CTS Writes

So for my first crack at the NYC Midnight Rhyming Story challenge I made it through to round two which I am delighted by, but sadly my round 2 entry didn’t make it through to the final. However I’m still incredibly proud I managed to write *something* that rhymed, that ticked the boxes of being a horror, involved a hobby and someone feeling wired.

DREAD THE DENTIST

Every December, Cancun to Kildare,

Kids scribble their lists, every wish, every prayer,

Dispatched to Lapland for Santa to see,

In hope that their gifts will appear by the tree.

But fewer folks know of another abode,

In an old English town, on a bleak country road.

Where a mythical figure always replied,

The price to be paid for the presents inside.

When tiny teeth teeter and totter about,

Mums and Dads know they’ll soon tumble out.

A letter is written and popped in the post,

Addressed “Dearest Tooth Fairy, Dentifrice Close.”

Little is known of this legend’s ID,

Who opens enamel-filled missives with glee.

In deep darkest Devon, a secretive man,

Fiendishly forging the craftiest plan.

His name is Tobias, surname is Dread,

A haggardly hermit who lives in a shed.

His former profession he fondly recalls,

Collections of cuspids bedecking the walls.

Nothing gives Dread more rapturous pangs,

Than rows upon rows of children’s lost fangs.

He sits and he scrivens, all day and all night,

His bills of sale for gifts of pearliest white.

“Dear Master Garfield, your incisor’s fine!

I grant you payment of two ninety-nine.”

Then, when the parents receive the riposte,

Leave sums under pillows for young molars lost.

But lone in his home, Tobias grows glum.

Waiting for caches of canines to come.

None dare to visit his hut on the heath,

The postman stops knocking with parcels of teeth.

Tobias Dread paces, his heart rate increases,

His crowning achievement is still missing pieces.

He conjures a thought until now he’d condemn,

“If teeth will not come, I must go to them!”

Excitedly Dread lets his scheme start to form.

“I’ll target a sweetshop where young ones will swarm!”

Into the centre of town, he then trudges,

Where sticky kids cluster with gumballs and fudges.

Seeing them chomping and chewing ahead,

Tobias collapses, his hands on his head.

“I can’t harvest here! Common sense I’ve forgotten!”

These toffee-stuck teeth surely all will be rotten!”

Suddenly, thinking he’s fresh out of choice,

“Why are you sad?” comes a sweet little voice.

Tobias looks up from his pitiful space,

To bright ivory rows and an angelic face.

“My name is Tooth Fairy,” Dread bemoans, chilling,

“My roof has a hole that needs urgently filling.”

“I have some gum you can use for your gap,”

Says the kind little girl dropping some in his lap.

“I’ve an idea,” exclaims Dread, now berserk.

“Give me a hand and I’ll show you my work!”

He grabs the poor girl cowering meek as a mouse,

To drag her in silence to Tooth Fairy’s house.

Suddenly she freezes, her skin flashes white.

Paralysed by the most terrible sight,

The youngster then stumbles, her legs fall beneath,

The shamed dentist’s home is entirely of teeth.

“A fine set of gnashers you’ve got in your head,

I’d quite like to have them adorning my bed.”

Some old rusty pliers hang down by his side,

“No screaming,” Dread whispers, “now just open wide…”