You awake to the sounds of the train wheel rattling steadily along the track. You lie in you sleeper for a moment, listening to the sound and avoiding the excitement of the coming day. It's is the noise of the girl across the aisle that finally draws you awake.
"Will this train ride never end?"
You look out into the aisle to see your aisle mate sitting restlessly on the edge of her sleeper.
You hush her and say quietly, "Do you want to wake everyone up?"
She looks at you indignantly and somewhat fondly, "They're already up sleepyhead."
Slowly the events of the past few weeks make their way into your mind.
You have been selected as one of eight finalists in the World's Greatest Horror Writer competition. Although it has a generic name, the competition is supposedly funded by publishers from around the world to present the greatest horror artists of the current day to the world. The winner, chosen for their entry as well as an in person interview to which the eight of you are now going, will win a free publishing of their works.
Although it is a writer's competition the finalists themselves have very distinct specialties not all of which are their writing abilities.
This girl across from you is Dee, a vivacious and spunky young girl whose claim to fame is the incredible artwork that she includes with her works. Her unusual art is able to capture the essence of what is normally mediocre writing and find fears in the reader that they didn't even know they had.
John, the moody punk further down the aisle is best known for his public appearances and publicity stunts. Although his writing had merit, it is his very public yet dark and quiet personality that makes his writing so popular.
Shannon, sitting across from John, would appear to be the publishers' favorite in this competition. Her writing is consistently engaging and entertaining, yet never mold-breaking or too unconventional. Also, she has brought more works to the public through her website and monthly publications than anyone else in the competition.
Sitting contently behind you is Dan. Although all of you are from very different parts of the world you all communicate in English, probably because literature in the English language is the most prolific in the world, except for Dan that is. Dan is a quiet fellow that will occasionally have an outburst during which the other competitors either try to settle him or just ignore him. Dee is the only one on board who can even vaguely understand his language, but Dan expressed no interest - in his halting grasp of English - to get any preferential treatment such as a translator. And so, he sits quietly, not quite listening to the conversations going on around him, and stewing inwardly his next outburst. From what you've been told his writing is phenomenal, but you believe that it is his profoundly foreign nature that has brought him here.
Across from him is Amanda, who would be the winner today if only for her confidence and presence of character. Her writing is more art than literature. She does more research on her work than anyone else in the competition, and her works are all carefully planned out before any writing is done. Although this methodical planning would not seem to lend itself well to horror literature, it is precisely her eerily perfect plots and the quirky ways that she plays with the human psyche that makes her writing so unsettling.
Behind her is Jimbo. This fun and flamboyant kid is here by the skin of his teeth and loving every minute of it. Of all of you he seems to be the only one enjoying the ride of the competition. His work is mediocre but it is his excellent attitude and charming personality that have gotten him to this point. If the interview you are all going to has a significant amount of weight, he will be the winner. More than just that though, it is his unsettlingly good attitude that makes him such a scary personality in this business. A few glimpses in his works lead you to believe that there is more to him than what everyone sees, and worse, you believe he doesn't even know it's there. You believe he is capable of much more real Horror than any of you have ever written about.
Finally, across from Jimbo, there is Jeff. He sits quietly scribbling manically in his notebook. His works are utter terror and often complete madness. Although they lack any sort of plot, or sense for that matter, his work is most capable of leaving even the most stalwart with night terrors for weeks to come. He is the complete the opposite of Amanda. His inspiration flows almost constantly and he takes little time away from his notebook to socialize.
-By Jim Albert, 2004
Original Role-Play story by Jeff