Where did I leave that story?

There was a scream in the night.

There was always a scream in the night. Just as it was always a dark and stormy night as well as a cool, clear night, and a hot, sticky night, here in the city of opening chapters.

She should never have let her story sit for so long. It had obviously gone bad and now she had come here to find it and get it straightened out. She had already found five miraculous births, three murders most foul, and she was pretty sure she was being followed by a gang of lovers parting.

She was working her way through the inky streets, past sketched and smudged buildings, heading toward the city park. There was always a park at the center of the city. After all, her story had been conceived and brought forth with ink and paper in a park, perhaps it would seek out a familiar place.

“How could you? I loved you.”

A murder mystery bumped into her.

“Get off, you predictable plot.”

It scurried back into the dark. Cheeky bastard, just needed a firm hand with an eraser and white out.

Something grabbed her and knocked her down. She flipped over to see a fan fiction crawling up her leg.

“Oh no you don’t. I will not be THAT scream in the night.” She kicked and slashed at it with a black marker. It let go with a shriek and a “YOU are the chosen one” and shuffled back into the blurred shadows.

She had heard of writers who had come here less prepared. Some could only write the fan fiction that had snatched them. Others did the cutesy greeting card messages. With black marker in hand, she forged ahead. The lurking first lines now kept their distance.

Some of these stories had been here for years. Some were grey and dull. Others, rabid, prowled around trying to steal lines and characters from other stories.

Some were beautiful and haunting, tragically left in some drawer, never to be told or finished.

On the edge of the park was a story of a little girl and her grandfather, sweet, but unraveling at the end.

She found traces of her story near a bench deep in the park. It looked like it was alone and not too badly mutated. Perhaps it had not had time to join some of the roving gangs. She saw it as she rounded a bend in the trail.

“PUT THAT DOWN.” She snatched away the story it had been chewing on. “Oh dear. This is just going to make you sick. Spit out whatever you have eaten. RIGHT NOW.”

The chewed on writing was a painfully immature love story with dark, brooding vampires and busty witches.

“Ugh. It’s going to take forever to clean you up. At least you didn’t go rolling in some religious drivel.” A group of priests ran past, dribbling basketballs. “Wha..? Not going to ask. Ok, come on. I have a nice new sheet of paper waiting for you back home.”

In the distance a creature howled…..and another creature howled….and another, on that dark and stormy night.