Reality
Create a monster. An initiative created by @snook
Here
Art work my own
Esmeralda-Jane was sitting at her desk thinking deeply. The window beside her was open and a chilly breeze ruffled papers on her desk and raised goosebumps on her bare arms. EJ needed an idea, and she damn well needed a good one. She scanned her computer screen; the numbers were appalling. Her book sales were dropping.
Her cell rang.
“EJ, have you seen the sales?”
“Umm…” EJ mumbled.
“Sweetheart, you know I adore you, but you better come up with something fresh. Fresh, witty and scary in that order. Do you hear?”
“Sure, I’m sitting here writing a blockbuster, promise!” EJ lied.
“K, just get it done, and pronto baby, or we’ll be eating sand next year. K...K?”
EJ laughed and promised her publisher results. She cut the connection.
EJ pondered…
She needed a monster, something legendary, something like Dracula or Frankenstein. She needed to conjure something deadly, something inordinately evil, malicious, nefarious, dreadful.
Vampires, of course, were overdone. Zombies, well, zombies were also played out.
Demons, devils?
Something like Rosemary’s baby?
Carrie?
The Shining?
Something Stephen King, like. After all, The Stand was one of her favorite books.
Something magnificently nasty was brewing in her brain…
Her cell rang. She contemplated not answering, suspecting that it was her publisher, again. Ugg..
Then she saw that it was her mom.
“EJ, did you see on the news? Apparently, there’s this virus in Wuhan in China. Some doctor at a hospital over there says it’s a SARS virus, and people might die. Nasty hey?”
“No mom. I am sitting here trying to think up a monster for my next book. I haven’t seen the news.”
“Oh well, maybe you should write about a monster epidemic that eradicates the human race. There’s all kinds of monsters, after all, dear. They don’t need to be fictions to be scary. Reality is far scarier than Science Fiction. Don’t you think?”
