The Celery Stalks at Midnight

[This story was one of two done by the Monkeys over at the Barn. Their job was to write an ongoing story using random pictures they were given. This is what they came up with.]

The Celery Stalks at Midnight

Part 1
(By Sea Hag)

It was hunting.

It was the thing that parents feared the most; that he might come and take their precious children away in that one moment they weren't watching. Turn to stir the pot, check your lipstick in the rear view mirror, tie your shoes; look up and she is gone, gone. There was no stopping it, no way to protect your darling chick from the shadow of the raptor. He took whom he wanted and you just hoped that your luck was better than your enemy's. Or your neighbor's.

As an adult, you can vaguely remember at time when you were younger that you, too, were once his prey, but then you grow up, he is obscured from memory. But children are aware of him, fear him in the night while curled under their favorite quilt, hoping that the love that grandma put into its construction will be a talisman to ward off his lurking gaze.

It never is, by the way.

You dismiss your child's fears of the bogey men hiding under the bed, hoping that leaving the light on in the hallway to soothe your fear that he is in the dark, waiting.

That doesn't work, either.

While most children are actively afraid of him, there are a certain few who feel is presence more than others, who become mildly obsessed with the monster. He stalks through schoolrooms, waiting to find the right child.

This is how he hunts:

On this day, he walks down an aisle of Ms. Stratford's second grade class glancing over shoulders at the students quietly writing Halloween stories at their desks. The room is warm, and there is the faint smell of crayons and dirt and pencil shavings. He comes to a desk and reads:

The Celery Stalks At Midnight, by Joel Cheney

One time there was a boy who didn't eat vegetables. He would throw them away and his mom didn't know or she would have been mad. But one night the vegetables got mad and after he went to sleep they went to his room and killed him and threw his body away.

He had found his next victim.

Part 2
(By Dragon)

"Class, I need to step outside and speak to Ms. Hoover. Please continue with your assignment. I won't be long." Ms. Hamilton told her class.

Joel felt a chill go through him as he heard the door close behind her. He felt something cold touch his shoulder. Joel swung his head around to see what had touched him. There was nothing.

Am I spooking myself? Come on, its just a stupid story. Vegetables are not dangerous. They taste awful but they won't kill you. Joel thought to himself as he continued to write his story.

His pencil barely touched his paper when he felt the cold hand on his shoulder again and this time it was squeezing him tightly. He turned his head around to see a tall menacing figure in a white cloak. He couldn't make out his face from behind the hood but Joel could see his red glowing eyes.

"Help me!" Joel screamed. None of his classmates seem to notice what was happening to him.

"Let go of me!" Joel squealed as he tried to get up. It was futile, he couldn't move.

"What do you want?"

"I'm taking you to Master", the phantom hissed.

"Noooooooooooo!" Joel cried as everything around him went black.

What is this place? Joel thought to himself as he walked the sandy path. It looked like caves he'd seen in geography textbooks; caves carved out by wind and sand. It was beautiful and frightening at the same time. Joel could hear the wind howling. It was getting louder as he walked down the path. He'd swear he also heard voices in that wind.

"Beware."

"Help Us."

"Run, if you can."

Joel would run if he could. He seemed to have lost control of his own body. He struggled to turn the other way, to turn his head, to open his mouth and scream but it was useless. The phantom who's hand was tightly on his shoulder seemed to control his movements.

The wind and the voices were getting louder as the cave became increasingly darker. Soon Joel found himself at the edge of a cliff. The phantom stood next to him.

"Where are we?" Joel asked.

The phantom said nothing as he pointed down over the edge of the cliff.

Part 3
(By 'Chelle)

A void, an echo of nothingness stood before Joel. One minute he was staring into the void and the next he was falling through the darkness.

Joel tried to scream but all he heard was a squeak and cold laughter. The phantom was beside him still, falling with him. Joel could feel the icy presence through the darkness and then complete blackness.

He didn't know he had blacked out until he awoke. Joel was drenched. His clothes stuck to his body and he could feel water on his face. He tested his legs in attempt to get up but the now familiar frosty hand stilled him.

Slowly through the pitch Joel could see movement, a creature coming toward him. Limbs, jellyfish like, moving slowly menacingly toward him. The creature had no head or face just tentacle like limbs. Some of the limbs had claws, grasping at the surface it walked.

By watching the creature's movement, Joel could make out water above and below where he and the ghostly specter stood. He tried to back away but the phantom stopped him. Joel wanted to cower, roll himself into a ball. Instead he forced himself to stand up and not move.

Joel did not know he was crying until he tasted the tears. The phantom laughed, "Tears only make you taste sweeter. Cry little one."

This time Joel did scream; loud and piercing the air until the water rushed in drowning him.

Part 4
(by Tiff)

Joel's final scream had pierced through the surface tension of the"water" above him, causing a deluge of liquid oxygen to rush into the between-world where the awful jelly creature had lived. Joel been carried through the rent, and now his body floated to the surface on a thick wave, a fresh smudge on the turbulent surface of an odd dreamworld.

Slowly Joel's body absorbed the liquid in his lungs, and it refreshed him. He was buoyant on the waves, and as his eyes began to open he noticed that the jelly creature had been crushed under the density of the inrushing liquid, and now its strange multicolored body lay in a gleaming puddle under the waves. Its deflated gawping head oozed along on the surface, and a final weary twitch of a crumpled tentacle signaled its demise. The ghostly fiend that had taken him from his world and led him to the Master was nowhere to be seen.

In the near distance Joel saw a luridly colored island, and began to swim toward it, hopeful for rescue. As he neared the shore, vibrant creatures jumped around, waving at him wildly and shouting in glee. Once very near, and almost fully exhausted, Joel grabbed at the ribbons they tossed to him and allowed them to drag him to shore.

After a period of some time, Joel awoke to find himself surrounded by a pack of young boys just about his age. A cat-faced fellow with a bright red hat shrieked "he up, he up!" and the parrot, pirate, and clown yelled loudly "he UP he UP!" and danced wildly in their hyper oxygenated world. Joel breathed deeply, the smell of sugar and chocolate filled the air, a cloying-sweet atmosphere of carnival and circus.

"Have some candy, have some CANDY" all the boys shouted, bouncing off of walls and ramming into one another without regard to safety or one another. And so Joel ate. And ate. And ate. And eventually began bouncing off of walls and ramming into other boys, screaming wildly, fueled with sugar and the vivid energy of this extra-oxygenated world. They ran until they were utterly spent.

When he slept, it was to allow in twisting dreams of crazy colors and racing pace. When he awakened, it was to a pounding head and sticky mouth. When he stretched, his bones popped; when he peed, it smelled like cotton candy. He felt sick.

And still the boys stuffed him with sweets. Still they plied him with sodas. Still they made him run and jump and shout and exhaust himself, for that was the only way he could meet "The Mistress," the one who held the power to decide his fate on this fantasy island. She liked her acolytes energetic and stuffed with glucose. So eat, Joel, and run. Play with us and stuff your face, for The Mistress, for The Mistress wants it that way.

After many days spent in a daze of sweets and screaming and sleep and sick stomach, the pirate said Joel was ready to meet The Mistress. Joel had killed the Master, after all, and in so doing had given her Ultimate Power over the Know-World, and she would grant him one wish.

Joel thought long and hard on this wish, finally settling on one that, just a few days ago, he would have thought strange, but now, in his candy-addled and wrung-out mind, seemed perfectly sane.

He was tired of candy.

He was tired of fun.

He wanted to see familiar stars and eat an apple, for Pete's sake, to settle his head and stomach. He wanted his bed.

In short, he wanted to go home.

The boys led him to the center of the island, to an enormous castle of sugar-glass and marshmallows, in which The Mistress lived. A smart rap on the graham cracker door announced their presence, and soon Joel was led into a vast hall in the middle of which was seated a gigantic women in a tight white outfit.

For a moment Joel felt an odd sensation in the pit of his stomach, and thought that maybe he didn't want to leave after all. She was beautiful, even if she was 30 feet tall and had breasts the size of a school bus. Joel, being a boy, wondered if it would be better perhaps to change his wish to be 31 feet tall and all grown up. However, once her threateningly resonant voice demanded his wish, he reverted to the small boy he was and squeaked out: "I want to go home."

"SIMPLE AS PIE" bellowed the tremendous Mistress. "EASIER THAN TAKING CANDY FROM A BABY!!!"

Joel's stomach lurched.

"IT WOULD BE THE ICING ON THE CAKE OF MY DAY TO SEND YOU HOME, MASTER-SLAYER!!!"

Joel felt ready to heave.

"ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS, EAT THIS!" and at that she held out her enormous gloved hand, which held a gigantic candy heart with the words "eat me" printed in white icing on it.

Joel gulped hard, his gorge rose, the saliva flowed, he was one spasm of the gut away from a full-on heave. "Not more sugar!" Joel thought wildly. "I can't EAT anymore sugar! I can't DO this! Please, anything but this!"

But still, he opened his mouth, and began.

Part 5
(by Sea Hag)

...and then Joel woke up.

He woke up in his bed at home, covered by his familiar fuzzy blue blanket, his stuffed bear with the ratty fur that he hid when his friends came over tucked securely in the crook of his arm. Gentle hands touched his forehead, smoothed the hair from his face.

"Mom?" he said, tears in his throat. He had had the worst nightmare. He needed a glass of water. He needed to go to the bathroom but he was too scared to get up.

He heard a hissing noise, felt the gentle fingers clamp down and pinch flesh from his bones. He heard chewing, smacking lips, felt more hands grab for him.

He screamed, he struggled, he bled as they feasted.

He saw the phantom at the foot of the bed. It reached out for him.

"Help me!" Joel cried.

Joel was sitting at his desk at school, writing a silly story about killer vegetables. His teacher would think it was very creative, his mother would think it was a little disturbed and make a mental note to have a chat with Mrs. Stratford after school one day.

He stared out the window, letting his imagination linger on Halloween and the costume he wanted: A long white robe with a cowl. Red eyes, skeleton feet. He wanted to scare everyone in his class, in his neighborhood. He could see himself, peering out through bloody irises, craving the innocent soul of a child to take with him to Hell.

Joel was a rabbit, running through the field. He was being chased by his neighbor's dog. The dog caught him, the last thing he saw before it ripped out his throat was the moonlit sky.

Joel was beaten, stabbed, hurt, devoured, chased, over and over without end, but each nightmare is tinged with the faint stirrings of hope. It is unthinkably cruel.

Poor Joel. You looked away. And now he's gone, gone.

Joel's mother will wait for him to come home from school, but he will never show up. She will call the school, but he was absent today...wasn't he? His teacher will recall him sitting at his desk, but he left early for a doctor's appointment, right? You will see Joel's parents on TV one day, begging for his return. The town will be covered in blue-and-white ribbons and posters with his sweet little boy face.

But he's never coming home. Everyone knows that. The ribbons will eventually fade and tatter, the posters will melt after the first good rain of the season. Joel's parents will move on, have another baby, never tell him about his big brother who disappeared. They will hope that their house will not be stricken again, that surely the monster will have been satisfied with their sacrifice and move on.

But the phantom is always hungry, and he is never satisfied.

~~The End~~