Tag Archive for: Evan Baughfman

Needs Breakfast

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by Evan Baughfman

Andy hasn’t eaten. Never a good idea. Empty belly means “hanger” consumes the best of him.

In the company parking garage, Andy finds a freshly installed vending machine. He inserts a few coins. Pushes buttons.

The machine whirs. Doesn’t drop the desired pastry.

Cursing, Andy kicks, dents the machine. Shoulder-checks the contraption. Wallops its glass front, spiderwebbing cracks.

Something growls.

Not Andy’s stomach. The machine.

Its delivery slot opens. A tongue snakes through, gripping Andy’s ankles, pulling him in—folding him, crunching him. Every last bite.

Soon, the machine offers a new treat.

A scarlet confection, simply labelled, “Sour Candy.”

Evan Baughfman

Evan Baughfman is a middle school teacher and author. Much of his writing success has been as a playwright. A number of his scripts can be found at online resources, Drama Notebook and New Play Exchange. Evan also writes horror fiction and screenplays.

 

Preyed Upon

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by Evan Baughfman

Days ago, the alien Hunter sent a distress call to his homeworld, but his plea remains unanswered. Crash landing in this terrain—a harrowing ordeal.

The Amazon’s endless heat and humidity overwhelm the Hunter’s vision, his thermal imaging. Panicking through an unwelcoming environment, he stumbles across cold-blooded foes. Vipers. Anacondas. Caimans.

Retreating from aquatic reptiles leads to painful encounters with piranhas and a bull shark.

The alien’s invisibility tech can’t hide him from mosquitoes. They’re addicted to his neon-green ichor.

Feverish, woozy, the Hunter sobs. Prays.

Faints.

Plummets from a tree branch perch, again crashing to earth.

Stupid, inhospitable Earth…

Evan Baughfman

Evan Baughfman is a middle school teacher and author. Much of his writing success has been as a playwright. A number of his scripts can be found at online resources, Drama Notebook and New Play Exchange. Evan also writes horror fiction and screenplays.

 

 

 

 

Grisly Transformation

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by Evan Baughfman

Shawn sat in the driver’s seat of an extra-terrestrial vehicle, though he wasn’t steering his new friend. The Corvette—shape-shifting robot, Xcellsior—carried its teenage companion over rain-slick roads, dashboard stereo blasting rock ’n roll.

“Awesome!” Shawn whooped.

Then, lightning struck Xcellsior, frying alien circuitry, squealing robot brakes.

Xcellsior began to morph into bipedal form—Shawn stuck inside.

The boy screamed. Windows wouldn’t open. Doors wouldn’t unlock.

Shawn saw a button: “EJECT.” Had to risk launch into stormy sky.

But pressing the button only spat out a cassette tape.

Xcellsior soon stood tall; Shawn, gooey, compact, held close to the alien’s heart.

 

Evan Baughfman

Evan Baughfman is a middle school teacher and author. Much of his writing success has been as a playwright. A number of his scripts can be found at online resources, Drama Notebook and New Play Exchange. Evan also writes horror fiction and screenplays.

His Offering

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by Evan Baughfman

The male drops his offering at the female’s feet. She examines the rock, contemplating if it’s worth starting a nest with this other penguin.

Then, she realises the gift it isn’t a stone, but a human eye.

On the beach: butchered “ecotourists,” pecked to ribbons by frustrated seabirds. Penguins are tired of oil spills, of habitat loss.

The appreciative female squawks. Her happy suitor dances.

However, a rival appears, delivering his own present—a man’s skull, dragged in by tongue.

The female returns the eye to her first admirer, now looking ahead to a future with a more impressive mate.

 

Evan Baughfman

Evan Baughfman is a middle school teacher and author. Much of his writing success has been as a playwright. A number of his scripts can be found at online resources, Drama Notebook and New Play Exchange. Evan also writes horror fiction and screenplays.

 

On Scarlet Wings

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by Evan Baughfman

 

Three boys climbed into a zoo enclosure, stoning colourful birds with baseball-sized rocks, killing a sixteen-year-old flamingo in their attack.

The children, facing criminal charges, were ultimately exonerated due to their ages. Each boy: younger than ten.

On his sixteenth birthday, the eldest delinquent was found dead in a park, eyes gouged, corpse bruised and disembowelled.

When the next oldest turned sixteen, he was discovered, broken, at the bottom of a canyon.

The last boy also perished at sixteen. Drowned in his pool, fingers bitten free.

In the sky above each crime scene: a flamboyant flock, circling on scarlet wings.

 

Author’s note: This story is inspired by a real-life 2017 attack on flamingos at a Czech Republic zoo

Evan Baughfman

Evan Baughfman is a middle school teacher and author. Much of his writing success has been as a playwright. A number of his scripts can be found at online resources, Drama Notebook and New Play Exchange. Evan also writes horror fiction and screenplays. More information is available at amazon.com/author/evanbaughfman

 

Work the Crowd

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by Evan Baughfman

 

Applauding trapeze artists’ aerial excellence, Caitlyn declared, “Way better than some mangy flea circus!”

I agreed. “So fun!”

We must’ve misread the advertisements. The show was impressive, a dazzling evening inside a towering tent, complete with clowns, acrobats, and lion tamers.

A hundred spectators cheered as nimble performers gathered centre stage, taking their bows.

The ringleader thanked everyone for attending, adding, “Concessions are closed. Now, time for us to eat.”

Troupe members shed their skins—disguises—revealing insectoid mandibles, three pairs of powerful limbs.

Massive, agile bloodsuckers leapt into the stands, surrounding prey.

We screamed. Stumbled. Found nowhere to flee.

Evan Baughfman

Evan Baughfman is a middle school teacher and author. Much of his writing success has been as a playwright. A number of his scripts can be found at online resources, Drama Notebook and New Play Exchange. Evan also writes horror fiction and screenplays.

 

Finally Over

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by Evan Baughfman

 

Crimson lights flickered along twisted strands, causing the tall tree to resemble a creature with blinking red eyes. Ghoulish garland snaked across countertops, cluttered with holiday cheer. The fireplace roared with hellish flames. Stockings hung limp, like fresh corpses from the gallows.

Aghast, I turned to my wife, shrieking, “No! What did you do?” My voice drowned beneath carols blaring from stereo speakers. 

Cobwebs had been replaced with tinsel… Skeletons exchanged for elves… Jack-o’-lanterns ousted for Santa’s eerie visage!

“Halloween’s finally over,” said my wife, sipping cocoa through a peppermint straw.

I moaned. “But Christmas already…? It’s only November first!”

Evan Baughfman

Evan Baughfman is a middle school teacher and author. Much of his writing success has been as a playwright. A number of his scripts can be found at online resources, Drama Notebook and New Play Exchange. Evan also writes horror fiction and screenplays. More information is available at amazon.com/author/evanbaughfman

After the Ascent

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by Evan Baughfman

 

Walter rose above his corpse. His spirit approached a widening glow.

Amazing! An otherworldly oasis opening up itself just for him! Sunlight! Beach! Palm trees!

Walter smiled at the sound of lost loved ones’ laughter. His philanthropic life would soon reunite him with his mother, his father!

The glow extinguished.

Walter plummeted. Pleaded.

He fell back into flesh.

Injected chemicals had begun to restart and preserve his brain.

Walter screamed at his doctors to release him. His mouth wouldn’t move.

Walter, trapped inside his skull, was stuffed into his cryochamber, a subzero casket he now certainly regretted ever paying for.

 


Evan Baughfman

Evan Baughfman is a middle school teacher and author. Much of his writing success has been as a playwright. A number of his scripts can be found at online resources, Drama Notebook and New Play Exchange. Evan also writes horror fiction and screenplays. More information is available at amazon.com/author/evanbaughfman

 

Wasn’t a Ghost

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by Evan Baughfman

 

The door creaked open. Kellan took a deep breath and stepped into the shadowy classroom.

Inside, no children chuckled. No teacher taught. Silence suffused like creeping fog.

Cobwebs clung to ceiling corners. Darkness enveloped desks.

Toppled chairs and abandoned assignments lay scattered on the floor.

Very little was as Kellan remembered. He’d been a student here years before.

As he approached his old seat, he heard soft cries. Figures huddled, hidden in gloom.

Kellan’s rifle lifted toward the trembling targets.

“Boo,” he said, though he wasn’t a ghost.

He’d become something far more monstrous the moment he returned to school.


Evan Baughfman

Evan Baughfman is a middle school teacher and author. Much of his writing success has been as a playwright. A number of his scripts can be found at online resources, Drama Notebook and New Play Exchange. Evan also writes horror fiction and screenplays. More information is available at amazon.com/author/evanbaughfman

 

Huge Mistake

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by Evan Baughfman

 

Dr Moranis grinned as his growth ray morphed a meagre fig into a monster atop the auditorium stage.

His demonstration complete, Moranis stepped beside the fruit, now the size of a Volkswagen Bug. “Imagine,” he said, “an entire village fed for days on a single piece of locally-grown food.”

His investors applauded. Cheered. Screamed.

For a parade of enlarged insects had suddenly burst free of the ripened orb, their residency inside unknown to Moranis until that very moment.

Gargantuan fig wasps swarmed stunned spectators.

Confused by people’s colourful attire, the creatures attempted to pollinate every shrieking flower they could find.

Evan Baughfman

Evan Baughfman is a middle school teacher and author. Much of his writing success has been as a playwright. A number of his scripts can be found at online resources, Drama Notebook and New Play Exchange. Evan also writes horror fiction and screenplays. More information is available at amazon.com/author/evanbaughfman