Sucking Down A Blood-Red Glass Of...Wine? ~ A 28-Minute, Weekend Freewrite - In 3 Parts - 5/26/2018 ~ Original HorrorHumor Story and Original Photography ~

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~Sometimes, You Just Gotta Finish The Story~

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EDITOR'S NOTE:

This story gets a bit, umm, creepy. Since it's sort of a horror story. It DOES get better at the end. But you might not want to read it, if you get wiggy about odd little creatures, besides vampires, that suck your blood. But it's what sort of 'surfaced' (PFI), with the timer running today. I realize I usually stick to the more mundane ( :

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A Tale In Three Parts

Prompt-First Sentence:

The red liquid looked like blood. But she couldn't be sure - and who has blood in a glass on the table ?

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The red liquid looked like blood. But she couldn't be sure - and who has blood in a glass on the table? Then again, we WERE in a big old dark, dank castle. And the guy at the head of the table DID look a bit odd, in his black-hooded robe and those teeth. Not sharp, pointy ones, but big hay-gnashers. Like a cartoon horse would have on the TV.

But what really gave it away, was the guests. "By Invitation Only”, the embossed card with the gold lamé had said. But who invites only one human to a party, in the middle of the night, in a castle, with a bunch of aquatic, annelid worms? Twelve of them, to be exact. If anyone was counting.

All looking down my way at the far end of the table. Each with a huge smile, if at all possible, for a 172 pound leech, with no spine. Yet the unmistakable ability to sit in an upright form in a chair. And 'smile', with those odd, floppy attachment lips and stubby teeth.

Our host clinked a small fork onto his 'wine' glass, and proposed a toast, and all the other 'guests' raised a glass high. I noticed they were all empty, except for our horse-toothed host at the head of the table. HIS was full. And red. BLOOD red. With no 'legs' twirling down the side of the shiny glass, like so many snifters of wine I've had in restaurants over the years.

The hooded man spoke - “to our guest, may she enjoy her evening....” - they were all looking down the long, dark, oaken table in my direction. I took a huge gulp of close, dank, castle air. “What the...” was about all I got out, before a huge gong went off from somewhere in the bowels of the stairway, leading down into what I assumed was the basement of the bastion-like building.

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Hugo loved flowers and everyone knew this. At least everyone but me. I was the only one. The only guest WITHOUT a flower. A single white rose, in a small vaas, in front of each of the twelve greenish-brown, bottom-dwelling bloodsucker's at the long dinner table. I knew our host HAD to be Hugo. He had a vaas of twelve stark-white flowers parked in front of him.

Plus, no self respecting leech mother would THINK of naming her kid Hugo. They use simple names down on the pond. Or numbers. Leech one, leech two, leech three, leech four...leech one thousand two hundred and thirty seven. But NOT Hugo.

Hugo stood, and beckoned for me to come forward, to the head of the table. I slowly made my way past all the leeches in tall-backed chairs. Each looked at me as I passed, by turning into a blob on the seat, and then re-forming as a more vertical bloodsucker as I went by. Each with only an immense mouth and no discernible eyes, 'peering' at me over the back of the chair in my direction as I passed. SO creepy at best.

Once I reached Hugo, I was beckoned to sit in a chair at his right-hand side. I balked, and suddenly a huge man with a patch over his right eye nudged my knees from behind, and I dropped with a ka-lump onto the hard, oak chair. Hugo raised his glass again, “We are gathered here tonight, to help our guest pass into another realm...”

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My mouth was dry as an old dog-bone. My knees were shaking, and my stomach was in a series of knots. Then I remembered what I used to mutter to myself, whenever my boyfriend was being a schmuck, and made me feel bad about myself. “Crying is bliss.” It sure worked for me. He would do anything to stop me from crying. So I thought to myself, “Why not?"

I conjured forth all the sad things in life, to start the tears flowing. Maybe it would work here as well. It was difficult in such a scary situation, but I managed. Tears began to stream down my face. Wet, soppy tears, of completely real, terror-filled fear, once they commenced. Hugo gave a chuckle, “ah, salt water, that should add a bit of interest to the mix !”

Then he spat out- “COMMENCE," and all the leeches pushed their chairs out from the table in unison. They proceeded to body-scooch along the floor, toward my chair. Slowly, methodically, they all sidled up to the four legs of my seat. Then each stretched out, first rising back to full height, then fattening down toward my being. They made NO sound. I could smell the pond-water on their blood-sucking breath.

Then, one after the other, they attached to my body. Legs, torso, arms, back, chest, then to my face. All 12 of them, stuck to me like a horrid, blood-sucking...mud leech. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't speak. I opened my mouth to scream, but nothing came out. It promised to be a death beyond imagination. To be slowly sucked clean of blood, by twelve, 172 pound leeches.

They started rasping my skin with their odd little blunt teeth. It hurt, not a lot, but enough to give me the willies. I tried to scream again, again nothing came out. Then a bright sound woke me out of a dead sleep.

“What ARE you thrashing on about? ” It was my boyfriend, groggily lying on the bed next to me. He turned his face toward mine, “Eeewgg! There's a giant snail. Stuck to your forehead! Gross!!! ”

The huge thing must have crawled into the screen-less window during the night. And found my sleeping head on the pillow. Then attached to my forehead for one snail reason or another. I scraped it off, tossed it out the window to the dark yard below, and rolled back into a deep sleep. All too glad it was only one large, harmless garden snail, instead of a dozen Northwest, Giant Banded Blood-Sucking Pond Leeches.

~ Finto ~

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"Doodee Whooo Dooo, Doodee Whoo Doo, Eeeernt, Eeeernt, Eeeeeerrnt..."

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Here is the link to the post about the Weekend Freewrite, put on by @mariannewest:
Weekend Freewrite - 5/26/2018

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Thanks for stopping in and viewing the third installment of the 28-Minute, Weekend Freewrite. If you have any thoughts about blood sucking leeches, the BENEFITS of such leeches to the world (there are many), snails on your head while you soundly sleep, or anything else this post reminds you of, please feel free to comment away in the spaces below. I'd love to hear from you.

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Please UPVOTE, COMMENT and FOLLOW if you enjoy my works.

And go to @ddschteinn -- There's a whole lot more...

_{Posted: 05/27/2018 @ 19:35}

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Excerpts From Late-Night Conversations With A Mechanical Cat

Fact Number 71