Overcoming a Monster - Understanding the 7 Story Types by Looking at a Girl and an Apple

It’s late evening in a two-storey house where Girl lives with her overworked parents and ever-sleeping grandma, who supposedly babysits her.

Girl is upstairs doing her homework, reading a dull schoolbook. She craves an apple from the kitchen downstairs. The only problem is, there is a Monster on the stairs that only comes out at night and has an appetite for children. Girl is trying hard to focus on her homework, but the craving for a snack won’t go away. Reluctantly, Girl gets up.

She gently pushes ajar the bedroom door and peeks out. The handle creeks, the door squeaks. Grandma is snoring in the next room. Girl calls in a whisper, ‘Grandma, are you awake? Can you get me an apple?’ No answer.

Girl tiptoes out of her room to face the stairs. As she steps onto the landing, the ceiling turns ugly pink. As she takes the first step, the walls turn ugly purple. Another step, slime starts oozing out. Girl gags at the horrific odour and grimy bits pulsating out of the railings as she proceeds in hesitation. The dripping slime is covering the stairs; some of it falls on Girl.

‘Ah-ah !!!’ she screams.

Grandma momentarily snorts and stops snoring. Girl looks up at her door with hope. ‘Grandma!’ she whimpers quietly, keeping half an eye on the stairs.

A large, ugly drop of purple sludge lands on her shoulder, releasing the smell of a thousand poos and pukes. Girl’s eyes tear. It’s too late to turn back, yet impossible to proceed. Hideous physiognomy pushes out through the ceiling, threatening to descend on Girl and dissolve her into its ugly, vile, mucky monstrous realm.

Girl takes off her school jumper without wasting any more time and wraps it around her face, covering the nose and mouth, leaving only a narrow slit for the eyes.

The stairs are slippery …

The rail is disgusting …

Girl wobbles and stumbles, barely holding on …

The greasy substance is now fully transformed into a huge, pulsating creature with bulging, dripping eyes. Its giant mouth is open wide, spitting mucus ready to pounce.

Girl gathers the last of her powers into one final effort and leaps over the rails, narrowly escaping the hideous clasp of slurping muzzle.

Girl lands down in the hallway with a yelp, knocking over a coat rack and hurting her knee. With a disappointed growl, Monster retreats into the wall, taking the hideous smell and grime with it.

Girl limps across the corridor into the kitchen and triumphantly picks out the reddest apple in the basket.

Smiling victorious, she marches into the playroom and turns on her favourite TV show, ‘The Girl Who Likes Apples’.

image by Magova