Welcome to micro Terrors, scary stories for kids where it's always the spooky season,
full of chills, thrills, and spine tingling spooks. Micro Terrors are
family friendly frights for those ages eight and up, and while our stories are
for younger years, we are still talking about things that go bump in the
night, and some children may not be able to handle what others can.
Parental consent is recommended now for tonights micro terror. Yard Shark by Scott Donnelly.
Lorraine was trapped. Never in a million years had she thought she would
lay eyes on Uh. She didn't even know what it was. Well,
she knew what it was, but it just couldn't have been. Her mind
must have been playing tricks on her. She'd seen enough Shark Week specials to
recognize the unmistakable sight of a dorsal fin slicing the surface of the ocean and
cutting its way through as it stalked its prey. But Lorraine had just seen
a dorsal fin in her own backyard. She and her brother Gary had been
playing on the wooden playground their parents had put up years ago when Gary decided
to stop playing and run inside for a glass of iced tea. It was
a hot day, and Lorraine would have been lying if she said she didn't
want one too, but she was determined to wait until they were done playing.
Once Gary was inside and out of sight, Lorraine's attention was immediately drawn
to the far corner of their fenced inn yard. The white privacy fence that
blocked out the neighbors acted as a backdrop to the bewildering sight. Something disturbed
the dirt by the apple tree, splicing through and stabbing upward, dirt clumps
crumbling down all around it. There was no doubt about it. It was
a dorsal fin. The fin then cut across the yard in her direction,
like a hot knife through butter at the top of the slide at the time,
Lorrain adjusted in place, getting better footing and trying to focus all of
her attention on the fin. She rubbed her eyes, but when she looked
up again, it was still there, carving a thin path through the backyard.
Unreal, she said to herself, I must be dreaming. Lorraine watched
the fin continue to cruise through the grass until by the moldy sandbox, it
sank down into the earth and disappeared out of sight. After a moment of
unnerving tension, Lorraine stood up, casting a long shadow across her backyard and
scoured the grass for the fin. There was nothing, not a single sign
of it, other than the thin trench it had already gashed during its line
of travel. The back door of the house opened and Gary stepped out onto
the deck, sipping his glass of golden iced tea. This is the best
tea I've ever had, Gary refreshingly announced with a sigh. Are you gonna
get some cis? Lorraine put her finger up to her lips, urging Gary
to stay quiet? What he fired back at her sh Lorraine hushed, You
can't tell me what to do, Gary complained, taking a step toward the
edge of the deck. Gary stop, Lorraine called out to her brother,
make me, he yelled. Lorraine growled, frustrated with her brother. If
you're in danger, I knew you are, But what am I? Gary
clapped back, Ugh, Gary, you turn, there's a shark in the
yard. A shark, Gary laughed. Now only know you're full of it.
He stepped off the deck and into the grass, stomping his feet around
like he was trying to summon an ancient rainstorm. The only scary thing out
here is sure fait. But Gary's insult was stopped short. The yard shark
broke through the dirt and grass, sending plumes of rock and soil flying into
the air. The ground shifted and cracked. Gary lost his balance, dropped
his iced tea, and fell sideways into the shark's mouth. It clamped its
jaws shut and swallowed Gary hole. Lorraine screamed for her brother as the yard
shark dove back under the ground and out of sight. Lorraine was breathing fast
and heavy. She needed to get help, She needed to get to safety.
Then the slide she was on was hit from underneath, exulted, making
Lorraine slip and fall. She grabbed onto the railing at the top and dangled
off the side of the platform, screaming. The yard shark crashed into the
base of the slide again, this time with enough force to knock it over.
It tipped its fragile metal structure, creaking and squealing, and then completely
toppled over. It slammed into the ground, launching Lorrain into a rough,
hard tumble through the grass. She stood up with scraped knees and dirty clothes.
The shark burst up once again from the earth, barely giving Lorrain a
moment to breathe. Its teeth were bared, and its unnatural presence was just
as confusing as it was bone chilling. She found herself staring into its dark
chasm of a mouth where Gary had vanished into. And what was even more
haunting was that she could still hear him inside. His voice was small and
echoed, Loorine. He called out, Lorraine, run get out here,
way up, way up the yard. Shark lunged for Lorrain her eyes as
the shark chomped its jaws down all around her. When she opened her eyes,
she was in her own bed. She was panting, her sheets soaked
in sweat. Gary dropped down from the top bunk, giving her another scare.
She screamed, and he laughed as little brothers do not funny, Lorraine
said, catching her breath. Was it a bad one? He asked.
Lorrain was finally able to relax. She buried her face in her hands.
Yeah, yes, she sighed, and bizarre. Well, if a dream
isn't bizarre, then does it really count as a dream? Gary pondered,
what was it about? This time? We lived in a home, but
on land? Lorrain began. Gary squinted on land. That's weird. Have
you been reading fantasy fiction again? Lorrain didn't respond. She just kept recalling
her nightmare. There was a shark that kept coming up from the grass.
It wasn't like any shark I'd ever seen, she said. It was huge,
ferocious, and relentless, like it was a predator on top of the
food chain or something. It swallowed you hole, she said, pointing to
Gary. Gary laughed. He turned around and faced the aquarium built into the
wall of their bedroom. Within it, thirteen sharks swam about, great whites,
hammerheads, megalodons, all of them no longer than six or seven inches
in length, the average size of a shark. She didn't mean it,
guys, Gary called over to their baker's dozen of pet sharks in a playful,
sorrowful tone. No one thanks, You're huge and relentless. Lorraine stood
up and punched Gary in the arm elle. He squealed. You should have
stayed eaten, she mumbled, as she walked down of her room and onto
the back dock of their houseboat, the boat which housed her and Gary,
their parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins, and thirteen pet sharks
swayed back and forth on a vast ocean of pink water. In the orange
sky, the purple moon sank over the horizon, and the twin red suns
rose, bringing warm light to another day. Off the side of the houseboat,
the water rippled, and a large sea bird poked its head and beak
out of the water. It cawed, and then emerged from the ocean,
soaring up into the sky, where floating plots of uncharted land hovered just below
the clouds. More creatures stirred in the pink waters around the boat. The
aquatic bugs, the size of fully grown adults, slithered just beneath the waves.
A school of long, thinned, hairy mammals swam in tandem. Something
dark and shadowy lurked deeper down, out of sight, but emitting a haunting
bellow that carried through the currents. This was the world, Lorraine new.
This was normal for her. It wasn't some dreamland where sharks were large and
lurked beneath solid ground. That was just a silly dream. But Lorraine was
plagued with bizarre dreams. She had been since birth. It was a disease,
a rare sickness, Some dreams were good, some were bad, some
were happy, some were nightmarish visions that bothered her for days after. Some
dreams made her realize what she loved, and some made her question everything she
knew. But by knowing this, this strange dream sickness she was cursed with.
She also always wondered which ones were actually dreams and which ones were real.
For all she knew, she'd just woken from a dream into another dream.
She may have been in a cycle like that for some time. There
was no way for her to know for sure. She studied the ocean that
surrounded her, its pink waves, the side of the boat. She looked
at the aquatic bugs, the seabird flying to the unknown regions in the sky.
Then she looked at Gary, who now stood at her side. None
of this looked familiar to her anymore, None of it seemed right, And
if she remembered correctly, Gary, the little brother that she loved more than
anything, had been eaten by a yard shark years ago. Thank you for
listening to micro Terrors. Join us each Saturday for another scary story. For
more fun, visit our website at microterrors dot com, where we will also
have spooky games you can print out and play like Wicked Searches, mysterious mazes,
and more. Microterrors dot com is also where you can find us on
your favorite social media and even send in your own scary story for us to
tell. Plus, you'll learn more about our author, Scott Donnelly, who
has other horrors for both young and old. I hope you'll join me again
soon for micro Terrors scary stories for kids