SqueakyBird520
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Weekly 3 (March 18-25)
Part One
While taking a walk one chilly autumn afternoon, Penelope Tellman finds herself face to face with a door that seemed to appear out of nowhere. It is in the center of an otherwise empty field, and seemed to lead nowhere. Just for fun, Penelope opens the door and a group of spirits exit in a flurry, claiming that they had all been murdered and trapped in an alternate dimension behind the door by the same individual but had not a clue who it was. They convince Penelope to help solve their murders.
Penelope begins to have dreams in which she sees a silhouette holding an ax that drips with blood. Each time has such a dream, a new clue appears at the mysterious door like a package. Three stick out as the most important. The first is a painting on a cloth, rough around the edges and only showing a mother and her little daughter. The next is an intricate key, with an oceanic design carved into it. The final clue is a box of broken wedding rings with the name “Iphigenia” carved onto the box.
Penelope asks the ghosts who Iphigenia is, and one comes forward. He holds sadness in his eyes as he explains that Iphegenia was a little girl, daughter of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon back in the days of Greece, who was sacrificed to Artemis so that the ships set for the Trojan War would be able to set sail. The words “Trojan War” make something click in Penelope’s mind. Suddenly, she sees visions of two women hugging each other tightly upon both their husbands leaving for war. She sees these two getting closer over the years they are without their spouses, and one slowly growing nearly insane. She sees the women each embracing their husbands once more when they return, but the insane one has a certain look in her eyes as she slyly looks towards an ax hanging on the wall. She sees a scene of the two embracing as spirits, their bond so strong that one might mistake them for lovers, and their souls merge. When the two come together, Penelope feels a sense of familiarity with the new soul, and panicked at this association, puts the key into the door. Rather than showing wherever the spirits had come from, there is just a hallway with a large mirror at the end. When she looks in the mirror, she sees the merged souls together live a human life once more, a life in which the insane part of the soul kills who are now the spirits while the sane one is peacefully unaware. She sees that life die, and another come of the same soul. Penelope is shocked to see that it is her. The moment she speaks in words that she killed the spirits, they all disappear as their final burden has been solved.
Penelope stares in horror at her reflection, which has turned into one of the women, the sane one, embracing her husband. She sees and hears the sane woman sob, “I thought you’d never come back, Odysseus.” as her husband shushes her and says “Cry not, Penelope. I’m home.” After Penelope processes that she shares her name with this woman, the scene changes to the woman Penelope had seen in her dreams, standing in the light. It is the insane woman, about to be killed by her two remaining children, crying, “THE WORLD WILL REMEMBER THE NAME CLYTEMNESTRA!” The mirror turns back to Penelope’s reflection as she sees she has the features of both the sane and insane woman. Processing this information, Penelope’s insane side begins to show as well as she goes into a bout of madness.
Penelope’s madness is that she wishes to kill whoever wronged her most, whoever she could blame for her insanity surfacing. But when she realizes that the insanity was brought on by visions of herself and the woman who had lived such a nice life, the Clytemnestra half has only herself to blame aside from the spirits and the door. So, Penelope finds a hemlock plant, crushes it and places it in water, returns to the door, and consumes the plant while inside. As her final action, she takes her ax and breaks the door so she can never leave and kill someone again.
721 words!
Part Two
Clue: The design on the door is of a doe, a symbol of Artemis. The doe is golden with silver antlers and hooves, standing in a lush forest and watching over a baby deer of the same appearance as it tries to stand up. Silver and gold colors will also be used to spell “Iphigenia”.
Red Herring: The spirits don’t know that the woman who killed them was Penelope/Clytemnestra reborn. They believe it was just some psycho who killed them just decades ago, so all the mythology symbolism will contrast with the spirits’ claims of being murdered much more recently than not soon after the Trojan War.
Clue: There will be a single horse that lives in the field, which slowly appears to look more wooden as time goes on. This is a reference to the Trojan Horse, not just for sticking with the theme, but because it symbolizes Penelope, as she is sweet on the outside yet secretly a murderer.
Red Herring: The box of broken wedding rings (there are fifty) do not contain any owned by the forty-five spirits. None recognize the rings, and all acknowledge that they look newer than their case, as if freshly made and immediately broken. There is, in reality, one ring for each of Peneleope’s suitors that were killed at the hands of Odysseus for his reunion with Penelope.
221 words!
Part Three
https://scratch.mit.edu/users/SqueakyBird520/#comments-320561477
262 words!
Part Four
Through the piercing chill of early autumn’s air, a teenage girl walked, almost home.
The girl, Penelope Tellman, turned on to her rural street and passed by the empty field just beside her house. But on that day, the field was not empty.
In the field was a brown horse, but more noticeable was a door with a silver and gold doe painted on it. The doe was in a forest, tending to a much younger one that looked the same.
Penelope looked at the door curiously, and approached it to see if there was anything supporting it. She noticed that there were hinges, and there was indeed a frame around it, but it seemed as though it was never part of a wall. Just for the fun of it, Penelope opened the door.
As the door opened, Penelope leaped backwards in shock as forty-five ghosts exited the door in a flurry. Penelope looked through the opened door and saw pure indigo on the other side, yet knew that there was no other side to the door.
One of the spirits spoke.
“Hello,” he said in a raspy voice, “we need your assistance.”
“In what?” The scared girl asked.
A second ghost came forward.
“A few decades ago, we were all murdered. Different days, sometimes different years, but all killed by the same individual.”
“Who?” Penelope inquired.
“That’s the thing. We don’t know. But we do know that they trapped us all behind that door, never to escape until it opened again.”
Penelope was shocked. “Do you have any clue as to who it was?”
The first ghost shook his head. “No, but as the one who freed us from there, it is the best we can do to figure it out to ask you for help.”
Penelope nodded, not processing any of this and not even entirely sure it was real. After she gave the ghosts her word that she would do her best to solve their murders, she went home.
That night, Penelope was plagued by visions. She saw a silhouette of a woman, the same woman every time, standing over various bodies with an ax that dripped with blood. She saw the woman looking at herself in the mirror, but the reflection’s hair appeared more unkempt than the silhouette herself. She saw the woman embracing her husband, who was just arriving home, but had the feeling this was a different time period entirely from the other scenes.
The next day, Penelope returned to the door, wondering if her dreams were a clue. As she arrived, she noticed that there was something lying at the foot of the door.
It was a painting on a piece of cloth, one that looked ancient yet brand new, that was clearly torn. The piece showed a woman, one with the same shape as the woman in Penelope’s dreams, with a young girl. But neither were wearing the attire of the time period in which the spirits died.
Penelope searched every site she could think of for who this woman might be, asked if any of the spirits could identify her, but nothing came up. Apparently, the woman’s features weren’t even entirely the same as the murderer’s. On that night, Penelope had another dream.
This time, there was a silhouette of the same woman, but living a different life. This woman did normal things, such as go to the grocery store to pick up more eggs or head over to a friend’s house for dinner. But in the third scene, once more, the woman was different. She took on a different appearance, the silhouette changing into someone else entirely, as she embraced a different husband. This embrace was filled with much more affection than the previous night’s.
When Penelope returned to the door the next morning, she discovered a key with an oceanic design in the same place the cloth painting had been the day before. She compared the key and the lock on the door’s knob, and they seemed to fit, but no matter what, something kept the key from going in.
The final sequence of dreams Penelope had before discovering who was behind the murder was of the woman once more, but a time before she was a murderer. She saw the woman playing a dice game with the woman from the previous night. She saw both of them bringing their young sons to play with each other, and sitting down for a chat while the boys had their fun. She saw them part ways, and somehow knew that this was the last time the two women would see each other in their lives.
On the third morning, Penelope found a box of fifty broken wedding rings at the mystery door. The box was plain, except for the single word “Iphigenia” painted on the lid in the same gold and silver as the doe on the door.
“Are any of these rings yours?”
Each spirit went up to investigate the rings, but it seemed none belonged to any of them. Wondering if “Iphigenia” was a clue, Penelope asked what the word meant.
The second ghost from the first day stepped forward.
“Iphigenia was the daughter of Clytemnestra and Agammemnon, the mythical figures. She was sacrificed to Artemis so that the ships could set sail for the Trojan War.”
Upon hearing the words “Trojan War”, something clicked inside Penelope’s mind.
She saw the two women she had been dreaming about over the last few nights, in full color rather than dark silhouettes. She saw them each watch their husbands leave for war, praying they would be back soon. She saw them bond while their husbands were away, drawing closer and closer. She saw one woman, the one from the first night, slowly going more and more insane, but the other woman did not care. Once more, she saw each woman embrace their husbands when they returned. With the first woman, she embraced her husband and, when he wasn’t looking, let her eyes wander to an ax on the wall. She saw the second woman embrace her husband, saying “I thought you’d never come back, Odysseus.” She saw him respond, “Shush, Penelope, worry not. I’m home.”
Suddenly, Penelope saw the first woman, the insane one, again, confronted by her two remaining children. As she was about to be struck by her own blood, she cried, “THE WORLD WILL REMEMBER THE NAME CLYTEMNESTRA!”
Not knowing how she could see this or why, Penelope (who was also still trying to process having the same name as the sane woman) tried once more to insert the oceanic key into the lock on the door.
This time, it worked, and when she opened the door, it was not the indigo place. Instead, there was a long hallway with a large mirror at the end.
Penelope was scared, but she approached the mirror. Within it, she saw the women again.
Penelope and Clytemnestra.
They were embracing once more, this time as spirits, their bond so strong that the two might as well be sisters. So strong that their souls began to merge upon their reunion.
Penelope (the investigating one) watched as the merged soul was born again, into a new woman. This woman had noticeable features from both women, and held an ax that dripped with blood.
The woman had a sinister smile, and looked Penelope right in the eyes. Then, the murderess seemed to evaporate, before her soul was born again.
As Penelope.
Penelope turned back to see the ghosts, shocked.
“I… I killed you.”
The ghosts finally disappeared, as their murder had finally been solved.
1270 words!
Total: 2464 words!
Part One
While taking a walk one chilly autumn afternoon, Penelope Tellman finds herself face to face with a door that seemed to appear out of nowhere. It is in the center of an otherwise empty field, and seemed to lead nowhere. Just for fun, Penelope opens the door and a group of spirits exit in a flurry, claiming that they had all been murdered and trapped in an alternate dimension behind the door by the same individual but had not a clue who it was. They convince Penelope to help solve their murders.
Penelope begins to have dreams in which she sees a silhouette holding an ax that drips with blood. Each time has such a dream, a new clue appears at the mysterious door like a package. Three stick out as the most important. The first is a painting on a cloth, rough around the edges and only showing a mother and her little daughter. The next is an intricate key, with an oceanic design carved into it. The final clue is a box of broken wedding rings with the name “Iphigenia” carved onto the box.
Penelope asks the ghosts who Iphigenia is, and one comes forward. He holds sadness in his eyes as he explains that Iphegenia was a little girl, daughter of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon back in the days of Greece, who was sacrificed to Artemis so that the ships set for the Trojan War would be able to set sail. The words “Trojan War” make something click in Penelope’s mind. Suddenly, she sees visions of two women hugging each other tightly upon both their husbands leaving for war. She sees these two getting closer over the years they are without their spouses, and one slowly growing nearly insane. She sees the women each embracing their husbands once more when they return, but the insane one has a certain look in her eyes as she slyly looks towards an ax hanging on the wall. She sees a scene of the two embracing as spirits, their bond so strong that one might mistake them for lovers, and their souls merge. When the two come together, Penelope feels a sense of familiarity with the new soul, and panicked at this association, puts the key into the door. Rather than showing wherever the spirits had come from, there is just a hallway with a large mirror at the end. When she looks in the mirror, she sees the merged souls together live a human life once more, a life in which the insane part of the soul kills who are now the spirits while the sane one is peacefully unaware. She sees that life die, and another come of the same soul. Penelope is shocked to see that it is her. The moment she speaks in words that she killed the spirits, they all disappear as their final burden has been solved.
Penelope stares in horror at her reflection, which has turned into one of the women, the sane one, embracing her husband. She sees and hears the sane woman sob, “I thought you’d never come back, Odysseus.” as her husband shushes her and says “Cry not, Penelope. I’m home.” After Penelope processes that she shares her name with this woman, the scene changes to the woman Penelope had seen in her dreams, standing in the light. It is the insane woman, about to be killed by her two remaining children, crying, “THE WORLD WILL REMEMBER THE NAME CLYTEMNESTRA!” The mirror turns back to Penelope’s reflection as she sees she has the features of both the sane and insane woman. Processing this information, Penelope’s insane side begins to show as well as she goes into a bout of madness.
Penelope’s madness is that she wishes to kill whoever wronged her most, whoever she could blame for her insanity surfacing. But when she realizes that the insanity was brought on by visions of herself and the woman who had lived such a nice life, the Clytemnestra half has only herself to blame aside from the spirits and the door. So, Penelope finds a hemlock plant, crushes it and places it in water, returns to the door, and consumes the plant while inside. As her final action, she takes her ax and breaks the door so she can never leave and kill someone again.
721 words!
Part Two
Clue: The design on the door is of a doe, a symbol of Artemis. The doe is golden with silver antlers and hooves, standing in a lush forest and watching over a baby deer of the same appearance as it tries to stand up. Silver and gold colors will also be used to spell “Iphigenia”.
Red Herring: The spirits don’t know that the woman who killed them was Penelope/Clytemnestra reborn. They believe it was just some psycho who killed them just decades ago, so all the mythology symbolism will contrast with the spirits’ claims of being murdered much more recently than not soon after the Trojan War.
Clue: There will be a single horse that lives in the field, which slowly appears to look more wooden as time goes on. This is a reference to the Trojan Horse, not just for sticking with the theme, but because it symbolizes Penelope, as she is sweet on the outside yet secretly a murderer.
Red Herring: The box of broken wedding rings (there are fifty) do not contain any owned by the forty-five spirits. None recognize the rings, and all acknowledge that they look newer than their case, as if freshly made and immediately broken. There is, in reality, one ring for each of Peneleope’s suitors that were killed at the hands of Odysseus for his reunion with Penelope.
221 words!
Part Three
https://scratch.mit.edu/users/SqueakyBird520/#comments-320561477
262 words!
Part Four
Through the piercing chill of early autumn’s air, a teenage girl walked, almost home.
The girl, Penelope Tellman, turned on to her rural street and passed by the empty field just beside her house. But on that day, the field was not empty.
In the field was a brown horse, but more noticeable was a door with a silver and gold doe painted on it. The doe was in a forest, tending to a much younger one that looked the same.
Penelope looked at the door curiously, and approached it to see if there was anything supporting it. She noticed that there were hinges, and there was indeed a frame around it, but it seemed as though it was never part of a wall. Just for the fun of it, Penelope opened the door.
As the door opened, Penelope leaped backwards in shock as forty-five ghosts exited the door in a flurry. Penelope looked through the opened door and saw pure indigo on the other side, yet knew that there was no other side to the door.
One of the spirits spoke.
“Hello,” he said in a raspy voice, “we need your assistance.”
“In what?” The scared girl asked.
A second ghost came forward.
“A few decades ago, we were all murdered. Different days, sometimes different years, but all killed by the same individual.”
“Who?” Penelope inquired.
“That’s the thing. We don’t know. But we do know that they trapped us all behind that door, never to escape until it opened again.”
Penelope was shocked. “Do you have any clue as to who it was?”
The first ghost shook his head. “No, but as the one who freed us from there, it is the best we can do to figure it out to ask you for help.”
Penelope nodded, not processing any of this and not even entirely sure it was real. After she gave the ghosts her word that she would do her best to solve their murders, she went home.
That night, Penelope was plagued by visions. She saw a silhouette of a woman, the same woman every time, standing over various bodies with an ax that dripped with blood. She saw the woman looking at herself in the mirror, but the reflection’s hair appeared more unkempt than the silhouette herself. She saw the woman embracing her husband, who was just arriving home, but had the feeling this was a different time period entirely from the other scenes.
The next day, Penelope returned to the door, wondering if her dreams were a clue. As she arrived, she noticed that there was something lying at the foot of the door.
It was a painting on a piece of cloth, one that looked ancient yet brand new, that was clearly torn. The piece showed a woman, one with the same shape as the woman in Penelope’s dreams, with a young girl. But neither were wearing the attire of the time period in which the spirits died.
Penelope searched every site she could think of for who this woman might be, asked if any of the spirits could identify her, but nothing came up. Apparently, the woman’s features weren’t even entirely the same as the murderer’s. On that night, Penelope had another dream.
This time, there was a silhouette of the same woman, but living a different life. This woman did normal things, such as go to the grocery store to pick up more eggs or head over to a friend’s house for dinner. But in the third scene, once more, the woman was different. She took on a different appearance, the silhouette changing into someone else entirely, as she embraced a different husband. This embrace was filled with much more affection than the previous night’s.
When Penelope returned to the door the next morning, she discovered a key with an oceanic design in the same place the cloth painting had been the day before. She compared the key and the lock on the door’s knob, and they seemed to fit, but no matter what, something kept the key from going in.
The final sequence of dreams Penelope had before discovering who was behind the murder was of the woman once more, but a time before she was a murderer. She saw the woman playing a dice game with the woman from the previous night. She saw both of them bringing their young sons to play with each other, and sitting down for a chat while the boys had their fun. She saw them part ways, and somehow knew that this was the last time the two women would see each other in their lives.
On the third morning, Penelope found a box of fifty broken wedding rings at the mystery door. The box was plain, except for the single word “Iphigenia” painted on the lid in the same gold and silver as the doe on the door.
“Are any of these rings yours?”
Each spirit went up to investigate the rings, but it seemed none belonged to any of them. Wondering if “Iphigenia” was a clue, Penelope asked what the word meant.
The second ghost from the first day stepped forward.
“Iphigenia was the daughter of Clytemnestra and Agammemnon, the mythical figures. She was sacrificed to Artemis so that the ships could set sail for the Trojan War.”
Upon hearing the words “Trojan War”, something clicked inside Penelope’s mind.
She saw the two women she had been dreaming about over the last few nights, in full color rather than dark silhouettes. She saw them each watch their husbands leave for war, praying they would be back soon. She saw them bond while their husbands were away, drawing closer and closer. She saw one woman, the one from the first night, slowly going more and more insane, but the other woman did not care. Once more, she saw each woman embrace their husbands when they returned. With the first woman, she embraced her husband and, when he wasn’t looking, let her eyes wander to an ax on the wall. She saw the second woman embrace her husband, saying “I thought you’d never come back, Odysseus.” She saw him respond, “Shush, Penelope, worry not. I’m home.”
Suddenly, Penelope saw the first woman, the insane one, again, confronted by her two remaining children. As she was about to be struck by her own blood, she cried, “THE WORLD WILL REMEMBER THE NAME CLYTEMNESTRA!”
Not knowing how she could see this or why, Penelope (who was also still trying to process having the same name as the sane woman) tried once more to insert the oceanic key into the lock on the door.
This time, it worked, and when she opened the door, it was not the indigo place. Instead, there was a long hallway with a large mirror at the end.
Penelope was scared, but she approached the mirror. Within it, she saw the women again.
Penelope and Clytemnestra.
They were embracing once more, this time as spirits, their bond so strong that the two might as well be sisters. So strong that their souls began to merge upon their reunion.
Penelope (the investigating one) watched as the merged soul was born again, into a new woman. This woman had noticeable features from both women, and held an ax that dripped with blood.
The woman had a sinister smile, and looked Penelope right in the eyes. Then, the murderess seemed to evaporate, before her soul was born again.
As Penelope.
Penelope turned back to see the ghosts, shocked.
“I… I killed you.”
The ghosts finally disappeared, as their murder had finally been solved.
1270 words!
Total: 2464 words!