Wordsmithing: ENCOUNTERS History Channel

Sunday, 20 March 2011

ENCOUNTERS The Rendlesham Forest Case HISTORY CHANNEL 100 WORD STORY

"Bud Steffans was the first to spot this UFO. On his suggestion he has picked up Burroughs and is driving through the forest when he sees the thing on the ground flashing multi-coloured lights. It is already on the ground. Therefore there is no way of knowing whether it has landed or crashed - or indeed whether it has ever been airbourne. Yet when Penniston is interrogating Steffans, moments later, Steffans says, 'Nothing crashed, it landed.' How could he know? How could he possibly know?"

raggedmoorlander

TAKEN IN THE GUARD HUT

The Sargent’s face became mottled purple. “Out!”

“On Christmas Eve?”

“This isn’t a menagerie!”

Head awash with watery aromas and fear – my five year-old would hate me – I wrapped my arms around the bowl. “Sonny's Christmas present... I promised him –”

Multi-coloured lights rippled a scary Christmas. The hut shuddered. The goldfish bowl teetered near the bench’s edge. The air chilled. We crashed to our knees. White noise and high-pitched tones paralysed us. X-ray blue light illuminated too much of Sarge – inside and out.

It stopped. Yellow lights flickered on.

“What the –?! Sarge?”

“UFO?”

“I’m fucked!”
The goldfish had been taken.

RETURN: YA Paranormal Romance

I was running late. But, it was nothing I couldn’t make up with a bit of effort. I shook my head. Confident and happy? I smiled. Increasing my stride, I pushed until the muscles in my legs burned. I kept up the pace even when the hill grew steeper.

Magpie Lane was hardly wider than a ribbon that edged the woods but that didn’t stop traffic using it to get to the motorway quicker. Large trucks and fast cars loved Magpie Lane. They sent vibrations running through me rising from the soles of my trainers. I felt the disturbance in the ground, even before the air pressure tried to knock me off balance. I hunched my shoulders as the cab hauling a container spat stones up at me.

Jogging on the spot, at the entrance to woodland, I ached to leave the road and go inside. My Mum was probably still asleep but I could hear her you-never-know-what might-be-in-there lecture buzzing on repeat inside my head. I should run safe. Not even I would argue that running through the woods on my own was the best definition of safe but I wanted to run-wild and the woodland offered me that. This early, I should be safe from axe murderers or perverts in the trees and besides, I was fast.

I jogged down the slope into the trees. From two paces in, I felt different. Freer. It felt so right. Running in the woods did great things for my style. Avoiding the roots and dodging branches forced my stride longer, I had to step higher. The woodland, The Weald, was only a sliver of ancient woodland that the developers forgot to build on but it felt like it could have been anywhere. Everywhere. At any time. The oaks and beech trees dominated the space and the skinny, silver-birches squeezed up beside them. I laughed. For a second, the woods reminded me of school and I needed to run a lot faster.

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Sunday, 20 March 2011

ENCOUNTERS The Rendlesham Forest Case HISTORY CHANNEL 100 WORD STORY