Short Story: The Last Glimpse of Playland

Okay, this is another re-post of a short story I wrote for a contest, based on a photo that I no longer have: a girl wearing black leather groves, holding on to a bar of monkey bars with one hand and standing on the ground as a boy climbed them and they about to kiss. It was meant to be about kissing or something contest. That's not what happened exactly. Not going to lie, this story is not that good, they are aspects that makes me cringe. I would have to rewrite the whole story to fix the pacing and the ending is needs work. I have fixed grammar and add some bits to sentences to make them flow better.The tense is also majorly messed up but I've opted not to fix it, so you can decide whether it the present or the past.

Anyway, as a bonus I have record me narrating this story and uploaded it to YouTube. I'm hoping to do more narration of my stories as specially since I brought a mic from a charity shop to do it. That two quid won't be wasted. I'm thinking repost will always have matching narration from now on, not sure about new stories though. 

Before we start the update, my parents left me for the night, imagine leaving your 22 and 23 year old children alone. Driving is still a mess but I can't back out of the test now and I almost went down the wrong lane on a roundabout. My mother deeply confuses me when driving. Now to the story:

The Last Glimpse of Playland

Original summary: "Are you insane? What if someone comes and sees you?" a panicked female voiced said.

"Don't worry, we do this sort of stuff all the time," I said calmly and continued

Jack always took the extra mile and Angela is never far behind him. So when Jack decided that he wants to play in the old playground just one more time before it gone. Angie is the one pushing him on the swings. Angela always thought Jack was special but maybe her motives are more than friendship.

!/!

He was the boy that took it too far and I was the girl who still followed him, even  when everyone else had turn back.

This was one of these occasion. We had all decided to come and see the old park. It had been closed since I was five years old, because of some sort of accident that happen in its playground. It had been closed for repairs but never re-opened. It had been unused, waste land in the centre of the town for the past 11 years, until now. The local council had sold the land to some developers who wanted to turn into apartments. Tomorrow was the day they tore down anything that remained of the old playground.

We had to visit the park, just one more time before it would be gone forever and just a faded childhood memory. We had came straight after school. The group of us mostly contend the sixth years, they really only ones that had strong memories of the park. The rest were fifth years and the odd fourth year. We all pressed our self against the bars of the old rusted fence which was the only thing separating us from the park. We could see the old wire fence that surround the playground but we could barely even see what colour the swings were painted.

"I wish we could get a better look," I said absent mindedly.

"Your wish is my command," Jack said. He had been next to me but was now shaking the old gate, trying to break the rusted lock. It didn't budge. "I guess I have to do this the hard way. Angie give me your camera." I always carried a camera. You never knew when you would see the most extraordinary thing of your life, especially when Jack was about.

"What are you going to do?" I said as I approached him.

"I'm going inside," Jack smirked. "I'll take pictures for the rest of you." He dumped his jacket, it wasn’t raining for once, and his bag down onto the ground and start to pull himself over the fence.

"You're not taking my camera anyway without me," I took my camera out my bag and handed it to Jack through the bars once he was over. I put my own jacket and bag next to his and then I put my black leather gloves on and start at the fence after him. He had already started walking towards the playground.

"Are you insane, what if someone comes and sees you?" a panicked voiced said. I balanced myself at the top of the fence, being careful of the spikes, and looked backed to see who was panicking. I didn't know her name but I could tell from the badge on her shirt that she was a house captain.

"Don't worry, we do this sort of stuff all the time," I said calmly and continued over the fence.

I ran to catch up with Jack, he was keeping to his word and was taking pictures of the swing sets. One of the swings' chains had broke and was hanging on by one chain. It was very arty. I didn't trust the others to take even the smallest child's weight. The chains were rusted completely, there wasn't any sliver left. The seat of another one had broke in half and the other looked close to doing the same.

"It’s shame that they just left the park for nature to destroy." I said as I made my way to the slide. "And they started building a new playground but still kept saying they would re-open this place."

"Yeah, it weird that they would waste money with building a new park. It almost makes you think some of the stories are true." I rolled my eyes. The park had became a urban legend of sorts. They were so many stories coinciding to why the park had been shut. Most say that a serious of murders were linked to the park and they had found the human bones all over it. The truth was though, that a kid had cracked their head opened when they had jumped off the swings but that only if you believe the papers.

I kicked the slide, when it didn't crumb into pieces I sat down on it.

"Hmm...Just think that all that going to die, once this place is gone," I said as ran my hand over once smooth metal.

"Not necessary. We could all say his victims haunt the land, not the park."

"Scare everyone from living here." I smirked. There was flash of light.

"That’ll make a good picture."

*Recorded part*

"Give me the camera, I'm better photographer." He handed me the camera and started running towards the climbing frame. I rolled my eyes and started taking photos. Once I was finished with the old roundabout, I made my way to the climbing frame. It was about 15 feet from the rest of the playground. I could see Jack handing off one of the bars. The climbing frame was in better shape than the other equipment but I still didn't think it was a good idea to be climbing on it.

"Got a death wish?" I asked normal toned.

"Living on the edge", he said as he struggle to pull himself across the poles. I put my hand on the one above his head. My mouth was just a few milometers away from his. He stopped moving. The air became strangely still and the noise from the world seem to vanished. I lead forward. I could feel his lips against mine but they weren't quite touching. He leaned forward and I closed my eyes.

CLUNK.

Jack was now lying on the ground with pole on top of him.

"Are you alright?" I blunted out.

"No..." He moaned. I couched down and lifted the pole off him, that when I noticed the screaming. I looked back at the gate to see the group screaming at us to run. Someone must be coming. I pulled Jack up and half ran supporting him. We were both running freely when we met the gate. We grabbed on to it at the same time. I was half way over when I felt three sets of hands grab on to me. Two were around my waist from the crowd below, the over on my left leg which was on the park side. I ignore it and I manage to jump off the fence into the crowd. They luckily caught me and put me back on my feet. I looked back at the park and no one was there.

"Are you alright?" The same house captain asked.

"Yeah, why wouldn't I be," I smile half heartily. There was an eerie feel in the air. Jack pushed his way through the crowd and hugged me tightly. He didn't say anything but continued to hold on to me.

"There was a guy, chasing you with a knife. He grabbed on to your leg." The house captain said in panic. "Didn't you see him?"

"No, I felt someone pulling my leg," I said heisently playing it in my mind.

"Oh my God! Look! It’s a knife."

"It has blood on it,"

There was more random shouts of panic. I looked back into the park and saw the knife. It was a foot away from where I had jump off the fence. I gulped. I felt the blood drain from body as though the knife had cut me.

"Just leave it, we've got to get out of here," I said sounding a lot like the house captain.

"Yeah, lets," It had been the first thing Jack had said since we had started running. It wasn't his normal tone but I won't have my joking edge either. He pulled away from me and grabbed our stuff which was still lying on the ground. He grabbed my hand and started to run. We all did. The noise of our feet banged loudly in my ears. We ran past people, them giving us strange looks. We didn't stop running until we were safe at the school's ground. I had ran in the opposite direction of my house but I didn't care at this point.

"Is everyone here?" One of the other House captains asked. We all did a face check, making sure everyone who had came was still here.

"I think so." The panicky House Captain said hesitantly. No one corrected her and we all took a deep breath in. We all talked about the...event for what must have been hours, with a few awkward silence mixed in. It was dark before anyone even thought of going home and still didn't. We had forgot about our parents and how they would worry. We had to get it out our systems somehow. We had just experience proof of all those stories which meant that our parents had lied to us. They had all told us they were just made up nonsense but it was the truth.

Jack spent the whole time holding me and when the cops finally noticed that all the kids that had been reported missing were just all standing outside the school and finally forced us, all to go home. He walked me to my house and didn't let go once. It felt nice and comforting. It felt right.

Today I had change my life, in two aspects. I had been in real risk of being killed and that just changes things. I also realise that I had more than just feelings of friendship towards Jack and that could just change everything. I didn't know what I was going to tell my parents but hopefully they would me more relieved than angry.

♠ ♠ ♠

Original Author note: Okay. I sat down to write a nice story about people kissing and wrote a horror. Well, if you knew me, you wouldn't expected anything less. I hoped you enjoyed it, even if it wasn't what the description promised. Comment and tell me what you think.

Current Author Note: Bloody Sixteen years old and it's worth listening to my narration, to hear me not all disguising my thoughts on certain paragraphs. I'm obviously not ashamed of this stories and there are some nice sentences but it's also terrible. Improve, improve. Also finish stuff.

Short Story: Into Darkness

Here's another repost. This is probably the earliest piece of writing that I still have. I wrote it when I was 14. Oh my god, that was almost eight years ago. I haven't change anything as there should be evidence of what my writing skill was back then and it probably the thing that's been edited the most times as this was part of my Stand Grade English Portfolio. I like to think I would have gotten a 1 if I had sat credit.

This was based off an old English Stand Grade writing exam prompt, you where meant to write a story with the title "Into Darkness" and/or based on a picture of a stone bridge. I did both. The sad thing is I'm petty sure the best thing I ever wrote was in my actual exam. Well, I really like my ending sentence so much I memories it and still have it: The living statue left the darkness and entered the panic of light.

It was based off a picture of a Gargoyle and its about a guy blowing up a bridge or a building I forget. It's odd as that something I so don't normally write like ever. So back to the story I can actually share with you as the SQA has brunt that story. I give my 14 years old self idea of horror and best piece of writing (if you had asked her what it was anyway).

Into Darkness

Lisa stood, on a bridge, in the flog, waiting for her best friend, Sandy. She was meant to meet her at 8 and it was now 20 past, but she wasn't worried. Sandy was always late.

She was more worried about herself. She knew it was stupid, but she couldn't help it. She had always been scared of the bridge, especially after she had seen a little boy fall off it. He had been all right, but she had nightmares for weeks after wards and she still had nightmares of the bridge sometimes.

The bridge was made of old grey stone; it had been built in the 16th century. It was surrounded by a forest; the trees were big and old. It would be easy to get lost in them. This made the bridge the prefect location for ghost stories. Whether it was ghost or serial killer, the bridge part alone would guarantee that you would be spooked by the end.

There had always been stories of the bridge being haunted… or something. Whilst it was being built, three of the builders went mysteriously missing and were never seen again. For years after wards people kept disappearing, they were all heading in the direction of the bridge the last time they were seen. Of course there was no proof of people disappearing and even if there was, there would be no way to say for certain that it was because of the bridge. People still go missing, but people go missing everyday. It meant nothing. It was just a normal bridge; well that’s what Lisa was trying to tell herself.

Lisa couldn't help but look over at the dark water below. It had been raining all week, so the river ran faster and deeper than usual. The water was almost hypnotizing. She wasn't afraid of water, not even the water under the bridge; she had played in the river under it when she was younger. It was the bridge that scared her.

It was getting late and she didn't want to be there when it got dark. Sandy had probably forgotten that she was meant to meet her. It would be best just to go and find her. However, just before she was about to leave, Sandy came running up to her.

“I'm sorry, I'm late”, Sandy panted. “I fell asleep.”

“That’s okay, I was just going to go and find you.”

Lisa turned back to the water and peaked over the edge of the bridge. Suddenly, she saw a pair of red eyes staring back at her. She shut her eyes, and shook her head. When she looked back there was nothing there.

“Hum, let’s go,” Lisa muttered

“What’s the matter?”

“Nothing,” Lisa lied. ‘It’s just really cold’

“I know something’s wrong,” Sandy said as she put her hand on Lisa’s shoulder.

Lisa hesitated; there would be no way that Sandy would believe her. She didn’t even believe it her self.

“I thought I saw something.”

Sandy looked over the edge; she saw nothing.

“There’s nothing there,” Sandy said as she turned around.

“Of course there isn't, just my mind playing ticks on me,” Lisa said not sounding as if she meant it. “Let’s just go.”

She started to walk away. Sandy looked again. It was just the same, nothing was there. Sandy knew that Lisa was afraid of the bridge after all the stories she heard and everything that she had seen.
Her imagination had probably just gone wild. Being alone, all by her self at the bridge and it was twilight. It was when the darkness begins to sneak in, where the shadows get darker and there’s no where to run. Sandy admitted that she would have probably start seeing thing too.
Sandy notices how far away Lisa was already

“Wait for me, Lis.”

“Fine, but hurry...up,” Lisa had turned around to find that Sandy was gone. “Sandy where are you?” There was no answer. Lisa walked over to where Sandy had been. She looked around for her, but she couldn't see Sandy. She looked over the edge; there was nothing there. She turned around and went to look at the other side, but she didn't make it.

The last thing Lisa ever saw was those red eyes and then darkness.

***

 Funfact: A substitute teacher scanned read this and thought one of the characters had jumped off the bridge, which would have been so fucking random. (I'm always PG).

In reflection that ending is a bit rushed.