A Brief Case of Dread

Video Description: “A Brief Case of Dread” Trailer. Duration, 43 seconds. “Deep” by Nicholas Jeudy. Digital drawing. An open briefcase seen from an angle and tilted up. The briefcase contains a tiny figure of a green alien. The pocket inside the top is decorated with symbols of a sun at center, and at top left and bottom corners, a five-pointed star within the curve of a crescent moon. The case appears to be floating in outer space. Nebulous clouds are visible at the corners, and distant clusters of stars. A hazy glowing light emanates from the briefcase and shifts color as it extends out of frame. Title card with the words “Short Story” and “Genre: Horrific Mystery,” is displayed at center. Tagline is displayed at bottom. It reads: “A man opens his new briefcase and discovers that something else lies beside his files, something…vast.” Title card and tagline fade. A watermark of the word “storyfeather” appears over the image. Lines from the story appear in sequence: “‘Once,’ she started, “the world was filled with different beings than the ones that now fill the world.’ They were just as wondrous. And just as terrible. But in different ways. For ways changed with time. The longest lived of all were the firstborn. They were born when the world was born.  And they would end when the world would end.” Animation of a spiral galaxy spinning across the whole frame appears with the second to last line and continues till the end. Site URL appears at bottom center throughout and fades at end. As the last line disappears, the image blurs and darkens, the story title appears at center, and a text card appears at top that reads “Available to Read Now storyfeather.com.”

Video Description: Duration, 7 seconds. Choice wheel made on the Spin the Wheel application. Thirteen spokes or slices in various colors, labeled as follows, clockwise from the top: Objects of Power (the “of Power” is not visible), Prompts, Definitions, Turn Again, Elements, Creatures, S.T.E.A.M., Wildcard, Revisitation, Music, Challenge, Draw!!!, Traveler. The title at top reads “The Wheel of Fiction V4” and below that the words “Spin the wheel.” Below that is a label on left, “Spin date: 10/8/22,” and a label at right, “Story: 10/16/22.” At top left corner is a flag icon labeled with the letter “F.” This represents a function of the application which interferes with true randomness by reducing the probability of receiving the same choice twice in a row. The wheel turns and lands on DEFINITIONS. As the wheel stops spinning, a cartoon briefcase appears at center. It opens and a cartoon nebula cloud appears, elements within in motion.