Eerie Indiana Thurberus Thursday

[froodle]

It's Thursday, the day we dedicate to Simon's absolute best boy, Sparky the Hellhound.

This week, meet Jerberus the three-headed Jackalope

Eerie Indiana Drabble: Shifting Currents

[froodle]

Deep below the surface, the Sea Hag raged. Bent and swollen fingers curved like the ribs of sunken ships, tearing at the lake bed. The gouges became furrows, deepened still to become trenches, changing the topography of the World Beneath the Waves and, as a consequence, changing the currents around it.

The waters became treacherous, routes that were easily navigated now twisted out of true or vanished entirely, and vicious storms sprang up out of nowhere, capsizing ghost ships and sending their crews to a second, permanent death.

And the mermaids sighed, and fetched their shovels, and went to work.

Ongoing Verse: Janet

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Eerie Indiana Drabble: Focussed Shopper

[froodle]

Marshall stepped aside as the doors of the World o' Stuff swung outward, indicating with a smile and nod that the man trying to exit should go ahead.

The man, middle aged and bespectacled, with hair that was just starting to thin on top, might have appeared perfectly ordinary, if it weren't for his harried gaze and the way he clutched the huge white plaster turtle to his chest as though it was his most treasured possession.

Maybe it was, Marshall thought. Maybe you got to a certain age and your life became all about giant plaster turtles.

Stranger things...


Ongoing Verse: Trusted Associates Inc

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Eerie Indiana Drabble: The Sounds of Summer

[froodle]

"Oh good," said Janet, with the sort of sarcasm that would have struck the nigiri dead in their tanks if she'd turned it towards them. "The sun's out, so obviously it's time for every idiot in Eerie to stand around their idling cars with the radio blaring. Apparently this year's Sound of the Summer is just dipshits and exhaust pipes."

"You could just drown them out," suggested Melanie, motioning to the Baitshop's ancient and dusty tape deck.

"I could just drown them, period," said Janet. "But management have said I need to wait and see if they buy anything first."

Ongoing Verse: Janet

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Eerie Indiana Drabble: Differing Philosophies

[froodle]

"What?!" Melanie began to shout, but found Janet's hand clapped firmly over her mouth before she could get beyond the initial inhale.

"I know," Janet whispered. "I was shocked too."

Melanie examined the three puffer fish bobbing amidst the softly-lit waters of the huge tank.

"I never knew inflating themselves gave them organ damage," she whispered. "That's horrible!"

"That's why I built this place," said Janet. "It's going to be a haven of only calm and lovely things, and it's going to be full of puffer fish living out their days in peace."

Melanie grimaced.

"Sounds a bit boring, though."

Ongoing Verse: Janet

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Eerie Indiana Drabble: Substitute

[froodle]

"Fine, ghosts," Marshall said, apparently to empty air. "I'm going. But I'll be back, and I'll be bringing my bed."

Tod, who had replaced Simon on the evening's stakeout due to a scheduling clash with some turn of events that involved Harley, one of the higher-ranked Courts of Hell, and a truly staggering amount of seaweed forced into and then out of a very small blender, blinked.

"What?" asked Marshall.

"Nothing," said Tod. "Just, you could have phrased that literally any other way and it would have sounded less weird."

"They're ghosts," Marshall explained. "They're more comfortable with the weird."

Ongoing Verse: Janet

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Ongoing Verse: Holmes Brothers

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Ongoing Verse: Trusted Associates Inc

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Eerie Indiana Drabble: Unreliable Narrator

[froodle]

Haunted Structure #112 was officially a bust.

True, there was a particularly virulent strain of hallucinatory mould growing in what was presumably once the bathroom - before something had ripped out all the fixtures and most of the pipework, leaving behind only shattered tile and blood splatter - and there was a family of raccoons living in the walls that seemed to have developed a rudimentary system of writing, but neither of those things rendered a place haunted.

Actually, Marshall thought, sitting at his computer to type up his notes, was it possible he'd just hallucinated the raccoons due to the mould?


Ongoing Verse: Microwave

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Eerie Indiana Drabble: Urban Legend

[froodle]

"Browser not responding."

Marshall Teller ground his teeth, closed the window, and for the third time that night, re-launched the application.

"Browser not responding."

He glared at the screen, grey-white with a tiny revolving circle in one corner. Legend had it that this particular cursed website only appeared when it rained on the night of a moon, and even then it was only accessibly between the hours of midnight and one a.m., and even then, only when there wasn't a single breath of wind.

He was running out of time. If the technology wouldn't co-operate for him, maybe...

"Hey, Simon?"

Ongoing Verse: Trusted Associates Inc

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Eerie Indiana Drabble: The Usual

[froodle]

The lunchtime crowds had largely dispersed by the time Marshall got to the World o' Stuff, and already the ravens were picking at the bloodied remains of the stragglers. He slid into the booth third from the door, the one beneath the tall arched windows, dislodging a sticky collection of leg bones from beneath the table with the toe of one foot.

Mister Radford bustled over, a laminated menu with so many additions, annotations and alterations hand-scrawled onto it as to be almost illegible clasped in one hand.

Not that it mattered, of course.

"One black cow, please," said Marshall.

Ongoing Verse: Trusted Associates Inc

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Eerie Indiana Drabble: Growing Up

[froodle]

Simon was pretty certain that Chick Four now counted as a dragon.

Certainly, the false wall at the back of Mister Teller's garden shed could no longer shelter the scaled and towering thing the way it had when he'd been newly-hatched, part of a small clutch of hen's eggs nursed by a toad who had the misfortune to encounter Harley, and the foresight to run and hide when that happened.

Simon kept his eyes closed as he reached into his bag, produced wet and copper-smelling things that were still warm to the touch as he tossed them to the cockatrice.

Ongoing Verse: Holmes Brothers

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Eerie Indiana Drabble: ...right?

[froodle]

Marshall was not a fan of ForeverWare. It was too expensive, the results of using it incorrectly were too horrible, and the brand itself either attracted weirdoes or turned normal people into weirdoes, neither of which seemed like a good outcome.

And yet, faced with an uprising of sentient and embittered winter-wear, outraged both at being set aside in favour of t-shirts and shorts and at being improperly stored, resulting in moth predation, he did wonder...

Surely a rubber sealed wardrobe or blanket box couldn't hurt? Heavy woollen sweaters and bobble hats wasn't the same as food or people... right?


Ongoing Verse: Microwave

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Eerie Indiana Drabble: Alternation Services

[froodle]

"I'm a tailor," said the man who was made of scissor blades and needles. "I often carry out alterations on the fly. That's why I must have my supplies with me at all times."

He smiled, the little pinking shears of his lips going snic-snic-snic as they twisted into a new position.

Marshall eyed the bloodied edges carefully.

"Alternations on clothes... or people?" he asked.

The man's eyes were bobbins and they whirled frantically in the emptiness of his non-existent face. The threads were snarled and tangled and the bobbins couldn't turn all the way.

"Yes," he said. "And yes."

Ongoing Verse: Trusted Associates Inc

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Eerie Indiana Drabble: Apologies

[froodle]

"And this," said Radford, opening the huge double doors and ushering his guest through, "Is the reading room, where members come to study up on all things corn and learn about the grand and storied history of the Order."

"It looks very nice," said the man. "Very... conducive to study. Unfortunately, I'm just passing through and probably not a good fit for-"

"Nonsense!" said Radford, guiding the hapless road tripper towards a dark corner where the bookshelves stood empty. "I think you're exactly what we need."

The man's mouth opened to ask another question, but he was already dying.

"Apologies."

Ongoing Verse: The Powers That Be

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Eerie Indiana Drabble: Care Labels

[froodle]

"Ah," said the lady from the Eeriemat, whose eyes were nickel-bright and whose white curly hair had the texture of soap bubbles. "I see what the problem is."

Inside the red, white and blue striped prison that was his mother's biggest laundry bag, the winter clothes thrashed and tore at themselves, struggling to be free.

"You need to store these with mothballs," explained the lady. "Especially wool, it's very susceptible to insect predation, and to seeking revenge when it thinks it's been wronged."

She smiled, her teeth like quarters, and pointed.

"There's a poster explaining all about it right there."

Ongoing Verse: The Powers That Be

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Ongoing Verse: Microwave

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Eerie Indiana Drabble: Where the Buses Don't Run

[froodle]

The bus stop that only existed on Tuesdays was rain-streaked and covered in graffiti this week. Marshall Teller stood in the baking sun of a hot August afternoon, one of several consecutive hot August afternoons in that glorious summer, and waited.

The buses didn't run to this part of Eerie, where the houses stood empty and the only businesses were boarded up and their signs long faded. The roads here were hungry ribbons of dark tar, the cracked asphalt spongy underfoot and sticky like the landing pad of certain carnivorous plants.

To linger here was to declare yourself a meal.

Ongoing Verse: Trusted Associates Inc

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Ongoing Verse: The Powers That Be

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Eerie Indiana Drabble: Eyes

[froodle]

There were over a hundred oil paintings on display at Noel's Knick-Knack-Bric-a-Brac Emporium, and none of them had eyes.

Marshall could see they'd had them once, or here and there remained the faint white outline of painted sclera, the feathery tip of some grand lady's glorious lashes, but in each and every painting, they'd been cut away. Now only blank and empty spaces stared out from the canvas.

"It's for spying on guests," said Noel. "Nothing beats a stormy night and a set of eyes moving to track them as they take each shivering step down your haunted portrait gallery."

Ongoing Verse: Trusted Associates Inc

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Eerie Indiana Drabble: Past Tense

[froodle]

"Five more minutes," said Marshall, turning his face away from the doorway, which was already glowing unreasonably bright considering it was barely seven a.m.

"Sorry, son," said Edgar cheerfully. "You said, and I quote, 'don't let me miss this one, Dad, the Squatchfish only surfaces one a year and I can't oversleep'."

"That was yesterday me," said Marshall, pulling a pillow over his head. "Yesterday me was an idiot. Don't believe anything he tells you."

"Well, yesterday-you was apparently smart enough to anticipate this," said Edgar, "Because he left you a note."

"Joke's on him," said Marshall. "Today-me can't read."

Ongoing Verse: Trusted Associates Inc

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Ongoing Verse: Teller Family History

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Eerie Indiana Drabble: Time Zone

[froodle]

"So," said Simon, sitting at the Teller's kitchen table with a plate of bacon and eggs arranged to look like a smiley face in front of him. "Do you think the message really did come from future-you, or do you think it was another of your evil Doppelgangers trying to trick you again?"

"I'm not sure," said Marshall, rubbing his eyes and wondering if he could sneak a pot of coffee before his parents caught me. "I asked my Dad if the other me had a goatee, and he just laughed and said not to rush growing up too much."

Ongoing Verse: Trusted Associates Inc

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Ongoing Verse: Teller Family History

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Ongoing Verse: Milkman

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Eerie Indiana Drabble: Low Score

[froodle]

"That was pathetic," said Dash. "I might not remember anything beyond the last six months, but I feel confident saying that was the most pitiful thing I've ever seen in my life."

"Don't listen to him, Marshall," Simon said loyally. "You did fine."

"The game machine laughed at him," said Dash. "A glowing green skull appeared on the screen, laughed and called him a loser."

"You couldn't do any better," Simon shot back. "I bet you don't even know how to play Mutant Attack."

Dash shrugged.

"I know enough not to get laughed at by green pixelated skulls," he said.

Ongoing Verse: Trusted Associates Inc

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Eerie Indiana Drabble: Faint Praise

[froodle]

"Corn Critters 3D Y2K: Meltdown" was not Marshall's favourite edition to the franchise.

While he could appreciate a good gimmick - the twelve foot tall animatronic Corn Mother from Rise of the Super Crop lurching out of the projection booth during the movie premier remained a personal favourite - he wasn't sure that the Millennium Bug was all that compatible with a series about murderous yellow goblins who lived in cornfields and massacred unwary trespassers in a variety of inventive ways.

"Still," he said, as he and Simon walked home from the Eeriplex, Poplio's shadow dark upon them. "The effects were good."

Ongoing Verse: Trusted Associates Inc

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Eerie Indiana Drabble: Interloper

[froodle]

Miss Eerie stood at the entrance to the House of Mirrors, and though the ruby red curve of her beauty queen smile never wavered, inwardly she quivered with rage.

Her own blank silver eyes flashed fire as her gaze bounced down a hundred passages and off a thousand reflecting surfaces, all of them distorted, all of them telling lies.

The sash that hung from one shoulder to the opposite hip twisted and bubbled, sloughing off in shimmering lumps to sizzle against the buckling sidewalk beneath her neat white pumps. She motioned, and liquid glass surged forward, into the mirror maze.

Ongoing Verse: The Powers That Be

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