Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 52nd cycle. Now cycle 53!
THIRD ANNIVERSARY CYCLE: It's late October again, and within this cycle I will be completing my third year of daily gleekathon stories and commencing a fourth! As in previous years, this means special things happening. I've selected my favorite stories from throughout the year, and I'll be treating them to something special. In previous years this included Prequel, Sequel, and POV Swap, and then Additional Scenes and Alternate Endings. This year I'm adding two new treatments: Genre Swap (I think that's pretty straightforward) and Element Change (I change one thing in the story, see how it affects the rest). Note that in both these cases and some of the others, there may excerpts directly transferred from the story it references. Also, since this year saw the addition of 'shift days', and since I suck at picking, I have selected 42 stories, to be treated two per day! So here we go!
This story is Additional Scenes to Let Me Tell You A Story, a New Directions story, originally posted from July 5 to 18 2012.
This is a double shift day. There will be one more upload today: I'd Call It Our Miracle.
"Flashlight Story"
Brittany & New Directions
(relating in particular to chapter 10 of LMTYAS)
(A/N: It might read like a POV swap, but it's additional scenes, I swear ;))
Rachel looked around to the others, who just shrugged, figuring they'd find out what the story was about soon enough, especially as Brittany's face shifted all of a sudden, looking almost dangerous… none more than her voice… it came off scratchy and sweet and slyly menacing. If they couldn't see her, they would have thought it was someone else. "It's a dark and rainy night…"
The first one to show any sort of fear, even when the story had yet to give her any real reason to apart from the anticipation of it, was Sugar, and they could all see her bringing her knees in, hugging them close to herself with her head propped up and ready to be hidden if need be. Her face was trembling and yet she looked anxious for what was coming, whatever it was.
Most of them were listening quietly, mostly disturbed by the visual put before them, as Brittany gave her very convincing devilish performance. For the three who were serving as her 'models' for characters along with her, Santana, Rachel, and Quinn, it was a different experience, just as it had been for any of them when they would be chosen as reference, their likenesses and names borrowed for whatever the storyteller might need, for better or for worse.
"Well we're fighting, sounds about right so far," Santana mumbled, and she could see Rachel's head snap to her from out of the corner of her eye.
When Brittany announced that the girls' car had broken down, there was a collective sort of regrouping, as everyone pulled in just a bit, waiting to see what would happen next. Then with no cell service, Sugar started shaking her head in anticipation.
"Don't go to the house, don't go to the house…" she started mumbling, and Mike at her side tried to comfort her, putting a hand to her shoulder, but she flinched and he pulled back, looking to Tina at his side with a shrug. She just frowned and leaned to rest against him, so he put his arm around her.
"Well that's it then, they're dead," Artie shook his head, getting some chuckles from those sitting around him, and some frowns from the three character-inspiring girls.
The anxiety increased as Brittany's voice marked a shift, revealing the door was locked and the lights had gone out. Every time Brittany would mention one of their names, Santana, Rachel, and Quinn would look up in reflex. Each attempt made to break this apparently unbreakable window was punctuated with motions from their storyteller, so swift that it made her audience jump every time. They hadn't realized how much they were getting into it until Brittany mentioned the girls splitting up and there was a chorus of immediate pleas.
"Don't do it!" Sugar would say.
"Stay together!" Rachel shook her head.
"Don't do that, that's how they'll get you!" Artie shook his head as well.
"Don't split up!" most of them would cry out. All of it coming together had made Brittany lose her current for a moment, smiling to herself, but then she'd gotten back on track. And when they did let go of one another, there was a collective groan.
Now as the story followed the Brittany character on her own, part of their thoughts were with her, while another was with the other girls, wondering what they were doing, where they had gotten off to. But eventually they would forget about them, focusing on Brittany alone, both the character and the storyteller versions of her. When she found herself in the dirt tunnel, there was a certain sense of foreboding, like she was being led into a trap. Brittany's arms were tracing her progress, and they all followed it. When she went up, even before she said it, they knew: she was going to end up back in the house. They sighed, knowing she wasn't free yet.
The discovery of the basement door caused the second eruption of 'advice,' the listeners assuring her that she shouldn't go down there. But she did go, and when 'Brittany' fell down the stairs, Brittany the storyteller's voice took a new edge, like she would accentuate the presence of the deafening music. The consequent fall brought them all closer once again, as Brittany accompanied her story with more and more movements, illustrating the way her namesake responded to her surroundings. She punctuated the ankle grab by taking hold of Santana's ankle at her side, causing a surprising shriek from the girl, who still did her best to recover like nothing had happened.
As the attacks on the story's Brittany increased and she would lash out, the reactions from around her varied from quivering, to shrieking, to encouragement, so that when Brittany the storyteller suddenly stopped, it took a few seconds for everyone to pull back, give her back the floor. Several of them were out of breath. Sugar had grabbed on to Artie and had yet to let him go, and the same could be said of a few more of them. And now the terror took a new turn, as the truth of what had happened in the darkness of that basement was revealed. The three others whose names and likenesses had been used were left to shiver at the image presented. With the story drawing to a close, they all had stopped moving, just listening. It would take some time before they got around to regaining their seats, even then still slightly on edge in dealing with one another.
After Finn had taken up the next story and begun telling it, Brittany had to turn to Santana at her side. "Sorry I killed you," she leaned to whisper, and Santana smirked.
"Don't worry about it," she promised.
"So I did good?"
"Oh, yeah," Santana looked back to the others, especially Sugar, who still looked bugged out from the story, even though they had moved on to the next.
"Throat kind of hurts now," was Brittany's one complaint, rubbing at her neck.
THE END
A/N: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.
In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are
always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!