The Family Curse
08 Sep 2021Today’s prompt: “Jot down some notes about a long-ago family event. Then interview a family member about the event. Now write a piece featuring the differences between the two memories.” [I’m taking a few liberties with this one.]
As the killer chases you, your brother, and your two cousins through the cornfield, you pant, “Damn, I wish Grandma and Grandpa hadn’t been necking at Lookout Point all those years ago. Then we wouldn’t be in this mess.”
“What do you mean?” your cousin Tori asks.
“That’s where the killer first found them,” you say. “They barely escaped. They heard a report about a killer with a hook hand on the radio, and they decided to go home. They heard some scraping noises on the door just as they were leaving. They got home and they found his hook on the door handle. They thought they’d gotten away, but fifteen years later he tracks them down and murders them with his new hook. And he’s been killing his way through generations of our family ever since. My dad. Your mom. Aunt Marta. Uncle Joe.”
“That’s not how it happened,” your cousin Dane says. “It wasn’t a guy with a hook for a hand. And it wasn’t when they were dating. They were still kids when they first encountered the murderer. They were part of a whole group of children who were drawn to the forest by a mysterious, tall, slender man with long arms and a white, featureless face. Some of the kids in the group felt compelled to kill each other. Grandma and Grandpa were two of the only children who had the strength of will to escape his influence, and their trauma drew them close together. I remember one time when I was eight, I got a bloody nose, and Grandma freaked out because she said it reminded her of that day. I think somehow she always knew he would return for her and Grandpa and their children and grandchildren.”
“Okay, it definitely happened when they were kids,” Tori says. “And I’m not sure how tall or skinny she was, but the killer is definitely a woman. One of Grandma’s friends summoned her from a mirror by chanting ‘Bloody Mary’ thirteen times. The killer then appeared behind her in the mirror, slit her throat, and began drinking her blood before terrorizing all the other girls at the slumber party. Grandma was one of the few to escape, but without any way to put Mary back in the mirror, the killer eventually came after her and everyone else in the family. What about you, Jeff?” she asks your brother. “What do you know about the family legend?”
Despite the rhythmic back-and-forth of his arms as he runs, Jeff manages to convey a shrug. “I always heard it was a guy with an axe wearing a bunny suit.”
“That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever hear–” you say, when a tall, slender woman in a bunny costume sinks her hook hand into your shoulder.