The Funeral Dinner: Grueberfest '07 (771 hits)
Category: NoneRating: 1.5 on 20 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by Ballare (View user info) at 2007-10-26 00:24:36 EDT
There is a great long table, around which sits many bodies.
The table is heavy under the weight of many porcelain dishes; there is a great clattering of cutlery and clinking of glassware.
The scent in the room is thick and tangible and putrid, but the company does not seem to notice - they are intent upon the food before them.
They eat madly, crazily rolling their eyes and lolling their tongues.
Many had long ago pushed away the forks, pushed away the meticulously placed spoons and knives, and instead bent their heads low over their plates and they simply shoveled their meals into their mouths, starving, impatient swine.
They reach for great fistfuls of tender meat; their hands clutch at small bowls and bring wobbling grey pudding to their lips; their fingers gracelessly grasp into bowls of veined white delicacies and toss them carelessly back into ravenous mouths.
Others sit primly, gleaming cutlery held tightly, as they stab at slabs of dripping red steak and cut into them with zeal. Blades wail as they strike hard platter; the sound of shrieking crockery fills the air. As hunks of meat fall, they are fastidiously speared and placed on eager tongues.
Red juices run down cheeks and chins and stain pink lips.
There is a great gnashing and clashing of teeth, enamel grindings and low, rumbling mutterings.
And the smell - insidious and pervasive and ever-present - the smell of drained blood and cooked flesh and seasoned meat - still fills the air. It hangs thickly, infusing the food with the rancid scent, but the eaters pay it no mind; indeed, seem blissfully unaware of the rank odor.
They seem only dimly aware of each other.
When a grasping hand encounters another, there is a startled pause, and reddened eyes meet, and for an instant there is a low feral growling and teeth are bared and there is a deadly silence among them all until one gives way to the other and the clattering resumes.
Goblets filled with warm mulled wine, or something very similar, are tipped, spilling blood red stains along the white cloth. Voices cry out, and they clutch at the widening discolorations, and bring the dyed fabric to their lips and suck fervently at the liquid. Those who still clutch their mugs encircle them protectively and sip fugitively from them to prevent such upsets.
---
There is a sudden interruption.
A heavy wooden door swings open and a woman is pushed through. She stumbles, catching herself and drawing herself upright. She is breathing heavily, frightened, and her hair is tousled and her hands drawn into balled fists, her knuckles white.
There is a tableau of frozen corpses, all who have turned to stare listlessly, indifferently.
She clutches her white dress tighter around her, wrapping her arms about her chest.
A hand beckons lazily, motions towards an unoccupied chair.
Hesitantly, she steps forward. She is guided into the seat, and cold hands stroke along her prickled flesh. The sensation sends a shudder down her spine, and she lifts her eyes to gaze along the table.
There is a moment, a timeless instant, of silence and stillness.
They rise as one, a mass of slack faces. They encircle her, reaching out to press their cold fingers against her warm pink skin.
And they descend upon her, clawing at her flesh and pulling her - struggling, kicking, suddenly writhing - upward. They place their teeth on limb and body. As one, they lift her and bear her down upon the table, and there are many of them and only one of her and she cannot resist and their weight has pinned her tightly.
There is a brief struggle, a brief scream; arms and legs are torn from sockets. There is a glint of silver, and her neck is slit, and blood spurts upward in a great arcing curve.
They lift their cups to catch the hot blood.
The funeral dinner begins anew.
User Reviews
Submitted by corn_nugget (user info) at 2007-12-18 15:10:57 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
This feels like the tip of the iceberg.
Submitted by DudeThatsBOSH (user info) at 2007-11-06 13:43:49 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by Ballare (user info) at 2007-08-23 01:54:39 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
On a scale of one to ten, you are BOSH!
Submitted by supadupapupa (user info) at 2007-10-30 23:39:24 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
super nasty, but super awesome
Submitted by ColchesterDr (user info) at 2007-10-29 01:54:33 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
This wasn't bad. Nice vocabulary, but didn't really go anywhere.
What happened to the other stories?
Did they forfeit?
I didn't see any post thing with all the links this time.
Submitted by aldenso (user info) at 2007-10-29 00:17:52 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
wow. gross.
"There is a great gnashing and clashing of teeth, enamel grindings and low, rumbling mutterings"
I could feel my teeth hurt when i read that.
Submitted by Sacrilicious (user info) at 2007-10-28 23:41:33 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I would have enjoyed more of a story, but your language and imagery is fucking ace.
Submitted by rorrim (user info) at 2007-10-28 15:51:53 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Bloodwine.
Submitted by write-of-way (user info) at 2007-10-27 11:10:31 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by monkeyswithguns (user info) at 2007-10-27 09:10:50 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by TheUniter (user info) at 2007-10-26 13:18:00 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by FlakMonkey (user info) at 2007-10-26 09:50:47 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
i liked the language and feel. could have taken this further but whatever
~Brdn_Nkd
Submitted by Paralyzed_By_Hope (user info) at 2007-10-26 09:37:40 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by ChaosJester (user info) at 2007-10-26 03:21:44 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Also, this made me a bit hungry. Is that wrong?
====
Yes. But at least we know to stay away from your house for dinner now.
I was entertained. A bit short, yeah. Maybe not quite a two, but I think it deserves more than a one. And I'm not about to start using half points. So two for you.
Submitted by CaptainThorns (user info) at 2007-10-26 09:25:25 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by ChaosJester (user info) at 2007-10-26 03:21:44 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
"They eat madly, crazily rolling their eyes and lolling their tongues."
As has been said before, not much of a story here.
Still, the sheer visceral feel of the language used was enough to save it for me.
...
Also, this made me a bit hungry. Is that wrong?
Submitted by Ballare (user info) at 2007-10-26 02:23:18 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
I was half an hour late? Really?
Bizarre. Thought I was half an hour early
Submitted by HotWillie (user info) at 2007-10-26 02:13:00 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
hahaha and you were a half hour late.
and there's only three of us so far.
have another .5 you sensitive tard(y)
Submitted by Ballare (user info) at 2007-10-26 02:10:25 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
FUCK ALL OF YOU
I SPENT A VERY STRESSFUL HALF AN HOUR TRYING TO WRITE SOMETHING BEFORE THE DEADLINE
FUCK YOOUUUUUUuuuu
Submitted by HotWillie (user info) at 2007-10-26 02:07:25 EDT (#)
Ranking: -1
This didn't really seem like an entire story.
The other two this round were much better, I think.
Really liked the clock tower one, though.
Submitted by kaos-king (user info) at 2007-10-26 01:30:13 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
BALLARE
E-Mail me sometime at antius777.at.yahoo.com
Submitted by beer-turtle (user info) at 2007-10-26 01:07:41 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
For a moment I thought this was about a Vegan experiencing thanksgiving or something.