For X, I’m X-tending…The Continuing Story of Jane Storegoer and the Cone of Evil

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2812307328_e98beafab9I know, I know, I could choose a legitimate obscure word that legitimately starts with X, but I’ve got to admit, the strange little tale I concocted while illustrating villains spurred ideas in me like…well, like ice cream spurs cellulite (it totally doesn’t. I swear. I just made that up for literary purposes. Ice cream is awesome. Well, most ice cream).

So I am “X”-tending it. I hope it amuses you as much as it amuses me.

For anyone who missed it, here it is, Part 1 of The Continuing Story of Jane Storegoer and the Cone of Evil:

Jane went to the store. Jane dug an ice cream cone out of the deepest corner of the freezer, loosening the ice around it to pry it out.

“How dare you disturb my frozen rest!” the ice cream cone bellowed, shooting a barrage of sprinkles at Jane. She felt herself growing cold. “I curse you, I curse you, Jane Storegoer, and all of your descendants. My expiration date, long since past, earned me eternal freezitude, and you have defrosted it.”

Jane tried to loosen her grip on the cone, but like a tongue on a cold fence pole, her hand stayed put. The shelves around her wavered and dissolved into a crystal white, extending far beyond her sight above her. The ice cream cone grew and grew until it towered, glaring down at her with its peanut eyes. Walled in on all sides, ice clumped like boulders along the vertical expanse, she felt a smooth surface beneath her feet. It gave slightly.

“Where are we?” she said. She bent, brushing the fallen ice beneath her shoes. Was that…an Amy’s frozen Breakfast Scramble box? “Is this the freezer? Am I in the freezer?”

“Mwaahhh haaaa haaa,” laughed the ice cream cone evilly.

“But if I’m in the freezer, how can you curse my descendants? I don’t have any, unless you count my parakeet. You wouldn’t count a parakeet, would you? I think there’s something wrong with this plan here.”

“Mwaahhh haaaa haaa,” said the ice cream cone again, mainly for emphasis.

***

And on to Part 2:

“I really wish you’d stop doing that,” Jane said, crisscrossing her forearms to rub her goose-pimpled flesh with her numbing fingers. She shouldn’t have left her jacket in the car. But it was a warm day, and she was only running in for an ice cream cone.

“I’ve been practicing my laugh for centuries,” the cone said, one sprinkled eyebrow arched high, “and I’m going to make the most of it.”

“You’ve been in this freezer?” Jane leaned against the freezer wall, but as the ice bit into her back, thought better of it.

“Yep.” The ice cream cone nodded, which looked mainly like the ice cream trying to wobble its way off the soggy waffle base.

Eyes narrowed, Jane angled her head. “For centuries?”

“Yah-huh.” With scrunched frosty lips, the ice cream cone leaned menacingly toward Jane. “Got a problem with that?”

“Yeah. Freezers have only been around for like, a hundred years or something.”

“I’ll have you know the first ice-making machine was invented in 1854!” the cone roared, close enough to Jane to cast her in a cloud of his chilly vanilla-scented breath.

She stepped a tad closer to the cone to get another whiff of a delicious exhale, the box under her bowing a little more. “But that’s not a freezer. And it’s not even enough to say ‘centuries.’ One-and-a-half, tops.”

“It’s called hyperbole!” Like a simmering volcano of frozen confection, a flow of chocolate fudge started at the top of his swirly peak and ran slowly down, gliding lumpily over the sprinkles. Jane couldn’t take her eyes off it. “Do not underestimate powers of my creamy magic!”

Without even thinking, Jane took another step nearer, reaching out with curved fingers for a swipe of that enticing chocolate rivulet.

“Do you have to yell everything? We’re in a closed freezer, I can totally hear–” is as far she got, as the frozen breakfast box buckled beneath her. Down, down she plunged. She clawed at the remains of the box, trying desperately to slow her descent, the soggy cardboard tearing away in her hands.

***

Yeah, I know. I have no idea what happens in my head either. Have we seen the last of Jane? Or the Cone of Evil? Only time will tell! Stay tuned. Or not, if evil ice cream cones totally aren’t your thing.

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33 thoughts on “For X, I’m X-tending…The Continuing Story of Jane Storegoer and the Cone of Evil”

  4. wildchild47

    Snorting with absolute delight at the delicious thrills, chills and spills in this plot! And yeah, I hope this eventually continues, because like what happens next? Does Jane ever get to indulge her wish, does the regenerated unfrozen cone have some nefarious demise planned, for in oozing essence he really is a secret gate keeper to a world either hellish or … delightful where the likes of the Chocolate Factory pale in comparison?!?

    Sheesh … talk about leaving a reader hungry!

    Great write and I hope the two of them decide to keep writing the story 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

  5. I wish you’d start writing about corrugated cardboard instead of ice cream cones. Honestly, I’m hungry now, without an ounce of ice cream in the house. And no way am I going to the grocery, where evil lurks in the freezer aisle.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Totally fair. I can promise some slightly less tempting twists in the future.

      I guess it does actually make for an effective diet when you think your treats will take their revenge. Sadly I don’t think even this will slow me down on the ice cream front. Once the weather warms up, I’m an ice cream goner.

      Like

  6. Me too. I’m hungry for an ice cream cone, but not one that is ancient or one that guffaws. How will this all turn out for our heroine, being stuck in a freezer with a delirious ice cream cone? Can’t wait to see.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Thanks so much, Carol! We are, mainly because this story is amusing me so much with my own weirdness, and I’m so happy to hear it’s also entertaining outside of my own head 🙂

      I’ll make an announcement shortly about how it will be continued. But Jane Storegoer lives on.

      Maybe. She was still falling last we left her.

      Like

    • Thanks! Actually I am also claustrophobic in certain conditions, something I hadn’t considered in writing this story. HMM. I wonder if that will affect how it goes! 🙂

      Thanks, you as well!

      Like

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