Horror Stories

The Monster Under the Slide: Part 1 (Introduction)

               I'm sure we all told scary stories as children, right? Some of them were of the monsters under our bed, the dark, or even the occasional bump on the creaky old stairs down into your grandmother's basement. Whatever the story was about, it sure scared us and our friends for sure. But there was another concept that I was introduced to by my friend. We were discussing stories one day and a friend, we'll just call her Bailee, came up with something that was sure to scare the little kids.

              "What about a story where it's kind of like the monster under the bed but staged in a playground?" She said. I thought that was a great idea. 

             "But how would we incorporate a children's playground into a place meant for children?" Audrey asked. 

            "Well, like I said, we would do something like the age-old story of having a monster under the bed. We could do something like a monster under the slide." 

            "That's it!"  I shouted from across the room. The other girls turned to me. "What? Its a really good idea!" I felt like I was defending myself now. 

           "I mean, I guess. It was just the first thing that came to my mind, I could probably think of something way better." Bailee retorted. I scoffed.

           "Like what? The haunted swings? The graveyard under the jungle-gym?" I laughed at my own joke. I usually wasn't that funny, but I guess something just triggered my brain at that moment. 

            "Oh shut up smartypants, I can think of something better, just not something like that."

            "Sure"

            "Ok, I'll think of something right now... uhm..."

           "And?"

          "Oh fine, I got nothing."

          "I thought so" I laid down on the floor and got out my phone again. I was about to text someone about it when Piper finally piped up.

         "I don't think that would be a good idea. What if kids read it and start being afraid of whats under the slide, or even worse if something else is on the playground. It might stop kids from going to school because they might think the monster could get inside." She said. It sounded like she had a good argument, but I wasn't about to follow through with it. This was a ground-breaking idea that could actually make us some money. We would have to get a guardian's permission first before we published it though. 

         "Thanks for your concern, but we are following through with this idea. This could sell to some people willing to read it!" I was excited now. The words sounded good in my head but sounded better when spoken verbally. 

         Piper was quiet again after that. I had no idea why I even invited her to this sleepover. She always annoyed me. She was quiet, and bossy, and had a habit of worrying about things. In the long run, she just slowed us down or stopped us from things that we wanted to do. I just didn't like her. But, it was Audrey's idea to invite her, and Audrey is like the leader of the wolf pack. So anything she says goes. I didn't like it, and I hope Bailee didn't either, but we liked being the popular girls in school so we stayed with her.

        "Ok girls, let's get to work!" She pointed to the typewriter I had on my desk and said that we should use that. I disagreed. Bailee said that we should handwrite it. I disagreed with that as well. 

       "Can't we just use a computer?" I asked. It would be the easiest method. I saw out of the corner of my eye that Piper was nodding. Finally, something that girl agreed with me on. Uh oh, it seemed that Audrey's attitude was rubbing off on me. Oh well, that's alright, I'll get myself back soon enough.  Audrey and Bailee groaned. 

     "No, Jenny, this needs to look like something really old! So we can use it as like an old document we found while hiking in the woods or something like that." Bailee said. She sounded really annoyed with me.  We were usually really good friends, but something tells me that she was taking Audrey's side. 

     "And where are there any woods in LA?" I scoffed. I knew I was right. There were no woods within a 100-mile radius and lord knows that it would be impossible to go drive up there, go hiking, come back, and still go to school the next day.

     "Ugh, I never liked you anyway!" Bailee shouted at me. I was taken aback. But I knew the sure way to always win an argument was to stay calm. 

     "Well, that seemed to have escalated quickly. Ok fine, let's use a typewriter. I can type pretty fast, it'll be faster than writing it." I came to a compromise. I knew that if I didn't change my mind soon, these girls would feast on me like a pack of wolves.  I got it out of my closet and blew the dust off of it.  This thing was old. I set it on my desk and started taking some ideas for what the monster would look like. 

      "It should be red with big black horns!"

      "And drool and have giant teeth to eat  the kids!"

      "And be all muscular and be ready to rip you apart at any time!"

      "It should play football with the older kids!"  

       I stopped writing. "Ok guys, you are going away from a monster and more and more towards a high school jock." I took the page out and tossed it aside. "Here, I have an idea for our monster. It should be tall and lean, and yes, have giant teeth, but it shouldn't eat kids. It should be like one of those monsters that appear nice at first and then begin the not like the child." 

      "No, it needs to look scary!" Audrey cried. 

      "Yeah, and it will be scary, just let me write it," I replied, trying to stay calm. I started typing again. This time I made the monster lean, and tall, a little like slenderman but more like the rake. Its mouth was gonna be sewn shut, and it would have no eyes. What would be a good name for a kid in the story though? I stopped typing.

       "What are you doing, keep going, I wanted to see where this was going. It doesn't seem that bad." Bailee was finally getting on my side. I smiled to myself as I thought of someone I could include in the story. The daring twins, Micheal and Maddy, and then the lover Misha. I started typing again. This would be a great story. 

      "Oooh, I like the names. Isn't Misha the name of the super cute kid in our school." Crap, Audrey was catching on. 

      "Uhh, no, its the name of that McDonald's employee." That was a really unbelievable lie, but it somehow got me through the rest of the story.