Open Horror Stories

[Emily Hastings]

Emily was always bored anymore. So she made her way to the library, finding every book she could that looked like it could be an interesting horror story, before finally sitting down at a table with about 30 books stacked up around her. She opened her notebook and began to catalog them, ranking them based on what sounded interesting, who the authors were, how gripping the first paragraph was. It was tedious work, but she loved it. She worked in silence, no sounds but the quick scritching of her pen, unaware of anything else around her.

 

[Sydney Townsend]

While she was still wary of the school librarians, the library was as much of a refuge in this school as any place she could find, what with her roommates all being backbiting liars. Earlier in the semester as well most of the study tables were blissfully empty, though there were always ready stressed OWL and NEWT students dotted about since day one. Grabbing some reading for DADA, Sydney scanned the nearby seats, spotting Emily Hastings nearby who seemed to have constructed herself a near fortress of books. Sydney looked over at the girl's collection of books, wondering if she was just trying to show off. She did appear to at least being doing something with them, though Sydney hadn't seen her start properly read any of them yet. Typical Ravenclaw, wanting to make everyone think they were smart, she thought, dropping her own books down on the table next to her with a loud thud. "Are you actually reading those or are you just trying to show off?" She asked mildly, flipping open the book about dark creatures she'd picked up. Emily did have some rather interesting book titles in her ridiculous stack, and Sydney had to admit she was curious whether she could actually comment on Emily's taste or not.

 

[Emily Hastings]

Emily looked up as Sydney sat with her. "Hi," She greeted, going back to her work. "I'm cataloging the library's selection of horror novels," She told the other girl. "I'm trying to decide which ones are worth reading and which ones I won't bother touching while I'm here," She set her pen down, taking a moment to stretch. "What are you reading?" She inquired, looking for a short distraction from her work.

 

[Sydney Townsend]

Sydney was a little taken aback that Emily gave her an honest answer. A lot of people were either pointlessly catty to her, or didn't have anything interesting to say, so it was unexpected. "How do you know they're worth reading if you don't read it?" She asked, tentatively taking a seat across the table from Emily. She was always wary she'd ever find real engaging conversation here, but Sydney was open to surprises. "I'm reading more about werewolves. Specifics the law around them. Them having 'being' and 'beast' status at the same time is an interesting dichotomy," She answered, trying not to preen too much about being able to share her little research project and throwing in a few fancier words too, just in case Emily thought she was more well read than Sydney was. Reading wasn't just about quantity after all.

 

[Emily Hastings]

Emily smiled. "Well, you can tell a lot about a book in the first page or two. If it doesn't have a sound premise or a good hook in the first few pages then I don't bother." She picked up one of the books. "Like this one. It's supposed to be about a slime monster, which is... trite, but maybe promising? But then the first page is full of so many horror cliches its... cheesy. Horrid stuff." She set it down. Emily's eyes brightened as Sydney told her about her project. "Oh, that is interesting," She pushed aside her book, looking to Sydney with a smile. ""What have you found?"

 

[Sydney Townsend]

Sydney mulled over Emily's explanation, not sure she bought it. It was true, sometimes you could tell a text was garbage a few sentences in, but Sydney often ended up hate-reading things like that just to make sure she was truly justified in hating it. At Emily's mention of cliche's though, Sydney leant in, pulling the book towards her and flipping through it. "Ugh, you're right, there's no care for the suspense of the monster, or consistent metaphor for it I bet. Why bother writing about monsters at all if you're not going to use it to effectively reflect back on the reader's own humanity," She said haughtily, partially thrilled to be able to discuss fiction seriously with someone, and partly to make sure Emily still knew Sydney wasn't going to be out down by her literally analysis.

She was caught off guard again when Emily was actually interested in her project, anyone else seemed to think it sounded like dull homework to them and dismissed it. "Well, wizarding law is written in the most dull and inflexible way, but I haven't got much further than that. The government's seems to think awfully highly of itself to draw up so many rules around someone's personhood," She said. Truthfully, she hadn't gotten very far in reading anything yet. The law books were incredibly dense and hard to read and anything else she could find was steeped in prejudice or opinion which Sydney disagreed with. But she didn't want Emily to know that if she could avoid it.

 

[Emily Hastings]

Emily's eyes lit up as Sydney spoke, scooting closer. "I want to read this one," She slid a copy of Crimson Peak over to Sydney, "There's mystery and intrigue, with a strong female lead and the ghosts- they don't seem to be out to physically hurt her. There's an entire subplot of darker intent, it looks glorious." She grinned, chattering eagerly. It had been ages since anyone had sat with her for a proper discussion on books.

She nodded at Sydney's description. "I think most laws are meant to be that way, to discourage too many people from questioning it. If it's harder to understand, it's harder to combat." She offered, twirling her pencil absentmindedly in her fingers. "I think most governments are that way, but it's once the government is too high and mighty that revolution begins." She grinned impishly. "Those can be bloody, but often glorious."