It was a dark and stormy night, and things only got worse from there.

The place was old Manhattan. Not New York, but Manhattan, West Virginia.

The time was the turn of the 20th century.

The bar was empty, except for Billy.

“Hand me that spanner,” said Billy.

The bar was empty, except for Billy and Joe.

“Hear you go,” replied Jim, as he handed the tool to Billy.

The bar was empty, except for Billy, Joe and Jim.

“Do you hear something?” asked Joe.

“It’s just the wind,” said Billy.

“Sounds like someone talking,” said Joe.

“It’s nothing,” replied Billy. “Hand me the electric drill.”

Joe obliged, handing the yet-to-be invented tool to Billy.

“There it is again,” said Joe.

“What?” asked Jim.

“The voice. It’s talking about us,” said Joe.

“I don’t hear anything,” said Jim.

“Neither do I,” said Billy.

“It’s quiet now,” said Joe. “But it’s definitely a voice.”

Billy continued his work, while Jim scoffed at Joe.

“There it is again!” exclaimed Joe.

“You’re mad,” said Jim. “You need to see a shrink when we get back.”

“You don’t hear that?” asked Jim.

Billy pressed on, hard at work, tangled in wires, tooling around with a machine that didn’t seem to belong in the early 20th century.

Jim sneered at Joe. “You’re imagining things.”

“No,” said Joe. “Didn’t you hear it? It said Billy was working, tangled in wires, which he is. It said that you sneered at me, which you did.”

“I don’t hear nothing,” said Jim.

“Can you hear me?” asked Joe.

“Yes!” said Jim. “I’m standing right here!”

“Not you!” replied Joe. “The voice. I was talking to the voice.” He paused. “Can you hear me?”

Yes.

“There!” exclaimed Joe. “Did you hear that? The voice answered!”

Jim just turned away, waving Joe off with a flip of his hand.

“Who are you?” asked Joe.

Does it matter?

“Why are you talking about us?”

I’m telling your story.

“Our story?”

Yes, your story. I’m writing all about what happened to you on this fateful night.

“Tonight?”

Yes.

“What’s going to happen to us?” asked Joe.

I can’t tell you.

“Are we going to die?”

Two of you are. Well, no. Sorry. I can’t tell you. It’s going to be quite a tale.

“We’re going to die? How? When?” asked Joe. “Can we stop it? What can we do?”

Billy and Jim continued work on the machine. Joe decided he should jump in and help as well.

“I didn’t decide that,” said Joe.

So, Joe decided to jump in and help finish the repairs on the machine.

“Nah, I haven’t decided that yet. Is using the machine what gets two of us killed?”

Joe decided to stop talking to himself and pitch in to help Billy and Jim with the machine.

“Why do you keep pushing me toward fixing it? Will fixing it save us and get us away from danger, or will it take us to the danger?” asked Joe.

After a long hesitation, Joe decided to help Jim and Billy repair the machine.

“You flipped Jim and Billy this time. Why? Is there some significance to that? Did you move Jim closer to me because we’re the two that are going to die? What’s going to happen?”

Since Joe wasn’t helping repair the machine, Billy and Jim decided that, when it was time to go, they would leave Joe behind.

“They’re leaving me behind? Does that mean they’re going to die?”

Meanwhile, Jim snuck up behind Joe, carrying a heavy metal pipe, planning to hit him in the head, possibly killing him, just to get him to shut up.

Quickly, Joe spun around.

“Hey, Jim’s not there! You were trying to trick me!”

Suddenly, the machine roared to life.

“It’s fixed!” exclaimed Billy.

“We can go home!” exclaimed Jim.

“Wait!” exclaimed Joe. “Should I let them go? Will they die if I let them go? What if I break the machine? Or, is trapping us here what results in two of us dying? Oh, what should I do?”

To be continued…

 

…by Speedcat!

The bad story meme is like a never-ending story. Or, maybe someone will end it. Who knows? Let’s see how far it goes. Anyway, so what you do is write your part of the story and then tag someone else to finish the next part. I’ve tagged Speedy!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 5th, 2009 at 10:12 pm and is filed under dcr Writes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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