Charmaine Chan: Short Story Proposal

Exposition: The story takes place in Covington, a remotely rural city in Georgia. It is 1930, right in the midst of the Great Depression. Alexandria Rone is a small town girl who had lost both her parents when she was merely an infant. Under the care of her caring aunt Cindy, she grows up to become an energetic and jubilant teenager. For Alexandria, Cindy is her hero and role model, and Alexandria obeys Cindy’s every word without hesitation.

Inciting incident: One day, as Alexandria feeds the horses in the stable, she hears an eerie sound - the butchering of an animal of some sort. She takes a deep breath and decides to ignore it, and persistently tells herself that she must be disillusioned. Alexandria returns to the house and begins to prepare supper.

Rising Action: Alexandria begins to cut up the vegetables, throwing on an apron as she goes. She is peacefully humming to herself until she sees a distinctive blood stain on her apron. She touches it and notices that the blood sticks to her fingers. It is definitely fresh blood. This is extremely queer to Alexandria because everyone is vegetarian in the household. Alexandria has an uneasy feeling about this, and decides to head back to the stable to check if the blood on her apron has anything has to do with the strange sound in the stable.

Climax: Alexandria’s heart is racing. She’s walking at an unsteady pace to the stable, stepping on the crisp autumn leaves with her boots as she goes. When she finally reaches the stable she wants to turn back, to chicken out, but gathers the courage and continues to step inside. As she steps closer to storage room where the hay is kept, she catches a whiff of stale meat and grimaces. She turns the doorknob to the room, and shrieks in horror. In the storage room lay about a dozen decaying bodies, and in the middle a butchering table was placed. The room was undeniably a butchering room for humans.

Falling Action: Alexandria pulls herself together, and frantically runs back to the house, heading directly to the living room. As soon as she spots the telephone, she grabs it with both of her shaky hands. She forces herself to cooperate, to maintain her sanity, and to remember how to dial to the police station.

Resolution: The police arrive and Cindy is put into jail for the rest of her life. Alexandria cannot stabilize her emotions from the event, and decides to see a psychiatrist.

Dénouement: Five years later, Alexandria heals from the mental scarring that her aunt had inflicted upon her. She moves on with her life, and later on gets married and settles down in Michigan. However, her experience with Cindy will forever resonate with her. Aside from haunting her, Alexandria’s past has taught her to always doubt, and always question those around her. After all, who knows if one day she will find her husband to be a killer or criminal of some sort?