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Rana wasn’t really keen on trying any more Halloween events after the bat incident at the Fall Festival. But a bookstore near her had decided to hold a storytelling contest, and promised great prizes to the winners. The catch was that it was a team competition, with two people making up a story together as they went. Rana didn’t know anyone to enter with, but fortunately there was the option to just show up and be teamed up with another solo entrant. So since she was never one to turn down a challenge of any kind, Rana decided to go enter.

She showed up at the bookstore at the date and time of the contest, and signed in as a solo entrant. While she waited to be matched up with another entrant, she sat in one of the chairs they’d set up for the event and reviewed the rules: stories had to start with the phrase “It was a dark and stormy night.” Entrants took turns making up part of the story, with no limit to how long or short each part was. Judges would grade on quality of story and how spooky it was.

Sounded straightforward. Rana looked around the shop, wondering who she’d be working with.

Samantha Whele was a good student, and loved to read and write in her free time, but was a little shy about sharing those hobbies with others. She happened to be in the book store when the contest was starting, though she had not intending on joining in. There did not seem to be a lot of entries though, and the teams were scattered.

She looked at someone who seemed to not have a partner, taking her breath and moving over to wave her hand in greeting.

“Hello… are you here for the contest?”

She was almost hoping to be wrong, and have an excuse to chicken out of being social. She was trying to branch out a bit more, and couldn’t let her shy nature get the better of her this time. Being a senshi had helped with that so far, but unfortunately… it did not seem to translate to her day to day as easily as she was letting herself think. She took a breath, offering a small, red faced smile.

“I’m not really sure how it works but, uhm. I think it sounds like fun…”

Rana didn’t recognize anyone in the store, so she didn’t try talking to anyone to see if they had a partner. Fortunately, someone else decided to take the initiative. She looked up at the young woman who approached her and waved back.

“Yup, I’m signed up for it. I didn’t come with anyone though, so I’m waiting for the staff to pair me up with someone,” she answered. Since the woman had said she wasn’t sure how it worked, Rana decided to explain. “It’s a team contest; two people enter together and make up a story together, taking turns.”

She hadn’t remembered seeing the other woman come in with anyone, and if she didn’t know much about the contest, she probably wasn’t entering with anyone. Rana didn’t really have a preference who she signed up with, so she offered, “Do you need a partner? I’d asked to be paired up with anyone who’s free, but we can ask if I can sign up with you, instead.”

Samantha looked a little embarrassed, nodding her head.

“I’m sorry, it’s a little last minute, isn’t it? I should have read the rules! I knew it was a contest, but I haven’t signed up yet. I just… I was in the fiction section when things started getting excited in here. But it sounds fun! I’d love to enter with you!” She smiled, brighter this time, and finally spotted the desk for sign ups.

“Oh, right, over there. We can sign up as a team! I mean. I know you just suggested that. That’s a good… suggestion… was all I meant. Let’s… uhm. Do that.” One day, she would learn how to hang out with other people and not be uncomfortable and weird, but that day was clearly not today. She was friendly, though, even if she was shy, and she was not getting any bad vibes from her new companion.

Signing up was easy enough, the crew lenient and glad to be saved the trouble of having to pair them up themselves. So at least there was that!

Rana raised her eyebrows a bit as the other woman rambled. She hoped her new teammate was a better storyteller than she was a conversationalist. But she just nodded as the woman got signed up. Once that was done she figured they should probably know each other’s names. “So, nice to be working with you, then. I’m Alerana Ikaros, but most people call me Rana,” she said. “I know we don’t have much time before the contest starts, but do you want to try and plan what kind of story we’ll tell? Pretty much all we have to work with is the opening phrase and to make it spooky.”

Actually...Rana didn’t know too much about storytelling, really. But everyone made up stories all the time, right? It was practically human nature. She was sure she’d be able to figure something out.

“My name is Samantha Whele, it’s a pleasure!” she offered her hand and gave the other a gentle touch before she bashfully tugged her arms to her, shrugging her shoulders girlishly. She chuckled, surprised by her name. “That is a really pretty name! I wish mine sounded a bit more… well. Romantic, I guess. Interesting. Most people just call me Sam.”

Which was, as she had learned growing up, and a number of times when people kept teasing her about it in every new class, a boy’s name. It was funny how easy the insult was when someone wanted to be mean about it, yet how many people liked the name when they were being nice. She always wondered if it had nothing to do with her name at all, but just people’s personalities.

“Creepy, hm? Well, I suppose dark and stormy nights are inherently creepy. But what if we take it in a different direction? Say, maybe… ‘it was a dark and stormy night… somewhere else, but not here’. Then have our story take place somewhere… nice? But then things go… wrong. You know, like a horror story might.”

She rubbed the back of her neck, smiling and finding she was already getting into the game. There was a table for them to sit at, and paper and pens provided for note taking.

Rana just nodded and said “Nice to meet you” at Sam’s name. Sure it was usually a boy’s name, but that was hardly unusual. She’d met other people who had nicknames that sounded like the opposite gender. It was only weird if you wanted it to be.

Rana was skeptical at the beginning of Sam’s suggestion. Having the spooky setting elsewhere sounded counter to the whole premise of the contest. But as she continued her suggestion, Rana saw the possibilities. “Oh yeah, that’s clever. I bet nobody else would think of that,” she said, nodding in agreement. “Let’s see, where should the story take place, then? Probably nothing too saccharine, that would get a bit tacky.”

She considered possible settings, thinking aloud. “It probably shouldn’t be nice for too long either, or the judges might get bored and wondering where we’re going with it...Maybe a school? A perfectly typical school day could go any number of ways...or we could go the route of campfire spooky stories and have it set in a place similar to the one we’re telling the story in, namely an old bookstore. Leave the exact setting a little vague and imply that it could even have taken place here. That tends to be chilling, right?” she offered with a grin.

Samantha tried to think of something unique, though it was surprisingly hard to come up with a story on the fly. Being able to talk about it with someone else was a lot of fun, and an experience she had never really had before. It seemed like working with others was something she had missed out on during her informative years, and was probably a lot more fun than she had ever really considered before… maybe she should not have spent all her group projects requesting her teachers let her do the assignment alone…

Live and learn.

“The bookstore idea would be fun! We could really spook the people here, anyway, getting them into the setting and thinking something nasty might be creeping in the books. Like an infestation of some horrible monster book worm, inside the books, or uhm. A ghost that haunts a certain section, or… just a malevolent poltergeist that attacks on Halloween, or…” she paused, feeling goofy for getting so wrapped up in all the plotting. It was just a blast, and she was getting excited.

“Or maybe the books are records of souls trapped inside them? Like some of the books, but it’s not clear which ones, are cursed, and if you happen to pick it up, your story replaces the one inside, and you with it?”

Rana was getting into this, too. She wouldn’t have considered herself much of a creative person, but it didn’t seem to hard to come up with ideas. She was glad they had a short time to plan though, because she wasn’t sure she’d have been able to come up with anything unique on the spot. A glance at the clock showed they were getting close to the start time though, so they needed to finish getting down at least the outline of their story.

“Oh, I like the cursed book idea!” she said. “That one sounds the most unique. Maybe by the end of the story, most of the cursed books are destroyed or un-cursed or something, but a few were somehow missed, or scattered to other bookstores. So whenever you pick up an old book, you never know if it’s perfectly safe, or if your soul will get trapped inside.”

She tried to think of more details to fill out the story, maybe about how the books are neutralized, but the staff called everyone to gather together. “Looks like our planning time is up,” Rana commented as she started to head over. “Let’s knock their socks off!”

Sam liked the idea of the cursed books, as well, though she had just been spewing ideas out and not really tying herself to any of them. This one stuck now that she was thinking about it a bit more, and she liked it a lot. Maybe it would be worth writing down later, or maybe her new friend would want to write it with her for real. Though, she was also not sure they had known each other long enough for her to call the other girl a friend yet… she did not want to push things.

She was still figuring out the whole ‘make friends’ and ‘hang out’ thing. It was a side of life that had been missing from her childhood. Mostly because she was too shy to try it out.

“I think that’s a good touch, because it leaves them double guessing this bookstore, too. Which was what I was thinking, too! That really ties in the whole idea from before, too, of making it scary for right now. Ha! I think this is a great story! You have a really great imagination!  I uhm. I’m not the best at speaking in front of people, unless it’s for school.”

This was not. This was a presentation, like a performance. Like acting. She was definitely not an actor. Her nerves flared up immediately, but she would do her damned best now, because she did not want to let Rana down.

As the pair went to sit down and wait for their turn to tell their tale, Rana could see Sam was feeling nervous. She had seemed alright when they were just chatting and planning, but she remembered how awkward and ramble-y Sam had been when she was trying to introduce herself. Rana might not know much about storytelling, but that would definitely not make for a good story. She tried to think of a way to help Sam calm down.

As they were called up to tell their story, she quietly suggested, “Try this: don’t focus on the other people in here, just me. We’re not telling them a story, we’re still tossing ideas out and making it up together, just like before.” She’d seemed calm and excited them; if she could bring that attitude to the story, they should be in good shape.

Rana didn’t mind being up in front of an audience, and the group in the bookstore was a rather small one. She stood up in front of the group, flashed the people a smile, and began: “It was a dark and stormy night…”