Writing Exercise
Write a short story where your character is trapped over night somewhere they shouldn’t be.
Side Note
I will be using Scout, Jennifer, and Katlyn for this exercise. Teenagers getting into trouble and having fun doing it.
Place Locked In
Toy Factory
My Story
Scout yawned as she toured a toy factory with her Marketing class. She had thought it would be more interesting, but all she had learned was that the factory made toys, was shut down in the 70s, reopened in the 80s, shut down again due to a fire, was bough by someone else, and again opened in the 90s.
Scout pretended she was interested as Kylie, their tour guide, told the class about the toys made over the years in the factory and how they were marketed. She stifled another yawn and looked over at Jennifer and Katlyn. Her best friends looked at her and rolled their eyes.
Scout shook her head as they walked behind the group. She spotted a restroom and an idea popped in her head. She tapped Jennifer on the shoulder and nodded towards the restroom. She grinned at Jennifer, who tapped Katlyn and also quietly nodded to the restroom. The three snuck away from the group and headed into the restroom.
“What are we doing?” Jennifer asked once they were hidden in the restroom.
Scout put up a finger and checked under each stall to make sure that they were completely alone. The last and largest stall had a sign on it that said it was out of order.
“Let’s have some fun,” Scout said. “They won’t notice that we are gone for a while since we leave to go home right after we get back to the school.” She fell on her hands without blinking and crawled under the door.
Katlyn and Jennifer looked at each other, shrugged, and followed Scout. The three easily hid while their class left the factory, boarded the bus outside, and left. They listened as people came and went for the rest of the day until the last people they heard were the security guards making their rounds before the factory was locked up for the night.
The bathroom door opened and the girls stayed still while al ight shone around the room. The black shoes moved closer to where they hid, bit once the light and a face appeared under the door, they had vanished. The guard stood up, brushed off the knees of his black pants, and left the bathroom.
The girls stayed for a few minutes longer before the dropped to the ground without a sound. They inched their way out from the broken stall and walked over to the bathroom door. Jennifer’s phone rang and it echoed in the quiet bathroom.
Katlyn and Scout looked at her in horror as she quickly rejected the call and put her phone on silent. The friends stood frozen as they listened for any movement outside the bathroom that would tell them security had heard. But the factory stood silent beyond the door.
Katlyn pushed the door open and peeked outside before she waved for her friends to follow. They stuck to the shadows as they inched their way down the corridor they been in hours before during the tour. The friends snickered as they crept closer to the giant swinging doors that had a huge restricted sign on it.
When a student has asked what was behind the door, the tour guide had just cleared her throat as if she was uncomfortable by the question. She told the school that the factory was using it as storage, but soon they would be using it to store more toys before they left the factory. Kylie then changed the subject and hurried the group away from the doors.
Katlyn, Jennifer, and Scout stood outside the door, itching to find out what the factory was hiding behind those doors. Jennifer reached out and grabbed the door handle. The cold of the handle caused her to shover. She pulled the door open and the three walked into the pitch black room. They pulled out their cell phones and turned on the flashlights.
Scout motioned for the girls to fan out and she headed down the middle aisle. On either side, large dark machines sat motionless and silent. She eyed the machines until the door behind her sprung open. Scout spun on her heel then slid under the closest machine just as the lights turned on, blinding her for a moment.
Scout turned off her flashlight and sent a quick text to her friends. They told her where they were hidden. She turned her attention back to the person who had just entered her room. It wasn’t a security guard, but a tall mane hunkered over while he stalked into the room. The machines whirled to life and Scout slid out from under the machine backwards.
The man eyed the machines but he didn’t stop. Out of each machine popped out a teddy bear, but the bears looked wrong. The man stopped, grabbed one, and stared down into its black beady eyes. The man laughed as the eyes on the bear turned red and the cuteness melted away until a cruel looking teddy bear was in his hands.
Scout snapped a picture and sent it to her parents. She knew then that the factory had been bought by demons. They were making evil toys to harm children, hunter and non-hunter alike.
Jennifer and Katlyn found Scout and the three snuck back towards the door to make their escape. The man glanced back at the doors, but they stood still. He returned to checking the bears, unaware that a bad of hunters were already on their way to stop production of their evil teddy bears.
