All right, I am aware this isn't Halloween, but I wanted to do another one of these and figured, hey, maybe I can make this a bi-yearly thing! So here comes the prologue for yet another "Fireplace Scary Tales"! Anyway, enjoy!
It had been at least one week since Arnold and Gerald had invited all the kids in the neighborhood in the backyard to tell scary stories. Ever since he, Gerald and Helga (through random selection) had told their scary stories, all the kids were trying to figure out new stories to tell, really excited to tell the tales. While there were some ideas that got stuck with the kids, the kids who didn't think up any ideas decided they'd improvise as the stories went along. And thus...
When next Friday came around, almost all the students of the PS 118 fourth grade sat down and got comfortable as Helga, as per usual, was the last one inside.
"All right, scoot over!" Helga ordered as Phoebe scooted over a bit as Helga sat down. "Let's hope whatever stories you guys can come up with scare the living heck out of us!"
"Be patient, Helga. We still have to wait for Arnold to start us off." Phoebe smiled.
"Oh man, I can't wait for my turn!" Harold said, shuffling his hands. "I got a really good story that I want to tell!"
"Same!" Sid smiled. "I just hope Arnold has me randomly selected!"
"Please, if anything, my name has the most likely to appear." Rhonda said, looking at the mirror.
"You have a story?" Nadine asked in surprise.
"Not yet, but I'll think of something." Rhonda said, looking down.
"You know, where is that little football head anyway?" Helga said, looking around. "You'd think he'd be on time for this sort of thing..."
All of a sudden, the lights around the boarding house went off as Helga turned, expecting Arnold to suddenly appear next to her. Much to everyone's surprise, as the fire lit up, this time, Arnold's head, appeared, which looked like it was bleeding. Everyone screamed bloody murder.
"OH GOD! HE'S DEAD!" Lila screeched, holding Lorenzo for her dear life.
"Greetings..." Arnold moaned... as he popped up and sat down between Lorenzo and Tucker, making everyone stare in disbelief. "...and welcome, everybody."
"Jesus, Arnold, you gave us all heart attacks!" Sheena frowned.
"Yeah, we thought you got beheaded!" Eugene complained.
"Don't worry." Arnold smiled as he dipped his fingers on his still attached neck, taking the red stuff up. "It's just regular hot sauce. Grandma's idea."
"Yeah..." Gerald said, sitting down with them, holding the hat.
"...Okay, so I see we got some new fourth graders here... so I'll catch you up on the rules, in case you either weren't paying attention or just weren't there." Arnold said.
"Yeah, I heard about this whole 'Scary Story Telling' at your house thing and got curious." Tucker said.
"Well, glad to see you're curious. Now, the rules. Every Friday night of every week, I will select three people at random from the hat Gerald is holding and whoever is selected, must tell a scary story! There is a limit to how scary you can make it, you can do downright horror, science fiction, whatever, just have the story as a bit of a 'horror' edge." Arnold explained.
"Sounds fair, amigo." Lorenzo nodded.
"All right, I hope you either have a story ready, or if I select your name and you didn't have a story prepared, then... make up a good one as long as it's horror based." Arnold said as Gerald shook the hat up and down. "All right, let's select our first player..."
Arnold then put his hand in the papers and pulled out a name. "Our first storyteller tonight is... Phoebe Heyerdahl."
Phoebe giggled. "I thought this might happen, so I thought up a good story!"
Everyone turned to Phoebe as Helga raised an eyebrow, asking, "You have my interest..."
"Very well... though this is more of a science fiction story, you'll see what the 'horrors' are as we go along... but don't worry... we have all the 'time' in the world." Phoebe smirked.
"A time travel story..." Rhonda sighed as everyone listened closely towards Phoebe. "...why am I not surprised?"
And that's the prologue for this story! How did you like it? Yes, I am aware that, once again, this prologue is pretty short, but as we go along, the stories will become longer than usual. So, hopefully, you all have an eye on this story in interest. Like I said, I wanted to do another 'Fireplace Scary Tales', and even though it's not the right season for scary tales... I figured... spring and summer, good time for camping, and camping equals scary tales, so... screw it, let's do another one! Next chapter will be Phoebe's story! Anyway, read, review, criticize and suggest, folks!