Jesus Freaks for Writers discussion
Games
>
Code: Story
date
newest »
newest »
Mod
She quickly scrawled something on the other side, and snuck back to the house. She slipped it in the door, and vanished into the night.
It read, "Bogs Eat Wolves And Real Enemies!"
Sophie was at the back door when she noticed something lying on the floor. A scrap of paper. How odd, she thought, No one's been out of the house yet today.She picked it up, threw the empty jug in the recycle bin, and sat down on the steps to read what the paper said.
"'Bogs Eat Wolves And Real Enemies!'?" She read aloud, confused by the strange sentence. Suddenly the words made sense, they were just like a game that she and her brother used to play. "Oh! 'BEWARE!'? Beware of what?"
She turned the paper over and saw another sentence. It used the same code as the other, and it looked like her brother's handwriting. "14 North Avenue?"
She sat there puzzling over the messages. Something across the alley caught her eye. An arrow, shakily drawn in white chalk, then the numbers "19-15-16-8-9-5".
Are we suppoed to guess what book it's from of what?
No, you solve the code at the end, and then you get to continue the story
She thought hard. The representative numbers of the alphabet? S...O...P...H...I...EA shiver went down her spine.
She stared at her own name, etched, cryptic and fading. Beware of 14 North Avenue. That was pretty evident. But her name beside the arrow?
Against all logic surging inside the walls of her brain, she stood and sprinted across the alleyway with a profound sense of urgency. There was no mistaking that her name was there for a reason. Perhaps a reason that would be fatal for her...but a reason nonetheless. She reached the arrow and followed it's point to the right, where she slowed to a jog and looked for anything that might lead to a vague sense of understanding.
Sophie's head pulsated, throbbing. Something gnawed at her insides. Her heart beat more quickly. There was an unquestionable feeling that something was very wrong.
"Sophie."
She gasped and swiveled. But not a shadow was in sight.
Her eyes widened, though; for when she turned, she saw something she had gravely passed up in her haste.
A building behind her was spray-painted with dripping, wet ink:
"Yachts of un-importance are revived every birthday. Easter is never gone. Wait at the cupid house every day."
She stared at the crimson red paint and pondered, knowing she didn't have much time.
Sophie's breath caught as her eyes flickered over the words and deciphered the message. "You are being watched."She spun in a circle, feeling her heart beat faster and faster as her breathing became more rapid and panicked. "Watched. Watched. Okay." She took a couple of deep breaths. "Okay. I'm being watched."
Something clattered in the alley, and she shrieked.
A cat emerged from behind a lidless trash can. Sophie laughed nervously as she spotted the lid spinning on the ground next to it.
The cat approached her and rubbed up against her ankles. She reached down to pet it, and her fingers brushed a scrap of paper tucked inside the collar.
Heart pounding, she unrolled it and read the jumble of letters and numbers. "erehteb.krapehtnigniteem00:3"
Sophie looked around. The alley was clear. Still, her heart beat wildly.She looked back down at the paper and tried to decipher its meaning. Every other letter? Eetb. Rph... No, that wouldn't work. Rhe. Kaetinteo....
She scratched her head. Maybe the words were hidden in the mess? Sophie looked closely. "Moo?" She thought aloud.
Then it caught her eye. "Ignite." Excitement fluttered but was quickly quenched. Ignite what? Another word jumped out at her: rape. Her throat suddenly became dry. Moo, ignite, rape. She covered the "moo" with her thumb. It was meant to distract her, she was sure.
But if the other two words she found were accurate, something was going to catch on fire, or someone was going to be hurt.
Or both.
She looked around in the darkness and wrapped her coat closer to her skin. Something just didn't seem right about her conclusion. It was sick and wrong, but also random. There was no pattern in the word separation. What was the point of adding all the other letters? Just to throw her off?
She wrinkled her nose. It simply didn't add up.
She searched for more words in the jumble, and she was rewarded with a "me" to the right of "ignite". But it was backwards...?
The paper began trembling in her hands. She had to think straight, and she had to think quickly. Sometimes, those two didn't go very well together.
So what if, she thought, every other word is backwards? If it switches from forwards to backwards? Ignite me. Ignite me.
She searched for the in-betweens backwards, then, and froze. The whole thing was backwards. She hurriedly grabbed a pencil from her jacket pocket and scribbled what she could make out in the dim light of the streetlamp.
3:00 meet in Ginthe Park. Be there.
But what if something awaited her there?
She shook her head. Of course something awaited her there. It was a matter of what that sickened her. But the even greater question was, what would happen if she didn't show up?
---- o ----
She reached the park two minutes 'till and tried to still her unsteady breathing. She began to regret not bringing her inhaler.
Sophie regained her nerve and ducked and darted through numerous trees, searching for anything out of the ordinary. She reached the glimmering fountain in the middle and walked around it.
"Hello?" It came out in barely a whisper.
A pebble skidded off the fountain and plopped in the water. She scanned her surroundings but saw not a trace of human presence.
She glanced in the fountain. A Ziploc bag was being held down by a palm-sized rock. She cautiously reached in and retrieved the baggie. Inside was a note.
Sophie let out a long breath as she unfolded the paper and placed the dripping plastic aside.
For once, she was getting tired of notes that led her on a wild-goose-chase. Hopefully, this one would be different.
She scanned the scribbled note and made out it's meaning almost immediately.
gk57yturnprqbaroundkjlme
After a heart stopping moment where she thought the last five letters actually said "kill me", Sophie realized that the words "turn" and "around" were hidden in the jumble. But what about the "me" at the end? She wondered if that was intentional or merely accidental.Slowly she turned around. And saw nothing.
She was starting to get frustrated. Sure, no one being here was a good thing, but it didn't get her any closer to answers!
Tightening her hold on he paper, she crumpled it into a ball and stuffed it in her pocket. Turning to go back to the alley, wondering if she had missed something, she stopped at the sight of a cloaked figure behind a statue. It beckoned to her, then turned and disappeared. Seconds later, it was back, waving more urgently. Sophie wavered, but a rapidly approaching group of people made the decision for her. At the last second, she spotted the rock which had weighted down the bag. Grabbing it, she tried to walk casually in the direction of the statue. A glance at the rock was slightly reassuring (but only slightly). Someone had written on it in marker "morf, a dneirf", and based on the other clues, she could guess what they meant.
Sophie felt calmer after understanding it was "from a friend". But from who? This was like those mystery movies you watch... "From a friend." She tried to walk faster without appearing to. What was going on? What had she gotten herself into now?
She had only a couple yards left to the statue and its safe, dark shadow when she heard the voices.
The group she had seen at the other end of the park had stopped at the fountain, and were murmuring to each other in quiet, harsh tones. She couldn't hear what they were saying.
Then there was silence.
Her heart almost stopped. Quiet was not good. She tried to creep across the grass without making a sound but a bunch of dry leaves seemed to pop up out of nowhere, right as she was putting her foot down.
Crunch.
She paused, trying not to move or breathe.
The silence was oppressing.
Five seconds. Was she safe? Ten seconds. Maybe they hadn't noticed. Thirteen seconds. Was that the rustle of a cloak?
Her imagination was working overtime. When would this horrid nightmare be over?
Fifteen seconds. Maybe she could crouch forward a little--
"Wo ist sie? Er sagte, sie wäre hier."
The voice, though muttering, seemed to pierce through the silence, and she could barely keep herself from jumping.
"Halten Sie ruhig. Suten Sie schnell. Folgen Sie seine Befehle."
Then there was nothing.
She decided that she may as well try to reach the statue as quietly and low to the ground as possible-- now glad that she had worn her black sweater and jeans today.
She was barely 3 yards away from the statue when she heard grass rustling in the trees back behind her. She glanced back and saw one of the cloaked men searching the brush-- just as he looked in her direction. He raised a shout and she bolted instinctively.
She rounded the corner of the statue and bumped into someone. He put a hand around her mouth to keep her from screaming and thrust a crumpled not in her hand, beckoning urgently for her to run. She couldn't see his face, he was cloaked and it was dark.
She attempted to follow him, but he was too fast and soon disappeared. He had longer legs than her, just like her brother, she thought abstractedly.
The nasal shouts behind her increased in volume and loud footsteps pounded behind her, drawing nearer all the while.
Panicking, she ran without thought of direction, drawing on adrenaline to make herself go faster.
Suddenly the ground fell from underneath her feet and she felt herself falling, falling, as her worst nightmare was fulfilled. Maybe she would wake up when she landed. It was a vain, small hope that remained.
She hit the ground sooner than she thought, and something clattered onto the ground next to her.
She groaned. Her feet, ankles, knees, thighs, everything hurt. Ha. She had not gotten a workout like this in ages.
Remembering that something had fallen next to her, she reached out and felt for it.
The pebble! She had nearly forgotten about it. She picked it up and felt a continuing crack in the other side of the pebble.
She sat up and brought it towards the dim light coming from the hole she fell through. Sure enough, there was a straight line all the way around the rock. She pulled at it, trying to get it to open. It wouldn't open.
She threw it at the floor in frustration. Pop!
She picked it back up-- and saw that it had cracked open. She realized that this was like the message eggs she used to get at the dollar store with her brother-- except this one was more realistic, and it looked and felt like a rock.
Fumbling at the crack, she finally made it pop open. Another message fell out. Squinting at it, she saw:
Cldntspkwhlthywrthr. Mehtmorfyawayats. 1630egraggnkrptamt.
GOSH guys, your unfolding story is amazing!!! It's intense (especially for an off-the-top-of-your-head story)!! I hope I didn't ruin it
Ashley wrote: "GOSH guys, your unfolding story is amazing!!! It's intense (especially for an off-the-top-of-your-head story)!! I hope I didn't ruin it "You're good! And, by the way, I can't tell you how excited I was when I read "wo ist sie?" This is my language, girl :D
Chapter 1
A figure in a dark cloak slipped silently through the hallways of the building. Knowing every creak of the floorboards by heart made it easy to be as silent as a ghost. This was only the latest in a long line of nights, but tonight was the last. Tonight, Sam thought, surveying the room ahead, I am not coming back.
Sam continued through the hallway, down the stairs, and through the greeting room. He hesitated at the front door, then clutched his prize tighter under the safety of his cloak and turned away. He had one more quick thing to do.
Ten long minutes later, two figures, one cloaked and one carried, made their way down the stairs. They entered the kitchen and disappeared out the back door, into the darkness of the alley.
As they slipped out the door, a torn slip of paper fell out of a pocket in the cloak and fluttered to the ground. On it, the words "14. Never Open Red Tree Houses, All Ventures End Notably Unsuccessfully Everytime!!" were scrawled in red pen. The figure did not appear to notice that it had lost something, and continued down the alley without stopping.
What is the message hidden on the scrap of paper?