I saw the prompt in the writers corner and thought I'd have my first proper crack at writing something. I hope you all enjoy and I'm looking forward to getting some feedback and writing more in the future.


It was a slow day at Tori's tattoo parlour.
She'd blocked out the entire day to finish the back piece of Zara, one of her regulars, but that plan had gone out the window when Zara slipped on some steps the night before. The text that morning had explained that she was currently sitting in A&E, waiting to find out whether her ankle was broken or merely sprained. She'd insisted Tori keep the deposit and promised to rebook as soon as they were both available.

Tori's black nails drummed against her phone screen as she refreshed her messaging app for what felt like the hundredth time that day. She'd put up a social media post offering discounted sessions thanks to the cancellation, but so far there hadn't been a single taker. With a sigh, she went back to sketching a design for her next tattoo.

Tori had always dreamed of being a tattoo artist, and she was gradually covering her body in ink. Her first had been a small bat on her left butt cheek, the result of a drunken dare. Despite the poor linework, she was still rather fond of it. Since then, she'd covered both arms in various horror motifs: vampires and werewolves, ghouls and goblins, demons and devils.

Now she was planning a large bat across her chest. Tori's ample bosom regularly drew stares anyway, so she figured she might as well give people something she'd actually chosen to look at. With a frustrated grunt, she erased the last thirty minutes of work. The wings still weren't right. She started another draft, determined to nail them.

The bell above the door tinkled.



Tori looked up and had to bite back a giggle.

A vampire hurried into her small shop, a worried expression etched across his face. She recognised him as Alan, the owner of the costume shop that was opening next door. He was in his early thirties, with medium-length dark hair slicked back for the occasion. His usual metal band T-shirt and jeans had been replaced with a cape and blood-red waistcoat, while a pair of plastic fangs completed the look.

He'd introduced himself a couple of weeks earlier to apologise in advance for any noise while they got the store ready. Tori had detected a spark between them during that first meeting. Alan had certainly seemed interested in her, judging by the way he'd been checking out the spot where her next tattoo would be going. The feeling had been mutual though and she had to admit, the vampire look had increased her attraction to him by at least a couple of notches.

Alan opened his mouth to speak, then swore and pulled the plastic fangs from his mouth. That was too much for Tori, and she let out a small chuckle. Alan smiled despite himself, but the worry quickly returned.

'Hi, Tori. I know we don't really know each other, but I'm in a massive bind and I was wondering if you could help me out,' he blabbered, the panic obvious in his voice.

Tori looked at him curiously, but before she could answer, he ploughed on.

'Our grand opening is today, and we were supposed to have a model come and be part of it but she bailed when she arrived. Apparently, her manager hadn't given her the details of the gig, and she thought it was just a normal handing-out-flyers-while-looking-pretty job.'

He took a breath.

'I saw you'd had a cancellation on your Insta, so I wondered if you'd be free to help me? I'll obviously pay you, and I'll be so grateful'

He trailed off as Tori held up a hand.

A slight blush had crept into her cheeks. Her crush had just implied that he thought she was pretty enough to be a model. Tori had eventually come to terms with her tall, curvy figure, but her early twenties had been filled with self-doubt about it. Being considered model material, even for a costume shop opening, would have had her younger self jumping for joy.

She raised an inquisitive eyebrow.

'A couple of questions. How much would it pay, and why did the other model bail?'

Relief washed over Alan. He could see she was considering it.

'It would be £1,000 for the day. You'll be handing out flyers dressed as a witch. I'll let you pick whatever costume you want to wear'

Tori interrupted.

'Will I get to keep the costume afterwards?'

£1,000 was a lot of money. With Zara's deposit, she'd make more today than she would have done if she'd actually completed the tattoo. She'd also seen some of the costumes in Alan's window, and they looked surprisingly high quality. With Halloween coming up, a free costume would be the icing on the cake and she could definitely pull off a witch.

Alan blanched slightly.

'Erm you could, but you might not want to.'

Tori waited.

'To answer your second question, the finale was going to be dunking the witch in a giant cauldron of gunge'

He looked at her nervously as Tori's other eyebrow rose.

'I'm sorry, what?' She smirked, not quite believing she'd heard him correctly.

'It was supposed to be a dunking-the-witch thing,' Alan hurriedly explained. 'I was going to do a raffle for the first hundred people in the queue to pull the lever. The plan was for it to go viral and cause a big stir on social media.'

He gestured helplessly towards the door.

'Now I've just got a big vat of goo I've paid for, and people are coming expecting some big surprise!'

Tori had seen Alan's posts and had honestly been wondering what the surprise was herself.

She considered it. Being dunked in goo sounded disgusting, but £1,000 was a lot of money for a couple of hours' work. She could tag her own business too, and if the stunt really did go viral, it would be some pretty good advertising. Right now, the only engagement she tended to get was when she posted photos of herself bent over while tattooing someone. And, if she was being completely honest, the prospect of the cute guy next door owing her a favour had its own appeal.

A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth.

'I'll do it under a few conditions.'

Alan immediately looked hopeful. Tori held up a finger.

'You tag my shop as well. I don't want you getting all the benefit if it goes viral.'

A second finger.

'I get another costume that hasn't been covered in slime before Halloween.'

A third finger

'And I want you to pull the lever. None of this raffle bollocks.'

Alan grinned as the panic drained from his face.

'Tori, thank you so much! You're a lifesaver! Meet me in the shop in ten minutes to pick out a costume.'

He turned to leave.

'One more thing,' Tori called.

Alan turned back, the stress immediately bubbling up again.

'You take me out for dinner.'

Tori smiled as a blush spread across his face.

He nodded.

'Deal.'

Tori locked up the shop and headed next door.



Inside, the costume shop seemed to contain every outfit imaginable, but Alan ushered her towards the selection he'd picked out for the previous model.

After a few minutes of flipping through the options, Tori settled on a black skirt with silver cobweb designs, spiderweb-patterned tights and black leather boots. The top was a black corset with a batwing effect that left her arms exposed and showed a decent amount of cleavage. She picked out a variety of chunky rings and necklaces before completing the look with a classic black pointed hat perched on top of her shoulder-length, red, curly hair. Her makeup already skewed rather witchy, with black lipstick and thick eyeliner contrasting with her pale skin.

Tori studied herself in the mirror and A smidgen of doubt crept into her mind. Then Alan saw her and his eyes nearly popped out of his head. He opened his mouth, apparently searching for something to say, before finally settling on:

'Wow. I think I'm glad the other girl bailed on me.'

Tori snorted.

'No amount of flattery is going to make me forget you're about to chuck me into a pit of goo.'

They headed outside to meet the crowds already gathering. For the next couple of hours, Tori handed out flyers and talked up Alan's shop. Her job involved being in close contact with strangers for hours on end, so she was pretty good at making conversation. She even managed to sneak in a few plugs for her own business whenever people asked whether her tattoos were real or part of the costume.

She got so caught up in the chatter that her stomach dropped when Alan eventually tapped her on the shoulder. It was time to do the part she'd actually agreed to.



They stood in front of the large cauldron of gunge that Tori had been subconsciously keeping out of her eyeline for the past two hours. Alan launched into his spiel about the dunking of witches, but Tori could barely hear him over the pounding of her own heartbeat. Eventually, he motioned towards the ladder beside the cauldron.

Tori stared at it.

She could still run.

Sure, Alan would be pissed, but it wasn't as though she'd signed a contract. Was she really going to let herself be humiliated in front of all these people?

She glanced at Alan.

He seemed to read the hesitation on her face. Worry flashed across his features.

For some reason, that was enough.

Her thoughts of escape melted away.

'It better be a really good dinner,' she muttered, quietly enough that only Alan could hear.

Then she climbed the ladder.

Tori grimaced as she clambered onto the seat. The skirt had definitely given the front row an eyeful of the little bat tattoo on her bum. She really hoped that particular detail wouldn't go viral.

She looked down at her messy fate and let out an involuntary whimper. The gunge was thick and matte green, with flecks of glitter catching the light. Alan hadn't said anything about glitter.

Tori briefly considered making a run for it, but Alan had already pulled the ladder away once she was safely on the seat. She looked out at the crowd and let out another whimper. There were dozens of people. Many were pointing camera phones at her, and someone from the local news was even there with a proper camera.

Alan continued his speech before reaching the end and shouting, 'Who thinks we should dunk the witch?'

The crowd roared. Alan looked at Tori, a questioning expression on his face. One last chance to escape. Before she could change her mind, she gave a small nod. Alan started counting down from ten, the crowd joining in.

Ten.

Nine.

Eight

The countdown reached one.

Alan pulled the lever.

'DUNK THE WITCH!'



Tori squealed as her seat gave way and she plummeted towards the gunge. Almost immediately, she disappeared beneath the surface. She instantly regretted the skimpy costume as she felt the gunge go everywhere. Even the parts covered by her costume offered practically no resistance to the goo. She flapped her arms almost in slow motion as she pushed against the sticky goo and her feet found the bottom of the tank.

Tori spluttered as her head broke the surface. She dragged her slimy hair away from her face, blinking rapidly as she tried to clear the gunk from her eyes. Through her gunge-filled ears, she could hear muffled cheering and laughter. She tried to smile at the crowd as she began making her way towards the edge of the tank. She was already up to her neck I gross slop, she might as well be a good sport about it.

Tori's feet slipped and she plunged beneath the surface again. With considerably less dignity, she hauled herself upright and this time took small, shuffling steps towards the edge. The smile was a lot more forced this time. She glanced down to see her cleavage was just peeking out of the slime. As she moved, she could feel gunge trapped inside her corset squelching around in a particularly unpleasant way. Tori tried to subtly squeeze some of it out and it bubbled up between her breasts. Tori groaned at the bizarre sensation as she eventually reached the side of the pool. Her arms were absolutely covered, so she slicked the slime from them. She could still feel a film of gunge on her arms and there were flecks of glitter all over them but it was better than having it literally dripping off her

She noticed the photographer approaching. If she was going to end up in the local paper, she might as well make sure her tattoos were visible. She draped her arms over the side of the tank in full view of the camera. Tori cycled through a couple of cheeky grins and disgusted grimaces for the camera. Then the photographer whispered something in Alan's ear.

Alan looked slightly bashful before he reached for something behind her. Before Tori could turn around, she squealed as something wet slapped onto her head. She looked up to see Alan was holding her hat, or what had been her hat. He'd filled it with gunge and poured the contents over her head.

'You absolute bastard!' Tori spluttered

Alan gingerly placed the now-slimy hat back on her head. Tori flashed him a murderous glare. Then she turned towards the cameras, plastered on a cheesy smile and gave both the cameraman and Alan a thumbs-up.

'A really, really good dinner,' she grumbled through gritted teeth.

The cameras flashed. Tori continued to wallow in the slime as members of the public posed with her for photos. A couple of punters asked if they could do the hat trick. Tori shot them down with a glare. Instead, she made sure to get a gungey arm around them for the photo. One punter moaned as his crisp white shirt got a new green stripe but the rest took it in good spirits.

Eventually, the crowd began to ebb away. Alan pulled out a ladder and helped Tori climb from the vat. Standing there covered from head to toe in slime was a new level of gross. She shivered as gunge dripped from her costume and pooled at her feet. 'Alan, I have gunge in places no one should ever know how it feels to have gunge in, get me in a shower right now' Alan hurriedly led her along a pre laid path of plastic sheeting and she winced at the squelch in her boots with each step. They eventually reached the shower in the back of his shop with surprisingly good water pressure.

Tori peeled her sodden costume from her skin with a series of soft 'ew's accompanying the sensation of each garment being removed. She spent the next hour scrubbing the gunge from her skin. She swore she could still see the occasional fleck of fluorescent green. 'Fucking glitter,' she muttered. She dried herself off with a towel after the water finally stopped running green and she pulled on her normal T-shirt and jeans. Tori emerged with a sigh, her hair still damp.

Alan was waiting outside, having changed back into his normal clothes. He handed her an envelope. It was satisfyingly thick with cash.

'Thanks for today,' he said sheepishly. 'And sorry about the hat thing. The camera guy said it might make the front page'

Tori groaned and rolled her eyes.

'My slime-covered tits on the front page of a newspaper. What more could I want?'

Alan immediately started to stammer out another apology. Tori let him squirm for a moment before her expression softened into a smile.

'It's fine. Really. It was almost fun.'

She paused.

'Though definitely not something I want to repeat.'

Alan smiled back.

'Now let's go and get that really, really, really good dinner.'

Tori slipped her arm through his and they headed off together.