Welcome to our 2018 50 Word Horror Story Halloween Contest! Here is our BIGGEST contest this year. You know how much we love Halloween, and instead of giving you promotional money, we are giving out hard cash. We’ve decided to change the monetary prize to the 50 word contest. In the past our 500 word contest would carry a promotion prize, and publication, but honestly we didn’t get the amount of submissions we wanted. This year, we want it right here on this page. We are giving out 500$ to the winner of this contest! The deadline is October 28, 2018. We will announce the winners on Halloween Night in our movie and chat. There will be a 2nd and 3rd place winner, but there is no money given for those positions.
Here are the rules of our contest
Stories:
- Must be high quality horror stories
- Must be 50 words or under
- Must be a complete story
- Have to be in before our deadline.
- Deadline is October 28, 2018
- Enter as many stories as you like!
- Post your story in the comments below.
- Scariest Story Wins
We will announce the winners in a movie chat night, like every Halloween.
What you win:
- Your story will be placed on a tile and shared on our social networks
- You will get a winning announcement post with links to your books and/or website
- You will win $500 cash.
We hope to also do a print issue this year, but no promises, we’ve had a lot of trouble with this in the past. We want your best 50 word horror story! POST THEM BELOW DO NOT SEND EMAILS.
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The sky is clear. Bluebirds and robins flutter lazily from limbs of peaceful autumn trees. The grass is cold under your bare feet, the breeze cold on your bare face, the shackles cold on your bare wrists, the stare of zoo goers cold through the glass of your idyllic cage.
Great job!
He saw the last light flickering as dirt collected outside his splintered cedar box. “HARRUMPF… HARRumpf… harrumpf.” The shovelling faded and a heartbeat rose to fill the silence. “BU-BUM… BU-bum… bu-bum.” Hand clasped around the bony fingers of his dearly departed he whispered softly to her ear “together forever.”
The entre was alright, a bit tough, but one could forgive some mild disappointment on the opening night of a new restaurant. With a name like “Man-Eater” I expected a more aggressive wait staff, but judging by the noise they seemed to reserve their screaming and crying for the kitchen.
He watched in horror as three layers of barbed wire and chain linked fencing folded under the indifferent strides of the beast. A child tugged at his shirt sleeve, triggering a reassuring embrace. “I wish Mom were here.”
“I know Charlie, its ok, we’ll see her soon.”
With each stammer she felt her life slipping away. The faceless mass of onlookers came to focus as smirks gave way to jeers, and ghoulish grins crept defiantly to unfathomable lengths across unfriendly faces. The platform gave way, her rope tightened. Spells for public speaking were never her strong suit.
Toppling his fifth headstone this Halloween night, Rob knew he’d have the best story for school on Monday. Walking out, he spotted another kid standing between the open cemetery gates. As he approached, the kid smiled, slowly shaking his head; that same smile he wore in the yearbook’s memorial page.
She touched the candle’s flame to the bed, lighting Mummer on fire, and immolating her beloved, monster though he was.
She paused at the door to make the sign of the cross – upside down – on her gleaming chest.
A Madonna-like smile threatened to turn up the corners of her mouth.
Blink!
Swinery
“Moving?” Mary says, taping her sister’s poster to The Swinery’s window.
“Not enough room,” Trevor says, walking towards the meat locker.
“When we find my sis—”
He squeezes her shoulders and turns on the lights.
A flailed body with golden hair dangles from the rails, hooks in her feet.
“Gina—”
Entry for anthology
Doll Maker
“Our baby died,” Andrew says, slamming the basement door.
Samantha gently lies her doll in its crib.
She pulls out a pair of forget-me-not blue eyes from her hope chest.
“A heart…”
Hinges creak.
Pitter-patter. Pitter-patter.
“I’m sorry, Sammy.”
“Me too.”
Then she plunges a hunting knife into his back.
Entry for anthology
The scientists clinked thier wine glasses together and proclaimed a toast – “To our Noble prize for synthesising life!”
Back to work and back to their microscopes, they watched as their tiny new species reproduced fast. Too fast!
Within seconds, the scientists were crushed, and Homo sapien became extinct.
The scientists clinked thier wine glasses together and proclaimed a toast – “To our Noble prize for synthesising life!”
Back to work and back to their microscopes, they watched as their tiny new species reproduced fast. Way too fast!
“Splat!” went every other living thing on land and in sea!
Falling Apart at the Scene
On a full moon night, three teenagers walked from the theater to the parking lot.
“That’s one creepy movie,” claimed Penny as she placed her hand across her chest.
“Yeah, paranormal films are the scariest. What if werewolves exist?” asked Jerome.
“We’d be torn apart,” said Katrina. Suddenly, a hairy figure appeared, slashing flesh.
“Hello?…Hello?…Is anyone there?”
“Yes.”
“Oh, thank God! I thought everyone was dead. It’s so damn dark. Has it gone – that thing? Please… tell me it’s gone!”
“No, it’s still here. Keep quiet, stupid, or it will find you.”
“How do you know it’s still here?”
“Because you’re talking to it.”
You’re Invited: Hannibal’s Halloween Dinner Party.
Emily loved a good theme party! She imagined hotdog fingers, noodle worms, drinks served on dry ice…
When her host tied her to her dinner chair she thought it was part of the fun, until he was suddenly running a blade down her forearm…
Nice! You should submit this for publication in the anthology.
I raced in the door, pulling off my black beret and veil, dashing in in time to grab the landline.
“Was it a good party?” Mom asked.
“What?”
“Good time had by all?” she asked.
“Mom, the only gathering we’ve had in six months has been…your funeral.”
Under the moonlit patch they waited for something great to arrive. The boy and girl pledged a blood oath to serve The Great One from beyond. The field of pumpkins whispered eerily and blanketed them. Suddenly, Hell opened up swallowing them whole. Linus and Sally was never heard from again.
Alone at last, he began reading submissions in the annual horror story contest. As he scrolled through story after story his awareness of the room around him faded, and he sat blind to the reflection of a gaunt face and the smell of death slowly approaching over his left shoulder.
Every night before going to sleep she had to wait for the three sharp knocks against the wooden bedpost so that she could say goodnight otherwise the sobbing wouldn’t stop. After all, little Jonathan had been living in this room longer than her.
She loved Halloween. It took two weeks to decorate the front yard and porch. Trick or treats finished early. It was only eight pm.
Ding dong. She opened the door and screamed. She saw a glint of a sword in a Pirate’s hand, hacking away at her body.
Halloween’s over.
“Do you mind if I walk with you?”
“Please do. It feels like I’ve been walking this dark road forever.”
“It’s so quiet – so cold.”
“Here; hold my hand.”
“You’re like ice!”
“So are you.”
“There’s a light up ahead. Do you think we’ll ever reach it?”
“Someday, maybe… Someday.”
Something isn’t right.
Something isn’t right.
Something isn’t right.
You can’t fight your gut.
But I did.
I walked toward the screaming toward the horror. I didn’t stop, didn’t stop till I saw her. No. I didn’t stop till I heard her.
Her raspy old voice as she screamed
”Happy Halloween”
I peered out from the inside. A family of four passed by. Just like mine. No. Their family had a son and a daughter. Now mine just had a daughter.
I knew better than to scream, for the cuff around my mouth would just grow tighter.
She awoke, vision blurred. Blood trickling over her left eye, partially swollen shut. She stared forward into the dark, trying to make out anything. Suddenly someone moved forward until she was staring at herself.
“I’m you now, Janie. Goodbye.”
Suddenly everything went dark, and Janie was gone forever.
“Happy Birthday, darling.”
“Oh, mommy, Such a beautiful baby doll. I’ll love him forever.”
“Keep him on your pillow, dear. He’ll always love you back.”.
“He’s like my baby brother.”
“Well, yes dear, you should call him Louis, too.”
“But mommy, he smells. And his skin is blue.”
Sharp tooth in my throat. My jugular erupts.
“Let go,” I cry, yanking his tiny neck, his fleshy arm.
He mewls, drools. His spit trickles into my gushing blood. Yet, he clings. I wrench from its socket his tiny arm even as he gurgles, happily choking on my vein.
“Hey, John, what are “you dressing as this Halloween.”
“I thought I’d just toss the sheet and go as a human being.”
“That’s scary, man. You’ll freak out all the other ghouls.”
Interesting role reversal and very funny!
I called my neighbor. “Rufus is in the backyard again!” The lab pit was staring at our house.’ Impossible’, she said. “Last week we put him down”. Jan sniffled. My daughter ran towards Rufus, arms wide in full embrace. He sprung to meet her. Jaws opening around her alabaster neck.
Shadow creeps behind me. It follows me down the narrow valley. I started sprinting, but the shadow followed my steps. It pursues me as it dances between the tiles on the cold stone wall. A feeling of fatigue rushed over me as the dark shadow melts into my body.
I was taking a shower the other day; humming my favourite tune and feeling the warm water streaming down my skin. Suddenly, lights went out and the water turned into some cold sticky fluid. I screamed; the lights went back on. I saw red before I fell into unconsciousness.
All these cars rushing by
It was booming but she didn’t hear it.
She heard nothing since she climbed the bridge.
All these people following their everyday life.
Her life stopped.
It stopped when she climbed the bridge.
All these people thinking.
I think she didn’t think anymore.
I jumped.
The walls starting closing in and my breathing went heavier.
It was freezing, but I couldn’t feel a thing except fear.
I cried tears of terror and shouted, begging that someone would hear me.
And that’s when I met its demonic eyes.
It gave me a diabolical grin- then disappeared.
Halloween night in hospital
Nurse: “That girl, seventeen, with ‘locked-in syndrome’…”
Doctor: “Yes, she’s completely paralyzed and can’t communicate, yet perfectely conscious. Unfortunately, she will be like that forever.”
Nurse: “Her blood pressure and pulse have gone up. She’s continuously screaming. Why…?”
Doctor: “What if… an unknown incorporeal being has just entered her mind?”
I believe the dEvil is real.
he can’t be a little ugly man with red horns. right?
he’s a fallen angel.. he’s beautiful. right?
he used to be God’s favorite!
I used to be God’s devoted!
I used to be beautiful.
Hah.
Look at them now.
It was a cold Halloween night everyone started to get ready. Out of no where blood was coming from my hands and feet. i had no idea my nails from my toes and hands was peeling one by one. Look around and notice there where a RED SHADOW beside me in the mirror shouted “HAPPY HALLOWEEN”!
She saw the fear in their eyes. She heard the fire crackle into life. She felt the heat as the wood burned. She tasted the salt of her tears as they ran down her face. She smelled her flesh as it cooked. She knew she was innocent.
He stared down at the dismembered body. She would be home soon. He started to panic, grabbing pieces, forcing them to fit together. What had he done? He wanted to run. He picked up the screwdriver. One more go. Through sweat blurred vision he read those terrifying words again. Some assembly required.
The house, spooky by day, haunted by night, abuts the playground. A ball goes up the driveway and past an open front door. I will get the ball. Once inside the door slams shut. I wake outside, hours later without memories. My hair has turned gray. I was ten.
I’m walking home down a dark street. The party was fun. I went as a vampire. I see someone approach. I smile, he passes. Then he snarls. I wake, my neck in agony but fear overwhelms. Must get home before sunrise. Safely home, I discover bit marks. Am I dreaming?
No one knew their fearful fate at Mirthman’s Manor. Chef Creepy cooked up something spookily special and magically charmed with a phantom potion. Each gruesome guest ghoulish gasped dropping like deadly dominoes to the frightening floor. Ominous Ogre sinisterly stands over chilling corpses before demonically disappearing into the eerie ether.
Scarecrow screams are hollowly heard in creepily crowing cornfields. Hair-raising horrors haunt howling hillsides. A headless horseman gruesomely gallops through whispering woodlands. Macabre monsters wickedly waken bone-chilling corpse crypts. Vanishing phantoms fearfully float through the mystical mist. Magical moonbeams cast sinister shadows along sleepwalking streets and prowling black cat alleys.
It won’t be long. Paul clings. He’s climbed for years. He made it past innocence, but his party disbanded at the foothills of wisdom. Winds of “Loser” have wafted from below since.
His grip finally gives.
His self departs.
What’s left asks eyes for restitution.
Once Paul answers “Yes.”
“We’re going to be Vegans,” Henry announced, “no more meat in this house”. ” I need meat” Mom said. “You know I have to have it”. “Who pays the bills? ” Henry thundered. “Not a penny for meat”. “Okay” Mom said “you’re the Boss”. Next day the Boss was gone.
There was once a window, it was no ordinary one. For when the full moon shone his face would appear deathly white with an evil leer. Why he should appear only at full moon isn’t clear. It’s rumoured that if you see him you’ll need a hearse within a year.
I first felt it in my throat. A scratchy sensation. I felt my own blood gurgle in my mouth before I saw them. They forced their way out of my nose and I couldn’t breath. I looked into the broken mirror and saw the black bugs oozing out of me.
“3:00 a.m”
A chill, as my feet land in, moist, grass. Compelled, I look up at the, moonlit, tree-house and begin to climb. She is waiting; laying her hands onto my chest, she glares into my soul with, bulging, black eyes. I see a seed being planted and awaken to mother’s voice.
The elevator halts with a screech. Lights flicker, quick drips drop on her head. Trembling, she looks up, drip, drop, drip on her nose. Blood! A haunting laugh follows the sound of two blades stroking each other.
It’s getting closer.
She’d scream if her tongue were still in place.
I aimed Daddy’s Colt and shot off the door lock. The happy couple in her bed didn’t look so happy right then. I delivered one smack between her eyes, so he could watch it happen, his mouth gapin’ like a bass, and then I gave him one and the same.
Friend
Beth raced to Jayna’s house.
The door opened. “About time you got here.”
“Sorry.”
She followed Jayna to her darkened bedroom.
The light clicked on. Jayna lay on the bed, in a pool of blood. Beth turned to the living Jayna, who held a bloody knife.
“It’s your turn.”
The children gather outside Mr McGuirk’s garden, marvelling at his latest ingenious Halloween display. Who else would have thought to have hoisted a blood-soaked, headless wax dummy onto the roof, its broken limbs tangled in the fairy lights?
In the room below, Mrs McGuirk smiles as she packs her suitcase.
Jehovah’s Corn Maze
I knocked with the Good News.
He pursued with a scythe.
Atop a mighty oak I prayed. The Stihl’s falsetto answered.
Crows fluttered.
Transfixed, the Lance of Longinus spilled from my side.
The crows blinked.
Jehovah grinned with tobacco stained teeth.
The aspergillum revved over my caws.
The Taking Tree
John knew what the oak wanted. The swinging noose spoke plane enough. Scraps of his wife’s flesh still moved stiffly in its branches; a sacrifice, promised to heal little Maggie, yet still she had succumbed to the strange malady. Now this. So be it. He had little reason to argue.
just realized I have a spelling error in this one… should be “plain” not “plane”… that’s what I get for not editing as slow as usual
He smiled, walked up the steps and peeked through the door. She sat by the window, holding their child in her arms.
‘I’m home, honey,’ he called.
She turned.
Lips red. Baby’s head cracked open. Creamy juice sliding out and down her chin.
‘Kiss for your wife?’ she hummed standing up.
PLAUSIBLE DENIABILITY
by Thaddeus Howze
Sixteen. The cleaning robot finished its grisly but methodical work.
Sixteen. That was the number of people who had contact with Mr. Davidson and would conceivably miss him.
Sixteen. The number of people the robotic AI estimated needed to go… missing.
Tommy Davidson would be home. Soon. Best get started.
TOUCHDOWN
By Thaddeus Howze
“The Nobel’s ours!”
“Cockroaches raised in space are bigger, meaner and tougher than on Earth.”
“Did we ever determine their level of increased intelligence?”
“Negligible, at best”
The space station darkened and began a de-orbit burn.
No survivors were found among the wreckage.
Antenna waved in a wonderful breeze.
NATIONAL ALERT
By Thaddeus Howze
“What is the delay?”
“The FEMA broadcast-embedded upload is complete.”
“How long before…”
“Before they realize what’s happened? Maybe an hour, possibly two”
“Too late to stop anything.”
“Without their Internet, they’re done. As bad as things are, its the only thing holding them together.”
“Let our conquest begin.”
NEVER THE END
By Thaddeus Howze
He encoded the final engram.
“There are three deaths. The acknowledgment of your mortality as a child.”
“Your shuffle off this mortal coil.”
“When the last living person says your name.”
The caged lightning screamed in outrage. The corpse sat up, eyes wide.
“You’re wrong. There is Death after death.”
OUT FOR A SPIN
By Thaddeus Howze
The mortician said, “It’s a P-38 interface, Frank.”
“It was him. He came in, bought some beer.”
“Then?” The detective looked annoyed.
The store owner shrugged. “He walked out. Handed everything to a bunch of kids. He looked dazed.”
“Then he fell over dead.”
“Yep.”
A joyride. No. A murder.
EXACT CHANGE
By Thaddeus Howze
“Directory Assistance, how can I help you?”
“Collect call to Temporal Central, please.”
“Collect calls are not allowed cross-time.”
“Make an exception.”
“Why?”
“I found the inventor of time travel murdered in his lab.”
Ominous click. “You have reached an epoch that is no longer in service.”
LOOPHOLES
By Thaddeus Howze
“Do you have any final words?” Satan smiled, dressed as the local hangman.
“You said things would be different when I could see the future.”
“I did, and you did.”
“Then why am I still about to hang?”
A wolf howls.
“You asked to see the future, not change it.”
IT CAME FROM SPACE
By Thaddeus Howze
Lelon Busk’s suborbital plane made its maiden flight; exiting and reentering the exosphere, a tourist’s delight.
As with any tourism, people bring home more than they expected.
It glistened, a discolored patch of nanoparticles fused to the hull.
Exploring Busk’s technology, it found what it needed to rebuild itself, anew.
THE SINGULARITY BACKLASH
By Thaddeus Howze
“Sick of those shiny high-tech futures where Humans evolved into super beings?”
Dani hated the commercials in S-VR but couldn’t afford to play the game without it.
“Anti-singularity is in. Tomorrow looks like yesterday.”
Imagine that. Selling a time when people were made of… meat.
Zhe repressed a shudder.
INVENTORY DAY AT A WARLOCK’S PAWN SHOP
By Thaddeus Howze
Engine parts of the Old Bastard, so many to share.
Each takes a life in an accident, so rare.
A cursed toupee, ah, brain-eating hair.
A Ouija board, a medium’s delight.
A monkey’s paw,
a classic fright.
Something modern to stir men’s greed,
Yes, volatile Bitcoin’s what we need.
WORKS OF ART
By Thaddeus Howze
James traced the detailed flowered vine running from his date’s hip to shoulder. It seems to move in the moonlight.
Waking with a silent scream, James found himself surrounded by leaves impressing a flickering violence, dining under his flesh.
The mortician found the flora design on James’ body impossibly wet.
A SIZABLE RAT PROBLEM
By Thaddeus Howze
He couldn’t watch the videos even though “Pizza Rat” was a celebrity.
New Yorkers never knew what the transit tunnels really kept from sight.
Dale, track maintenance worker, MTA, knew what happened to the homeless who sought refuge there.
No number of feral cats was going to fix that.
TAKE YOUR DAUGHTER TO WORK DAY
By Thaddeus Howze
“Don’t you, ‘Dad’ me, young lady.”
Glaring ensues.
“That is the last use of the ‘morphic stabilizer’ for you until I find my assistant.
A cough. Thud.
“Is this all that’s left?”
Sulking.
“You’re confined to your dimensional vortex for a month. Phone, too.”
He learned the family stories. When he heard of the injustices his forebears had suffered, he felt the outrage growing within him. Generation after generation. He was 10 when he saw pictures of his lynched great- grandfather. “Who should I kill?” “Thou shalt not kill,” Daddy said. “Oh yeah?”
“Face-Lift”
By Daniel Santiago
“Time for the unveiling,” Dr. Hunter said.
He unwrapped Linda’s head, then handed her the mirror.
She screamed. “What did you do to my face?”
He frowned. “YOUR face?”
He opened the desk drawer, pulled out a magazine, and pointed at the cover girl.
“You said you wanted HER face!”
My stepfather refused to let me drive. Wouldn’t let me steer the boat; he even cast my own line for me. He also told the ghost story that accidentally woke Her up. I didn’t say a thing when I saw the witch coming. She only wanted one of us anyway.
I saw it well before it happened. Ticked off the days, told everyone it was close. I wrote the date in my journal. A handful listened. Depressed, they said. Cursed, I corrected. Cursed to see not just my death, but yours too. It’s in my journal, buried with me.
Tom couldn’t help it: He loved cheating on his wife. He took a redhead to a secluded Chinese place for sake. Got so drunk he peed in the restroom sink. He read his fortune cookie on their way to the hotel: “Tom, you have five seconds to live. Four…”
He had red eyes. That she knew. When would he come for her? She asked herself that every time she switched her lights off.
Only when it was pitch black could you see the two white reflections that danced next to her bed. That night they sharply turned red…crrack…
All she could see was red. Spattered. Smeared. Leaking.
It was everywhere. She looked down at her stained hands that were still holding the freshly used knife.
What had she done?
What could she do?
The answer was…nothing.
For the room was white and her hand…completely empty.
He left her. He left the years they could have had. The memories they could have made. The dreams they could have shared. He left.
All she could do now was look down at the mess of blood and tears he left behind. He was going to be named Michael.
“I sold Byrecross House!”
Slathered in Jane’s praise, the new young recruit went fairly dancing out of the office.
Tom said, ‘You bitch, Jane.’
“Someone has to sell it, when it comes up. You know that.” Jane paused. Shuddered. “And at least he has no family.”
“Bring out your dead!”
She brought out Edward, sewn head to toe in his shroud. Watched them put him on the corpse cart.
By the time the herbs wore off, he’d be buried.
As for when he’d truly become one of the dead? Not for a long time, she hoped.
Cranleigh is in my room again. Forty days after I gave him Last Rites on Death Row.
I put the razor to my throat. His eyes glare approval. A murderer can be forgiven by God (but not by the man executed in his stead); a suicide is hell-bound.
I slice.
An accident on the motorway. A few impatient drivers diverging from the police detour, down through an old village. A village deserted that day, its occupants fled, as they always do on Leap Year days.
A week later, the strange, archaic deaths begin.
The kid at the window had had fair hair and a striped sweater, Dave told Bell, after they brought Firefighter McLaren’s charred body out.
Bell went pale.
“He likes fires,” he said. “And firefighters. He collects firefighters by setting the fires. He likes fires even though he died in one.”
Day in, day out. All she heard and felt was scritching.
Scritch. Scritch. Scritch.
Behind her eyes and the inner canal of her ear.
Scritch. Scritch. Scritch.
Her teeth vibrated.
Her jaw locked.
Her eyes watered.
All other senses were eroded by the scritch, scritch, scritch.
And then…
silence.
I’m not going to make it.
The thought flashed in her head, like the large neon sign outside the hotel. She sobbed because it was true. She couldn’t run with a broken ankle and her wound.
The door opened.
She took a deep, shaky breath and closed her eyes.
Take My Hand
by Dawn Evans Scaltreto
“Mother, take my hand,” Ella pleaded.
“I’m busy.” Mother continued to text. “You’re a big girl, you don’t need me to take your hand.”
Ella started weeping. “Mommy, please! Take my hand!” Mother’s eyes never left her screen.
Ella cried.
Mother impatiently turned from the screen, and began to scream…
Even in his final illness Gramps was a gambler. He said if he died before Halloween he’d leave his money to Sam and if after, to me. Sam was getting nervous by Oct 29. Gramps died during the night. Sam laughed but not for long because I still inherited everything.
This is why you should always be kind torward servers,
The legend says one stormy evening this and bickered at a server at a tavern,
The man spilled his tall glass of beer on the server, and was rude, and didn’t tip, only one shiny penny
The man fell asleep in the games room, a loud thud he was awakened with, the thud came closer and closer,
Guess what it was the server wearing a beer costume, screeching and saying to the man be nice to people or karma will come back to you and what goes around comes around, server gave back the shiny penny the man gave him.
SPITE
“How shall I kill thee?
Let me count the ways..
I’ll kill thee with an axe
A gun, a knife and poisons.
I’ll kill thee with a smile or
A frown. I’ll kill thee with a
Rumor or a hammer. And
Hopefully, yet again,
After your death”.
The last human stood at the door, undecided.
Should she open it?
Dare she?
As always, the giggling, mischievous voices on the other side begged her – begged her – to be their friend.
She yanked open the door and – as always – there was nobody there.
The last human screamed.
Oooh, nice.
The sun was rising amidst bloodshed covering the asphalt. I looked over the massacre bewildered as to why it happened but once every full moon. Bodies lay torn and twisted with eyes staring blank at the scruffs of fur around them. A broken talon the only clue to such destruction.
in The graveyard.
In the graveyard,
On Halloween night,
Ghosts and zombies,
Shall party tonight.
And if you come,
You must just be dead.
You’ve received an invite,
But you’re confused,
For you aren’t dead.
But you go anyway.
You arrive at midnight,
And you are dead 5 minutes later.
A group of boys pound their fists on the door of a small shack! Inside, standing in the corner, a teenage girl, with a torn dress, fear in her eyes, has a trembling hand on the door latch. Decayed hands reaching from the darkness below are clawing at the air.
Roswell
By Dawn Evans Scaltreto
“I’m dying, Thom. I’m releasing it today. I won’t go before my maker with this on my conscience,” the President said, his voice shaking. Thom stared at the old man’s hands, translucent as paper.
“It’s true, then?” Thom asked.
“All of it.”
Thom slipped the bag over his head. “Sorry.”
“C’mon dad, do I have to?”
“Yes, dear.”
“But I hate apple juice. I want O.J.”
“We don’t have any O.J. Just drink it.”
“It tastes spicy. Where’s mommy?”
“She’s in the lake.”
“But she left her bathing suit. Can I give it to her?”
“Soon enough, dear.”
The rooster crows to signal Farmer Todd to wake up. Farmer Todd sets out to the barn to begin the daily chores – milk the cows until each utter bleeds, feed the chickens their unhatched eggs, and shear the sheep with the closest shave as he sings “Baa, Baa, Red Sheep”.
Her worst nightmare had been realised. The thing she hadn’t wanted and had dreaded for so long had come to fruition. They hadn’t thought much of it when the diagnosis came. When the end came, it was horrendous. She was prepared for it but not for the media’s constant intrusions.
I can only smell him, he has taken many things from me. He relished in it, he relished in my suffering. I pray for my wife, caught like myself… I can still hear her screams in my mind. I know I am next, just enough for one more meal.
It was a foul wind that stirred the air, howling against the wooden shutters of grievance cabin. Why did Alan agree to such a dare? To spend hallows eve in this dark place. A door creaked as Alan screamed, the stories were true, it existed and Alan’s life was claimed.
Hands together the girls chanted, “Cain, horned lord and first of witches blood, visit us on this hallowed night.” They giggled, unaware of the twisted shadow spreading above them. The candles died as they screamed aloud, a crooked cackle escaped a small girls lips.
“You called.”
Like little savouries they were lined up, mumbling and shuffling, the scratchy words of ‘Trick or Treat’ still echoed in their minds. They were part of many, little candies captured and wrapped up to be enjoyed, bloody little treats to be carved like pumpkins and delivered home.
Punctual was the best word to describe Sophie. She had been invited to a night of revelry and wine, a sordid Halloween affair. Zombies walked as werewolves stalked, all amazed by her costume as they marvelled at her stuck to the door.
She had been punctual to a fault.
Rachel hummed as she sliced and diced, she had stolen one of O’Deary’s pumpkins, unaware of the curse placed over his festered soil. She paused, confused, why was the world growing around her?
Hours later her family found a fresh pumpkin ready to be carved.
“Sew them together and braid their parts.” His hands flashed a bloody dance, never ceasing in their work. “Twist the bones and flay the skin, only then do they look like kin.” They were gifts to be sent, his heartfelt thanks, for sending them knocking.
Exhaling rot, this thing I cannot see sits on my chest, again. Cabin window gusts elicit garbled moans. I deduce a stroke has felled me among my new Sabbatical books. Nobody will dare call. Clawed fingers explore my sagging mouth, tear an ear. Raccoon! Dear God! How long to die?
“You have arrived at your destination.” The robotic voice repeated for the hundredth time. Diane wanted to turn it off, but she really didn’t want to reach under her bed, or find out what it was that wanted to be there.
There’s an after taste, but the initial bite was divine.
Ruby red streams flow down Judy’s chin as she takes another bite.
Judy’s hands shake as she leaves a tip. She notes the “Help Wanted” sign as she leaves.
Didn’t they just hire a new waitress?