rix_scaedu | Entries tagged with tybalt

This follows on from In The Dark and runs to 400 words.

The landline was as dead as Elvira’s mobile phone reception.

Outside in the dark, cars pulled up in front of the house, their engines stopped, and people got out before slamming the doors behind them. There followed a series of sounds, including breaking glass, that made Elvira certain that her little blue hatchback was being rendered undrivable. Joe Grimolochin, one of Elvira’s kindergarten students, cuddled in against her leg while his father, from what Elvira could see in the poor light, was intently following what was going on outside. They were in the Grimolochins’ house and Joe was shaking with fear. Elvira was only there because she’d driven them home after the end of the school Halloween event had found their car vandalised in the carpark.

“This is what happened last time,” whispered Joe. “When they killed Mama and, and the others. It was dark and we were trapped…”

“It will turn out better this time,” promised his father quietly.

From outside a voice called out, rasping in unusual ways, “Grimolochinn! Ssurrender to uss nowow and youu and yourr people will die cleanlyy. Make uss fight and youu won’tt.”

Joe’s father, Tybalt, gestured and Elvira was aware of their cats padding around the room with purpose. A few more cats, surely, than the two she’d seen come outside when Tybalt had opened the door. “Why are you doing this?” Tybalt had stepped away from Elvira and Joe before speaking loudly. “Your King has declared you rebel and outlaw for what you did before. Why repeated it?”

“The Kingg, ourr Kingg, desires the wholole line of Old Tomm dead.” The voice from outside managed to sound flat and gleeful at the same time. “Ii do do nott need to knowow why, just thatat hee wants itt.”

Tybalt muttered just loud enough to be heard, “I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that he’s two faced – he does have ten bodies and ten heads.”

The voice from outside went on, “Wee will doo ourr worst on the count of tenn!”

“They’ll move on the count of eight then,” said Tybalt firmly. “Get ready.”

Elvira clung to Joe who’d started clinging to her first and wished she’d taken a self-defence class.

“One.” The voice from outside was getting sharp with excitement. “Two. Three. Four.” Elvira could hear footpads on the verandah. “Five.”

There was a high pitched scream of pain and surprise from outside.

Thanks to lilfluff's signal boost for the recent prompt call, we have a small follow on from Circling the Wagons.

While Tybalt led them around the darkened house, Elvira fumbled in her handbag for her phone. The full moon outside helped a little with the amount of available light but she could only assume that familiarity with the layout of their home was what stopped the Grimolochins bumping into their furniture at every turn. They were in their third room before she managed to get her phone out of her bag and turn it on.

She had three bars of reception, and then it was gone.

“That’s odd,” Elvira spoke slowly, not wanting to believe the implications and not wanting to scare Joe who was, after all, only five going on six.

“What’s odd?” That was Tybalt. “Let me guess. The phone won’t work.”

This is now followed by Who And Why.

I wrote this to lilfluff's prompt and it follows on from Trick or Treat which is pretty much concurrent with or slightly after Complications on Halloween.

By the time Elvira Madden was out of her car and locking it, handbag over her shoulder, she could hear the car coming up the driveway. It was still a distance off but she could hear its engine purring along. Whoever was in it wasn’t in a hurry to get to the house and she should have been able to see the car’s headlights but they weren’t being used.. As she walked around her car to join the two Grimolochins she heard the approaching engine stop, then, a few seconds later, the house lights went off.

“Right, everyone into the house,” snapped Tybalt Grimolochin, “and that includes you two,” he added to the cats. Surprisingly the cats immediately stood up and went inside. Tybalt ushered Elvira and his son Joe inside and locked the door behind them. “Now,” he said grimly, “we make sure all the other doors, the windows and the cat flaps are locked.”

Elvira asked, “Shouldn’t we call the police?”

“We probably should,” agreed Tybalt grimly, “but given how well my other calls for help have gone tonight, I’d be surprised if I got through or got a useful response.”

“We should at least try,” said Elvira. A thought occurred to her, “Perhaps I should try? The people who won’t or can’t answer you might answer me.”

“That may well be worth trying,” Tybalt admitted. “When we’ve checked that everything’s locked, I’ll take you to the phone.”

“They might have cut that wire too,” pointed out Elvira. “Perhaps I should use my mobile?”

This is followed by In The Dark.

I wrote this to lilfluff's first prompt, "More prince of cats." It follows Rescue By A Halloween Witch.

The Grimolochins’ driveway was long because the house was set back from the road in the middle of an acreage. This wasn’t unusual for the area, Ferndale was a scattering of farms and ex-farms at the upstream end of a creek valley. It wasn’t quite a dead-end but when the roads went beyond the paddocks into the State Forest on the hills they turned into dirt tracks almost indistinguishable from fire breaks and, in the worst cases, were impassable by almost anything wheeled.

When Elvira pulled up outside the house there were no lights on. Tybalt Grimolochin, seated in the front passenger seat, turned to her and suggested, “It might be best if you and Joe wait here in the car while I check the house, Miss Madden. There’s probably nothing to find, but what happened to our car has me worried.”

“Of course,” Elvira smiled at him, then activated the car’s central locking when he got out and closed the door. She glanced over at Joe in the back seat, but he was far less apprehensive than he’d been in the school’s haunted house or back in the car park. They smiled at each other. Then they both watched as Tybalt walked up onto the verandah, unlocked the front door and went inside.

They could track his movement through the house by the lights going on and off. Elvira noticed two cats come out of the front door and sit beside the front door. The one on the left launched into an inelegant personal cleaning ritual. It took maybe five minutes before Tybalt re-emerged and came back to the car.

Elvira opened her door so they could talk. “It’s all clear inside so I’ll just grab Joe.” Tybalt hesitated and asked, “Would you like to come in for coffee?”

“Thank you but it’s school tomorrow but perhaps another time?” Settle down, half her mind told the other half. He did not just ask you in to see his etchings.

Joe had undone his seat belt and his father was around at the rear passenger-side door getting him out when the man straightened, paused and then leant down to speak in through the car’s doorway. “Miss Madden, I think you should grab your things, lock the car and come into the house with us. Someone’s just turned into the driveway and I’m not expecting visitors.”

This would be fairly concurrent with Complications on Halloween and is followed by Circling the Wagons.

I wrote this to lilfluff's third prompt. It follows on from On The Night Of Disguises and is followed by Trick or Treat?

“My son was attacked and bitten by a rat when he was small,” Tybalt Grimolochin explained to the two teachers dressed as witches. “He still fears them.”

“My Dad killed it,” squeaked up Joe, nervously holding his father’s hand, “but the others got away.”

“Rats are nasty, aren’t they?” cackled his kindergarten teacher, Elvira Madden, as she kept in character. “Perhaps we can find a treat in our cauldron to help make you feel better?”

Her friend and fellow pretend-witch, Dorothy James, started their lorum ipsum inspired chant while Elvira stirred in the cauldron with her ladle, making sure she got one of the ‘prizes’ nestled in the bottom into the ladle’s bowl. Joe politely accepted his chocolate frog and added it to his bag along with the jelly snakes and other treats he’d collected so far then went to the next room of the ‘house’ clutching his father’s hand.

It was dark by the time the teachers were able to leave and Elvira was glad to be out of her makeup. She said goodbye to Dorothy as they climbed into their cars and then turned right onto the road while Dorothy turned left. Instead of going home though she almost immediately turned into the club car park commonly used by parents visiting the school. Sitting in the middle of the car park, completely alone except for a child in a lion costume and a tall man, was a small sedan.

She pulled up beside them and said, “Is there a problem? Can I help?”

Tybalt Grimolochin smiled at her but he looked worried. “We got back to the car and found that someone’s slashed our tires and sealed all the movable panels with what looks like silicone sealant. I’ve called the NRMA and a taxi but neither has turned up.”

Elvira frowned. “That’s not a prank, is it? Look,” she unlocked her car, “you two get in and I’ll drive you home. It’s a good thing I saw you or who knows how long you might have been here.”

“Thank you.” Tybalt ushered his son into the back seat and climbed in beside him, doing up both their seat belts. Elvira locked the doors again and moved off. Tybalt went on, “We’re up in Ferndale. If you take us up Dog Trap Road to the three way corner, I’ll give you directions from there.”

“Okay,” and Elvira turned out of the car park in her original direction.

Behind them, in the beautification plantings surrounding the car park, red eyes glowed in the dark.

I wrote this to lilfluff's first prompt. It is followed by Rescue By A Halloween Witch.

“I think a supervised event in the hall as a fund raiser would be an excellent idea,” remarked Mrs Amanda Bracken, the headmistress, to the Parents and Citizens Association meeting. “I don’t know how trick or treating works in places where people are used to it but the school received complaints last year about children knocking on doors and demanding sweets.”

One of the younger mothers asked, “How is that the school’s responsibility?”

“According to some people, Mrs Lancing, it is the school’s responsibility to control and monitor children’s behaviour at all times, even out of school hours. Even if those children are not and never have been our pupils.”

So it came to pass that at five o’clock on the 31^st of October the otherwise sensible teachers Elvira Madden and Dorothy James were presiding over a fuming cauldron while wearing green stage makeup and fake facial warts as they waited to scare the children who were about to giggle and squeal their way through the haunted house labyrinth that had been set up through the school hall. They had their script, they had their organising committee-approved treats to hand out and now they had a cat.

“Where did he come from?” Dorothy asked Elvira as she watched the magnificent black tom wrap his way around Elvira’s ankles.

“I have no idea,” replied Elvira as she looked down at her feline admirer. “He’s not wearing a collar but he’s obviously not a stray, he’s too well looked after.”

“At the moment he looks like he wants to belong to you,” laughed Dorothy, then a bell rang. “We’d better take our positions, they’re opening the doors.”

The cat gave Elvira’s leg a final rub and ran off.

Then the children arrived. Years Five and Six who had no younger brothers or sisters to take care of came through in dribs and gaggles. Families of children careened through wildly separated, not always at the fault of the eldest. Dorothy noted that the Shrimpton twins came through separately but not alone, while Melissa Wright was trapped in some professionally made costume that, although effective, looked extremely uncomfortable.

About half of Elvira’s class came through clutching a parent’s hand, some with a just younger brother or sister, determined to prove they were a ‘big kid’ too, in tow. The Grimolochins were a surprise, not in that his father had brought him, but because Joe Grimolochin, normally a brave and happy boy, was clinging to his father’s hand and looking around fearfully. He was dressed as a lion, but he was a very unhappy lion.

“I checked,” his father was saying, “and there were none in here before the doors opened.”

“I know,” came Joe’s anguished reply, “but I can smell them. They’re here somewhere!”

“I can smell them too,” his father agreed, then assured him, “but the rats can’t get you while I’m here.”

“So,” cackled Elvira in character, “the young master is afraid of rats? Why tonight of all nights?”

“Because tonight they could be dressed up to look like something else so you can’t see them coming.” Joe added, “But you can smell them around and you don’t know where they’re going to come from.”

I wrote this to aldersprig's seventh prompt.

“Parts. It has to have lots of parts,” Elvira Madden was flicking through a stack of play scripts regarded as being suitable for small children to perform. “Christmas is easy, even if someone complains about the Nativity play being religious or not their religion or not religious enough. With shepherds and angels you can easily get twenty five year olds on stage at some point during the proceedings.”

“That is the point, after all,” agreed her friend the fifth grade teacher, Dorothy James. “At least your lot will still hold hands with the opposite sex. Half the boys in my class don’t even want to stand beside the girls. The Shrimptons’ mother seems convinced that she’ll be a grandmother by next year if either of her daughters is within a yard of a boy and no matter how she’s cast, Melissa Wright’s parents will hire a professional costume for her.”

“Both our lot are too young for musicals,” Elvira put a number of books to one side, “perhaps there’s something in here based on a fairy tale?”

“How about this one?” Dorothy picked up a slim volume and handed it to Elvira, “The Prince of Cats?”

“Let me have a look,” Elvira opened the text pamphlet to look at the cast. “There’s Tom, his mother, the mice, the cat, some dogs, and more cats. This could work. Is it okay if I take this one to read through?”

“Go ahead,” Dorothy waved a hand at her, “I need to find something that won’t upset any of my parents. All the vocal ones hate something different!” With that she turned back to the stacks of the school’s accumulated drama resources.

Six weeks later, the school drama night was a great success. The kindergarten play had gone first and was greeted warmly, with the tallest girl in the class playing the mother and the five smallest children being the mice. Joe Grimolochin, a happy boy, played a surprisingly cat-like rescued cat who turned out to be the Prince of Cats. Elvira sought him and his father out at the beginning of the intermission, the first of twenty families she needed to see in the break.

“I think that very well, don’t you?” The tall, olive-skinned man who was Joe’s father smiled at her. Every time he did that she found herself wanting to curl up in front of a fire somewhere and stroke him. That was totally inappropriate.

“Yes, it did Mr Grimolochin,” Elvira smiled politely back at him. “At least partly because Joe,” she smiled down at her student, “was so good as the Prince of Cats.”

“Please Miss Madden I’ve told you before, I’m Tybalt.” That smile again. “I must agree with you, Joe is a most excellent Prince of Cats.” Father and son looked at each and Joe smothered a giggle as if they had shared a joke.

After a few more words Elvira moved on to the next family with the odd feeling she’d just missed something important.

I wrote this to aldersprig's seventh prompt.

“Both our lot are too young for musicals,” Elvira put a number of books to one side, “perhaps there’s something in here based on a fairy tale?”

“How about this one?” Dorothy picked up a slim volume and handed it to Elvira, “The Prince of Cats?”

“Yes, it did Mr Grimolochin,” Elvira smiled politely back at him. “At least partly because Joe,” she smiled down at her student, “was so good as the Prince of Cats.”

After a few more words Elvira moved on to the next family with the odd feeling she’d just missed something important.