Meme Contribution

This is a meme, so please keep it going.
Awarded to me by PT aka thefrumpyprofessor.
This meme was started by I, Splotchy.
I tag mago Herr magician
Amit L
Quin


Story Title: There Always Has To Be a Start

I, Splotchy's Contribution:

The mall was crowded. There were happy people, angry people, people in a hurry, even a few people sleeping on benches. To the security guard, they were a blur of coats, hats and scarves. He was just beginning his second eight hour shift. He yawned, leaning against a pillar in the food court, the aftertaste of terrible mall cookies lingering on his tongue. His eyes abruptly snapped open with the loud sound of glass shattering behind him.

************

Cormac's Contribution:

The glass landed on the main concourse floor and the strung Christmas lights around the mall made the floor glitter like a field of glittering gems. Out of Hot Topic came a huge tasseled-shod foot and the glass cracked like ice under the foot's immense weight. Above that antiquated shoe was a massive muscular leg, clad in green tights.

The elder Mrs. Hajba knows what this creature is and she screams out its name, yet no one understands her. Mostly because everyone else is too busy screaming, but also because the only person would understand, her daughter Anastasia, is across the mall at T.G. McFunster's...trying to find husband number four, lest her, and her mother be deported.

This being that apparently is unknown to America, stands some sixteen feet tall in bright green and red clothing that would be more suitable to the Renaissance. The brute is muscular and misshapen, with veins that bulge and throb at a preternaturally speed. Its skin is bright white, and its teeth silver and black like tinsel. The eyes of the beast have no pupils or irises to speak of. They could best be described as giant red, opaque Christmas ball ornaments.

Mrs. Hajba summons every brain cell that American TV soaps haven't manged to destroy yet and she yells at the security guard, "It's Ghost of Kreestmass Disappoint-ted!"

************

MrMaCrum's Contribution:

Christmas was especially hectic here at the largest Mall in the Universe. Jenkins had been temporarily transferred over from his normal eight hours of checking doors at the local high school to double shifts here at the mall. On any given day starting in November, as many as 1,ooo,ooo shoppers a day flocked here to drop their credits in one or more of the 3000 shop til you drop stores found inside it's ten story 5000 acre complex. Increased traffic meant more shoplifting, assaults, and an uptick in the usual run of the mill bag thefts and purse snatchings. Jenkins definitely did not consider the quarter an hour raise to be enough compensation for what he had to put up with here. Nodding off sitting on a hard chair at the high school seemed like heaven about now.

"Base. Come in Base."

"Jenkins, that you? What's the problem? Jeezus guy, hold the mic away from your mouth some. I thought we went over that. The feed back is terrible."

"Uh, well okay, gotcha Base. Seems one of those new Tron androids got loose. Looks like the big one in the window display as a matter of fact. He's headed for food court 23."

"Jenkins, that display cannot move. They promised us that it was completely non-functional. Get your shit together and check it out."

"Base, that display maybe is supposed to be inoperative, but I tell you something big has just made a helluva mess from Hot Topic to the big tree display here on floor five. I see some woman up ahead waving at me. Maybe she has a clue. Jenkins out."

"Lady, lady." Jenkins shook the woman on the floor. She turned her head in Jenkins' direction. Panicked shoppers continued streaming by them in the opposite direction of the commotion closing in on food court 23.

"It's Ghost of Kreestmass Disappoint-ted!" That's all she said.

"What's that mean lady? Tell me."

Her eyes suddenly fixed on something over Jenkins shoulder. Jenkins turned........

**********

My (PipeTobacco's) Contribution:

.... and saw the ferocious claws of the mechanical Tron Android reaching towards his neck, and looked briefly into its "face" before he dropped to the floor and attempted to role away in a manner akin to Jackie Chan.

Unfortunately, Jenkins was no Chan, and his roll had more egg in it than those at the mall's Panda Express. A bit battered, he got back on his feet to see the Tron Android grasping and squeezing fervently a Mild Sauce packet he found to the side of Jenkin's burrito combo meal from Taco Bell.

"What the hell?" muttered Jenkins, as he grappled for his mike to call back to base again.

But as he pulled on the cord across his chest to reach the mike, he found the cord was severed. Where the mike was to be, attached to the epaulets of his uniform, was only a ripped piece of his shirt, drenched in blood.

* * * * *

Austere’s contribution:

Jenkins sniffed his red-smeared hand.
Maggi's special masala ketchup. From the Indian store. Whoever'd know! The mechanical Tron Android had a predilection for all things Asian.

Jenkins breathed deeply. No sudden moves, nothing to startle the creature. Possibly he could get away. Either that, or get trod upon, crushed to bits. He should have taken care of that insurance. Now it was too late.

Crunch Crunch. The monster chewed the burrito combo meal including the styrofoam plate to pieces.

"More!" he growled, and brought down the giant chandelier with a flick of his wrist.

The horrified crowd tried to crouch and look inconspicuous. All the shop doors had sealed at the first signs of danger, and all escape routes were blocked by the Iron Android's giant limbs. The wailing siren and blinking lights only angered him.

"More!" he roared again, and grabbed the shining, tinsel-decked Christmas tree, decorations and all, and flung it aside.

The crowd trembled. A few people fainted.
#

here the jasood is in bloom, fresh tender leaves tremble.
that shrub decked with pretty purple flowers
joyous in a peach dawn, it is just is.
someplace the neon nights are endless
somewhere a distant planet wobbled.

Almost 55 words

Cheating 1
“Was… was she very pretty?” He didn’t reply, turned to the other side of the bed instead. ”So when did it begin?” she whispered, tracing a different name in the sweat on his back.

Cheating 2
Click. The last fifty million transferred out to a Cayman Island account. All booked as expense in the main company. Every penny accounted for. Full and final. The phone buzzed. “Sure, send the auditors in. And make it quick. I have a Corporate Excellence Award to go to.”