I fell in love with. This isn't the woman who made me feel uncomfortable with myself, only to comfort me after.

I throw the picture away from me. I can't be reminded of those days. More recent events have washed them away like a monsoon. I'm angry, and disgusted, not only with her, but with myself. The countless hours of work I put into our bond only to receive nothing in the end but this departure... it was heartbreaking. I feel like I have no heart left, and it's getting harder to live. I comforted her in her times of need, and my God did I love hard. I loved her, and it changed when I spoke out of term.

I'm weeping... This is a feeling I would have hoped to never encounter ever again, yet here it is taunting me and playing with my emotions like they were toys. It's OK though. I don't have to feel this way, because tonight is the night that everyone will pay. I've been so misunderstood, so neglected, so alone... Heh, I'm weeping again...

She will pay. I didn't deserve this. My self-minded, so called friends of mine will pay. Tonight is the night I will make things right. So darling, I hope you're ready for one last encounter, because after you see me, you'll see nothing at all. Friends, a toast to you, because this is the last toast I have, and the last toast you'll ever receive. I shouldn't have to live like this.

As I step out of my apartment into the long, plain hallway, I am losing myself. I am slowly becoming something I fear, yet welcome at the same time.

It's a perfect night outside. So long...



This was pretty tough for me. I don't usually like to write about such things, but I get engrossed somehow.

[TwinMoon]

I don't like for it to come down to just the two.

And here's another one!
It's a simple generic horror story, enjoy. (I went a little overboard, 1321 words.)

Slight warning: scary stuff & bad language inside.


DARK NIGHT

Jam got up from behind her hiding place, carefully, and peered through the window. Christ, it was pitch-black. If this hospital was downtown, there would be some light from the nightlife, but here there wasn’t even a porch light left on.
She felt with her arm where the bed was and lowered herself gently behind it, so as to not make any sound. The blood on her arm had dried up, but her heart was still pounding like an alarm, pointing him the way to her fragile body.
She listened. Some night-bird outside made a noise. And there was some soft gray noise - trees shaking in the wind? Or breathing noises? Oh my god, she thought. Unconsciously she pressed her hands against her chest to dampen the beats of her heart. She imagined hearing some distant noise, a floor below.
After sitting there for a while, rationality returned to her. If I can't see anything, then he can't see me either, she thought. Hesitantly, she stood up, listening to register any irregular sound. Feeling her way, she walked alongside the bed. She heard her footsteps, so she bent down to take off her shoes.
Her head bumped into something. She felt around, it was a cold, iron plate. There was a needle on it, and Jam decided to take it with her, as a substitute weapon. God, I hope I'll never need to use this, she thought.
She opened the door to the room, careful not to make any noise. The door creaked slightly. She imagened the killer standing on the other side of the wall. She froze. Her imagination was so vivid, it was almost real. The hallway was empty, but she could only see one side.
She stood there for one, unending moment.

Then she peeked out into the hallway. No one.

She started walking through the long hallways of the hospital. There were no lights, but she could see a little, mostly shapes.
With her left hand tightly clutched around the needle, she felt her way forward with her other hand.
Jam's thoughts went back to 15 years ago, when she was here to have her broken arm examined. It was a place of healing then. Now it was a place of violence. Damn, she didn't know anything about the person she was up against. Except that he killed a lot of people in this hospital. And that she hit him on the head after he cut her arm open. He had a balaclava on and his eyes showed no emotion when he cut her.
She tried to remember the layout of the hospital. She was walking towards the stairwell. There was this small office at the end of the hallway. Maybe the phone still worked. Electricity and phones are different cables, right?
In the dim light, she thought this was the stairwell before her. Her hand found a door handle and she opened the door. She tried the light switch, but nothing happened.
This certainly smelled like a stuffy small office, it must be it. The desk wasn't hard to find and after wiping her hand over it, she found a telephone. She held her breath and picked up the horn.
There was a tone! Relieved and excited she quickly dialed an emergency line.
The other side picked up. Jam froze. She was certain there was someone standing in the doorway. "What service do you require?" a voice on the telephone said.
Slowly, she put down the phone. Very careful not to make any noise, she stepped towards the wall. There was someone! She heard a foot turning on the floor.
The operator said something again. Jam heard someone stepping into the door. He must've heard the voice on the phone. Sweating, she sneaked sideways so she got more behind the door. There was some air moving. He must be right in front of her! Then she heard the soft steps near the desk. And the sound of the phone being picked up.
With courage out of nowhere she leapt forwards and threw her arm around a neck - with her other hand she tried to thrust the needle into it, but caught an shoulder. She pushed it a little.
The man screamed and cursed: "Goddamn!"
Jam fell off him onto the floor, out of breath.
"Ollie?" she said.

The man groaned. "Jam? Is that you?" he said baffled.
"What are you doing here?" the girl said, utterly surprised.
"Could you help me get this needle out of my arm, if you're not too busy?" he barked.
Jam got up. "Where is it?"
"Here."
Ollie found her hand and guided it to the needle.
"I'll pull it out in one go, ok?"
"Yeah."
"Here goes."
Ollie winced when she pulled it out.
"I don't think you hit anything, it's not bleeding," he said.
"Well, at least you've had your shots."
She could feel his look. "Ok, bad joke, I know."
Ollie pulled something out of his pocket. Suddenly there was light.
"Hey, don't shine directly in my face."
"God, what happened to your arm?" the boy said.
"There's someone in this hospital, some psycho," she said. "He did it."
"Yeah, I know," Ollie said and pointed the flashlight to his head. There was a big bump there. "Just managed to get away myself."
"We-we have to call the police," Jam said.
Ollie looked surprised. "Oh right. The phones work. But we better watch out, maybe someone heard our little fight."
It dawned upon Jam just now. "Fuck, yeah."
"Why don't I," said Ollie, "call the police and you keep an eye on the hallway."
"Okay." Jam moved towards the door. She heard Ollie dialing. The hallway was quiet. She heard Ollie's voice whispering into the phone and noticed she didn't feel any fear anymore. Or was that the adrenaline still screwing with her judgment?
Ollie walked up behind her. "Ok, they're coming."
"Good."
Suddenly Jam started shivering. "C-Could you..."
"What?" he whispered.
"eh... hold me?"
He said nothing, he just did it. It felt good, the warmth of another person against her. She put her head against his shoulder.

"Hey," she said.
"Hm?"
"Do you have a weapon?"
"Um, yes," Ollie stuttered. "A knife. Why do you ask?"
"I don't want to spend another moment in this place. There must be some emergency exit downstairs."
"You want to risk it?"
"Hell yeah," she said. "How did you get that bump on your head? Did the killer hit you or something?"
"Yeah...well no. He hit me with something. A boot I think."
"A boot?"

"Yeah. I'll go ahead," he said. Ollie went to the stairs. They had to be quiet, the large stairs were really echoey. Jam followed closely behind him. She felt the banister and followed it until it stopped. Odd, she didn't know where Ollie was. She put her hands in front of her mouth and whispered.
"Hey! Where are you?"
She felt naked, standing in a wide area in the dark.
"Here," he said.
"Where the hell were you?" Jam said angrily.
"Went to check the hallway. I heard nothing there."
"Let's just get out of here, ok?" Jam said.
And they walked down the stairs. Right across there was the faint light of an exit sign.
"Look!" Jam said.
"Wait," Ollie said. They stood at the last step of the stairs.

"There no one here," Jam said. She walked to the emergency exit and pulled the handle. It opened with a giant bang. "What was that?" she asked. Turning around, she saw Ollie in the faint light, his knife glistened.
"It sounded like a door being broken open," he said.
"Is it the cops?"
"Don't know," Ollie said.
Jam walked outside. The cool air... she saw the flickering of lights.
"We're saved," she said and turned around. Ollie stood there with his knife. He dropped it. "It's over," he said.

[olafmoriarty]

Woohoo, look at all the entrys! Here's mine. I may have taken the whole "no restrictions on medium, length or content" a bit too far -- but I liked writing this experimental piece, so thanks for a great set of rules!



Examine self
by olafmoriarty



It is morning. You wake up in your bed. You have a strange feeling there's something you have to do today... But you can't remember what it is.

> EXAMINE ROOM

It is an ordinary bedroom. Your bed stands in one corner. Some clothes are
lying in a pile on the floor. A calendar is hanging on the wall. A door leads into the kitchen.

> EXAMINE BED

The bedsheets are a mess, considering you just woke up and you sometimes have very vivid dreams.

> MAKE BED

You don't want to.

> EXAMINE BEDSHEETS

They're brown. And they smell terrible.

> EXAMINE CLOTHES

They're just your everyday clothes; underwear, a t-shirt and some pants.

> WEAR CLOTHES

Okay.

> EXAMINE CALENDAR

You've drawn a large ring around today's date and marked it with the text "Tonight's the night". If only you could remember why...

> ENTER KITCHEN

The kitchen has a large fridge and some chairs. A clock is hanging on the wall. A door leads out to the street.

> SIT

No time for that, you're trying to figure out what you're doing tonight!

> EXAMINE FRIDGE

A note is hanging on the fridge on one of them refridgerator magnets.

> READ NOTE

"Meet John at Carl's Café 3 PM".

> LOOK AT CLOCK

It's 2:45 PM. Crikes, where did the morning go? Now you have to run to get to Carl's Café in time!

> LEAVE APARTMENT

Syntax error: Invalid command. Room "apartment" unknown.

> LEAVE KITCHEN

Where do you want to go, the bedroom or the street?

> ENTER STREET

That was the syntax we were looking for. Good boy. You leave the apartment.

Thirteen minutes later, you enter Carl's Café. Rod Stewart's "Tonight's the night" is playing on the jukebox. John is already sitting by a table.

> SAY HI

You greet John. He asks you to sit down.

> SIT

Okay.

> TALK TO JOHN

What do you want to talk about?

> ASK JOHN ABOUT TONIGHT

You tell John that you can't remember what you were supposed to do tonight.

"Oh, really?" he replies. "You never told me. You've been talking a lot about this date for the two years I've known you, but you never really told me exactly what's supposed to go down tonight. All I know is that it is very important for you... And that it has something to do with the old treehouse in Uddevalla."

> ASK JOHN ABOUT TREEHOUSE

"You know," John says, "that treehouse you showed me two years ago, when we first met. We were both on vacation in Uddevalla, and you mentioned that the treehouse was very important to you, and that on this date you would go back there."

> ASK JOHN ABOUT UDDEVALLA

"I'm surprised you haven't already gone", John says, "Uddevalla is at least an eight hour drive from here. Oh, that reminds me, thank you for letting me borrow your car!"

John gives you a car key.

"Seriously, I owe you big time. That crazy bitch of an ex-wife I have wanted to have the kids this weekend, and started threatening with taking them away from me if I wasn't at her place by noon today. Of course, she's being irrational, I'm a good father and all that, but with what the world's coming to now... The world is crazy enough to take my children away from me and give them to my alcoholic ex-wife, and I don't want to risk it."

> ASK JOHN ABOUT CAR

"Oh, I parked it outside. I filled the fuel tank for you, by the way, that was the least I could do."

> SAY BYE

"Leaving so soon? Yeah, I guess you have that big thing of yours tonight. Good luck with that... whatever it is."

> LEAVE CAFE

Syntax error: Invalid command. Room "cafe" unknown.

> LEAVE CAFÉ

That's more like it.

Your car is parked outside Carl's Café.

> ENTER CAR

Okay.

> DRIVE

Where do you want to drive?

> DRIVE TO UDDEVALLA

Okay.

It is 11:30 PM when you finally arrive at the old treehouse in Uddevalla. Le Click's "Tonight is the night" is playing on the radio. John was right, there was definitely something you should do here tonight... But you still don't remember what it was.

> EXAMINE ROOM

You're outside, on a small and desolated field near Uddevalla. The only outstanding object here, apart from your car, is a tree with a treehouse in it.

> ENTER TREEHOUSE

It is too far up.

> CLIMB TREE

You climb the tree and enter the treehouse.

> EXAMINE ROOM

The treehouse is made completely out of wood, and it seems somewhat old. It is completely empty: Maybe kids have played here in the two years you've been away from it, but they're all asleep now, and they haven't left any toys here or anything. The only things here are the wood in the treehouse and the nails holding it together.

> EXAMINE WOOD

At first glance, it looks like regular planks, At second glance, it also looks like regular planks. And at third glance. After the fortyseventh glance, it still looks like this is a regular treehouse.

> EXAMINE NAILS

One of the nails seem loose.

> TAKE NAIL

Holy handgrenade! That triggered some sort of mechanism!

A big hole has opened in the floor. The strange part is: Since this is a treehouse, you would have expected the hole to lead outside, but it doesn't. It leads to some kind of futuristic room.

> ENTER HOLE

You enter a room which looks as if it has been designed in the 22nd century. There are buttons and displays everywhere, as if you were in a space ship. This room must be concealed from the rest of the world with some bizarre technology so that it can only be entered from the treehouse. Through a gigantic front window you see your car. You feel as if you've been her before -- your memory is still a little shaky, but you're feeling as if you are another person now.

> EXAMINE SELF

You still look completely normal... Uh... scratch that. Some of the skin on your face seems to be falling off ... as if it was a mask.

> REMOVE MASK

You peel off your human disguise. Ah, it's good to feel the fresh air on your skin again. Now that you are your good old Martian self again, you remember everything: You are special agent Spork, sent to Earth to observe Earthlings for a couple of years before evaluating and deciding on the future of the planet. Of course, the problem with the disguises you Martians make is that they make you believe you actually are what you disguise as if you wear them long enough. If you hadn't removed it now, you may have been stuck as a human forever. Tonight is the night for going back home. Tonight is the night you decide what's to happen with the human race.

> START SPACESHIP

The spaceship takes off and soars out of the atmosphere.

You have had two wonderful years on Earth, and now the fate of the planet is up to you. Some of the humans you've met have actually been quite nice people. But then you remember John's ex-wife... and all the other people just like her... And the lawyers and politicians who work to make the world a better place for people like John's ex-wife and may take John's children away from him...

No. There's no way you can let them.

> EXAMINE DASHBOARD

There's a big red button here.

> PRESS BIG RED BUTTON

A display says: "Please enter passphrase."

> TYPE "PASSPHRASE"

What is the passphrase? You can't just type "passphrase" and hope that works!

> TYPE "ROSEBUD"

Nice try. Your memory is still a bit shaky? Maybe you've written it down somewhere?

> TYPE "MEET JOHN AT CARL'S CAFÉ 3 PM"

That is not the passphrase.

> TYPE "TONIGHT'S THE NIGHT"

The spaceship sends a death ray towards Earth. Earth explodes. The puny excuse of a civilization known as humans will never bother you again.

Score: 103/150
Play again? Y/N

[Jack Sheehan]

Fantastic turnout guys! Voting starts now. 1 or two votes as you please. My vote goes to TwinMoon for his astoundingly good horror story and to olafmoriarty for his clever play on the text adventure genre. Voting ends at midnight sept 14th GMT. Well done all, well done indeed.

[olafmoriarty]

Whew, this one is difficult. I feel like I have to vote since I participated and all, and I don't have the time to think more thoroughly through it as I'm going away all weekend, but I really wish I could cast four votes on this one.

I think I have to go with voting for DanielH and R4L. But the others came in darn close.

[R4L]

I'm gonna vote for Daniel H and olaf.

[TwinMoon]

My first vote goes to Olaf for originality and humor.
My second to R4L because of the gritty honesty in his story.

[Dualnames]

olaf.. just olaf.

[Jack Sheehan]

Time Gentlemen please!

Winner: Olaf
Runner(s) up: R4L and Daniel H

Well done all of youze, this was a great competition. I don't really have a prize as such but I do have a recommendation:

Buy this album:http://www.amazon.com/Tonights-Night-Neil-Young/dp/B000002KCC/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1221172348&sr=8-1

Thanks everyone for the entries, special mention to TwinMoons tale (which I loved) for its tension and pacing.

[olafmoriarty]

Wha-wha-WHAT? I won? Seriously?

Okay, then. I'll start a new thread in two minutes. Thank you, guys! I seriously hadn't expected this.

[TwinMoon]

Congrats Olaf!

Thanks everyone for the entries, special mention to TwinMoons tale (which I loved) for its tension and pacing.

Thanks! Might have been a little bit subtle, but at least some peope got it

Buy this album:http://www.amazon.com/Tonights-Night-Neil-Young/dp/B000002KCC/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1221172348&sr=8-1

Make that not a recommendation but an order