#spooky scary jelly-tons

[adambombvilivus]

Confession: I once broke into a friend’s house with malicious intent

 and it involved jelly sandwiches

Okay, so first off, I want to keep things vague and anonymous, since I don’t want this former friend to be connected in any way. Now, it’s been a good few years and more since this happened, but I’m still very paranoid and nervous and, as I hope you’ll understand from reading, traumatized from it. It was a pretty strange saga of events on my end so I would appreciate you read all the way through before judging me please.

To give the best background, I’ll start from the beginning of knowing this guy. We met in middle school, sixth grade I believe; we weren’t friends for about a year but we shared common friends and often sat together so we just got along in time, of course. This guy, this kid, seemed pretty normal in every way, for a middle schooler. Well, “normal” among my friends and I, but we were misfits who just gathered at our own spot since we didn’t really belong to a group identity. At least that’s how I saw it, but I don’t know what the rest of them thought. We got along pretty well, finding out we shared common taste in games and music and shows we liked, and he was one of those friends, I thought, you could always trust to be real with when needed. We weren’t best friends but he was cool when it mattered.

Okay so here’s what you’ll find weird, probably: every single day, without fail, I kid you not, all anyone ever saw this dude eat was jelly sandwiches(not even peanut butter & jelly, just jelly. I always assumed it was strawberry jelly, but I never asked). All he ever said about the sandwiches is that he really loved jelly and it was homemade. I would’ve thought that someone in the faculty or something would’ve stepped in, since I knew teachers knew about it and thought it was a bit strange and unhealthy too, but he claimed he didn’t mind it at all and he seemed in good health all the time, minus regular illnesses. Not that I mind jelly sandwiches, but personally, I can’t eat something every day for more than a couple weeks in a row without getting fully sick of it for a long time, but hey, everyone is different. Oh, and I nearly forgot to put it in here, but  he had mentioned the red room all the way back then, just a couple of times. Once or twice he brought it up in conversations where we were talking about making houses in The Sims games, and he said something about this “red room” in his house that he really liked. He never described the red room, because apparently it was one of those things that was ‘embarrassing to talk about at school’, but he said it was cool and I’d probably like it if I ever saw it.

I’ve never been good with locations and addresses, so it took me until midway through high school to find out from some random situation that he had been living only a few blocks away the whole time! Both of us had lived our whole lives to that point in these homes, so that was funny to me. Since we enjoyed a lot of the same games and I had never really hung out with anyone outside of school before, I thought it would be cool to just walk over to his house and hang out for a few hours and play stuff. He seemed fully down for it and after I told my mom where he lived, she was fine with me going (I was just only 16 and it was late in the year, so it was getting dark early). Getting to his house was easy since we would just go a certain way from school that I had never walked, but it was in the neighborhood and I knew the area. That first time hanging out at his home was awkward for me but nice; we talked more than I had anticipated, about a lot of things around growing up with divorced parents and annoying older siblings and all, while he showed me some of his collections. We played games on his GameCube which I had never tried before, and his mom offered to feed me dinner, but I politely refused since we were going to have steak at home haha.

I went home and had my dinner and said I had a nice time, and that was all, nothing strange that time. When I got into bed that night I kicked myself for forgetting to ask about the red room he had mentioned years ago! I only had that little bit more to make me want to hang out again and it could be another fun thing to do or talk about, so I figured I’d bring it up the next day. He seemed pleasantly surprised that I remembered it after the years and wanted to show me next week if I came over again. Jump to that next visit, walking to his house and all, mostly the same until we had a quiet moment, and the thought came back for me to ask about the red room. He perked up and said something like’ “ooooh..right! Yeah right down here”. Same door as any of the other rooms in his house, nothing strange from in the hall; I was nervous but excited, the way you would be at anything small and silly but with years of mild curiosity behind it.

Okay, pause for a second to imagine the weirdest thing, realistically, you’d expect to see from something called “The Red Room”. I’m expecting you’ll probably imagine, like I had, that his mom just had a room where the walls were red and everything was colored red and it was some kind of hobby or something, maybe with neat art inside or whatnot.

I promise you, this...was not that.

Seriously, what my friend did was open the door, lightly push it all the way open, and walk back to his room and shut his door back closed, all without a word, but I only ever thought about that fact in following years. What I did notice first, however, was naturally, the red, but I’ll give you extra context:

First: the room was totally empty. When I say totally, I mean totally. Not so much as a small piece of forgotten trash on the carpet. It looked like the barest room of a freshly built house.

Second, the room was just a square, just a box. No closet door or sliding door, just the four equal walls.

Third, maybe the strangest of these three: Never before had I seen a room in a home with neither windows nor power outlets, or a room light on the ceiling, I don’t think.

When I say this room was just four bare walls and carpet, that is not an overstatement in any way whatsoever. I just want you to know how serious I am about everything I say here, and it’s important you really take that in before you continue reading.

Now, for what I noticed first. This room, whose doorway I was only standing in, must’ve been called the red room because of the red lighting inside. I say lighting instead of light, because I feel that more accurately conveys that there were no actual lights in this room. It wasn’t red like from a lamp, not like a glow, but similar to the way a sunset can make the outdoors look completely orange. A subtle but sure red, that lit the room like  2 o’clock sun, but there was no window, and even if there was a window, this was during the winter where it gets dark by 6 pm. If you know me, you know I am a coward and so obviously, this is uncharacteristic of me to do, but I’m guessing that I was simply in shock from anxiety to walk away. I walked into the room and I heard this sort of strange buzzing. Putting my ear against the wall, I still heard the buzzing, not much louder, but also vague machinery noises. I’d think with all of the How It’s Made I used to watch, I’d have an idea of what I heard, but nah.

Now that I had a moment to let myself absorb the oddity of this place, I turned around, walked out of the door, closed the door in the most gentlest way, walked down the hall, downstairs, and out of the front door. Like my friend, I said nothing. I was too stunned to walk home fast, I think; I mean, I was traumatized from this. Maybe it’s silly, but I’m a coward. I can’t remember much else from that night since my mind couldn’t focus on anything else. I don’t think I told my mom about it. I don’t think I slept that night or was even able to sleep. Maybe it wasn’t scary but sometimes you just have an experience that just gives you a whiplash being what you are ready to process. I hope you understand.

Just so it’s out there, I’ll go into the boring bits that I’m sure you can infer. Of course I never spoke about it. It’s not like I saw a murder. A story of a weird blank room is one thing, but I can’t tell someone that a room was illuminated by some paranormal red lighting. Yeah, I’m serious and able to open up now, but some teenager isn’t going to feel secure with being as honest-to-god as they can be and being doubted and made to feel crazy. I was already quiet, called weird, not very socially secure my whole life, maybe you can relate. As for that friend and I, well I can’t remember exactly the way we were the next day, but I think it was something along the lines of him saying he hoped I had fun and acting totally normal as before. I didn’t mention the room. I didn’t mention the room at all to anyone since this. I never went back to hang out with him again and he never asked, to my relief every day. We stayed friends through school like normal, although I had the added gift of a little well of anxiety every time he approached our group, sitting down with us eating his jelly sandwiches and joking around about stupid shit that I hate myself for laughing at and saying back then. I think other people noticed me being a little more nervous and distraught than I had been before, but nobody, even at home, ever asked what was on my mind. Most days I had only one thing to tell them regardless.

That is just how it was for a couple of years until graduation. On the last day of school he randomly told me that he hoped we could stay in contact or hang out again sometime, and I just let out a “Heh, yeah that’d be cool yeah.”, but we haven’t spoken or seen each other again after that day. Maybe the odd text counts as communication, but it never held my interest. One time out of nowhere, he texted me a jar of jelly emoji, which I never responded to; only today did I check and noticed there is no jar of jelly emoji on my phone. Neither of us had moved for a few years, so the though of that house being so close to mine that whole time never stopped making me feel uneasy, especially when we would drive near or down his street, and my mom felt like asking about him every damn time for some reason, nearly giving me a panic attack each time. Maybe if I had went to therapy or opened up about it I could’ve started an adult life after graduation, but IMO, trauma never helps anyone grow into a stronger person. Others may be stronger than me in the first place to handle these things, but I’ve never felt that concept.

To jump back into the story though, it was about a year and a few moths after graduating high school. That night still haunted me and, I don’t know, it was just a strange week in my head. I had mustered up this idea to go back but I can’t imagine why. One day after driving down his street, I noticed that the cars at his house were gone from the driveway, and my mom mentioned to me that they had been for a while and they must’ve been on vacation, since nothing suggested that they moved out (their garage was always full of clutter and they never had parked the cars in there). The next day it just came out of my mouth to say that he texted me asking to hang out at his house and catch up from the years, since they just came home from vacation and he said that I would probably like to see some souvenirs he brought home. It was a good enough lie for the time.

I knew I would be breaking in, so I sneakily grabbed a hammer before I left the house just as it would be getting dark. I don’t know why I did any of this. I was haunted, traumatized, I didn’t feel like I could talk, and I sought peace and resolution so badly. I didn’t know where their family really was, but I figured, to hell with it, if the cops show up while I’m there, I’ll tell them to check out that room or I’d plead insanity or something; I spent the past four years or so being very depressed and fixated on this surreal memory, I didn’t really give a shit.

The walk to his house was a blur from being lost in my head, but I got there anyway. I put my hoodie up as cover, but that was about it. I know I wasn’t being discreet, but again, I didn’t really care. I only barely tried the front door, and of course it was locked, so I used my hammer on their window in the front of the house. I’ve always been weak, so it took me a few swings, and being louder than I should have, to get a break, but I did it. Maybe I was too numb to feel how sore my arms were. I cleared the spiky shards around the window and turned on my phone flashlight before climbing and stumbling into the house.

Being in the kitchen, it just clicked to me to think about his jelly sandwiches. Even by that point, that’s all I ever saw him eat. When I had looked back before, I never even saw anyone else in his family eat, but I was only there twice briefly so that never stood out to me. It was almost out of frustration or anger or spite that I wanted to find a jar of his jelly and smash it with the hammer or something, just as payback for the trauma I had been living with.

I opened their fridge to look for that fuckin stuff and I found it.

Yeah I found too much of it. I found a whole entire damn refrigerator full of red jelly. That is it. Same as the room upstairs was truly empty, this refrigerator was full of nothing but red jelly. I wasn’t horrified, I was disgusted. I took a jar out and set it on the counter. Homemade fuckin jelly. The cabinets? All jelly too. Every nook and cranny for where food should’ve been had homemade red jelly. I bet I didn’t even have to tell you that. Heck, did I see any bread for making sandwiches? No, not even a loaf of white bread. Maybe they took it with them to use while away. I think I can remember laughing that they still had standard junk and cutlery drawers, and beneath their sink had everything you’d expect as well. Like a cat, I just slid that jar of jelly off of the counter and watched it shatter. It just spilled out a little liquid, but mostly still gooped up like normal jelly. I was/am so angry that things weren’t weirder than that. Was I an ass for breaking in and being angry over a family that loves their jelly. They had a whiteboard in their kitchen for reminders and such(I saw it mentioned a vacation countdown), and I erased it fully before I took a marker, and I wrote, with much anger and shakiness in my hands, ‘Too much fuckin jelly. Eat something else besides fucking jelly! Fuck you, fuck your family, fuck your jelly, fuck your window, fuck this house, and fuck your fucking boring red room!’.

I dropped the marker on the counter and let out the breath I was holding in and breathed again. I stood there for just as long as I could while the anxiety crept in and I started to shake. Sometime during that standing I heard the creaking of floorboards from upstairs. I grabbed my phone before I even grabbed my thoughts, and thus it was another blur. As I made my way just a very short distance from the kitchen to the front door, I could clearly hear footsteps down the stairs. I do remember trying my best to be quick but also as silent as possible as I left through the door and leaving it wide open. I didn’t speed up my pace nor look back. I just walked home, quite similar to that last time, no more settled or at peace. I think that’s why I have to share the story now, because clearly breaking and entering didn’t help. I didn’t even have the guts to see that room again, and I’m sorry if you wanted to know if there was anything more to it. I got home and didn’t say much of note about what I was up to, or how I explained not being gone for much time, but nothing ever became of it. I never heard of a break-in report or anything. Moving away has been the biggest relief from that place I have ever had, and the only. The only evidence I have of any of this is just what I saw with my own eyes and have as memories. Sometimes you go through things that you just have to accept and live with because you’re a lonely person and are more used to facing loneliness than the pain of distrust and different looks. I just couldn’t stand the silent guilt anymore. I have been living with this experience, but it was hitting a point to where I didn’t want to live at all. I’ll certainly never be able to see a jar of strawberry jelly again without vomiting.

[flamehairedwritings]

First Hallowe’en

For Hallowe’en Prompts 2018! Thank you so, so much to the anon who requested this cute lil prompt:

‘Halloween one shot (or whatever you prefer!) with Hopper and Eleven and his wife pretty please! Maybe Eleven’s first Halloween allowed out or something, I’m just dying to see some Hopper family Halloween fluff! 🧡🖤🧡🖤 Thank you!’

I’m so sorry it’s so late!

El saw one Hallowe’en commercial on TV and now you are doing  e v e r y t h i n g.

Pumpkin carving? You’re taking her out to the fields and picking up every one she even vaguely likes and letting her take her time deciding between them. Of course she wants the biggest one, a notion spurred on by Hop insisting you have to have that one.

You’ll carve your chosen pumpkins the night before, a familiar and classic spooky face because they’re a classic, and set them up outside the front door with candles in. El will open the curtains every few minutes just to check they’re still glowing.

You’ll stay up all night finishing her costume because, right down to you tucking her in to bed, she was still undecided as to what she wanted to be.

At one point you just consider making a hybrid of everything and calling it a science experiment gone wrong.

Then she’ll finally decide and you and Hopper will share beers as you work through most of the night to complete the costume because you will NOT allow your girl to go out in something half-assed.

The next day, Hallowe’en celebrations will kick off immediately.

Breakfast will be Eggos with candy sprinkled over them, eaten whilst watching a family-friendly Hallowe’en movie.

El will want to get into her costume straight away so once the film’s over you’ll be getting her into it, quite a feat when she’s practically bouncing from foot to foot.

Then there’ll be more pumpkin carving, followed by baking ‘scary’ treats involving gummy eyeballs, chocolate chip spikes and jelly worms, though most of the supply will have been eaten the night before by Hopper.

After eating half of the treats you’ll box up the leftovers and watch whatever’s spooky themed on TV or what you rented from the video store.

And then it’ll be time: trick or treating time.

Empty bag in one hand, your hand in the other, El will grin from ear to ear as Hopper walks at her other side. She’ll stare at everything, point at everyone and, based on her friends suggestion, insist you go to Loch Nora for the best candy.

Lo and behold, there the boys will be already in their coordinated outfits, bouncing from foot to foot and laughing.

They’ll grin and yell at the sight of the three at you, though their attention will quickly divert to El and her outfit.

She’ll smile as they crowd around and compliment it, swiftly complimenting you and Hopper on your sewing skills before they’ve got their arms around her and are walking up the drive to Loch Nora.

After that, it’ll be all you and Hopper can do to keep up with them.

You’ll slip your hand into his as you stride after the kids, keeping your eyes firmly on them as Hopper mumbles that they’ll be fine, despite his pace matching yours.

Your feet will start to drag a little, though, after the first hour.

“How do kids have so much damn energy.” “It’s all that candy they eat.” “Maybe we should’ve brought out our own supply.” “I did.” “What? And you haven’t been sharing with me?” “Fine, you want one?” “Yes, please, Chief, thank you kindly.”

Another hour or so later, though, long after you and Hopper were convinced they’d have a sugar crash, Hop will announce that it’s time to turn in for the night.

“All right, all right, all right, enough of that,” he’ll grumble as the boys try to convince him otherwise and El pulls the face she’s learned will sometimes get you and Hop to change your minds.

This time, though, as the people you pass start to look slightly older and definitely not in costumes, your minds won’t be changed: it’s the teenagers time to appear.

Once satisfied that the boys’ll be okay after seeing them halfway home to Mike’s house, knowing they’re all staying over there, the three of you will head home.

That’s when the sugar crash will hit.

Carrying El to her room, Hop will set her down and promise her he’ll keep her candy hidden somewhere safe. You’ll help her out of her costume and into her pyjamas, after which she’ll crawl under the covers.

As you do most nights, you and Hopper will read to her, from a spooky book, naturally, though you’ll only make it through half a chapter before she’s asleep, exhausted from the excitement of the day.

Smiling at Hop, both your hearts bursting with love, you’ll gently tuck her in and quietly slip out of the room and to the living room.

Collapsing onto the couch and in to Hopper’s arms, he’ll produce his private candy stash from his pocket and settle it between you.

“What a day.” “What a day.” “... Is a sugar hangover a thing?” “I don’t know. Let’s find out.”

Let me know if you’d like to be tagged or removed in my future work!

HC Masterlist

Masterlist

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[clownsgobeepbeep]

👀 what is everyone’s Halloween plans?

I wrote so much X3 I apologize, I myself am very excited, didn't even exactly write all the characters

Ula, we already know what she's planning X3 Gotta make sure the streets are in check~

Pepper wants to maybe try and host a Halloween party at his grandparents' house, like something fun and energetic! But Mama Carol's like "I want a masquerade or something fancy and spooky", so unless he convinces her to do his idea instead, he's not gonna have that big party 

Cosmos, probably just give out candy if not go with the kids Trick or Treating X3 Still thinking about his costume, though Ula gave him a funny idea

Jelly is mainly focused on Ula, gotta make this Halloween fucking amazing for her. You want 10 pumpkins? 20? 30? The whole pumpkin patch? Spiderwebs everywhere? Your baby sibling as a pumpkin? Me as a costume of your choice? I will do it all for you my little oyster.

The D'Vitts have the rule that those who must have the most fun during Halloween are the children X3

Ace, not too excited...scary stuff...at least he's got a smol, tough girlfriend who will take care of him. He's still waiting for her to decide their costumes

Cuckoo, hyped. As. Fuck. Their whole circus is just even "darker", ya know? The woods? Halloween as heck. Their performers? Halloween as heck. Cuckoo? Halloween as fuck.

James...he doesn't really know. He used to like Halloween but mainly had bad memories of it now uwu Doesn't mean he won't give out candy though, he's gonna try his best to celebrate...even if there's (fake) spiders everywhere. Also, it's to get on Ula's good side but she would honestly spare the poor man. He's gonna get a shit ton of pumpkins, that's for sure. And who's gonna help carve them? Ula.