Non-Music- A collaborative ghost story

Subject: Non-Music- A collaborative ghost story
From: katlaughing
Date: 31 Oct 00 - 10:12 AM

Let's see if we can grow this puppy into a good one; please add on...keep the storyline going, eh, and have fun!

In the depths of the murky midnight blue of the darkest night of the year, the woman moved quickly through the graveyard. Tall, stark white tombstones, some leaning, some fallen over, stood in silent testament to what lie buried at their feet.

She was tall and thin, draped in a dark volumnious cloak with a hood which had fallen back, revealing long, glorious tresses of deep auburn, framing her delicate oval face. Her eyes were wide open in a controlled terror as she desperately made her way to the gated entrance....

Subject: RE: Non-Music- A collaborative ghost story
From: MMario
Date: 31 Oct 00 - 10:18 AM

Beyond the gateway the coach and four waited, if it could be reached. The matched pairs of blacks stamped against the iron hard mud of the rutted road, their breath steaming into the night, their eyes reflecting red from the torches in their holders on either side of a cadavourous shadow that was the coachman on his box.

From his perch on the back of the coach, the footman watched the progress of the women as she made her way towards the gate. He longed desperately to go to the iron bars and fling them wide, easing her way; but it was forbidden.

Subject: RE: Non-Music- A collaborative ghost story
From: GUEST,Matt_R
Date: 31 Oct 00 - 10:27 AM

High above, in a crooked, twisted, blasted tree--that the hand of time had fused to the cold grey pillars that retained the gates--sat a large black raven. A single finger of pallid moonlight pierced the deeping mantle of clouds, falling across the ebon beak of the large bird. A drop of blood hung from the beak, glistening unsettlingly in the uncanny silence.

Subject: RE: Non-Music- A collaborative ghost story
From: alison
Date: 31 Oct 00 - 10:32 AM

(*aside*... it's 2.35am Hallowe'en night... how the hell am I supposed to get to sleep after this?? *grin*)

Subject: RE: Non-Music- A collaborative ghost story
From: katlaughing
Date: 31 Oct 00 - 10:34 AM

(*aside* just wait 'til that raven starts to squawk! There's no hope for ye, lass! Manaical laugh trailing off into the distance of a cavernous gothic castle)

Subject: RE: Non-Music- A collaborative ghost story
From: MMario
Date: 31 Oct 00 - 10:35 AM

{hot cocoa?}

Subject: RE: Non-Music- A collaborative ghost story
From: alison
Date: 31 Oct 00 - 10:41 AM

Deep inside the castle the young maiden lay in her bed. She clung to the furs in fear, longing for sleep, but sleep would not come. In the distance she heard the howling of a lonesome wolf. In desparation she crawled deeper under the furs..... but then came the sound of wings beating against the window......

Subject: RE: Non-Music- A collaborative ghost story
From: Troll
Date: 31 Oct 00 - 10:52 AM

High in the night-haunted tower, a leaded-glass window stood open to the foetid fog that chilled the air and hung about the courtyard like strands of dank cobweb.
Long, pallid fingers made a slit in the shabby velvet of the curtains,through which eyes like burning emeralds peered at the scene below. The hands languidly smoothed the ruffled feathers of a raven and a thin smile crossed a pale countenance.

troll

Subject: RE: Non-Music- A collaborative ghost story
From: Ebbie
Date: 31 Oct 00 - 11:09 AM

Flitting now here, now there, an almost transparent form with sparkling eyes, could one but see, kept watch through the night. She - or was it an IT? saw the pale figure with the raven at its breast at the leaded pane window, saw the lone maiden wrapt in her furs in the castle and tuned into and understood her fears, saw the sooty raven's enigmatic countenance over its blood-dipt beak, waited with the footman for the arrival through the held-breath ambiance in the graveyard of the rapidly moving, long-tressed woman with the bony skeletal hand grasped into the hemmed fabric of her cloak and bouncing on the hard ground betimes...

Subject: RE: Non-Music- A collaborative ghost story
From: sledge
Date: 31 Oct 00 - 11:26 AM

The proximity of the grave yard made the footman think of the first body that had been found when the madness started, pale and bloodless so that the talk had been of vampires when folks had gathered in the tavern.

The second body he recalled had been savaged beyond recognition so that some had whispered "werewolf", while the Old women of the village pulled their black shawls about their narroe shoulders and cursed it all as the work of the Devil.

It was then that he heard te women call out.

Subject: RE: Non-Music- A collaborative ghost story
From: MMario
Date: 31 Oct 00 - 11:57 AM

No, it wasn't the woman in the graveyard at all, but rather the cry of some thing perhaps a bird, from the direction of the castle atop the hill. The eerie call, so reminiscent of a frightened woman sounded again, and yet again.

"Three calls of a raven for a death" his granny had often said. The footman shivered at the memory, the dank cold of the fog that was rising having nothing to do with this chill.

"Three times is the charm" - was the harsh whisper from the form behind the leaded panes.

Subject: RE: Non-Music- A collaborative ghost story
From: SINSULL
Date: 31 Oct 00 - 12:07 PM

In her hand she clasped the precious flower - a single bloom opening to the full moon. Wolfbane. Not yet midnight. There was still time.

Subject: RE: Non-Music- A collaborative ghost story
From: MMario
Date: 31 Oct 00 - 03:03 PM

Again a trio of cries echo through the night. The young maiden burrows deeper into the furs of her bed; ignoring what beats against her windows. In the high tower, a form smiles to itself behind the glass panes; while the footman in front of the graveyard gate can no longer control his shivers. The thin women pauses in her flight towards the gate, shaken by the cries that pierce the night.

Subject: RE: Non-Music- A collaborative ghost story
From: Kim C
Date: 31 Oct 00 - 03:24 PM

Suddenly the piercing cries stop. Out of the silence, a voice booms from nowhere, "What have you done?"

Subject: RE: Non-Music- A collaborative ghost story
From: celticblues5
Date: 31 Oct 00 - 03:39 PM

From the ground up, bit by bit, the grey stone of the castle granulates into air, and the maiden with it, so that all around rise cries of woe from those left behind, who saw in her their only kind touch in a world too filled with ravens and bane.

Subject: RE: Non-Music- A collaborative ghost story
From: katlaughing
Date: 31 Oct 00 - 04:13 PM

Sensing a chnage in the very fabric of Time Immemorial, the tall, thin, red-tressed woman, in the now-glowing, flowing ebony cloak, almost like a Shadow of the Night, happened to raise her eyes, to look away from the gate, her goal forgotten for a moment. As her gaze swung round towards the castellated hill, she saw no thing in front of her. The castle, her last hope, the refuge she had been searching for for years ceased to exist.

Her pitch-black eyes widened in despair and amazement, as well as at the knowledge of what powers lurked in the Night of the Dead, powerful enough to have disturbed the Aethers of this Plane.

Alas, she had no more strength to fight. Throwing up her hands, clasping one to her mouth, lest an unstifled cry bring more Forces upon her, she collapsed, throwing herself upon a cold and starkly white sarcophogaus which epithet read,

Be Warned all Ye who may
Gather here;
Toucheth not the Stone
Nor look ye in the eye of the Raven
Seeketh not the Haunts of the Night
Nor the Seven Planes of the
Time of the Thirteenth Realms.
Heed ye well these words,
else join him, who lies beneath these,
thy Warning Words!

Subject: RE: Non-Music- A collaborative ghost story
From: MMario
Date: 31 Oct 00 - 04:15 PM

{editorial question. How can the castle dissipate from the ground up? Wouldn't gravity collapse it as soon as the foundations went?

Subject: RE: Non-Music- A collaborative ghost story
From: katlaughing
Date: 31 Oct 00 - 04:19 PM

editorial reply: it's fantasy! Defies gravity and all other facets of convention! Wah-ha-ha-ha......LOL!!

Subject: RE: Non-Music- A collaborative ghost story
From: Kim C
Date: 31 Oct 00 - 04:49 PM

(where was the ghosts at?)

Subject: RE: Non-Music- A collaborative ghost story
From: celticblues5
Date: 31 Oct 00 - 04:52 PM

(geez, some people are soooooooooo literal! ;-))

A silvery sliver of music rose from the ground all around her and wound along her arms like bracelets - or restraints. She felt the pull and tried to resist. Resistance only pulled her feet more firmly into the boggy ground. Her face to the wounded sky, she called out to Aine for protection.

Subject: RE: Non-Music- A collaborative ghost story
From: SINSULL
Date: 31 Oct 00 - 04:57 PM

TIME OUT!
Shouldn't it read "join him who lies beneath". Nothing worse than an illiterate curse!

curse has been corrected
just call me "ghost in the machine"
el joeclone

Subject: RE: Non-Music- A collaborative ghost story
From: Morticia
Date: 31 Oct 00 - 06:12 PM

The coachman stretched out a despairing hand........willing her to see him,to feel his longing for her to rise and run....with bleak eyes he watched the ground around her begin to tremble and shiver. He started down from the coach with a heart-rending cry, to be jerked back, like a whipped dog on a chain, as a voice, cold as charity and old as time itself whispered, "STOP!".

Subject: RE: Non-Music- A collaborative ghost story
From: katlaughing
Date: 31 Oct 00 - 06:45 PM

It's fantasy, phoaks!**BG**

Wraithlike tendrils began to wisp around her face; in a paralyzing terror, she looked back to see movement from every grave, see-through figures of the long ago dead, rising up, all of them looking at her, moaning at her, reaching for her, holding her, rooted to the earth, even as they'd been buried in it. She willed herself to turn and run, but it was too late.....

Subject: RE: Non-Music- A collaborative ghost story
From: Bradypus
Date: 31 Oct 00 - 07:07 PM

Some music cheers the soul and lifts the heart. Some music calms the fears we feel, and brings respite and repose. Some music stirs our earliest memories and makes us children again. But the music - if it could be called music - that wafted over the graveyard now was music to freeze the soul, chill the heart, awaken every fear known or imagined, and kill the memory of everything but that dirgeful tune which was seeping around every living creature in the scene.

Subject: RE: Non-Music- A collaborative ghost story
From: Ebbie
Date: 31 Oct 00 - 07:30 PM

Long moments, perhaps even hours, later as the keening music gradually faded into a light rushing and then into a hush palpable as a thick down coverlet, it seemed all nature held its breath. There was no sound.Far, far above, dark clouds scudded across the pale moon and gathered on the other side. A glint lit the white starkness of the tall plinth the woman (And a low male voice droned: Does this woman have a name?)found herself draped over.

Half lying there, slowly believing, the titian-haired thin woman with coal-black eyes stirred tentatively. Yes. Her legs were free. She slid a dirt-stained hand down her leg to her booted feet. The rustle of her hand across the fabric was loud in the night.

Subject: RE: Non-Music- A collaborative ghost story
From: katlaughing
Date: 31 Oct 00 - 07:39 PM

*aside* how about "Titian Dark-eyes?" or "Suleetha" or "Annabelle?"

Subject: RE: Non-Music- A collaborative ghost story
From: GUEST,Canis lupus
Date: 31 Oct 00 - 07:50 PM

Her amber eyes glowed ruby red in the lantern light from the passing coach. The horses skittered, whinnying high, smelling what they could not see, as the coach rocketed around the turn in the road.

She turned her nose to the full moon and howled. The sound of her soul rose and mingled with the cries of her brethren. Deep in her genetic coil, something whispered to her "Tonight is the night!" and try as she might, she could no longer resist.

She had smelled the travelers long before their arrival. The scent of the two-legs carried far. The smell of flowers covering the smell of their meat. The facade didn't work on creatures like herself. Meat was still meat...

She loped behind the speeding carriage, the wind in her silver fur. Her tongue lolled from her mouth, and she appeared to grin at the chase. Soon enough, they would be hers.

The carriage passed through the rotting gates, and only then did the creature pause. She squatted and urinated. This meat was HERS, and none of her kind would dare follow now.

Subject: RE: Non-Music- A collaborative ghost story
From: Ebbie
Date: 31 Oct 00 - 07:56 PM

*Aside* How about Suwreatha? I once knew a woman named Wreatha.

Subject: RE: Non-Music- A collaborative ghost story
From: Amos
Date: 31 Oct 00 - 07:59 PM

A whisper of ice in a river of night air wrapped around her, blinding her in the dark. She shivered, her bare shoulders stiffening in the cold like the torso of one who died too young; she wrestld with her consciousness, determined to saty rational, dispel superstition and see only what was really there...but what was that mist drifitng toward her over the field? What that quiet whisper of terror on the night air? Why was it sounding louder as she stepped back? What was it saying -- the sound... the sound...oh, no! No! ........ NOOOOO!!!!

She fled, clasping her hands to her ears, desperately stumbling back across the cold autumn field toward the lonely road where she had left the black carriage, seeking to escape the cruel whisper in the wind. But over, and over again she heard the dripping curse of its insistent words, ringing in her mind....

TOUCHETH IS THIRD PERSON SINGULAR, GODAMMIT!!!

A.

Subject: RE: Non-Music- A collaborative ghost story
From: GUEST,Canis lupus
Date: 31 Oct 00 - 08:07 PM

She wound her way through the man-stones piled in rows. The only ones giving her notice were the four black horses steaming their breath at the gates. They stomped their hooves to threaten her, but they were in no danger, they were not the prey tonight. One of the two-legs was resting on the horses box, and spoke sharply to them to quiet.

She waited. Using the time to clean the blood from her claws, and to watch.

The last two-leg was easy enough to catch. A female. She wore so many cloaks that the creature simply toppled her over and feasted. It was over before the creature's breath fog had faded from the tavern window. The two-legs ran like deer in the forest; dodge, weave, dodge....so predictable. She grinned again, tasting the blood on her paws. The cold copper smell reminded her of the warm meat in her stomach.

She rounded one of the man-stones and startled to see the woman before her..........

Subject: RE: Non-Music- A collaborative ghost story
From: katlaughing
Date: 31 Oct 00 - 08:09 PM

Rant-on: I know you meant that as funny, Amos, but key-riced, I said have fun! Poetic license, who gives a damn! Ya'll have fun finishing it off! rant-off

Subject: RE: Non-Music- A collaborative ghost story
From: Ebbie
Date: 31 Oct 00 - 08:21 PM

Get back in here, kat! You started it and you can't leave us hanging like this. Don't you see in what danger your woman is-eth?

Ebbie

Subject: RE: Non-Music- A collaborative ghost story
From: GUEST,Canis lupus
Date: 31 Oct 00 - 08:28 PM

yeah....come here little girl.....(slurp).....

Subject: RE: Non-Music- A collaborative ghost story
From: Amos
Date: 31 Oct 00 - 08:40 PM

{Counter-rant deflector on}:

But KAAAAT!!!! I WUZ HAVIN' FUN!!!!!

{Counter-rant deflector off}Love,

A

Subject: RE: Non-Music- A collaborative ghost story
From: katlaughing
Date: 31 Oct 00 - 08:47 PM

Go ahead, Canis Lupus, she's all yours. Guess I missed the fun in editorial conventions, Amos.

Subject: RE: Non-Music- A collaborative ghost story
From: GUEST,Canis lupus
Date: 31 Oct 00 - 09:41 PM

Startled, yes, she was startled. The collective whining of the two-legs was worse than any denful of pups she'd ever raised....(jeez guys, get a grip..don't make me pee in your shoes!)

The two-leg female amongst the man-stones squinted to the sky as if it were full sun, but the moon shone pale. The creature crept towards her, low to the ground and hackles raised. The low growl that always accompanied the hunt rose balefully in her throat. Her newly washed paws made no sound as they covered the distance between the beating hearts of predator and prey.

She moved in from downwind, not that the two-leg could ever smell her coming, and she crept up behind the female. The two-leg stood motionless, and her voice simply spoke "STOP". The creature cringed to hear her voice, the tones activating something in the primative brain that made her crouch and whimper in astonishment and pain.

As silently as she had come, she retreated to the trees. Snatching a rabbit from the brush, the creature let loose her fury. In one swift snarling bite, she wrenched the skull and spinal column from the warm body, flinging the carcass as she whipped her head. There was no hunger here, only destruction. Her anger spent for the moment, she returned to pace amongst the man-stones.....

Subject: RE: Non-Music- A collaborative ghost story
From: MMario
Date: 31 Oct 00 - 09:50 PM

so it's a southern curse, "all ye" being archaic for "you-all"(singular)

Subject: RE: Non-Music- A collaborative ghost story
From: Ebbie
Date: 31 Oct 00 - 10:04 PM

Thanks, Dog Wolf. I knew there is something powerful about this two-leg woman. Amos, isn't touchETH more than just third person singular? Many people miss the fact that 'eth' simply means a present tense verb.Titia (!) turned serenely back to the graveyard, fear evaporated as completely as though she had never known it. Then whipping back her cloak to bare her arms, her hair swinging as it rippled over her shoulders, she took long, powerful strides back whence she had fled so long ago. Low thunder muttered in the distance.

Subject: RE: Non-Music- A collaborative ghost story
From: GUEST
Date: 31 Oct 00 - 10:11 PM

If it's castles you want, don't forget the Castle Mudcat.

Subject: RE: Non-Music- A collaborative ghost story
From: Matt_R
Date: 31 Oct 00 - 10:15 PM

THAT about did it, friend GUEST. Thinking back to the days when we did the Castle Mudcat freezes my blood and splits my heart.

Subject: RE: Non-Music- A collaborative ghost story
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 01 Nov 00 - 12:42 AM

The tall,thin figure stepped from the coach,and was handed down a trunk by the driver. He glanced at the faded lettering on the signboard that swung in the wind...Hotel Van Helsing it read. As he strode to the threshold,he turned,ears perked to a kind of animal keening that the breeze brought to him.Yes.She was very close.The light from the full moon fell across his face,lighting the priest's white collar, shining dully in the small crucifix he wore.

"Father Tepitz?" a voice broke the spell."You are expected.I have your room in readiness.Will you take supper?It is late,but I can have the cook..." Tepitz quickly shook his head no."Just conduct me to my room."

He placed the trunk against the wall beneath a large window which looked out upon the mountains,and the mist that was rising in the valleys,illuminated by the eerie moonglow.Turning a key in the lock,he opened it,and removed the white vestments,laying them upon the bed.He then took from the trunk an ancient and heavy celtic cross of silver,and two ornate chalices.He placed these items upon a table in the center of the room,the crucifix in the center,the chalises flanking it.He then reached into the trunk and produced a heavy object wrapped in a cloth of velvet.He unwrapped the cloth to reveal a large caliber revolver,which he placed on the table in front of the cross.He donned the vestments and said some words in Latin over the items,and then took a flask and a knife from the trunk.He poured a small amount of water into each chalice from the flask and then,mumbling a prayer,sliced his thumb with the knife,letting the blood flow in with the water.He stanched the cut with a bit of cloth and opened the cylinder of the pistol,allowing the cartridges to fall onto the table.He placed three of these into each chalice,chanted some more latin and crossed himself."Thy will be done" he concluded,and took off the vestments.He collapsed into the bed,wrapping his arms around himself until the trembling stopped,and he stumbled into a fitful sleep.

Subject: RE: Non-Music- A collaborative ghost story
From: P05139
Date: 01 Nov 00 - 08:59 AM

However, all that hadn't worked and he was rudely awakened by a loud blood-curdling scream "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" followed by a terrifyingly eerie laugh and the clanking of chains.....