This is my entry for Finish the Story Contest held within the @bananafish realms.
Trigger warning: If you're not a fan of horror, this piece might not be for you. 8-)
By @dirge
The air was sticky and they’d been drinking for hours. It was late into the evening of the going away party for Ron and Jenni. They’d been good friends to Sean when he first arrived, but since then they’d grown distant. In fact, it had been awhile since Sean had hung out with anyone. He’d arrived to a room full of people he didn’t know, already well on their way to getting drunk.
“It’s so great to see you,” Jenni said, offering a hug. “Sean, oh man!”
Ron offered a handshake. “Hey man, good to see you one last time.”
“Thanks for the invite,” Sean replied. “And sorry to see you going.”
The room erupted with laughter. A man had slipped and fell on his ass and he was rolling on the ground hollering away. “I’m goanna grab a cigarette,” Sean said.
“Oh wait!” Jenni grabbed his arm. “Let me introduce you to everyone!” She proceeded to bring him through the rooms of the townhome they rented for the night’s going away party. There was a Jack and a Royal and a Jeremy and a Kim and a Karen and more and Sean soon forgot all those names anyway. He finally go outside for a cigarette, his heart racing and his anxiety peaked.
“Fucking…” he mumbled to himself. “Too many fucking people in that space.”
“I know, right?”
The voice startled him. He peeked over and saw a girl sitting with pink dyed hair. “Can I get one of those?”
“You know Jen and Ron?” Sean asked, offering her a cigarette.
“Sure,” the girl replied. “We met a few times at church.”
“Church?” Sean asked. “I’m incredulous. I didn’t know they were Christians.”
“Oh, it’s not that kind of church.” The girl took a drag on her cigarette and the presumed air of mystery she was attempting to paint annoyed him.
“Okay,” Sean said. “Well, then, what kind of church is it?”
The door to the porch opened and the music blared from inside. Ron came outside with a group of other partygoers, all drunk and cheering.
“I’m telling you,” one of the guys was saying. “That girl’s totally into me. I’m going to go for it.”
“Do it!” Ron said. “We all believe in you man. Believe in yourself!” Then, turning to Sean. “We’re going for a swim!” Ron announced. He shouted it again, and the group cheered.
Sean glanced over to the girl, whose name he still didn’t know. She was smiling.
They trekked down the dirt road from the pension then through a dirt path. The ground was rocky, volcanic in some spots in that way typical to Jeju. Drunk, most of them stumbled. They passed by a fish farm, the ponds of which were covered in nets. Then a water treatment plant with rumbling generators inside its deep warehouse.
Then they reached a secret, secluded beach. The pink haired girl stripped down, an obsidian necklace dangling from her neck, glowing in the moonlight. She descended into the water.
“It warm and wonderful!” she said. “Come on.”
The group stripped down, and Sean saw many were wearing the same pendant. He began to strip as well, as the idea of warm ocean waters in such a hot night was intoxicating. He went into the water, swimming till it was deep enough to fully submerge.
When he came back up, he heard screaming.
MY ENDING
The sky lit up with asteroids like a warehouse full of fireworks freshly lit. The problem was that they were heading toward the earth, not away from it.
The gentle flowing current turned from a warm bath temperature to an icy one that wrapped around his body like a rubber suit on fire. The inner warmth left his body. The saline water stabbed at him in an attempt to pop him like a balloon as he fought to keep his nose above water.
Time slowed down.
His body went numb.
He looked up.
An aircraft, what looked like a T-38 from the 1960s, plunged from 40,000 feet nose first toward the water. Black smoke trailed behind it.
Against the light of the moon, both front and back hingeing cockpit canopies opened and were followed by a flash of light. Because of a malfunction, two pilots were ejected at the same time. The one in the back was slammed in the face by the front canopy, while the other, with two streaming poles of fire behind him, shot out in a straight line before his trajectory led him headfirst toward the water.
A large tentacle batted the pilot up and over the island.
Another scream ripped along the water's surface, penetrating into Sean's ears like a cop aiming a sonic cannon. He cupped his ears and shut his eyes. I should have stayed home -- he wanted to be playing video games where death was counted with numbers and life was given by eating mushrooms.
He didn't want reality.
Opening his eyes, squinting, forcing them to focus under the starry sky as the water carried him to the hight of a crest, he saw a few heads but couldn't make out who they were.
Suddenly, Sean was catapulted up and out of the water toward the beach, Landing on the soft sand, he rolled a couple of times before coming to a halt on his knees. His whole body immediately began tingling so much that it caused pain.
The pink haired girl, standing on a slab of jagged volcanic rock with a small group behind her, caught Sean's attention when small asteroids slammed down behind them. An energetic bubble protected them from the debris that filled the air. Anyone outside of that bubble was sucking in the debris.
Turning his head left and right, Sean saw the group he came with on their knees choking from the debris. He spotted Ron and Jenny, their pendants no longer around their necks, nor the groups.
"Ron! Jenny!" Sean stammered out. There was no answerback. Dizziness produced a doubling effect. He could not tell the foreground from the background.
With her last breathe, Jenny said, almost pleading like, "th... this isn't the way, the plan, @calluna."
@calluna, an obsidian pendant around her neck, her arms lifted if the air, repeated an incantation along with the group in a foreign tongue Sean didn't understand. Then, in English, she said, "I, along with @ntowl, @cyemela, @oivas, @raj808, @brisby, @f3nix, @marcoriccardi, @hidden84, @michaias, @gwiberiol, @dirge, @tristancarax, have brought to you, OH! Great One, victims for sacrifice - Great Cthulhu."
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Such a worthy chronicle of real and historically accurate events, but Tris, what i have told you about immortalizing our dark secrets on the block chain! How ever will our victims walk willing into the slobbering jaws of death if they know that's what they are, and our lady with pink hair, blue lipstick, however she draws them it, she won't make such a pretty lure any more!
That said, that dark church of the Great Cthulhu sincerely appreciates the time and dedication it takes to document each of those who blood we spill to pen these fine words, and by his mighty tentacle, your efforts have been further rewarded <3
#sbi-skip
I took my queue from Trump 🤣 There is always those who don’t think and will follow him anywhere. You just keep flashin’ your ... and we’ll do fine.
Hi tristancarax,
Visit curiesteem.com or join the Curie Discord community to learn more.
Too late for him to wish that he was at home playing video games :) I've read another endings to this story and it's interesting how all of them are completely different. I wouldn't even think that there could be so many of them :)
I like yours as this is how I would expect someone from a 'church' to sacrifice its members... in a very painful way..
Thank you for sharing and have a great day!
It is really creepy when the different parts of people's stories can be placed together to make one long coherent ending.
Yes, The Cult of Cthulhu is very much alive. We're always looking for new members... lol
Hahah, me too Brutus!?😁 😁
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You know how we roll. bwahaha!!!
I first had the thought to give us all speaking parts but then that just became way too much. I thought it would be a nice ending to have all of us knights chanting together.
HAIL @TRISTANCARAX!
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Don't let @calluna see you doing this. She might think I'm trying to upstage her and we will both be flogged for it (you because your loyalty will be tested and me because of the pleasure she derives from it). --- haha
Shit, nobody told me about the flogging... HAIL @CALLUNA
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Have read multiple versions of this finish the story by Dirge till now. The pink hair girl is one with most varied role laid out to her, I like her in the story not sure why :P dont judge me for that but yeah. Amazingly wrote like others - another angle to the story. :):):) congrats on your curie mate
I just got through all of the stories this week. Man, the pink haired girl was very busy. In some scenes, I can see why you'd like her - lol.
Thanks, love. Until next time...
hehe yeah :)
it's nice and interesting to read the different endings of this intriguing story !! but every time I would like to know more, what will happen? even sean dies? that of sects is a very particular topic, I must say that it makes me a little afraid, even if it fascinates me to know how the human mind can become dominated by a conditioning !! maybe one day I'll write about this :-)) congratulations for your curie rating
I totally again about wanting to know more. For me, getting the first 500 words is tough but, once I have them down, I can't help but write another 100 or so words. haha.
Thanks and thank you for stopping by, mate.
This post is supported by $1.4 @tipU upvote funded by @calluna :)
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I knew y'all were up to no good!
Only if you are not on the team would you view our cult from that perspective. 🤪🤣🤫🤫👁
The first rule of cult club is you don't tell people it's a cult!
Congratulations @tristancarax!
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