Welcome to Romantic Friday Writers Challenge No. 47 for Friday October 19th, 2012. RFWers is a fortnightly challenge that is founded by and hosted by and Donna Hole. For Challenge No 47, participants are asked to write a text 1000 words or less using the prompt, 'Halloween House of Horrors'.
Scroll down past my text to read the challenge guidelines:
Title: 'Jenny's Robinson Crusoe - Halloween '
(If you want to read the whole story so far go to this page: Lost and then Found)
It’s nearly Halloween,
thought Jenny, as she sat writing in her journal, alone on the
deserted island, where she and two friends had crash-landed almost four years
ago.
Halloween,
on this tropical island, was no different from any other time of year. There were
no pumpkins to make jack-o-lanterns; there were no trick-or-treaters to give sweets
to at one’s door. Jenny thought tearfully of her children, Colin and Sarah, and wondered if they
would join a band of happy candy-hunters dressed as goblins, witches, pirates
and ghosts.
Yes,
ghosts. 'Give me a ghost or two!' Jenny said out loud.
After
more than three years of waiting to be rescued, Jenny welcomed meeting the
ghosts of her two friends who had died around the time of the crash.
‘Oh
Jack,’ Jenny whispered, remembering the party in honour of his birthday; his
very last. But no one knew that at the time. Except for perhaps one.
Jenny
ate her last substantial meal at Jack’s party and often dreamed about all the gourmet
food there that she would never again consume.
‘Please
haunt me, Jack!’ Jenny called out. She missed both Tom and Jack, but for
different reasons. She had grown up with Tom and missed him like a brother,
although she sometimes wished that she had married him instead of her husband,
Paul.
‘Please
haunt me, Jack. You can do it in my dreams,’ continued Jenny, beckoning to
the wind. Jenny thought of Jack’s beautiful, warm smile with dimples and his
intense ice-blue eyes. She tried to forget how she closed those lovely eyes when he was dead and how she had to bury both her friends.
No. She wished to see them both again as they were in life;
especially Jack who made her feel so intensely alive in the short time that she knew him.‘Please
haunt me, Jack', she whispered.
That
very night, Jenny dreamed about Jack.
‘Hello
beautiful!’ Jack said in his most playful voice, ‘Why do you want me to haunt
you?’
‘Oh,
Jack, I miss you, and I can’t get the radio to work. I want to get out of here!
And I’m so hungry!’
‘I
see that you have made good use of my leather oxfords’ said Jack playfully pointing to her feet.
‘I’m
sorry. I thought it a shame to bury them with you, I mean, your...' said Jenny embarrassed. 'Look. They fit me perfectly! I can
climb around the island without cutting my feet on the rocks, which is what I would have done if I had worn my silly city
sandals.’
‘It’s
alright, Jenny.' reassured Jack, fatherly. 'I’m only teasing. I’m glad you can use them. Please wear them.
I’ll even hide in them when you leave the island and come back with you.
'You look sharp in my khaki clothes and hat too’, Jack said with a twinkle in his beautiful blues.'
'You look sharp in my khaki clothes and hat too’, Jack said with a twinkle in his beautiful blues.'
‘My
skin burns so easily in the sun. I am freckled enough as it is.’
‘My
pleasure, Jenny’, Jack said pulling her toward him. His embrace felt warm and natural to Jenny. Oh how is this possible?, she thought.
‘Thanks,
Jack. I just wish...’
‘No,
Jenny. Let's not speak of regrets. Let me help you get off the island. And perhaps you
can help me solve a couple of mysteries.’
‘Anything,
Jack!’ she said and kissed his cheek and then looked at him squarely in the face, ‘What mysteries?’
‘Mystery
number one: If my wife, Myra, mailed my flight-plan to the authorities, someone
should have been out looking for me and my aircraft, even if they mistakenly
thought that you and Tom went down with that ship.
‘And
what is mystery number two?’ asked Jenny already guessing what that might be.
‘Why
did I die so suddenly?’
‘Yes,
I have wondered about that. I assumed that it was a heart attack, but you did
not seem to be a likely candidate for one.’ (When Jack slumped over in the cock-pit, he was just about to land on this tiny island. As co-pilot, Tom took over and crash-landed the plane on land rather than in the depths of the Pacific. While Tom was doing this, Jenny pulled and dragged Jack back toward the rear of the aircraft where she worked hard at trying to resuscitate him blowing air into his lungs and pounding his chest to try get him to breathe again. But he never regained consciousness.)
‘Exactly.
Let’s do a little dreamtime-travelling together. Hold my hand and no one will see us.’
With the speed of a film fade-out, it was more than three years earlier, and the invisible Jenny and Jack were standing
in the middle of the decorated patio where Jack’s birthday party was about to begin.
Jenny’s
mouth watered at the sight of all the party food, once again newly laid on the
serving table before the guests would arrive.
‘Remember,
Jenny’, warned Jack softly, ‘We cannot eat or do anything here. We are only here to observe.’
‘But
I’m so hungry!’
‘I
know, my sweet. You’ve been having a rough time, and you have been doing
brilliantly. I’ve seen the way you’ve gathered food and been careful to boil
your drinking water. But we cannot change anything here. We’re here to find out
what happened. If we succeed, you will be able to return home and be with your
family.’
‘You’re
so thoughtful, Jack.’
‘And
I need your help.'
'Why, Jack?'
'I think that I may have been murdered.’
‘Oh
no! But how could that be?’ asked Jenny trying not to think about how she really
longed for a piece of pumpkin pie.
Reading
her thoughts, Jack gave her a hug and a kiss, ‘All in due time.’
***
Word count: 977
[Text Copyrght Christina Wigren 2012]
------
Word count, according to WordCalc, for 'Halloween House of Horrors' is: 977; FCA; Full Critique Acceptable
Best wishes,
Anna
P.S.
This story uses the characters, Jenny Holland and the pilot, Jack Richardson, in order to fit the criteria for the given theme: Halloween/ghosts/horror/mystery/romance. It is experimental, and may or may not fit into the final novel.
This text is fictional. Any resemblance to events, firms or to persons living or dead, is purely coincidental.
First Commenter:
Yolanda Renée
of
Defending the Pen
It's Halloween!
Another FW/RU Challenge
We’re looking for chilling stories of ghosts and haunted locations – and maybe even love from beyond the grave.
A
romantic element is essential, but we’re looking for stories with a
thrilling edge of fear to add to the romantic tension building between
our Hero/Heroine.
Have fun with this one!
Don't forget the Romantic Element!
Let your head go!
You can write up to 1,000 words of prose/prosetry!