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The Hungry Lot

By DOUG CAMP ~ 7th Grade ELA instructor, Community Middle School
Posted 10/26/19

Alice stared, nervously transfixed at the heavily wooded lot she would have to cross to reach her house. It was foreboding enough in broad daylight, so thick and dark with tangled vines and drooping Spanish moss. It was almost as if the darkness within was a presence actively shunning and trying to repel the sunshine from penetrating its black, evil heart. ...

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The Hungry Lot

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Alice stared, nervously transfixed at the heavily wooded lot she would have to cross to reach her house. It was foreboding enough in broad daylight, so thick and dark with tangled vines and drooping Spanish moss.

It was almost as if the darkness within was a presence actively shunning and trying to repel the sunshine from penetrating its black, evil heart. There were never any animals on the lot, no squirrels frolicking playfully about or birds merrily chirping their songs. There was a constant, fetid stench that seemed to permeate the lot, even though there was no refuse dumped there. It smelled like death and, it was as silent as death.

With no way to skirt around it because of a freeway on one side and airport on the other, Alice usually turned the ten-minute stroll into a two-minute sprint. However, this was her first time traversing it at night. She began to dash through it, as she would in the daytime but, not being able to see the footpath, she stumbled through a dense growth of bramble.

Unexpectedly, she fell face-first into a pool of viscous fluid. It felt slimy, and she nearly gagged as the foul, brackish substance filled her mouth. She panicked as she realized she could not move, as thorny vines snaked around her limbs, cutting into her and holding her tight, and the thick ooze covering her began to sear her skin.

Then an ominous, guttural growling filled the air, like that of some wild ferocious beast, feeding upon a fresh kill. Indeed, that is exactly what was happening, as the poor girl had inadvertently run straight into the digestive tract of this predatory plot of land, which slept by day, but fed at night.

Alice was like a hapless fly snared fast within a spider's web, being slowly digested. Alice was a large meal, which would keep the lot sated for a while. Her last conscious thought was wondering how many more of these hungry lots there were out there, disguised as normal plots of land, just waiting to feed on anyone who wandered through at night...