This year’s October fiction project is a short middle-grade horror novel. The working title is “Turning Leaves,” but that will probably change.
Here are the rules (which I am making up as I go along!):
- Write every day.
- Write about a thousand words every day.
- Write words the same day the characters would be writing them, for the most part (that is, Oct 1 words in the story = Oct 1 words in real life).
- Don’t plan ahead.
- Don’t quit.
I don’t have an outline or even a plan.
It’s been a while since I wrote middle-grade fiction. This should be fun.
…
October Fiction Projects to Date:
2017 – October Nights – General flash fiction short horror-ish stories.
Website – Ebook
2018 – Tales of the Normal – Twilight Zone-style surreal stories.
2019 – Crime du Jour – Short crime stories.
2023 – Turning Leaves – Middle-grade horror.
Website – And sign up for the newsletter to get updates about the final ebook!
Turning Leaves (Working Title): October 12 - Answering Machine
Miss Emma
Are you still reading? Wonderful!
Reading is a useful skill that will last a lifetime.
However, reading well is a much more useful skill.
Not many people read well.
In order to read at all, it is necessary to interpret symbols marked on a page, group them into sounds and words, then group the words into sentences, and the sentences into meaning.
One paragraph after the other, until the message has been received.
To be able to read is a fine thing, very useful in this world.
But to be able to read well…
That is another matter entirely!
In order to read well, one must have certain powers of the imagination. Words, written by an imaginative reader, can become a world that one can see more clearly than the real world around them.
An imaginative reader can hear sounds, smell scents, taste flavors, and even feel the ghostly touch of that other world against their arm—or even up the back of their neck!
But the best sorts of readers have more than a good imagination.
They have suspicious minds. Really, very distrustful.
Even in the middle of an entertaining story, they have small voices—or loud ones!—that insistently ask questions, in particular “why?”
For example:
Why does Miss Emma say she is a librarian-witch? Is she lying?
Why is Lola acting differently?
Why is Jayla’s mom suddenly so cheerful and normal, after being sad and depressed for so long?
Why is Stepdad Dave so strange?
Why is the back kitchen off-limits sometimes? Why not always?
Why does Jayla talk about the ghost cat if she doesn’t believe it exists?
Asking questions is important! However, some people, teachers especially, will answer those questions by saying something like “shush!” or “just wait and see.”
You shouldn’t think people like that are stupid. Or unimaginative.
But you may want to ask yourself:
Why don’t they want me to ask questions?
It is one thing to ask questions loudly in a movie theater. That can be quite rude. Often in places where many people are gathered together (for example, in a library!), it is important to be able to ask questions silently to yourself, without bothering the people around you.
Sometimes people don’t want you to ask questions because they want to continue what they are doing without being interrupted by people talking.
Sometimes because they want you to figure the answer out for yourself (this can be important!).
But also sometimes because it’s important not to speak some things out loud, where they can be heard.
Because sometimes a question is a secret.
October 12 – Jayla
Last night I went downstairs and lay on the couch in the basement to watch a movie. It was The Company of Wolves. It’s about a girl who is twelve and who has a strange dream about a bunch of scary fairy tales.
I didn’t finish all of it because of the voice coming from the answering machine.
I thought it was just someone calling to leave a message at the answering machine at first.
I listened in case it was Lola.
It wasn’t.
It didn’t sound like her dad, either. Her dad has a friendly voice. This was a voice like a hypnotist uses in the movies.
You are getting sleepy…
That kind of voice. But that’s not what the voice said.
I kept watching the movie for a while, then turned it off. I couldn’t pay attention, because the voice upstairs was still talking.
And talking.
How long was this going to go on? I asked myself.
Finally the voice stopped and the answering machine beeped.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
Our answering machine doesn’t normally beep three times.
I sat up and listened harder.
The answering machine started talking again. I think it was the same voice.
Only, a little different.
I walked upstairs slowly, listening and trying not to creak the stairs too much.
The voice was saying:
…your free gift for the Halloween season! Join us on Friday, October 13 at the Willow Lane Mall on West Eighth Street from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. for a FREE makeover. Just in time for Halloween! Women, children, and men of all ages, join us tomorrow, Friday October 13 in the food court at the Willow Lane Mall on West Eighth Street from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. and enjoy your free gift for the Halloween season! Everyone is welcome! This event is sponsored by—
Beep. Beep. Beep.
The voice started saying the same speech over again. The voice got even more different this time.
It was like someone was speaking down a tube, and the tube had just gotten a little longer.
I pushed the button on the answering machine. It beeped but didn’t stop talking.
It went all the way through the message, made three beeps, and started over again.
The voice sounded even weirder.
I unplugged the machine.
Then I plugged it back in.
It beeped.
I waited for it to start saying the same thing over again.
It didn’t.
I went upstairs to check on Mom.
She was sitting up in bed reading on a phone. “Hello, Jayla. How was your movie?”
“I didn’t finish it yet. Did you hear the message on the answering machine?”
“I heard someone talking but I didn’t make out the message. Just hit rewind and listen to it.”
“I did,” I said.
I didn’t know what to say. That the message was weird?
“What did they say?”
“They’re giving away free makeovers at the mall tomorrow.”
“Do you want one?”
I shook my head.
“What is it, then?”
I shook my head again.
She laughed and put her phone down on the blanket. “Jayla. Are you watching scary movies and creeping yourself out again? Do you want to sleep with Mom tonight? Is that what you’re trying to ask me?”
I shook my head and chewed on my lip.
“Well, let me know what you do want, when you figure it out.” She went back to looking at her phone.
I went back down to the basement and tried to finish the movie. I couldn’t. I had weird dreams about the voice echoing and changing so much that eventually it was a shimmering noise that made me sick to my stomach.
I woke up and threw up in the toilet, flushed it, and went back to sleep.
I felt OK this morning.
I’m done with all my homework now, and Mom bought me some spicy tortilla chips to eat after I was done.
💀
Why didn’t Mom think the message sounded weird?
And why did she get a phone? She hasn’t used a cell phone since Dad died.
