I like add-to-the-story games (and I hope I'm posting this in the right place) and thought this might be a diversion for some of us going through RPG withdrawl over the holidays and for anyone else who wants to join in. Simply add on to the story in about 50 words. You control all the characters during your post. Please keep the story rolling and don't just kill everyone off. Here's the beginning: Annalene grabbed the cellphone from the widening pool of spilled coffee as the stranger with the newspaper tried to apologize. She barely heard him. This number was the only one that the very important call would come to and now the device was dead. As dead as she would be… (okay, next person continue from there, please!)
As dead as she would be had she not looked up to see the drop-dead-gorgeous guy, who was now bending over the table, spreading a sheet from his newspaper over the spilled coffee. Annalene held on to her cellphone idly between her thumb and forefinger, as she gaped at ... (I hope I got this right Thanks for the thread Foxee, you're reading my mind )
... a tiny orange kitten residing in the man's shirt pocket; it must have been less than a year old. He looked down and understood what she was gaping at, and he began to chuckle. "This isn't mine," he explained. But he was cut off at how Annalene gazed at him.
Distracted as she had been by the man with the kitten, Annalene abruptly remembered the call that could no longer be made to the phone in her hand. "Damn." The last sound of its electronic life had been ‘Zzt’ and with that sound it took all her hopes of ever…
...having won the auction for a used but seemingly new Mustang. Then she remembered about the man standing before her still. "Thanks, I guess." She was utterly depressed, but then the man offered her another drink. She politely accepted, thinking that it was for free after all, and the man...
..who had just zapped all of the drama from her hum-drum life was at least not bad looking. It had been a red Mustang, too, which meant he at least owed her a scone as well as the coffee. “So what is the cat’s name?” she asked as he brought coffee.
'Skillet," he replied as he sat down her coffee and began petting the kitten. The kitten took up mewling and jumped out of his pocket and into his cup of coffee. It hissed and ran straight at Annalene, knocked over her coffee and ran straight up her...
...arm, licking her cheek. She was a little surprised, but at least the coffee didn't spill on her or her scone. "Why Skillet?" She wondered. The kitten purred and remained on her shoulder comfortly. "Well, when I named him, I was a little hungry at the time..." He chuckled shyly.
“How interesting,” Annalene replied, checking her watch. Great, her day had been ruined by a metrosexual with a kitten. Now to get away from him politely by remembering a pressing appointment. “I’m sorry, but I just remembered that I have some things that I, uh, need to do,” she said.
"My name is Ken by the way." he said, casually offering her his hand. She blinked, putting down the kitten on the table between them. Ken? A guy named Ken with a kitten named... what was it? Skitten? Annalene was hoping for something more like "Mark" or "Derek" -probably obsessed by Grey's Anatomy's hot guys. She brushed away a strand of her hair that had fallen when the kitten was licking her, and reached for his hand. "I'm..."
"...Maybell," she lied, smiling. With any luck she could disappear, "and now I'm afraid I really do have to go. Thank you for the replacement coffee, though." She slipped the ruined phone into her purse. Maybe she could go replace it in time to reactivate her number.
She immediately left the cafe and walked down the sidewalk with great strides to her ordinary car, trying to get past the rain as quick as possible. Her lunch break was ending, and she was told by an employer that she was to speak with the manager afterward. All that...
…didn’t keep her from grousing about the Mustang. She could have had something exciting in her life. And what DID her manager want to see her for, anyway? Worrying and damp, she never noticed the shadow that followed her through the rain.
All she could think of, surprisingly enough, was...Ken. She stopped at at a red light once she drove her car around the corner. Okay, he was good looking, and seemingly perfect, yet, she managed to slip away and rush to work. Like she was satisfied with her job?! she thought angrily, as the car behind her blew the horn, signaling the green light above her. Annalene reached her office a few minutes later. Jane, her co-worker mouthed to her that their boss wanted to see Annelene. She entered his office and was face to face with... (sorry got carried away.. )
...Bernie, the office fink. He looked smug. Annalene's boss looked harassed. "Is it true that you've been accepting personal calls on your work phone, Annalene?" The manager asked. "Tell her its true," Bernie said, "I heard you." Annalene's face burned and she wanted to kick them both.
She managed a smile and said, "It's raining outside." Probably trying to ease up her manager's mood, and in the meantime, try to figure out how this happened. The manager, Roberta Gates, gazed at her coldly, that sent a shiver down her spine. She was getting fired o'right, she thought, scratching the back of her head. Bernie stood behind Roberta and smirked at Annalene, mouthing, "you're finished." She narrowed her eyes, then looked at Roberta, "Bernie makes nude photos of you and posts them on his blog." Tension filled the room as Roberta...
...let out a small gasp. "Ber, Bernie, you, wha...?" Roberta stuttered. "Yeah, it's true. Tell her, Bernie. Be a man and tell her the damn truth!" "Annalene, shut your mouth. You have no business talking about this!" Bernie cried out. Roberta's mouth was agape as she looked down at the...
...website that Annalene had just put up on Roberta's computer. Either Bernie was going out with a bang or she was. Soon Roberta was shown in all of her unclothed glory. Roberta turned purple which by now was entertaining to Annalene. There was a feeling of freedom as though it didn't really matter anymore whether she was fired.
But there was another feeling too. A feeling of regret. A feeling that she had allowed her concerns about being fired, her feelings about Bernie, the office fink, and just her own better judgement to take priority. What was she becoming? What had she become? "Roberta, look, I'm really sorry...
But Roberta pushed her out of the office door with the terse words, "You're fired." The door slammed shut and Annalene heard a resounding slap. Apparently Bernie wasn't off the hook, either. Annalene sighed and went to clean out her desk.
My own fault. I deserved it. I should have known better. Annalene's thoughts caused her as much despair as those two bitter words: You're fired. But Annalene was more weak than moral, and so as she grabbed personal items from her desk and put them in her brown leather purse, she began to hatch a plan. And the plan was all about a fink, a fink that had gotten her fired this morning.
As she heard a yelp from Roberta's office Annalene reflected that perhaps she already had her revenge. Still, it never hurt to have a plan. After all, Bernie might have one for her. As Annalene exited with her box of things she headed toward her brown Civic. The shadow moved in closer.
"Hm, that's weird," Annalene muttered as she struggled to find her car keys. She leaned against her car, rifling through her purse. This morning it simply held her keys, wallet, and cell phone. Now it was flooded with an assortment of office supplies, many of which were still in their unopened boxes. Finding her keys amidst the stash of loot was going to be a challenge.
As Annalene reached for the door handle, she saw a reflaction in the window glass. A monstrous face leered over her shoulder. Crying out in terror, she dropped the box and spun around. But the vision had vanished. Still shaking, she picked up the belongings that had spilled out of the box. Damn. Her favorite coffee cup, the one Alan had given her, was broken beyond repair.
Her heart pounded and she continually looked over her shoulder as she straightened, yanked the door open, and half-threw the box over to the passenger's side seat. Another look around ans she climbed into the driver's seat revealed nothing. Just the disquieting silence of the parking garage during a regular workday.
