Villain tryouts

I had something weird happen. No, not the normal craving to build a three story chocolate castle and eat it in one sitting. No, this was when the dark side chose to appear.

Inigo Montoya: Let me explain. 

[pause]

Inigo Montoya: No, there is too much. Let me sum up

When cleaning, I found a brown paper lunch bag with items my kids had gotten from the pirate festival a couple weeks ago. (Picture renaissance festival except everyone dressed like pirates.)

This bag came from a booth near the entrance by a popcorn stand.  I remember vivid fabrics and a little tent with bottles, statues, chests, and fabrics overflowed the shelves inside.  An older lady dressed more like a gypsy than pirate called the kids to the tent.  She had a table with baskets filled with small items like rings, stickers, neon plastic bracelets, and such.  The grassy area between the stands had different games, like Hola hoops and (oddly enough) crossbows with wooden bolts and targets.

When I opened the bag, there was the expected stickers, erasers and a pencil, but in a plastic sleeve there was a picture of a lady in garb. I presume it was the lady running the booth.

Here’s where the dark side came out. How creepy is it to give strange kids a pictures of you? Well, unless there is a reason… Like she is trying to suck the life out of my kids.  Why would she do that?  Why to stay young of course.

And in a flash, I had a bad guy. She came out in a creepy little flash fiction piece.

But I like happy endings! I swear I do. Really. So what was up with the dozen or so creepy horror flash pieces that just pop out of nowhere, or in this case a brown paper lunch bag?

Then it came to me, the villain revealed herself to me as a tryout for a story. A story I hadn’t even written yet.  She just needed to be paired with a spunky hero/heroine.

How do your villains come to you? Do they tryout?