The Making of 'The Manor'

Samuel Barnes sat on a chair behind one of the many cameras and smiled what he could see through the lense. As far as he was concerned, he was making horror movie magic. He'd invited Britain's top actors to star in his latest production: The Manor. It had been based off of an unpublished short story that his grandfather, Jonathan Barnes-Wallace, had written twenty years ago, about a group of travellers who stay at a manor for the night and get bumped off one by one. Like Agatha Christie, but more murder and less mystery.
"And, action!" he yelled, pleased with the shot. He watched as the scene that he had written took place, before noticing something. What was that starfish doing on set? This wasn't some silly sci-fi movie. This was a full-on horror that would beat The Conjuring at the box office by a country mile.
"And cut!" he yelled, before stepping out of his chair and asking, "Can someone get that starfish removed please? I don't want it here and I don't need it here. Thank you."

Sarah Wilkinson decided to try and remove the starfish that had snuck its way onto the set. She had been part of the prosthetics and make-up team on The Manor ever since it had begun filming and naturally she knew that there had been a mismatch of props. She could tell. Her mother called it 'your unique talent, darling'.
"You're a big one, aren't you?" she said, thinking that the large, green starfish was, admittedly, a bit cute. That was before she saw the massive eye at the centre of the starfish open and glance around, as if in amazement.
"What the hell?" she exclaimed, turning round and yelling, "Sam, you'd better see this!"
Before Sam could get to her though, a long, thick tentacle began to rise up from the starfish and cocoon her. Sarah felt as if she was being transformed, converted even, into something inhuman. After a few seconds, the cocoon dissipated, revealing what Sarah had become: she had become a green, featureless, hairless humanoid, with a large eye in her chest, like the starfish.

Sam eventually noticed the tall green humanoid stood by the starfish and thought that it was just an extra from the new Alien movie.
"Excuse me!" he called over to it, "This isn't your set. I think Alien: Resurgence is two doors down."
The tall green humanoid turned round and advanced towards him, arms outstretched. The eyeball in its stomach was staring at Sam, making him feel absolutely afraid. Tendrils had begun growing from the humanoid's arms, back, head and legs and cocooning members of the camera crew, turning them into similarly horrifying creatures.
Sam turned and ran for his life.

He decided to hide in an old wooden wardrobe that he'd bought from a charity shop a few days ago. What the hell was that strange starfish and what the hell was that strange green person with the eyeball in its stomach?
That didn't matter. He'd just call the police. Or the army. Or even Torchwood. They'd sort this out. Hopefully.
Thump.
He heard a knock to his left. That must be the strange green zombie. He fumbled through his pockets and realised that he'd left his phone on the set. All he had were a packet of wine gums, his oyster card and a pen.
Thump.
That knock came from his right. That green zombie must be fast. Well, it now had several members of the camera crew at its disposal, so presumably they were all
crowding round him.
The knocking then stopped. Sam breathed a sigh of relief.

What he didn't realise, however, was that the green zombies outside were becoming a thick, green liquid and covering the wardrobe. The intermolecular energy from both the wardrobe and Sam was being harvested by the fluid.
In a matter of moments, the wardrobe and Sam were dust. The fluid had reformed into several smaller green starfish, all with eyes at their centres, and there was no hope left at all.

THE END