Horrible Fairy Tales For One and All...

[ThatGreenGentleman]

... With ThatGreenGentleman as your dashingly handsome narrator. Now zip it, lock it, and put it in your pocket so I can tell the damn story.

  Twas the night before Halloween and all was quiet in the small town of Lurchville. All the lights within the town were off, except the streetlamps that eerily lit the streets. There was a fog that had seemed to roll in only a week before and had yet to disperse. Not a soul was stirring, not a peep, save for the house that belonged to one Artemisia Strenold and her husband Jerome. They had spent nearly the entire month digging up graves and finding scrap metal and knick-knacks and doo-dads, for their creations. For you see, Artemisia and Jerome were barren, so they decided to make children of their own instead of adopting. However, if you asked anyone in town, especially their neighbors, the married couple was called "twisted", "creepy", "sick", etc. Upon the table where Artemisia and Jerome were working, there lay two small bodies. The flesh of the two bodies was covered in stitches where they had to attach the pieces. There was metal around their bones, to keep the brittle bones of the deceased from breaking. Storm clouds rolled in at an alarming rate, lightning and thunder blazing like guns. Artemisia and Jerome had waited for this day for years, the day when they would finally have children. They pulled on the chains and table rose, ever so slowly towards the lightening. They waited a few moments, and then the lightening struck. When the table came back down, their new children's hearts began to beat. The children, a boy and girl, both opened their eyes to reveal white irises, solid black pupils, and a black ring to complete the chilling gaze they had. The new parents quickly gave them names, Morticia and Lucien. The children soon picked up on how to display emotions, what they liked and disliked, everything they needed to know. Truly happy was the completely formed family, though the ending is not what they would've ever expected.

  The next night was Halloween, and the family decided to go out. However, the other residents of Lurchville had looks of horror and disgust, as the strange looking children and their strange parents walked down the streets, trick or treating like everyone else. Angered and fearing them, they soon formed an angry mob. Trying to protect their children, Artemisia and Jerome told Morticia and Lucien to run away. The parents tried their best to fend off the mob, but were badly beaten.

  Trying to find someplace to hide, the twins decided to hide in an old, decaying windmill. This might've worked, if the mob hadn't been right on their tail. The terrified children went all the way to the top floor and out onto the balcony of the windmill. As they looked at the crowd drawing near, they could feel their hearts beating faster and faster. The mob poured some sort of liquid at the base of the structure, and lit a match. Morticia did not know what it was, but Lucien did and his eyes got wide with terror. Within seconds the windmill was ablaze. The flames licked at their skin, and they screamed in pain and for the parents to save them. Morticia's heart began to beat so fast that it burst. Lucien, now alone in the burning inferno, held his sister's once again dead body and cried helplessly. His skin began to burn, and then his heart too, began to beat wildly and burst. His body slumped over his sister's, though whether it was because of rigor mortis, or because of his strong will to never let go of his sister, he held her tightly. The windmill then collapsed in on their corpses. And burned until it was nothing but embers left.

  Artemisia and Jerome had followed the mob all the way to the windmill. They had watched they're children burn alive (though their children actually died of their hearts exploding). Artemisia screamed out for her children while Jerome cried until his entire body was shaking. The entire town of Lurchville laughed cruelly at the grieving parents. When the townspeople left, the parents slowly approached the embers. They looked upon the forms of their dead children. The only reason they could see it was because of the metal they had once placed around their bones. Artemisia and Jerome decided the townspeople would pay. They wouldn't outright kill them like in the horror movies, oh no. They were going to make them suffer, like their children had in the inferno that had once been the windmill. The townspeople would pay, and they would pay with interest.

  Twas the night before Halloween, and though I disbelieved that it could not be, it was unfortunately so.
THE END.

[Doktor Howl]

[Don Coyote]

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Well-done! Also creepy and sad. 

[Luna]

Wow...  Great stuff, TGG.

[Murmur]

More, please!   

[ThatGreenGentleman]

   Welcome back for a new installment of Horrible Fairy Tales For One and All, with your narrator once again being TGG. This story takes place in a mansion, it involves a murder and a mystery. For this one I want YOU, THE READERS, to figure out who it is, and post your answer. I will let you know who it is when someone has guessed correctly, and I will then finish the story. The first person to get it right gets a story where they are the main character.

   It was a dark and stormy evening, the rain coming down in torrents. A car driving on a road towards a brightly lit mansion swerved a bit because of the wet road. "Are you alright Sir Weller?" the driver asked the man who sat in the back dressed in a tux with a nice looking top hat. "Quite all right Mr. Jenkins," replied James Weller. After a few minutes the car arrived at the luxurious house. The car drove away as James Weller approached the double doors. He knocked, and the door was answered by a middle aged man, most likely the butler. "You must be Mr. James Weller. Welcome, you are the last to arrive." James Weller then said, "Sorry about that. The storm got me and my driver a bit lost." The butler let him in, and showed him to a grand room where the other guests were waiting in. The butler then announced who everyone was. The woman with a short bob haircut and a beauty mark near her top lip was one Miss Anastasia Hewitt, a famous actress. The balding man with a quite large stomach, wearing a an awful shade of green suit, was Mr. George Wizrad, a well renowned professor. The very large woman who looked like she was in need of a muumuu, while eating most of the snacks set out for the guests, was Mrs. Paula Wizrad. The extremely timid looking man with the glasses was Mr. Henry Broscher. The two young looking children, were Charlotte and Julian Willis, the siblings who had inherited their deceased father's vast fortune. Charlotte was the youngest, and wore quite a frilly dress and was holding an enormous stuffed bunny. Her brother, Julian, had such a stern looking face for one so young. Their mother, Maria Willis, was already quite drunk and being obnoxious to the other guests. And finally, James Weller, Duke of Lutz, very good at samba. After the introductions, the butler excused himself to check on the other staff while the guests mingled amongst themselves.

   Paula nagged her husband George to go make friends with James, because James was a Duke, and you can always have friends of nobility. George decided he could use James and went to go make friends with him. James was talking with the timid man, Henry, and Anastasia when George came over to practically make an ass out of himself. George's mustache twitched, and he gave out a small snort, and while trying to appear to be very accustomed to "the way nobles are", he instead insulted the Duke. James then told George to "go away" in a very rude way. George gave out a huff and went back over to his wife.

   Charlotte and Julian decided to play a duet on the piano to entertain the other guests, but their mother, Maria, drunkenly decided it would be a better idea to start stripping. Anastasia and James had to stop her when they realized what she trying to do, Henry covered they children's eyes, and George and Paula started bellowing about how immoral Maria was and how needs to stop acting so promiscuous. After awhile, the conversations went back to normal, and Maria eventually passed out from being so drunk.

   After about an hour, the guests were called to dinner by the butler, Mr. Westwick. As they sat down to dine, there was an empty chair at the head of the table, where their host was supposed to sit, but their host was in fact not there. Henry asked Mr. Westwick who their host was. Mr. Westwick then replied, "You don't know? Well I wouldn't know either because the staff and I were only hired recently, but I don't think any of us actually met our employer." The guests found this a bit odd, but paid no  mind to it, as their dinner was then placed in front of them. When they had finished their meal, Mr. Westwick came back into the room with a letter in hand and grim facial expression. He read the letter "Good evening my wonderful guests. My name is Charles Mansfield, and I am your host. Welcome to my humble abode. As you can see, I am not dining with you tonight, however, I'm sure tonight will be quite exciting. And I sincerely hope that none of you have had too much to drink, for you see, there was something quite wrong with it. I hope you will enjoy what will happen next though." Everyone turned a bit pale and turned to look at Maria Willis, for she was the only one who had been drinking heavily that night. She was about to say something when she began to foam at the mouth, and started having a seizure of some sort. Charlotte let out a shriek and backed away as her mother slumped over onto her. Henry rushed over to her to check her pulse, for he was a doctor you see. He slowly shook his head and closed her eyes. He said in a small voice "She's dead." Charlotte cried and Julian looked like he wanted to cry, but held it in. The still living guests, the butler, and the rest of the small staff returned to where the guests had been relaxing until very recently.

   George was so angry his head seemed like a ripe tomato. "Our host is a madman! We should call the police at once!" He then proceeded to the telephone, but there wasn't even a dial tone. His face got even redder as he told everyone the phone lines had been cut. Henry suggested that they barricade themselves in the room and that they should be safe. Everyone agreed, and closed off the door and made sure the windows were locked. After 20 minutes the lights went out, and everyone began to panic. Then a pained scream was let out, then everyone went silent. It became so quite that only the heavy pitter patter of the rain could be heard. Anastasia felt a shiver run up her spine as she felt someone brush past her, with something cold and sharp. It left a scratch on her thigh. After a few minutes, the lights came back on, but Paula Wizrad lay in a pool of her own blood. George let out a cry and knelt beside her lifeless body. Julian then noticed the bloody knife used to kill Mrs. Wizrad on a small table with another letter. Though the table was next to Anastasia, so he grew a bit suspicious of her, but then realized that if she was the killer she wouldn't stand next to it, but then again that just might be what she wants them to think. So he told James about the letter. James went over to the table and read the letter aloud: "Why hello again my guests, two of you are now dead, and you all have yet to catch me. I'm a bit disappointed in you. Though I suppose I should at least give you a hint: I'm one of you. I'm in the room right this very second,and I know everyone's dirty little secret. So unless you want me to reveal those secrets about you to the world you better catch me." Everyone then looked at one another with looks of suspicion.

   End of Part 1.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

My guess is Henry.

[Lord Cataplanga]

My guess is Mr. Westwick, of course.

[ThatGreenGentleman]

Part 2

   The storm outside seemed to have only gotten worse. With two people dead, things weren't looking very bright for every one else anyways. Not wanting to worry about tripping over the corpses, they all decided to move the bodies into a vacant sitting room. After moving the bodies, the guests, the butler and the staff then migrated into the grand entrance/hallway. "What do we do now?" Anastasia asked, a bit of panic in her tone. "We figure out who this 'Charles Mansfield' is," James said. He said that, but the guests all recognized the name, someone from their own individual past, though they never actually saw his face. They all had certainly done something to offend him, but they couldn't quite place their fingers on it. After a few minutes, they decided to do a Scooby-Doo: Split up instead of sticking together. The cooking staff split off into pairs, Mr. Westwick went with a maid, James and Henry, Anastasia with Julian and Charlotte, and Mr. Wizrad by himself (trying to look manly now that he was a single man again). They all began to search the house for clues and the killer.

  James and Henry searched the guest bedrooms and what they believed to be Charles Mansfield's room. They found nothing in the guest bedrooms, at least nothing of interest that is. But when they got to Mansfield's room, it looked like it hadn't been used, or as a matter of fact even opened, in quite a few years. There was a portrait of Charles above the fireplace, and they finally thought they'd get to see his face, unfortunately the face on the painting had been ripped off. Henry had a feeling that figuring out what the killer looked like wouldn't be that easy. They rummaged through the drawers of the dresser, ransacked the closet, inspected the private bathroom, but found nothing. Feeling a bit frustrated, James smacked a wall lamp. Much to both James and Henry's surprise, the portrait above the fireplace opened into a secret hallway. Feeling curious and excited that they had finally found something, James climbed up. He helped Henry up and led the way into the secret hallway, with Henry following nervously behind...

  Anastasia and the two children searched the enormous library. Charlotte complained of being tired and wanting mommy, Julian told her to be patient and tried his best to explain that their mother wouldn't be coming back. Anastasia felt a bit suspicious of Julian who didn't seem that heartbroken, especially since she had read an article about some children who have murderous tendencies not that long ago. But then again, he had no motive to kill Mrs. Wizrad, though his mother was a drunk who was not really fit to be a caregiver. She was so engrossed in thought about this that she hadn't noticed the children leaving the room. She snapped out of her thoughts when she heard someone screaming in pain from the basement...

  Mr. Westwick and a maid named Gloria were searching the courtyard with umbrellas in hand and flashlights in the other. Mr. Westwick didn't think the killer would hide in the courtyard, but it was a good idea to search everywhere first, because it was like his dear old mum used to say, "Whenever you're looking for something, always check the most unlikely places first. If it's not there then you were most likely robbed you twit! Now go buy me some cigars." He began to think of his mother and London where he had grown up. He chuckled to himself a bit as he remembered his mother's very man-ish voice and features, when he heard someone screaming from the basement. He looked up to look for Gloria, but she was no where in sight. He figured she had run into the house first, and decided he should go too. If only he had looked for her, because then maybe poor Gloria wouldn't be dead under a bush right now...

  Mr. Wizrad had such bad luck that he had to search the basement. It was so dusty down there that his allergies were acting up. He regretted having gone to search by himself, because he was now ever so paranoid. Every time he heard a scuffling noise he thought it might be the killer, but it was merely just some common household mice that squeaked when he turned to look. He would sigh in relief and laugh a bit at how silly it was for him to get so worked up over nothing. He thought of his wife's untimely death, and missed her, since they had been married for quite a few years now. But he had been lusting after Anastasia since early this evening when she walked in the door. He began to fantasize about Anastasia leaving those little brats and coming down here with him. He heard someone approach from behind and lost a bit in his fantasy, thought it was Anastasia. When he turned around all giggly and smiley, his face turned into horror as he realized who it was. "It was YOU!" George exclaimed. He tried making a dash for the staircase, but with his size he had no stamina or leg power, so he tripped. He met his end at the hand of a butcher and his knife...

  Everyone ran into the basement to find the slaughtered remains of one Mr. George Wizrad, and a note, no doubt that it was left by the killer who was no where in sight. The note read as such: "I have struck once more. I am beginning to wonder just how dull you all are, since you haven't figured it out yet. Perhaps a headcount is in order? Hopefully that will narrow it down for you." The counted who was there, and who wasn't. The cooking staff, Anastasia, and Mr. Westwick were there. The only ones absent from this were James, Henry, Julian, Charlotte, and the maid named Gloria...

END OF PART 2.

[ThatGreenGentleman]

Part 3

I apologize dear audience for taking so long with this one. Hopefully this will be to your liking, and if not then why are even reading it?

  As the group in the basement was deciding on how they would look for the people who were not present, Mr. Westwick placed a cloth of some sort, possibly an old table cloth,  over the remains of one Mr. George Wizrad. Mr. Westwick made sure it was white, because he knew that you're supposed to cover the deceased in white cloth, one of the few things he ever learned from his father who worked at a funeral home. Anastasia was trying to figure out who the killer was, or in this case "Charles Mansfield". It was possible that it could be James Weller or Henry Broscher. She was very suspicious of the children, namely Julian Willis. The kitchen staff, Anastasia and Mr. Westwick worked out a plan to find the other guests and Gloria...

  "How long is this secret hallway anyways?" Henry asked James. The hallway the had found that was hidden above the fireplace was barely wide enough for them to walk side by side, but they knew without having to say it, that the Wizrads were far too big to fit in this space, so it definitely couldn't be them that were behind them murders. They both had a feeling that the killer, or killers, used this path way to get into the parlor room they had been in when Mrs. Wizrad had died, or the killer(s) at least knew of this pathway. There were many intersections, and a few secret staircases that led down to the first floor and possibly the basement. This hallway was also well lit, but it had this eerie feeling to it, that if you weren't focused enough a bogeyman of some sort might jump out at you. They didn't know how long they had been walking, but finally them came to an end that only led up. Henry said they might as well go up, since it was the only they had come across that went up. As they climbed the stairs, they heard a melody begin to play. It sounded like it was coming from a music box, but something sounded wrong with the song. James walked a bit faster, his curiosity over powering his cautiousness, Henry walked faster only to keep up with James. They finally made it to a landing, and they saw one of the most ornate looking doors they would ever see in their life time. It was a sturdy looking door, but it looked delicate at the same time. Upon the door was very elegant writing that said "Celeste". The music box was just on the other side of the door, and possibly the killer. James firmly grabbed the doorknob, and for the first time in his life, he actually hesitated, but only for a moment. He swung the door open, and he and Henry went in and closed the door behind them. The room of "Celeste" looked like a little girl's room that had been out of use much longer than Charles Mansfield's room. Everything in the room was neatly organized, the bed made with a china doll sitting upon it, the closet filled with dresses, the bookshelves filled with children's books, and a small desk that had a dusty picture and diary upon it. Henry picked up the picture and wiped it with his suit sleeve. The picture was in an oval frame, and within that frame was a man in a suit, holding a girl, who looked about 5 or 6, in his arms. Both had smiling faces, the girl was also holding an overly large bunny in her arms. Henry couldn't place it, but the stuffed bunny in the picture looked very familiar. As he was struggling with this, James found the music box on the windowsill. He looked at the music box. It was masterfully crafted, perhaps made of ivory. The windup key was made of gold and as he picked it up to examine it more closely, he saw a plaque that can only be seen if the music box is opened. It said "To my daughter Celeste, I love you with all my heart. -Your father." Now, curious more than ever, James looked on the underside of the music box because that is where you normally can find the name of the music. On the bottom of it, it said "Song: Music Box of Time". James could feel himself getting paler, he knew this song, and it was no coincidence that it was playing when he and Henry found this particular staircase. He was then lost in his memories from his childhood...

  In this flashback, James is ten years old again. This memory is one he had suppressed from long ago. It was summer, the grass was vividly green and the sky a beautifully bright blue, as if it were from a painting. He was riding in a car with his mother, the car was new since it had only created a few years ago. He was bored and didn't want to go to his parents friend's house. He stared out the window, watching the scenery. He burned it into his memory because it was very pretty and knew that he probably wouldn't see anything like this again. His dog, Bucephalus, was asleep at James' feet. Bucephalus was a Great Dane, and James being big on history, named his dog after Alexander the Great's horse. After awhile, the large mansion came into view, and James' head perked up for a moment. It was quite a nice looking mansion, for a summer home that is. He and his mother, and Bucephalus, got out of the car and removed their luggage from the trunk. James knew that this wasn't a vacation, his mother and father were fighting again and saying that they're on "vacation" was just to save face amongst their friends and colleagues. He looked up to see which of his mother's friends they were staying with. It was the Mansfields. The man of the family, Richard Mansfield, his wife, Gertrude Mansfield, and their son who was about the same age as James, was Charles Mansfield.

End of Part 3.