YA Spooktacular

WELCOME!

You've reached yet another stop in the fabulous YA Spooktacular event, hosted by Frenzy of Noise and Wicked Awesome Books.




This year, there are three stories written by some of your favorite authors that will be posted throughout the week. Each story is a choose your adventure, where YOU get to decide what path to send the character down. Sometimes you live, sometimes you die, and sometimes you fall into a pit of no return.

There are also some TRICKS or TREATS scattered throughout the story, where you can enter to win prizes and get bonus points toward the prize packs. The prize pack for story one will be up tomorrow! On Halloween day, the grand prize pack will be posted. You can click the banner above to see a full list of the YA Spooktacular prize packs!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Kimberly Welchons finds it difficult to come up with anything interesting about herself. She lives somewhere in Southern California with her husband and a cat who refuses to diet. She definitely does not like scary things.   

You can find Kimberly sometimes blogging at http://www.icountwords.blogspot.com and always tweeting at @icountwords. www.twitter.com/Icountwords

 You can start the story from the beginning by clicking on this banner:

All set? Well, here you are! Happy reading and good luck!

***

“Please,” Laura begged. “Please don’t do this.” Tears streamed down her face making long tracks through the mud. The monster considered her for a moment and lifted his distorted hand as if to wipe them away. Laura shrunk back, ducking away from his yellowed eyes and pox marked skin.

“Move,” he hissed, pushing her forward. She searched the table for a weapon, anything that she could use against him, but only assorted sizes of beakers were in reach. If she could break one, she could use the glass like they did with beer bottles in ill-fated movies. She just needed one good shot. One slash against his leathery skin.

He shoved her toward the table, the edge cutting into her stomach, and pushed her face against the icy metal. From the corner of her eye she could see the stained sheet that clung to the body. The monster must’ve taken it from a nearby home, from some small boy obsessed with rocket ships. She choked on the smell of gasoline and rotting meat.

His hand held her against the table and behind her she heard the sharp screech of metal on metal. She slid forward an inch, hoping he wouldn’t notice the movements of her hands as she tried to grasp something. Anything. A beaker filled with a swirling, bright blue was almost in reach. She rehearsed her movements. Grab, splash, break, stab. Grab, splash, break, stab. I can do this, she whispered to herself. On the count of three.

1…
2…

“Don’t even think about it,” the monster said, his claws extending down her forehead, piercing her skin and ripping up toward her hairline. Laura cried out as warmth dripped over her eyebrows and down the slope of her nose. But she didn’t stop. She’d counted after all.

“Three!” She yelled and surged forward, knocking back against the monster’s body. She tumbled down with him on top of her, but he wasn’t the only one with nails; the things her mother had begged her to cut were going to save her life. Laura clawed at his face, his arms, anything she could reach, trying to ignore the way her fingers dug under his thick skin until it turned slippery with the mix of their blood. His grip loosened and she wiggled out from under him, trying to breathe through the smell of decay that seemed to seep into her pores. Laura seized one of the beakers and broke one against the table’s edge. Blue liquid spilled out, splashing on the floor and immediately began eating away at the stone.

“Stupid girl!” He dropped to the floor and licked up the blue liquid that popped like hot oil, sizzling away parts of his face. Now was her chance, but he was too close, she couldn’t run. With one bleeding hand keeping her balanced on the table, she brandished her shard of a weapon toward him.

“Stay back!” she screamed, jabbing the glass forward.

He peered up at her as little pieces of skin flaked off toward his chin, sending charcoal ribbons of smoke into the air.

“It’s too late.” His eyes narrowed at the body behind her as the corners of his mouth spread open revealing jagged teeth tainted with blue. Laura chanced a look over her shoulder. The thing under the rocket ship sheet was moving.

Jerking really, like it was stuck in a perpetual nightmare it couldn’t wake from. It rolled toward her and a small nose stuck out, sniffing toward Laura’s hand. From one of her many cuts, blood had begun to pool on the table and was snaking its way toward the mound. The blanket shifted so Laura could only see the tongue poking out, a bruise colored muscle with small orange spots of decay. The tip of the tongue dipped into the blood before lapping the pool up.

Laura snatched her hand away and cradled it against her stomach. Her head spun as the goo-covered stone walls danced around her and darkness crept along the edge of her vision.

“What’s happening?” As if all her life’s shivers had been rolled into one, her body convulsed and the glass slipped from her fingers, shattering at her feet. She fell to her knees, crying out as they slammed into the floor.

“Welcome back,” she heard the monster coo. Rubbing the blood away from her eyes, she peered up at the table where two long legs hung over the side. On the top the left foot there was a somehow familiar brown blemish like a painting she’d studied in art class.

“No brain this time?” a high voice asked.

“Just be glad I got you this much. You’re never happy are you?”

“You sound just like mom.”

A shrill laughed bounced around the cave as the monster bent toward Laura. She shrank back, but he was a monster no longer. Instead his diseased skin and never ending claws were gone, replaced by a sweet, kind face. The kind that would lure a girl like Amanda into the forest.

Laura swallowed vomit.

The two long legs hopped off the table and sauntered over to where Laura lay balled in the corner. She blinked at the creature, over and over, trying to erase what she was seeing. It didn’t make sense. The monster’s sister had the same shade of hair Laura did, but instead of laying flat across her shoulders it fell into smooth waves across her back. Her jawbone was identical to Laura’s, down to the beauty mark below her chin, but the stress acne was gone. And now she could see the brown blemish on the foot clearly, a collection of morphed dots that always brought her ridicule during sandal season.

Laura shrieked, pushing herself away from the monster siblings.

“Enjoy your new home,” the sister said, backing away from Laura with a grin. “I hope you like fish.”

Arm in arm the siblings left the cave, leaving Laura alone yet alive in the corner. A wet sob escaped and tears streamed from her eyes as she covered her face in disbelief. She’d been cloned. She’d survived. She was alive. She kind of wished they’d just explained they just wanted to clone her instead of going through this whole debacle. Would’ve saved everyone a lot of trouble. A frantic laugh mixed with the tears and she sighed in relief.

Something poked the top of her head, sharp, like a pinprick. Laura brought her hands down but there was nothing above her, only heavy slabs of stone. It wasn’t until she tried to stand did she see the little webs between her toes. Slowly, she brought her hands up her head shaking back and forth as she did. From her fingertips five long claws flashed in the silver moonlight. Laura screamed.

THE END.

Maybe Laura will get to stay human if you try the story again from the beginning.