The following story is our entry for the 2014 Halloween Contest. My wife and I created the plot together and veered it into two distinct sexual encounters, which we wrote separately. Thank you in advance for taking the time to read, rate, comment!
Incident on a Mountain Road
"Slow down, Heath, it's just a Halloween party. It's not worth dying over," Megan said to her boyfriend who was swerving up some of the steepest and mountain roads she had ever seen, and doing it well over the speed limit in their humorously tiny rental car.
"Why did you reserve the economy?" Heath shot back. "We'll be lucky to get up to Virginia City at all with this little putter."
"This little putter is cheaper and better for the environment," Megan explained. "Do you have any idea how expensive it is to rent a car when you're under 25? How about you do the travel planning next time? You never seem to have a budget and you're always full of opinions."
Megan took a deep breath. She knew, going into it, that this trip would be a "make or break" for their three-month relationship and, only a few hours after checking in to their hotel in Reno, it was leaning towards "break."
"I'm sorry," Heath replied sincerely. "The party goes all night, but ghost tour starts right at sundown. I don't want to be late."
Megan was hopelessly attracted to Heath, despite his failings. As the star lacrosse player at their University back in Massachusetts, he was quite the eligible bachelor when she met him. He could have any girl that he wanted with his perfect body, sandy blonde hair, and, of course, his money. She knew that his family's connections was the likely reason that they were attending the same school, as it certainly wasn't on account of his hard work and good grades.
After several years of debaucherous college Halloween parties, and the endless parades of tempting and available females that came with them, Megan felt that a weekend trip might be a better choice for her new relationship. Luckily for her, Heath was more than happy to travel and just so happened to enjoy those ghost hunting shows on tv. Virginia City, Nevada was an easy sell.
"What the hell are those?" Heath wondered out loud, referring to the small brown objects that seemed to be scurrying across the road. Megan had a sneaking suspicion. She quickly dug her phone out of the cupholder to do some research.
"Oh my god, I think they're tarantulas! Did you hear me?! Tarantulas!" she repeated in horror. She was deathly afraid of spiders.
"Well, no worries. At least we're in the car," Heath assured her as he squealed around another tight corner, revealing an incredible view of the valley below and the orange and pink glow of the setting sun against the mountains.
As Megan continued to read through a questionable source titled "10 Scary Facts About Tarantulas" against her better judgement, Heath scrunched his eyes with curiosity at an approaching stagecoach.
"What the fuck?" he blurted as the horse-drawn vessel came into full view.
The horses were massive and jet black in color, galloping thunderously against the concrete. The driver wore a large black cowboy hat and a bandana over the lower have of his face. The driver's eyes glowed with a surreal red intensity, momentarily hypnotizing Heath and nearly causing him to piss himself in terror as he observed what looked like rotting flesh on the driver's forehead.
"Stop!!!" Megan screamed as he failed to follow the oncoming curve, pointing their little eco-car right towards the approaching cliff at full speed. She reached for the wheel to try and avert their doom and Heath slammed on the brakes, skidding the car sideways through the dirt on its way to the edge of the cliff.
Megan blacked out for a few seconds and quickly came to. She peered out her window at the valley floor. The car slowly tilted to her side and she watched the impending plummet, paralyzed with fear. Her adrenaline suddenly kicked in and she unbuckled both of their seat belts and hopped on to Heath's lap, momentarily balancing the car as it teetered on the edge.
She opened the driver-side door and clung to Heath's wrists with all of her strength as she lept out of the car and pulled him with her. Their bodies hit hard against the shoulder of the road, kicking up a cloud of dirt. She turned to watch helplessly as their rental car took a final tilt and fell off of the edge of the cliff.
Several suspenseful seconds of dead silence passed before the deafening crash could be heard across the valley. The sound of the car colliding with the valley floor snapped Heath out of his daze. He hopped up and ran over to the edge of the cliff to have a look, leaving Megan lying on the ground behind him.
"Holy shit! Well, I hated that car anyway. I was kind of hoping it would explode. Aren't they supposed to explode?"
Megan looked up with rage as she dusted herself off and ran over to him, half tempted to send him flying over the cliff as well. She settled on a nice hard smack to the face.
"Are you crazy?! You almost killed us!"
"Whoa, calm down," Heath begged as he stumbled at the edge, narrowly getting his foothold. "Didn't you see that stagecoach?"
"What stagecoach?!"
"It was a big fucking stagecoach! With black horses and a zombie driver! I honestly don't remember what happened after I saw it. I'm just standing here at the edge of a cliff and getting slapped."
He looked back at Megan apologetically, an expression he frequently relied on with her. Her intensity is what attracted him to her in the first place, but he found himself enjoying the "challenge" less and less and fantasizing about the more subservient girls that anxiously waited for a chance with him back home.
"Okay, I'm calm now. Will you please get away from the edge?" Megan requested as she regained her composure and pulled him back towards the road. "Do you have your phone?"
"Nope. Mine was charging in the car."
"Shit, mine was in the cupholder. Everything else was in my purse, we're out here with nothing," Megan said as she pondered their next move. "Okay, we'll just wait for the next car to come along."
"Fuck that! More like the next stagecoach. Trust me, you don't want to be standing here if that thing comes back."
"It's Halloween," Megan reminded him. "I'm sure the driver was wearing a mask. They take the holiday very seriously- it's a haunted mining town after all and it is supposed to be fun. Isn't that why we flew out here?"
"Yeah, I guess," Heath replied, suddenly feeling a little silly about his fear of the stage coach. He scanned the edge of the cliff with puzzlement at the fact that there was no guard rail, even though he could have sworn that he saw a hundred of them, placed at every tight curve throughout the drive. A large house caught his eye and it was only a short hike up the road. "I don't see any cars coming. Let's head up to that house."
"I'm not going up to some weird old house and knocking on the door. Isn't that how horror movies start?"
"Come on, Megan. They probably have trick-r-treaters coming tonight. Hell, we
are
trick-r-treaters," he said as he pointed to his red and black striped "Freddy Krueger" costume, now not much of a costume with the hat, mask, and knife-glove accessories sitting at the bottom of a canyon.
Megan suddenly remembered her matching costume with embarrassment. She was "Sexy Freddy Krueger," which seemed like such a hilarious choice at the time. Her incredibly short and artfully tattered one-piece dress was also red and black striped and showed off her legs and knee-high boots.
"We should go now, it's getting dark," Heath pleaded. He suddenly widened his eyes and approached Megan carefully, causing her to look back at him with concern.
"What? What is it?!"
"Just stay completely still," Heath instructed calmly as he continued to step towards her, ever so slowly. "I mean it. Don't move."
Megan turned her head and opened her mouth in terror as she eyed the large tarantula that was making its way up her denim jacket sleeve. It clung to her with its hairy brown legs and scrambled towards her shoulder, rearing fangs. Megan's blood-curdling scream echoed through the mountains as she scrambled to tear off the jacket. She sent it flying towards the road and ran frantically towards the house with Heath following right behind her.
"Wait!" he begged as Megan continued to sprint and stumble awkwardly in her boots up the ruthlessly steep street, which was dotted with male tarantulas innocently going about their fall mating migration. She ran in a frenzied panic all the way to the dilapidated front porch of the two-story house. Her chest heaved from the high altitude run as she knocked loudly on the door.
Heath caught up to her and put his arm around her comfortingly. "Well, that's motivation for you," he quipped. "We made it. Everything is okay now."
Megan rolled her eyes, not very much appreciating the irony of Heath's "Everything is okay now" reassurance, given that she had just saved his life a few minutes ago. Before they could fully catch their breath, the door flung open and they were greeted by a tall, slender woman dressed in an exquisite nineteenth century gown.
"Why, hello. To what do I owe the pleasure of unexpected visitors?" she asked in a subtle, proper accent that resembled British. They stood silently for a moment taking in the incredible details of her dress, from the lace trimmed underskirt to the unusual sliver of frilly fabric that opened up at her chest, revealing a generous view of cleavage. Her hair was elegantly bundled and she looked down with curiosity through dark brown eyes.
"Trick-r-treat," Heath said, causing Megan to slug him on the shoulder.
"We're sorry to bother you, but our rental car fell off the cliff and we're being chased by spiders and we need to use a phone! Please!" Megan said in a panic.
"Oh dear, I apologize, but I have no idea what you are saying," the woman replied with concern. "Why don't you come inside?"
"Much obliged, ma'am," Heath replied with his best cowboy accent as he ogled her breasts.
They walked through the entryway and looked in awe at the unexpected and dazzling candlelit interior as the woman guided them into the foyer. They were surrounded by framed oil paintings, antique mirrors, and impressive floral arrangements- a scene they never could have imagined as they stood facing the beat-up old house from the porch moments ago.
"Welcome to Julia's Palace," she said with polite curtsy. "I am Madame Julia Bulette and I graciously offer safe refuge and entertainment for the townsfolk, yourselves included."
"Hi Julia. I'm Heath and this is Megan."
Julia eyed their matching, red and black striped costumes with interest and approached Megan.
