My version of Ray Bradbury's The Whole Town's Sleeping. All characters are Ray Bradbury's (and I don't wish they were mine).
I wasn't sure what to rate it, so, just to be safe, I put teen.
Impossible! He didn't follow me back! He was ahead of me this whole time! Oh no, no! The safe place to be, home, locked up well and tight! And here I am trapped in here with the Lonely One! Oh, what a fool I am, what a fool!
Lavinia Nebbs shrieked, and ran involuntarily back to her door, scratching at the locks which she longed to open again. The figure from her black living room walked towards the very door she had just been standing next to, and flipped the light switch on. Lavinia examined the figure before her; it was strange to find such a familiar friend before her very own eyes.
"Oh, no!" Lavinia shrieked. "It was just you, Francine!"
"Oh, Lavinia!" Francine replied. "What a fool you are, what a fool!" Francine's teary eyes observed the lovely Lavinia wearily. Even when she was frightened and falling to pieces, she was still the most beautiful maiden in town.
"Well, how, now, how did you get into my house! It was locked up nice and tight!"
"The window, Lavinia, the window! You left it wide open when we left this afternoon."
"Well, I never even thought of that! To think you could have very well been the Lonely One! Come, Francine, you shouldn't have to walk back so late, now. You'd be terrified! I can just see it now: 'Maiden dead from fright!' Let's sit down and talk."
"Yes, Lavinia! Let's talk, of many things."
The two maidens placed themselves comfortably in Lavinia's living room, which was now brightly lit like the bonfires from summer celebrations.
"Well, it's settled then! I can't wait for tomorrow, Francine," Lavinia finished off the conversation that entailed the details of their picnic.
"Oh, Lavinia! You are the prettiest maiden in town. I-I just can't help but confess to you: I am so very jealous of you!"
"Francine! Don't be so strange! You've been acting up all night."
"Well, Lavinia; I haven't been acting at all strange. Or if I have acted strange to you, then perhaps you don't know me very well at all."
"Don't be ridiculous! I know you better than I know myself!"
"I see! Well then, if you know me better than yourself, then what am I about to do now? And what are you going to about it?"
The lights flickered uncomfortably.
This is odd! Francine's heart is like stone, and I just can't figure it out.
"Well, Lavinia; I am about to say something that may just frighten you to death. Here it is: I crept into this town quietly so no one would notice that I truly came into this town to poison all the young maidens with my fangs. And, Lavinia, you are the biggest target of mine! You are the prettiest of maidens. You are the smartest of maidens. And once you're gone, it will be I!"
Lavina jumped out of her seat like a spring and rushed backwards, "No! You can't be telling me, Francine, that you are the Lonely One?"
"Oh don't be so reluctant to believe this! You know, admiration is the furthest thing from understanding? Damn, Lavinia, damn you! I don't want to have to do this, but I will. And I will be the prettiest maiden in town. As soon as that happens, everything else I demand will be owned by me and those who did the dirty work for me!"
Francine ripped her belt off and ran after Lavinia, who ran after a pause of disbelief. She ran to the door, scratching at the bolts, locks, and chains that locked her tightly in her safe, safe haven. The best place to be; safeness from the Lonely One. She shrieked, then screamed, and screamed again, again.
Oh, what do I do now? Maybe this racket will wake the neighbors. The neighbors in their comfortable beds, sleeping beneath the blankets, protecting them from the Lonely One. Lavinia tried the window; however, it was stuck between the weight and swelling from humidity. Lavinia ran like the wind, trying to stay out of reach of Francine. Francine leaped with laughter into Lavinia, and whipped her down, then began to tie her belt around Lavinia's neck.
"Oh, you were a fool, Lavinia! And now they'll find you in the ravine! I'll even turn Officer Kennedy in for this; everyone will believe it, and I shall be the prettiest maiden," Francine cried with distress.
"No, no!" Lavinia screamed. She heard a loud beating noise, and cried out again, hoping that the beating sound was the footsteps of someone coming to help her.
Francine quickly noticed flash of movement in front of her.
What? What was that? Has someone caught me? Look! No, don't look! They'll recognize you! Just hurry, hurry, finish and leave! Run home, no one will know, now! It's too late to catch me now!
Francine looked up, and found the familiar and harrowed faces of her victims, each staring into their own window, upon the scene of duplicity and vengeance. Francine's heart sped up and began pounding so loud, that she had to scream louder, louder, longer and longer to hear her own voice over the sound and the voice of Lavinia, also shrieking as the belt tied tighter around her neck.
Dawn brought dismal colors across the sky, as well as the cold, unwelcome temperature of the beginning of autumn. The police were lined up around Lavinia Nebb's house, as well as crowds of her neighbors and friends.
Helen stood among the crowd, crying in disbelief. Whispers surrounded her, "He strangled two maidens now!" and "He's escaped again! The Lonely One is mysteriously gone! Do you think he'll come back again?"
She gripped the newspaper that brought her here in her hand. She gazed upon the smudged titles on the front page.
Oh, she said she'd be fine! And she said we'd have a picnic today; well, just look at the weather! How appropriate...
Nearby, pigeons fountained into the air, flapping their page-like wings over to a roof of a near-by house. Here, they settled upon the roof; they too were heartbroken by the truth of the story that died with the two maidens. They pecked at a newspaper, thrown too far by the juvenile paper deliverer.
They also seemed to understand the irony of the title, something the others would never understand either. Here, on one title at the bottom of the page, it read 'Lonely One strikes another maiden.' On the top of the page, the biggest title read: 'Maiden dead from fright!'