Hello, Brittany! This was kind of cute, especially when the essay started purring and rubbing against the professor. What I did not get in the story was that the genre was horror, though. Either I cannot see horror in a story or basically it could be that I cannot be scared by the genre. All in all, this kind of reminded me of the most common used excuse among children when they have pets, they say "My dog. ate my homework.". In other words, I liked it and this had s to be one of you best works!

 ha! charming and whimsical, and i can totally see this unfolding in your mind as you struggled with your assignment. great fun, b.

i hope to return and offer an actual critique this weekend--right now, my brain is pudding. (no smart-ass outta you, missy. )

 hi, brittany--

sorry it's taken me so long to return to your story. it's not the story, i promise! i enjoyed my first read, chuckling at the quirky personality you give your essay. let's read it again, eh?

The essay cackled, its surface jumbling into a mix of incomprehensible sentences and phrases. Its creator sat opposite of it and stared ruefully at its shaky word structure and evil, taunting grin.

"You will behave." She said, sticking a pencil painfully straight into the heart of it.

That only made the essay laugh even more, as if tickled. As it laughed, it shook, and as it shook, words shed from its pages like water from a shaking dog.
 

right at the start you establish the whimsical tone of this story, your recalcitrant assignment mocking you and cavorting about. i bolded my favorite sentence here, the simile great for creating a vivid image, and for echoing the playful, mischievous personality of the essay. i wondered a bit at the word 'painfully', not sure if the pencil stabbing into the essay was painful to the paper, or to the narrator. also, this feels a bit heavy for such a light story.

The creator began to cry, and tried her best to pick up the words and attach them back to the page, but with no luck.

"How am I supposed to tame you?" She shouted shakily.
 
The essay stuck out its inky tongue at her and began muttering about how stupid an essay about a renegade apple was.
 

i liked very much how playful you were with the physicality of the essay--how the words jump off of it, slide around on it, jumble themselves up. clever, and you make these images easy to see. plus, everyone loves a raspberry.

Hopelessly demoralized, the creator grabbed at the essay, which struggled violently. The essay hissed as she stuffed it into a folder. She slumped and turned her attention elsewhere, hoping that the time alone would help the essay see the errors of its ways. Loud growling and clawing floated out of the folder, but the creator ignored it.

She turned to her web browser and milled about web pages aimlessly until...
"Hey! Look what I stumbled upon, A collection of <a target="_self" href="http://www.angelfire.com/wa/zzaran/calvin.html">calvin and hobbes</a> comics! I loved those as a kid!" She exclaimed as she ploddered around the internet. 5 hours later, she realized that the essay wasn't growling anymore.

Tentatively, she peeked into the folder to find the essay sleeping peacefully.

 "Aww, how cute," she thought, and gingerly pulled it out again.  The pages ruffled quietly as the essay snored.

'hopelessly demoralized'? i'm not sure if the narrator is overreacting, but this feels like an abrupt transition from her frustration a moment ago. i also feel ambivalent about the angelfire.com segment above. details are usually a plus, but this one felt superfluous, as fun as it was. i'm constantly charmed by this essay that refuses to be written! i loved the bolded sentence, another ingenious anthropomorphism. i agree, it is cute.

Worried for her grade, the creator threw a long, meaningless, boring-sounding sentence at the essay, hoping to sedate it. It worked, and the essay grew drowsy and confused

ha! another clever aspect to this story--the mc's words affect the essay's state of being. regarding the underlined hyphenate, is the idea of the sound of the written sentenc important, or the meaning of the words? it's interesting, either way. the word 'boring-sounding' is a bit awkward, but i like that you're playing with these ideas. fun!

The essay regained its senses, angered at being thwarted.  With one violent jerk, it tore itself out of her hands. It grew into an unfathomable size and towered over the creator, letting out a low, sinister laugh.

Quaking from terror, the creator surveyed the room for a suitable weapon. She lunged for a mug of pencils and began to throw them at the essay, but they splintered into pieces as they hit the impenetrable barrier.  In retribution  the essay smacked the creator with a long sentence about decaying societies, sending her tumbling to the ground.

Cackling, it began pelting her with the word apple, and she struggled to find cover. With luck she found her way under her dorm bed, and tried to catch her breath. The essay roared and began to attack the bed.
 

and a fight scene, too! cool. what's this essay's problem? so angry.  i think you may need a comma after 'retribution'. the underlined phrases came across a bit overstated or wordy to me. another clever essay attack, in bold.

This startled the essay, giving her a precious second to scoot out from under the bed, ducking under its massive thesis and grabbing onto the golden stapler.

But the essay looped a stringy "however" around the creator, and pulled her lasso-style into its grips. She screamed, and frantically hit the essay with the stapler. No luck! The staple didn't stick! The essay began to wrap "buts" and "nonetheless's" around her, stifling her breath. She let out a gurgled cry, suffocating...

Then she saw it, her name, glowing in front of her like a beacon; where her name was, the corner was! With the last bit of her strength, the creator latched the stapler onto the essay, and crunched it down with all of her might.
 

okay, i know you wrote this for fun, not to be a serious piece--but there's something here. the golden stapler, the power of the mc's name...this reads like the mythical journey, b. the protagonist faces her gateway guardian, faces her challenge, and emerges victorious (if a little bedraggled) on the other side. i like the magical quality of this, and appreciate the silly in it, too. this is a fun story!

The essay instantly began purring and rubbing against the professor.
 

well, but of course. ha! this essay truly is evil.

The professor gave her a long look, oblivious to the scrapes, welts and bruises. "Alright. I'll accept it."

 

you know the thing about fiction needing to feel more plausible than reality? i remember my professors, how tough they were...i don't think i could've turned in an essay 9 days late. i have no doubt your professor accepted your essay, but this reads as a little unrealistic, as ironic as that is. it feels too pat, you know?

The student said her good byes and walked back to her dorm, unaware that behind her finals were stalking her, snapping their razor sharp teeth, of which they have 4 to 5, generally labeled with a, b, c, d, and e, respectively.

But at least for one night, the student would have her rest. At least for one night.

this poor girl has a heck of a week ahead of her! i wonder why her assignments waited until finals week to attack her?

what a fun, clever story, brittany--i enjoyed both reads. thanks for writing and posting!

I love how it really describes the pain a college student has to go through.  Writing ridiculous essays and having insanely hard finals basically means there is no rest for any of us.

You turned in a late essay but had time to write this to go with it?  Overall, very cute and I liked that it was short.  I came to read this because I saw your title and it immediately put me in good cheer for it reminded me of old classmates who loved to procrastinate.  I will say two things about the introduction.  I do not know if you did it on purpose but I liked how you wrote that she stuck a pencil PAINFULLY straight and then go on to say the essay laughed as if TICKLED.  It is not contradictory but I liked how it confused me at first.  Oh!  Then you transitioned from "words shed from its pages like water from a shaking dog" to the Creator crying - both having to do with water drops.

Hey Brittany,

I really liked this piece.  I think it is my favorite of yours so far.  You do an excellent job of describing this very abstract concept and also of giving it the feel of an allegory.  Every word is well used and there are some really brilliant phrases.  Most of all I like the context in which you used this piece originally.  What a great creative solution to the problem of turning in a late paper.  When writing has a purpose and an audience it is always going to be strong.

To the breakdown:

That only made the essay laugh even more, as if tickled. As it laughed, it shook, and as it shook, words shed from its pages like water from a shaking dog.

It's already been mentioned, but this is a great line.

The creator began to cry, and tried her best to pick up the words and attach them back to the page, but with no luck.

The crying bothers me.  This piece is amusing but the extreme emotion puts me out of that mind set.  A frustrated grimace or some less extreme display of emotion might keep the reader in the right mood.

The essay stuck out its inky tongue at her and began muttering about how stupid an essay about a renegade apple was.

This might just be me but up to this point I am assuming that every action the essay takes is actually a figurative description of a real event.  For example the words being shed is actually the writer editing out some useless sentences.  In this paragraph I have a hard time figuring out what the correlation to the real world is of an essay sticking out its tongue.  I realize the analogous from may not have been your intent but it is so strong in most of the essay that it would be easy to patch these holes if you so choose.

Hopelessly demoralized,

As mentioned previously I would drop the hopelessly.  This would keep the story a bit lighter.

She slumped and thought about finding more Calvin and Hobbes comics, but shook the idea out of her head.

This seems like an unnecessary aside.

"Stop! Stop!" Worried for her grade, the creator threw a long, meaningless, boring-sounding sentence at the essay, hoping to sedate it. It worked, and the essay grew drowsy and confused. With the essay distracted on other things, the creator turned to throwing in some actual arguments. Whenever the essay began to snap out of its bored daze, she threw in another complex illogical sentence. Soon the pages shined, blackened in inky goodness, and the creator beamed at her creation.

I spotlight this section because it is a great example of what you are doing throughout.  Assumably these are all references to sentences in the actual essay.  How fun it would be to read through the essay and find the boring sentence that put it to sleep or the complex illogical sentences that keep it dazed.  You've turned an essay that you weren't proud of into a scavenger hunt for a curious mind.

The essay regained its senses, angered at being thwarted. With one violent jerk, it tore itself out of her hands. It grew into an unfathomable size and towered over the creator, letting out a low, sinister laugh.

This bothers me a bit.  I'll go into it more at a later time (perhaps on the forums)  but I personally believe that most stories can only support one Miracle Exemption to reality, especially really short ones.  Your ME is that the essay is alive.  All your other outlandish statements come from that one ME.  Here you introduce another ME that it can grow to super-size.  I don't know if this would bother anyone else, but to me your asking me to suspend too much disbelief here.  Why would it grow?  This might sound silly to others, but it is how my mind works.  Also I think the following scenes could work with a regular sized essay.

But the essay looped a stringy "however" around the creator, and pulled her lasso-style into its grips. She screamed, and frantically hit the essay with the stapler. No luck! The staple didn't stick! The essay began to wrap "buts" and "nonetheless's" around her, stifling her breath. She let out a gurgled cry, suffocating...

Again, I love this stuff as I'm sure it is reflected in the real essay.  Total fun!

I guess that about covers it.  Thanks for contributing this.  I really enjoyed the writing and off-beat topic.  If I had been your professor, I would have been amused.  So in that way it is successful from my P.O.V.

-Ben

I was originally only going to leave a comment on this because I thought it was just something fun that you probably didn't want to work on again, but honestly, this is publishable material. It belongs in anything students might read (what do students read..?) It's almost perfect. I could only say a couple nitpicky things:

a burdened lifted.

should probably be just "burden". And...

unaware that behind her finals were stalking her

awkward wording. I figured it out pretty quick, but maybe a comma would help it a little.

Oh, yeah, and the hyperlink didn't work.

But this was such an enjoyable story. The action is expertly written. The lighthearted theme runs all the way through. My favorite line was

The essay began to wrap "buts" and "nonetheless's" around her

Brilliant!

It begins well. It ends well. It's a subject most of us will relate to. Great work and good luck!

 That is awesome. I can't believe you didn't get a grade for that! Granted, it had nothing to do with the subject, but SOMETHING would have been nice. Great read. Very cute.