Three Random Tropes 01: Snaps
Leave No Survivors Green-Eyed Epiphany Curtain Clothing
Open on a dinner party. Clinking wine glasses, golden and white linens everywhere, and a buffet line the length of a city block. Jenny wants to celebrate her best friend (and boss) Monica’s birthday, and she pulled out all the stops on the swanky affair. Jenny rents out this beautiful ballroom in a hotel, invites nearly everyone at Monica’s law firm, and all their friends, and even gets the best dining service she knows in the city to cater the event. Nothing could possibly go wrong!
Then Bradley shows up. He’s this up-and-coming employee at the firm, and Monica’s had his eye on him for quite some time. Jenny thought it was all professional, and then Bradley comes in, with his fancy three-piece suit, sterling silver cuff links in the shape of his initials, and ebony shoes so shiny, Jenny’s dark skin shown in them very clearly. Monica has bedroom eyes, and a little thread in the back of Jenny’s mind just... snaps.
Jenny makes all the arrangements of her 30th birthday for Monica, and all her attention is on this... this... guy. Men like Bradley are pigs, and they come a dime a dozen. Jenny is different! She’s well-respected, determined, and only more than rightfully deserving of Monica. Jenny grabs the tablecloth off one of the standing tables, and runs off to the bathroom.
A few minutes pass, and Monica is wondering where her BFFL ran off to. Then Jenny comes back. She has cast off her powder-blue, office-casual dress, and now sports the golden and white tablecloth as the most amazing dress Monica has ever seen. Jenny even decided to put on a few layers of makeup, and if she had the means to upholster something to her heels, she would have done that, too.
Monica. Is. Floored. How could she possibly resist Jenny now? Well, Bradley can think of one way. The man swaggers over to Jenny and immediately makes conversation. Bradley never knew such a hot gal worked in his law firm. Monica. Is. Furious.
She looks around the room, and all eyes are on Jenny. As the three-tier birthday cake (that might be confused for a colorful wedding cake at any other party) rolls out of the kitchen and the band begins to play the song we all know, Monica feels betrayed. How could her BFFL, who planned this whole thing so she could be the star of the show, suddenly steal her spotlight, right as the party was just beginning? In reality, the party was three hours in, but that didn’t matter to Monica. No one deserves to leave the party without seeing just how important Monica really is. She takes the cake-cutting knife, and with a lustful gleam in her eye, a little thread in the back of Monica’s mind just... snaps.
The gold and white motif incorporates into Jenny’s dress suddenly takes on a crimson hue. Then Bradley gets red on him. By the time the party-goers realize something is wrong, all the doors are locked. And when everyone notices the cell service in this basement ballroom is terrible, panic ensues. It’s like they’re running right into Monica’s knife. And after minutes pass, when the police finally arrive, Monica stands on the still-warm corpses of her former lover and her former BFFL, blood-stained teeth bared in a sick smile. When she attacks the cops with the knife, she knows that she will finally get the recognition she deserves. Or at least her name will make it onto next morning’s news reel...
[Author’s note: The second and third tropes were rather simple to integrate, since they both belong in the same-ish genre of sitcom. The first, however, typically belongs in some adventure story. But since I had trouble create some Hero’s Journey using the other two tropes, it had to be some horror twist, with a main character performing the massacre. Thus, we get this Cinderella-meets-Carrie synopsis. I could probably flesh it out more into a short story, if I really cared. This was written probably in the span of an hour, just as a way to exercise my creative muscle. It doesn’t have to make sense.]
This is the first in a series of writing exercises, where I go to tvtropes.org and click random three times. I then try to make a story/synopsis based on these three random tropes, hence the title Three Random Tropes. Send me an ask with your thoughts, or if you have any ideas for writing prompts I should try out.