Short Story: A Work In Progress

A Sample of a Story 

by Jarad Johnson 

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Jarad has been inspired to start writing a short story that features another Sacred Chickens employee, our Uncle Mortimer. Be sure to check back on the blog to see how it plays out (if he ever manages to finish it)! In the meantime, here's a sampling of what he's written so far! ​

“Are we going to be playing tic tac toe?” he asked, amused.
“No,” she said, sat down, and began drawing on the concrete porch, next to an old iron kettle full of red flowers that reminded him of a witch’s cauldron. While she concentrated, he picked up a piece of chalk, and for a reason unbeknownst to him, drew a pentagram on the table. And then another, followed by three more on the ground beside him. She saw what he was doing and inspiration from it. 

Hers was much more elaborate than his. It covered nearly a third of the porch, incorporating his and included runes, roman numerals, berries in place of blood and some rubbish placed at the corners.
“Properly witchy,” she said, “The berries represent your blood.”
“Look,” she stooped down and pointed at a small deep scarlet spot in the middle of one of the images, “I think that is your blood.”
 
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He was amused but felt that, elaborate as it was, it was missing something. So, they enlisted the help of the resident household skeleton, Uncle Morty, who this week was dressed in Bermuda shorts and a flowery button up, making him look like a deceased tourist. He was propped up against a column, at the edge of the pentagram, legs crossed, and even though he was plastic and inanimate, somehow still looking irritated.  Uncle Morty had worn this expression since he’d come to a Halloween party and the residents of the house took to decorating him for the seasons instead of storing him.
 
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He floated through the party, not really seeing or hearing anyone, until he heard the car outside. He walked back to the porch and was stopped in his tracks by what he saw. The skeleton was gone.
 
 

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Bio:
Jarad is the co-administrator and writer for Sacred Chickens, attends college at MTSU, loves tea and coffee, and tries to spend every spare second reading. He recently developed an interest (some might say obsession) with gardening. Jarad is an English major with a concentration in literature.  Bless his heart!  Let's all light a candle for him and send him happy thoughts!

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