LJ IDOL WEEK 17
Dec. 15th, 2025 09:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
l0lita___________________________________________________
TRANSCRIPT: AUDIO CASSETTE TAPE
FIVE VOICES ON TAPE:
Tiffany Zahn, [TZ]
Heather Zanetti, [HZ]
Monica Zane, [MZ]
Rose Zito, [RZ]
Zora Zulawski, [ZZ]
TAPE ON, @ APPROXIMATELY 23.30 HRS.
[TZ]: The time is approximately twenty three hundred hours on December 13th and I, Tiffany Zahn along with my fellow Delta Lambda pledges am standing in front of the abandoned house at 261, Turner Lane as instructed.
[HZ]: Otherwise known as the building with the roof that looks like it’s about to collapse and kill the five of us unfortunate enough to have a surname that starts with a Z. Thanks a lot, dad!
[LAUGHING CAN BE HEARD ON THE TAPE]
[TZ]: Knock it off, Heather, you haven’t quit bitching about this all night!
[HZ]: Because it’s messed up, that’s why. There’s no way that place is safe. No one else had to come here, what kind of -
[TZ]: Everyone got assigned a different initiation task based on their surnames, Heather, the sisters explained this already.
[ZZ]: What’s the deal with the tape recorder; why couldn’t we have just recorded all of it on our phones instead of just a video down there and this?
[HZ]: Because they enjoy our suffering.
[TZ]: [sighing] Again, Daphne explained this earlier if you’d been paying attention, Heather. It’s so the footage isn’t lost and also so we don’t kill our phone batteries.
[HZ]: [scoffing] That’s thoughtful of them, being concerned about us killing our phones.
[TZ]: It really is.
[HZ]: That was sarcasm, Tiffany. I was being ironic. They care about our phone battery life but not ours, clearly.
[TZ]: You’re being so melodramatic.
[HZ]: Seriously, would you just look at the damn roof already! And they want us to go down into the basement. I -
[TZ]: [annoyed] Then why don’t you just leave? You don’t seem like a good fit for the sorority anyway to be quite honest.
[RZ]: Can you guys shut the hell up?! I'm freezing! What is it, like eight degrees? I knew I should have just told them my great great uncle was a member of the Gambino crime family.
[TZ]: Okay, Joe Pesci. Telling lies to the sorority you're trying to get into isn't very smart.
[RZ]: It's not a lie.
[A BEAT OF SILENCE IS HEARD]
[RZ]: It would have either freaked them out and they wouldn't have sent me here, or I'd get dq-ed from entering the sorority, which right now feels like it would be a very smart thing.
[ZZ]: [SNORTS] Agreed!
[MZ]: Guys, can we just get this done? It's almost midnight and I just want to get in and out of there.
[TZ]: You're not scared are you?
[MZ]: I'm... unsettled.
[TZ]: That's ridiculous! You can't honestly believe those stories! Monica, you're in college not pre-school.
[RZ]: Can we please get it over with? We've been standing out here for ten minutes.
[TZ]: Fine. Let's go
[FOOTSTEPS]
[SOUND OF DOOR BEING FORCED OPEN]
[HZ]: Holy... Can you guys believe this place? I bet it looked amazing in its day. Look at that staircase, looks like something from the Titanic!
[ZZ]: I thought it would look worse in here. How long did they say it had been abandoned, fifty years?
[TZ]: Fifty three actually.
[HZ]: Hey Tiffany, does your neck hurt?
[TZ]: Huh?
[HZ]: Seeing as how you're Daphne’s nodding dog I was just wondering -
[RZ]: - Would you two knock it off!? We’re out here risking our literal necks if that roof collapses on us!
[TZ]: Rose, chill. Daphne and the others would not have sent us here if it was unsafe!
[HZ]: Sure, they’d never do a thing like that, Rosie.
[TZ]: You guys are really are such a buzzkill. Why couldn’t my surname have started with a W? Jessica and -
[ZZ]: [annoyed] For the last time, can we just go already?
[HZ]: Tiffany, if I were you I'd be more worried about pissing off Rose than Daphne, with her mob connections.
[RZ]: I mean my great great uncle died in prison twenty three years ago, so it's not like the connections are current.
[TZ]: [AUDIBLY RELIEVED] Good, that's good. I mean, not that I'm judging. My older cousin once mooned the entire high school cafeteria.
[HZ]: Scandalous!
[TIFFANY AND HEATHER BEGIN ARGUING LOUDLY]
[RZ]: You guys, come on!
[MUFFLED THUDS AND BANGS]
[ZZ]: Did you guys hear that?
[RZ]: I think so, like a thudding, right?
[MZ]: I don't think we should be here.
[TZ]: God, you guys are ridiculous!
[FOOTSTEPS]
[SOUND OF ANOTHER DOOR CREAKING OPEN WITH RELATIVE EASE THIS TIME]
[TZ]: Hi, this is Tiffany again, I’m inside the Van Dyne house, that’s said to have stood abandoned for fifty-three years. We have been tasked by the sisters of the Delta Lambda house, to explore the basement of this place.
It's said that this is where Edwin Van Dyne would lock himself on full moons. We’re about half way down the stairs. From what I can make out - this flashlight is weak as shit, Heather, did you bring the spare batteries? - there are about ten more steps until the bottom and -
[LOUD BANGING]
[RZ]: Okay, what the hell was that?
[TZ]: It’s just the wind, come on, the sooner we get to the bottom the better.
[ZZ]: [whispering] Wait! What if there’s someone down there?
[TZ]: [annoyed] For the last time, that’s just a bullshit legend. Werewolves aren’t real!
[ZZ]: [annoyed] I know that asshole, I was thinking about real people. You know, squatting?
[HZ]: Or lurking serial killers.
[MZ]: [annoyed] It’s not funny, Heather.
[TZ]: [annoyed] You three are wasting our time. If you’re too chicken to go down, then go wait for us outside. Remember this is all being recorded by the way, so Daphne and co are going to hear every word said against them.
[RZ]: [annoyed] Who gives a shit?
[TZ]: You apparently, being as you’re here to perform the initiation.
[RZ]: Yeah, well you know what I’ve had it with this initiation and you. And this sorority pledge crap. I’m officially done.
[TZ]: [shocked] You’re not leaving?
[RZ]: Watch me!
[SOUND OF FAST FOOTSTEPS RETREATING]
[MZ]: Me too! I didn’t even want to rush in the first place, it was my mom’s idea for me join a sorority not mine. She’ll just have to deal with me being the only one in our family who didn’t.
[SOUND OF FAST FOOTSTEPS RETREATING]
[LOUD THUDDING]
[ZZ]: Fuck this, I'm out. Monica! Rose! Wait up!
[SHUFFLING]
[SOUND OF FAST FOOTSTEPS RETREATING]
[TZ]: [yelling] You’re making a big mistake! Think of what you’re giving up! Being a Delta Lambda is a privilege not everyone gets! This is your chance, the Delta Lambdas are having a banner year, Daphne said so!
[A BEAT OF SILENCE]
[HZ]: They're gone, Tiffany, let it go. Come on let’s get down there, huh?
[TZ]: Are you scared too?
[HZ]: I didn’t say that… but...
[TZ]: [sighing] But what?
[HZ]: How can you be so sure there’s no one down there?
[TZ]: Who would be down there? Its pitch black! Even serial killers need light, Heather.
[HZ]: I know, it’s just. This is how horror movies start, with idiots walking into a basement and the sane persons leaving. That was them.
[TZ]: If you agree with them, why are you still here?
[HZ]: I have my reasons for wanting to join the Deltas.
[TZ]: Probably not the right ones.
[HZ]: Are we really discussing this here? Can’t we just leave and make a fake recording saying we went down there?
[TZ]: No! They’d find out we lied one way or another, Heather. We're supposed to make a video down there. Even if we lied and said our phones were dead, I heard Daphne telling the others that someone would be following us here to make sure we actually go all the way down. Do you really want to endure that humiliation? We’d be a laughing stock!
[HZ]: At least we’d be alive. You know as well as I do, that noise wasn’t the wind.
[TZ]: For the last time there’s nothing down there! Edwin Van Dyne wasn't a werewolf! That's a made up tale! Ficfuckingtion! and there are no ghosts or deranged killers who can magically see in the dark down there either. If you want to leave, then leave, I’ll go by myself!
[HZ]: No. If you’re gonna go, I’ll go too!
[TZ]: Don’t do me any favours!
[HZ]: I’m not. Everything isn’t about you, you know! I'm just
[BEAT OF SILENCE]
[SOUND OF FOOTSTEPS GOING DOWN THE REMAINING STAIRS, THEN SHUFFLING ACROSS THE FLOOR]
[TZ]: We’re standing in the basement right now! Heather is taking a video of us down here on her phone. We’ll upload it to instagram shortly and tag you guys. I -
[LOUD BANGING]
[HZ]: Okay, what the actual fuck was that? And I swear if you say the wind then -
[LOUD BANGING INCREASING]
[TIFFANY SCREAMING]
[HZ]: [yelling] WHAT?
[TZ]: [yelling] OH MY GOD! HEATHER! BEHIND YOU!
[HZ]: [yelling] WHAT???
[BOTH SCREAMING]
[BANGING]
[FLASHLIGHT CLATTERING TO FLOOR ALONG WITH TAPE RECORDER]
[SCREAMING CONTINUES TO ECHO AROUND THE BASEMENT CHAMBER]
[GROWLING NOISES]
[ECHOING SCREAMS]
[WET, THUDDING SOUNDS]
[GURGLING SOUNDS]
[FOOTSTEPS COMING CLOSER TO TAPE RECORDER]
[HEAVY BREATHING]
[TAPE IS SHUT OFF]
___________________________________________________
TRANSCRIPT: AUDIO CASSETTE TAPE
FIVE VOICES ON TAPE:
Tiffany Zahn, [TZ]
Heather Zanetti, [HZ]
Monica Zane, [MZ]
Rose Zito, [RZ]
Zora Zulawski, [ZZ]
TAPE ON, @ APPROXIMATELY 23.30 HRS.
[TZ]: The time is approximately twenty three hundred hours on December 13th and I, Tiffany Zahn along with my fellow Delta Lambda pledges am standing in front of the abandoned house at 261, Turner Lane as instructed.
[HZ]: Otherwise known as the building with the roof that looks like it’s about to collapse and kill the five of us unfortunate enough to have a surname that starts with a Z. Thanks a lot, dad!
[LAUGHING CAN BE HEARD ON THE TAPE]
[TZ]: Knock it off, Heather, you haven’t quit bitching about this all night!
[HZ]: Because it’s messed up, that’s why. There’s no way that place is safe. No one else had to come here, what kind of -
[TZ]: Everyone got assigned a different initiation task based on their surnames, Heather, the sisters explained this already.
[ZZ]: What’s the deal with the tape recorder; why couldn’t we have just recorded all of it on our phones instead of just a video down there and this?
[HZ]: Because they enjoy our suffering.
[TZ]: [sighing] Again, Daphne explained this earlier if you’d been paying attention, Heather. It’s so the footage isn’t lost and also so we don’t kill our phone batteries.
[HZ]: [scoffing] That’s thoughtful of them, being concerned about us killing our phones.
[TZ]: It really is.
[HZ]: That was sarcasm, Tiffany. I was being ironic. They care about our phone battery life but not ours, clearly.
[TZ]: You’re being so melodramatic.
[HZ]: Seriously, would you just look at the damn roof already! And they want us to go down into the basement. I -
[TZ]: [annoyed] Then why don’t you just leave? You don’t seem like a good fit for the sorority anyway to be quite honest.
[RZ]: Can you guys shut the hell up?! I'm freezing! What is it, like eight degrees? I knew I should have just told them my great great uncle was a member of the Gambino crime family.
[TZ]: Okay, Joe Pesci. Telling lies to the sorority you're trying to get into isn't very smart.
[RZ]: It's not a lie.
[A BEAT OF SILENCE IS HEARD]
[RZ]: It would have either freaked them out and they wouldn't have sent me here, or I'd get dq-ed from entering the sorority, which right now feels like it would be a very smart thing.
[ZZ]: [SNORTS] Agreed!
[MZ]: Guys, can we just get this done? It's almost midnight and I just want to get in and out of there.
[TZ]: You're not scared are you?
[MZ]: I'm... unsettled.
[TZ]: That's ridiculous! You can't honestly believe those stories! Monica, you're in college not pre-school.
[RZ]: Can we please get it over with? We've been standing out here for ten minutes.
[TZ]: Fine. Let's go
[FOOTSTEPS]
[SOUND OF DOOR BEING FORCED OPEN]
[HZ]: Holy... Can you guys believe this place? I bet it looked amazing in its day. Look at that staircase, looks like something from the Titanic!
[ZZ]: I thought it would look worse in here. How long did they say it had been abandoned, fifty years?
[TZ]: Fifty three actually.
[HZ]: Hey Tiffany, does your neck hurt?
[TZ]: Huh?
[HZ]: Seeing as how you're Daphne’s nodding dog I was just wondering -
[RZ]: - Would you two knock it off!? We’re out here risking our literal necks if that roof collapses on us!
[TZ]: Rose, chill. Daphne and the others would not have sent us here if it was unsafe!
[HZ]: Sure, they’d never do a thing like that, Rosie.
[TZ]: You guys are really are such a buzzkill. Why couldn’t my surname have started with a W? Jessica and -
[ZZ]: [annoyed] For the last time, can we just go already?
[HZ]: Tiffany, if I were you I'd be more worried about pissing off Rose than Daphne, with her mob connections.
[RZ]: I mean my great great uncle died in prison twenty three years ago, so it's not like the connections are current.
[TZ]: [AUDIBLY RELIEVED] Good, that's good. I mean, not that I'm judging. My older cousin once mooned the entire high school cafeteria.
[HZ]: Scandalous!
[TIFFANY AND HEATHER BEGIN ARGUING LOUDLY]
[RZ]: You guys, come on!
[MUFFLED THUDS AND BANGS]
[ZZ]: Did you guys hear that?
[RZ]: I think so, like a thudding, right?
[MZ]: I don't think we should be here.
[TZ]: God, you guys are ridiculous!
[FOOTSTEPS]
[SOUND OF ANOTHER DOOR CREAKING OPEN WITH RELATIVE EASE THIS TIME]
[TZ]: Hi, this is Tiffany again, I’m inside the Van Dyne house, that’s said to have stood abandoned for fifty-three years. We have been tasked by the sisters of the Delta Lambda house, to explore the basement of this place.
It's said that this is where Edwin Van Dyne would lock himself on full moons. We’re about half way down the stairs. From what I can make out - this flashlight is weak as shit, Heather, did you bring the spare batteries? - there are about ten more steps until the bottom and -
[LOUD BANGING]
[RZ]: Okay, what the hell was that?
[TZ]: It’s just the wind, come on, the sooner we get to the bottom the better.
[ZZ]: [whispering] Wait! What if there’s someone down there?
[TZ]: [annoyed] For the last time, that’s just a bullshit legend. Werewolves aren’t real!
[ZZ]: [annoyed] I know that asshole, I was thinking about real people. You know, squatting?
[HZ]: Or lurking serial killers.
[MZ]: [annoyed] It’s not funny, Heather.
[TZ]: [annoyed] You three are wasting our time. If you’re too chicken to go down, then go wait for us outside. Remember this is all being recorded by the way, so Daphne and co are going to hear every word said against them.
[RZ]: [annoyed] Who gives a shit?
[TZ]: You apparently, being as you’re here to perform the initiation.
[RZ]: Yeah, well you know what I’ve had it with this initiation and you. And this sorority pledge crap. I’m officially done.
[TZ]: [shocked] You’re not leaving?
[RZ]: Watch me!
[SOUND OF FAST FOOTSTEPS RETREATING]
[MZ]: Me too! I didn’t even want to rush in the first place, it was my mom’s idea for me join a sorority not mine. She’ll just have to deal with me being the only one in our family who didn’t.
[SOUND OF FAST FOOTSTEPS RETREATING]
[LOUD THUDDING]
[ZZ]: Fuck this, I'm out. Monica! Rose! Wait up!
[SHUFFLING]
[SOUND OF FAST FOOTSTEPS RETREATING]
[TZ]: [yelling] You’re making a big mistake! Think of what you’re giving up! Being a Delta Lambda is a privilege not everyone gets! This is your chance, the Delta Lambdas are having a banner year, Daphne said so!
[A BEAT OF SILENCE]
[HZ]: They're gone, Tiffany, let it go. Come on let’s get down there, huh?
[TZ]: Are you scared too?
[HZ]: I didn’t say that… but...
[TZ]: [sighing] But what?
[HZ]: How can you be so sure there’s no one down there?
[TZ]: Who would be down there? Its pitch black! Even serial killers need light, Heather.
[HZ]: I know, it’s just. This is how horror movies start, with idiots walking into a basement and the sane persons leaving. That was them.
[TZ]: If you agree with them, why are you still here?
[HZ]: I have my reasons for wanting to join the Deltas.
[TZ]: Probably not the right ones.
[HZ]: Are we really discussing this here? Can’t we just leave and make a fake recording saying we went down there?
[TZ]: No! They’d find out we lied one way or another, Heather. We're supposed to make a video down there. Even if we lied and said our phones were dead, I heard Daphne telling the others that someone would be following us here to make sure we actually go all the way down. Do you really want to endure that humiliation? We’d be a laughing stock!
[HZ]: At least we’d be alive. You know as well as I do, that noise wasn’t the wind.
[TZ]: For the last time there’s nothing down there! Edwin Van Dyne wasn't a werewolf! That's a made up tale! Ficfuckingtion! and there are no ghosts or deranged killers who can magically see in the dark down there either. If you want to leave, then leave, I’ll go by myself!
[HZ]: No. If you’re gonna go, I’ll go too!
[TZ]: Don’t do me any favours!
[HZ]: I’m not. Everything isn’t about you, you know! I'm just
[BEAT OF SILENCE]
[SOUND OF FOOTSTEPS GOING DOWN THE REMAINING STAIRS, THEN SHUFFLING ACROSS THE FLOOR]
[TZ]: We’re standing in the basement right now! Heather is taking a video of us down here on her phone. We’ll upload it to instagram shortly and tag you guys. I -
[LOUD BANGING]
[HZ]: Okay, what the actual fuck was that? And I swear if you say the wind then -
[LOUD BANGING INCREASING]
[TIFFANY SCREAMING]
[HZ]: [yelling] WHAT?
[TZ]: [yelling] OH MY GOD! HEATHER! BEHIND YOU!
[HZ]: [yelling] WHAT???
[BOTH SCREAMING]
[BANGING]
[FLASHLIGHT CLATTERING TO FLOOR ALONG WITH TAPE RECORDER]
[SCREAMING CONTINUES TO ECHO AROUND THE BASEMENT CHAMBER]
[GROWLING NOISES]
[ECHOING SCREAMS]
[WET, THUDDING SOUNDS]
[GURGLING SOUNDS]
[FOOTSTEPS COMING CLOSER TO TAPE RECORDER]
[HEAVY BREATHING]
[TAPE IS SHUT OFF]
___________________________________________________
no subject
Date: 2025-12-17 10:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-12-23 07:25 pm (UTC)hahahahhahahaha. This line is amazing.
I love the format of this. I love this whole found footage feel. Despite the limitations imposed by the format, you still do a good job of building suspense and fear, as well as some terrific bits of humor.
The creeping sense of tension you build is impressive given that you have no external observations and no expository passages. Conveying everything through your dialogue, from irritation to fear, is really clever and handled so smoothly. And I also love the ambiguity of the ending... was it the Van Dyne werewolf? Or a murderous squatter? I love that we don't know and are forced to imagine it on our own.
This was a really fun piece. I enjoyed this a lot.
no subject
Date: 2025-12-23 07:56 pm (UTC)A very nice touch! When I briefly did door-to-door canvassing for a political action group (PAC) after college, we would sometimes refer to potential donors as having DQ'ed themselves. The art of knowing when it's hopeless is something that people don't seem to use as much these days, judging from telephone and other solicitors.
[WET, THUDDING SOUNDS]
One of the grossest of implied details.
Nicely done!