Blocked

**Blocked** is an InCryptid short story. It is first in the Antimony Shorts but can be read as a standalone.

## Synopsis

Antimony Price likes her life. She likes her high school, she likes her friends—even if none of them really know her as anything more than another face in the halls—and most of all, she likes her place on the cheerleading squad, where she understands what's expected of her, and delivers with grace, style, and a viciousness that has done a lot for her team's reputation.

Too bad it's time to graduate.

Now adrift in a world that doesn't have the rules she's used to or the protections she had worked so hard to shape, Antimony has to find something else to keep herself busy...and her cousin, Elsinore, has a few ideas about what that something might be.

It's time for Antimony to meet the wide, wonderful world of roller derby. Let's hope that she survives the experience—and that everyone else survives *her*.

## Plot

Antimony cheers for her final football game during her senior year.

Six weeks after graduation, her father encourages her to find something to do with herself. She is bitter than she can't continue cheering or doing any of her other sports at the collegiate level, due to the security risk it may pose, despite Verity being allowed to participate in *Dance or Die*.

Elsie introduces Annie to roller derby; Elsie has been following the Silver Screams league for some time and even dated some of the players. After chatting with Dani, Annie gears up and auditions for the team. Her final trial is skating against Fern, who she recognizes as non-human.

A week later, in the middle of a cryptid bug extermination, Annie gets a call from Dani offering her a spot in the league. Annie chooses to ride with the Slasher Chicks and claims her derby name: Final Girl.

## Characters

* Antimony Price / Final Girl
* Sophie (cheerleader)
* Wendy (cheerleader)
* Kevin Price
* Elsinore Harrington
* Dani / Cherry T. Case
* Fern
* Carlotta

**Mentioned**

* Ted Harrington
* Alice Healy (as "Grandma")
* Arthur Harrington
* Sarah Zellaby
* Jean, Dani's fiance

## Field Guide

* Cuckoo
* Succubus
* "giant flesheating dragonflies of unknown origin"

## Locations

* Portland, Oregon
	+ Lewis and Clark High School
	+ Price Compound
	+ Harrington home
	+ Roller derby warehouse

## Organizations

* Trailblazers cheerleading squad
* Silver Screams
	+ Slasher Chicks
	+ Block Busters
	+ Concussion Stand

**Mentioned**

* Covenant of St. George

## Continuity

* "That day on the field, with the lights burning my eyes and the air burning my lungs, until it felt like I was going to pull a Jean Grey and ignite from within..." -Hints at Annie's witch abilities
* "I don't even look like the rest of you!"

## Quotes

* **Dani:** "And once again, Elsie takes it to a sexual place in less than a minute and a half."
**Elsie:** "It's my superpower. I am the patron saint of inappropriate innuendo and giving people hickeys right before their mothers show up."

### Epigraph

* **Alice Healy:** "We don’t always grow into the lives we thought we’d have when we were children. That’s not a bad thing. It’s nice to meet the people we never expected to become.”

### Pop Culture

* Annie makes movie buff references such as the Addams Family vs. the Brady Bunch, X-Men, Disney's the Little Mermaid, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and The Twilight Zone