~Slaughterween Short Stories~

Start-Up.

(First chapter to this book! Warning: Im aware this is all wonky and most likely doesn't make much sense. I'm not quite sure of anything about it myself, and I'm not an expert writer especially when rushing, I did my best for this one.)

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A calm, quiet Sunday morning is all that Susan wanted.

it's what it could be.

It's what it should be.

Unfortunately, that's not what it was.

All the adults around the church were STILL talking about the dead body that was found the previous Friday. It put Susan on edge. It wasn't fun to stand or sit around and hear about nothing other than "The body was found slaughtered!" "it was so sliced and beaten they could hardly tell who it was!" Which was a total lie since the body was actually identified.

Susan understood that such things would be discussed for a while, especially upon learning that the body belonged to a man who attended the exact same church as Susan and her mother, but she was just.. SO tired of hearing about it. About everybody and their dog knew by now, so why were they STILL talking about it? It was just giving everyone more and more scares!

"Well, my dears.. I heard they haven't even found the murderer!" Lindsay Kay, the church's favorite gossip woman --who was older than the decaying rat Susan found under the back porch of her house-- decided to butt in and exclaim to the small group of women that were gathered outside. One of the women being Susan's mother, Joanna. who responded with: "Oh my, that's absolutely terrible! I just can't believe someone would do such a thing.. I mean, Jillian was a good man."

There was a short pause. nodding heads and a few "mhm"s of agreement between the little group, as well as an almost unnoticed groan and eye roll from Susan. Joanna was quick to notice her daughter's lack of interest in the conversation, and quickly looped her hand around Susan's arm while clearing her throat. "Well ladies, this was a fine afternoon church discussion as usual! but I think Susan is getting a little cranky.. she's been going to bed late, haven't you?" Joanna patted her daughter's arm while directing the question to her, in which Susan nodded her head in return even though it wasn't true. Her mother just never liked being honest it seemed.

"Oh, my daughter has been the same!" chimed in a much more sickeningly sweet voice. the kind of voice that made Susan almost grind her teeth, which to her, sounded much more satisfying. The voice belonged to Annie Chalker, definitely one of the most odd women Susan had ever had the displeasure(?) of meeting. Honestly, Susan did her best to be polite to everyone, regardless of how they appeared to be.. but it was hard for her to keep up that charade when it came to Miss Annie. The same for her underweight daughter.. what a freak.

Susan held back a sigh and leaned herself again her mother's side to keep distance between herself and Melanie, --or Mel -- Miss Annie's only daughter who Susan definitely did not like in the slightest. Joanna brushed off her daughter's obvious distaste in any further communication and put her arm around Susan to keep her close as Annie marched up to the small group, practically dragging her daughter in tow. "Sorry, I couldn't help but overhear the conversation! Mel here has some sleeping issues, haven't you, dear?" Annie had a tight clutch on Melanie's left shoulder and gave it a shook, but before Melanie could open her mouth, Annie cut her off before she even began.

"She stays up worrying about her brother. silly right? Malachi just keeps running off doing this and that, it's so hard to keep track of children like him these days!" Annie exclaimed before continuing on with her little "children are so hard for me to handle as a single mother!" rant and all that kind of stuff parents always talk about. Susan instantly droned out and closed her eyes. 'Maybe if I fall asleep right now, Mom will take me home already..' Unfortunately, instead of sleep, all Susan got was a creepy feeling of being stared at..