Elizabeth
Written: June 3, 2002
I'm making this little file an "afterward" instead of a "forward" because of the O. Henry like twist at the end. If you haven't read the story yet, you should go back and read it before this, because that's really what I want to talk about, the twist.
On the surface, this story is just a pseudo-lame horror story with a little bondage thrown in, sort of a mixture of Night Stalker (Google it kiddies, I grew up on that show) and Twilight Zone. The reason I use the word lame is that if you take the twist of the story out (I'll get to that next) you don't really have anything more than a drunk picking up more than he bargained for and then getting ripped apart by what could be a monster - you never really know what Elizabeth is because the story is told from the drunk's perspective. So, on the face, it is sort of a formula story.
But the thing that makes this story a little bit better actually was unplanned and had nothing to do with the story as it originally ran in the newsies. In that original version, there was no punch line at the end. Elizabeth was really just Elizabeth, whatever she was. The drunk really does know her from some earlier escapade and now she's back for revenge for something that is never revealed - just gratuitous bondage and blood. But here's the twist: after I ran the original story I drew the attention of a freak of sorts who responded to the story with compliments as well as the insistence that I was the title character. He actually was playing the part of the drunk in the earlier parts of the story, whether he realized it or not - some poor soul who is mistaken me for someone else. He continued to post in the newsies that I (Elizabeth) should have kicked the hard drugs long ago and that he was ready to take me back into the fold - my writing indicated to him that I was ready as well. What??? I played around for a little bit, responding to him in the newsies as Elizabeth would, thinking I could get some kicks and a little mileage out of our bantering and then it just got old. He was serious about helping Elizabeth return to the sanity he thought she had lost because of her drugging and whoring. (Do you see what fame and fortune brings you?)
So, after I repeatedly tried to tell him I was kidding and that I wasn't Elizabeth, I just stopped responding to him and eventually his posts to the newsies petered out. But in the time it took me to get the story ready for my the web page I had created then (formatting and editing) I thought it would be great to add that punch line and to turn the whole story around. It really became the story of mistaken identity with a horrible price paid by the poor drunk. The last vicious lines at the end are my response to the guy from the newsies - who went by the name of ... Bubba.
Also, as a side note, this is the story that got a special someone who would become one of my best and closest friends to write with her compliments. Any wonder why Elizabeth ended up as one of my favorite stories?
Toran