THIS PAGE CONTAINS SECTIONS OF CUT CONTENT FOR ‘VIOLENT ROTTEN EVIL THINGS’
The story was written in a one-month time window, with an additional three months for editing. Lots of changes were made, and I cut far more content than the amount that made the final edit. I repurposed several sections into other stories, but some stuff simply had nowhere else to go.
Salvation
One hour after sunset.
A wave of light washed through the sky, from a deep purple blue, to a vibrant red orange. It crawled through the stars, and behind the moon.
The magnificent display washed over the sky several times, then it disappeared.
A young man and woman, that had been walking along a cliff side road, stopped and stared in disbelief. They held they’re hands together tightly, and gazed at the sky in silent disbelief, and waited hopefully for the unusual event to repeat itself.
They spoke to one another about it for a long while, and looked up to the stars.
After some time, the two continued walking. The road eventually peeled away from the cliff face, and turned inward to cut through a dense forest of deep green trees. The young man spoke with quiet distress, his head began to swell with pain.
They approached and old structure, a stone bridge, with seemingly no purpose. It arched high over the road, and connected to nothing on either side. Broken, and shattered along the surface, it managed to stand strong.
The young man began to weep, as the pain in his head worsened. He informed the young woman, that he could feel his eyes being forced from his skull. With concern, she suggested they move faster toward home, though the young man was unable to exceed their current pace.
Beyond the bridge, Three figures stood to the side of the road, dressed in fine clothing. The figures stood facing away, and perfectly still. As the young man and woman approached the four, the road side figures turned. The face of a Red Demon, Green Skeleton, and Purple Ghost now looked upon them. The young man and woman shared a nervous sensation, as the haunting faces stared in silence. The sensation passed, as a crying sound wailed through the air, and the monstrous faces turned away from the young man and woman. A young man sat before the three figures on the corpse of a fallen tree, he leaned forward and moaned, with his hands held firmly to the side of his head. Beside him, was a plastic blue mask, a goblins face.
The young man and woman did not walk further. The young woman looked to the crying individual, and asked if he had seen the light in the sky, the wave of purple blue, and red orange. The defaced blue goblin turned to the young woman, and she felt herself turn ill. The crying youth looked at her with empty white eyes, that poured blood from their edges. Blood flowed from his nose, and crept slowly from his mouth. He nodded blindly, then he screamed, and returned his skull to the security of his palms. The Demon, Skeleton, and Ghost turned their faces to the young woman, and then fixed their gaze on the young man beside her, as he collapsed to the ground, and cried out in agony. The young woman lowered herself, and spoke panicked words that were left unheard. She watched as blood dripped to the surface of the road from the young mans face.
A loud, inhuman wail crawled through the air. A sound like a drowning siren.
The gathering of people near the old stone bridge was soon transformed into a bloody display of corpses, and the young woman found herself alone, running fast down the road, as the siren like sound wailed behind her like a warning to keep her eyes forward. She was battered and bruised. Her clothes were torn, and she cried uncontrollably.
She continued until she reached the first sign of safety, a blue wooden house off the road, lit from the inside with a welcoming glow. She hammered her fist on the door, and was soon greeted by an older man, who took her inside, and got her situated on a sofa in the main living area. She was given a blanket, and the man placed the kettle on for tea. The man listened to her a short while, as she struggled to form words that would describe the events of her night. The kettle cried from the kitchen, and the man left the young woman to retrieve a cup of tea.
The young woman cried. She was shaken and scared. Her head felt near ready to split itself in two. She felt a sensation from inside her skull, and hurried an open hand below her face. Then she sat quietly, and watched the blood pour from her nostrils to her palm.
Opportunities
The similar section in the book was written first, if I am not mistaken. In the first draft, Corey was not the primary character. Originally it was just Mark and Joe, then eventually, another female lead - I ended up merging the two plot lines. This section is something I played around with, but I felt it didn’t capture the tone I wanted & didn’t fit Corey’s character.
Corey’s continues to drive until she see’s an odd sight in the distance. A stone bridge with seemingly no purpose arch’s over the roadway. Below it, a lonely bonfire.
With the bike brought to a full stop, Corey chews at her lower lip, and turns her head to look at the road behind her. She takes a deep breath and begins to drive forward.
Something happens (Corey is attacked, and joins an existing sacrifice.)
Her eye’s barely notice the spiked boards on the road below it, when her front tire blows, and she is hurled over the handle bars. Now on her back, she coughs a small amount of blood, and watches several strange human figures approach her from the trees. A group of four people wearing torn, and loose formal clothing, and vibrantly colored Halloween maks - One wearing a blue mask with short demon horns speaks. “Oh my.” He says. “You are an unlucky girl.”
The red mask with a smiling expression continues. “You were driving down the wrong road, at the wrong time, young lady.” she says sweetly.
Corey could barely move, though she slowly attempted to push herself up from the ground. The two masked figures that had yet to speak, green, and purple faces, rushed to her side and held her in place by her arms.
The red mask turned to the blue, and lowered her head. The red masked person walked toward the side of the stone bridge, and returned with a jar. The large glass container had something inside it. Blue, glowing, and squirming about. Some sort of oversize worm.
The red mask raised both her arms above her head, and looked up to the sky. “Fair well, girl of no importance. Your sacrifice will keep the demons from us this night.”
Corey spat some blood on the ground. “What the hell are you talking about, lady?” she asked loudly.
The red mask looks back at her. “Silence!” She snaps. “You will not speak, unless-”
“Fuck off!” Corey cuts in. “I don’t give a shit about you. I’ve had a wild night, but this really takes the fucking cake.”
The red mask tilts her head slightly. “You…mock us?” she asks with a venomous sound in her throat. “Perhaps you do not appreciate your position, girl! You do not mock me!”
Corey doesn’t wait a second to reply. “Yeah. Yeah I do. There’s creepy evil monster things out there, and it took you assholes less than one night to start some sort of weird mask wearing sex cult?…Fuck off.”
The red masked woman takes a few steps towards Corey, tightening her fists at her side. “Enough!” she barks. “You do not know what you speak of. This is not a cult, it’s a religion. And there is no sex stuff!”
The green masked man holding Corey’s left arm turns his head away and lets out a frustrated murmur under his breath. “Fuuuuuuck.”
Corey starts to laugh. “I’m sorry.” she says, trying to ease her chuckling. “What’s your religion called?”
The red mask looked away briefly, before returning her gaze, then she spoke. “…Arachnorism.” she answered hesitantly.
Corey cleared her throat and took a deep breath, still wearing a rather pleased smile. “Wonderful. Did Arachnorism exist yesterday?” she asked.
The red masked woman was quiet. She placed her hands on her hips, lowered her head, and tapped her left foot on the pavement a few times. Then she stopped tapping, and looked back up to Corey. “Alright.” She said bluntly. “Kill the girl.”
Corey bobbed her head with a ‘to be expected’ sort of expression. “Yeah, there it is. This is a fucking cult, dude.” She uttered with a dull, exhausted tone. “A boring, gay, sexless cult.”
The red masked woman turned her back to face Corey, and the blue masked man approached her with the worm jar.
Then the red masked woman
(Change their names to the masks ? - Demon, Skeleton, Goblin, Ghost.)
raised her hand in the air and spoke with a quick, harsh tone. “Wait!”
Everyone remained still, and Corey let out an unamused heavy sigh.
The red mask took a few steps closer toward the bridge, then stopped. “I heard something.” she said.
The blue mask turned to face her, Corey could see his body shake slightly.
Then a siren like wailing sound echoed through the still air, and everyone looked upward. A twisted humanoid with grey skin lept from the top of the bridge, and landed on the red masked woman. Corey’s eyes shot wide open, and she felt her two captors tighten their grip around her arms. The red masked woman screamed, and cried, awful, frenzied sounds - as the grey thing ripped her apart, and frantically shoved chunks of flesh into it’s mouth. The blue mask dropped the jar in his hands, and turned to run. The glass jar shattered upon hitting the ground, and the worm like creature inside lunged itself through the air, and wrapped itself around the blue masks neck. The man reached to grab the creature, as he fell to his knees. By the time he collapsed, the creature had already begun to force it’s way into the man’s throat.
The purple masked man holding Corey’s arm began to stutter. “No, no no.” and Corey could feel the man loosen his grip. She wasted no time, yanked her arm free, and swung her elbow into his throat. The man fell back, and Corey turned to punch the man holding her other arm. Her fist contacted the green face mask, and he let go of her…
…then Corey screamed and cradled the hand with her other. It really hurt!
The green masked man pulled the mask from his face, and raised a hand to his bleeding nose. Then he spat some blood to his side, and looked at Corey with hatred in his eyes. “That really hurt, you dumb bitch!” he barked, then he smacked Corey across the face, and knocked her on her back. He stood over her, and began to slowly press his boot over her throat. “You were supposed to be an offering, so this wouldn’t happen!” he yelled. Then he turned his head to the side, and muttered a quiet. “Uh oh.” as the grey humanoid creature raced over the wet concrete, and leaped through the air. Corey took and long breath in, as the man over her was taken to the ground by the grey blur. The purple masked man seemed to magically regain his focus, and hurried to his feet, then he started to run down the road. His screams quickly drew the creatures attention. Corey got to her feet, and she stumbled her way toward her blown out motorcycle. As she bent down to retrieve the sword that had been tossed to the ground not far off, she could hears the pained screams of the grey creatures next victim calling out from behind her for help. She took a short moment to stare at the blue masked man’s body, as it spasmed on the ground, she clenched her teeth, made a disgusted “Eugh.” sound, then turned and began to approach the grey monster, which was busy tearing the purple masked man to shreds. She approached quietly, and soon found herself behind the monster. The screaming had already stopped by then, but the monster continued to dig it’s fingers into the corpse, and it swiftly slung the bloodied pieces toward it’s mouth. Corey let the thing eat for a few seconds longer, then she raised the sword to her side,took a deep breath in, and exhaled forcefully through her mouth.
The creature turned quickly, and looked at Corey with it’s bulging red, insect eyes. and screeched at her with an inhumanly wide mouth, that had two small pincer like things creeping out from it’s edges. Then Corey swung the blade and lobbed it’s head to the ground, and it’s body fell limp. “Thanks for getting me out of a bad situation.” She said plainly, And then she continued walking.
Let Me Down Easy
In an early draft, Joe didn’t die at the Dino-Stop fuel station. This was changed, as I wanted Corey to be a silent character in the later part of the book to allow more environmental story telling and complete Corey’s character through action, opposed to dialogue. Losing both members of her party at the same time felt like the most believable way to justify that. This takes place at the tunnel section of the book.
They removed the lock and pushed the gate open.
Once they were back in the vehicle, Joe turned to Corey and gave her an assuring smile. “It’s not far now. No more detours beyond the tunnel, just keep an eye out for the sign that says 404.”
Joe turned the ignition, and shifted the car into drive. “When you see that sign, we’re safe. Alright?”
Corey turned her face and took a deep breathe through her nostrils. “Alright.” she replied.
The wheels began to roll over the dirt road, as the car approached the tunnel. The tunnel was incredibly dark, none of the lights that ran along the side walls were functioning. Only the car’s headlights illuminated the claustrophobic passage. They moved through the dark at a slow speed, and the vehicle eventually slowed to a crawl, when the shape of another vehicle appeared in front of them. “Looks like the gate on the other side is open.” Joe laughed with a sarcastic, unamused tone.
The road ahead was blocked with a mess of scattered, and broken televisions. The truck ahead of them was illuminated, but unmoving, the front end crashed into the side of the tunnel. Joe put the car in park. “I really don’t feel good about this.” He said sternly, then he stepped out of the car. Joe leaned in the door, and hit the button to pop open the trunk. He walked around to the back of the vehicle, and retrieved a few things. He stepped around to Corey’s side of the car, and she opened the door. “Here.” Joe said, handing Corey a large metal flashlight. She slid the orange toggle on the handle forward, and it displayed an aggressive white beam of light in Joe’s face. Joe shielded his eyes with his arm, and Corey flicked the switch back with her lips tucked between her teeth. “Sorry!” she whispered loudly. Joe lowered his arm, and fluttered his eyelids a while. Then he turned on the other flashlight, that he held in his left hand, with the light aimed toward the truck. “Don’t mention it.” he said plainly. “You stay close to me. Alright?” he added with an assuring smile, while letting a deep breath out his nostrils. Corey nodded, and turned her light back on, this time facing away from Joe. The two of them walked ahead, and Joe wavered the light over the ground, examining the broken televisions that had poured out of the delivery vehicle, and onto the road. Joe sighed. “Couldn’t have been delivering anything less obstructive.”
They neared the driver side door. The drivers door was hanging loosely on the lower hinge. Inside was a chewed apart, bloody corpse that barely resembled a person.
The corpse was surrounded by bloodied sheets of paper. Joe moved a hand over his mouth. Corey hardly reacted to it. Just a blank stare.
Then, a heavy sound hit the ground behind them.
And a rapid clicking noise echoed through the tunnel.
They turned. A tear ran down Joe’s face .
“oh no.” Was all he had time to say, before the unholy thing in front of them lunged forward, and took Joe to the ground. The blue, deformed thing was a little larger than a child, but the jaws of its yellow eyed, hollow looking face, opened plenty wide to bite, and rip a large portion of Joe’s face off. The top portion to be exact, from his upper lip to the top of his skull. Corey made a silent scream, as Joe blindly swung his arm through the air and yelled in agony. Then the creature wrapped it’s barbed appendages around Joe’s body, and began to make short work of tearing apart chunks of flesh with it’s teeth. Joes body fell lifeless.