$500 Halloween 50 Horror Word Story Contest 2019

4,463 thoughts on “$500 Halloween 50 Horror Word Story Contest 2019”

1. The Harvest

   burnt orange pumpkins and rustic potatoes
   and crisp cut carrots and sweet leeks and
   ladles of stock garnished with herbs
   gathered fresh from The Harvest,
   Bowls overflowing, they feasted till full
   merrily discarding the rest
   as hungry eyes watched and waned and wept
   into the earth to replenish
   The Harvest

2. ONCE HOT LOVERS

   Resting beside her, he felt the light warmth from her naked leg.

   He waited for her to cool off after their heated battle.

   As she laid staring in silence at the ceiling, he’d found a new attractiveness in her.

   And the colder she became, the more his strange arousal grew.

3. THRESHOLD OF THE UNKNOWN

   At long last, she’d discovered the dimensional gateway, deep within the forest.

   Her partner was dubious.

   “If you don’t believe me, walk through it then.” She taunted.

   “Sure.” The colleague leaned in, partially disappearing, the visible half shook violently.

   Pulling out a headless corpse; she realized more research was necessary.

4. THE RUBY CHOKER

   “What are all the holes for?” asked the nervous chair bound man.

   She took the black tubular plastic collar and wrapped it snugly around his neck.

   “The leeches,” She said locking the hasp. “They keep the blood from going to the head, you’ll pass out long before the gruesome part.”

5. THE WITCH HUNT

   “Suzie, run!” the single mother screamed, investigating a strange basement noise.

   The girl escaped next door; when police arrived her mother had vanished.

   The child became a ward of the State, several years later she’d discover the terrifying fate of her mom.

   She’d relocated and started life anew in Florida.

6. CASTING OF THE FIRST

   Even with the late afternoon sun, an ominous behemoth cast shade upon him.

   His ankles were chained to spikes driven into hard soil.

   Anguished pleas were protested at the monolith in vain.

   Suddenly the granite slab came crashing down upon the victim; recipient of an old fashioned, albeit effective punishment.

7. I looked at her corpse and she looked peaceful.

   I never meant to hurt her, I just didn’t want a new baby.

   As I curled in bed at night, I heard the rocking chair begin to rock.

   I turned and she sat there rocking her fetus, her staring eyes dead.

8. The Consumer

   In the basement of the old farmhouse, the Consumer sat, its gleaming bloodshot eyes drifting from one television to another. Observing scenes of genocide, war, and murder. It smiled with joviality while digesting what the world had become.

   As the rotting corpses of the future lay behind weeping.

9. Mom

   I looked at her corpse and she looked peaceful.

   I never meant to hurt her, I just didn’t want a new baby.

   As I curled in bed at night, I heard the rocking chair begin to rock.

   I turned and she sat there rocking her fetus, her staring eyes dead.

10. OUT OF JUICE

    Joe hated the attic, it was littered with mummified rodents, had no lights and reeked of death.

    One night while searching through boxes his flashlight flickered.

    Something shuffled between him and the door.

    Terrified, he kept smacking the dead flashlight.

    It crept closer and feasted until all life was drained.

11. WEAKENED CLEANING

    Windblown leaves scratched across the darkened street as Dustin walked home.

    Bristly sounds grew louder and closer.

    Turning, he ducked just as a witch strafed his head with a broomstick.

    Frightened, he bolted, weaving through roadside trees.

    Short of safe haven, the exhausted boy was swept up into the wind.

12. SOMETHING DEAD
    “There’s a real eyeball in my trick-or-treat candy!”
    I pass the event horrorizon.
    A florid face inches from my own face. The bulbous head is slashed by a mouth full of rotten teeth dripping blood: “It’s mine.”
    Its something dead.
    A sound like gut splatter as he chews, then swallows.

13. Closer

    Muted by the rain hitting the tin roof she heard something different.
    She chalked it up to the edge of the eves dripping.
    Her daughter stirred beside her asking “Momma, what’s that noise?”
    She replied it was the rain.
    Her daughter whispered “it’s getting closer” while dozing back to sleep.

14. MY BOAT CRASHED

    Tangled against rocks at the water’s edge,
    My body’s broken.
    Unable to move,
    My body slides.
    Water reaches my chest.
    God, please help!
    It’s to my nose-
    I breathe deep.
    Tiny fish swim past my eyes.
    Lungs burning.
    I can’t hold it!
    I inhale the salty ocean.
    Burning.
    Aching.
    Blackness.

15. Inheritance

    The sink bubbled inexplicable blood down its sides. Slumped on the floor, Rachel gazed up in horror as the spindly legs buckled.

    She confessed. “I killed my grandmother. I held a pillow over her face so I could inherit her house.”

    The heavy porcelain crushed down on Rachel’s windpipe. Retribution.

16. Graveyard Shift

    I hate working overnights. Especially graveyard shift. It’s the decomposition. The old ones are bad. The fresh ones revolting. Putrid and wet.

    If I’m lucky nothing happens tonight.

    The fresh turned earth ripples. She’s coming. I heft the sledgehammer.

    Rotten teeth tear into my calf. I missed one.

    Fucking zombies.

    1. Mother’s Hand
       Her bloodied digits rise from the resting earth. Freshly planted, she stretches, reaching for me. I slap her scarlet hand. She reaches again. This time I grasp hers in mine. It’s sticky and thick. It is warm.
       I will find him, Mother. I will make sure he joins you soon.

17. Cute Little Worm

    “It’s just a cute fuzzy worm. Wait. It’s not fuzzy. It’s hairy. Ew…what’s that coming out of its mouth? Is that a proboscis? Wait, that’s not…that’s teeth. Holy crap, insects have teeth? What the hell? It’s chasing me, Linda, get your camera it’s…ON ME NOW!!! HELP!!! OW…WHAT THE F….”

    1. Alien Invasion
       Oh, I see you alright. You slimy, green beast mocking me from your flat obelisk. No, you will not defeat me. I refuse your alien invasion.
       Hundreds of seedy, beady eyes penetrate my flesh and beckon my obedience.
       I refuse you. My body will NOT be your host. Begone broccoli.

18. The Corpse
    By: Nissa Velez

    The darkness lingers as the cold spreads throughout the room. The shadow sways back and forth, playing tricks with the light from the moon. Heart racing, palms sweating, I reach out towards the dark shadow that dances. The body stops from where it’s been hung and grabs ahold my hand.

19. Hate
    By: Nissa Velez

    Sometimes I feel the demon inside me battle the angel. It’s that sweet revenge of straggling the life of what is goodness within yourself, leaving behind the hate that wants out of the cage. The beast that fights to take a hold of your life. The devil that wants you.

20. The Precious

    The eyeball was precious. It was the only one they had. And Ismelda was hogging it. Brutelda got even by swinging the mace and smashing Ismelda with it. The eyeball rolled while everyone screamed. The cat, waiting, leapt and bit it until the membrane burst and all were blind again.

21. The Devil’s Awakening
    By: Nissa Velez

    I feel the switch of when the devil takes me. That euphoric pleasure of awakening the beast to take advantage of this cruel that world we live in. To feed on the lives of those that take theirs for granted. To dip his fingers into the blood of the wicked.

22. THE NEW YOU

    “Meet the new you on all social media- nude,
    rude, and anti-Semitic,” he said, laptop engaged.

    She yelled, “Why are you doing this!”

    “You shouldn’t have dumped me.”

    “We only had one date.”

    “Take me back.”

    “Never.”

    She attacks him smashing his
    laptop, her only way back.

23. ALONE NO MORE

    Chad sat beside the sinkhole, remembering his sister Anna, who had disappeared in these woods.

    Suddenly a grotesque hand emerged from the sinkhole and grabbed Chad’s ankle. Anna’s rotting face appeared.

    Chad screamed helplessly as his sister pulled him down into the darkness.

    Anna smiled. She was alone no more.

24. THE FALL

    I awake screaming, plummeting past the windows of a fathomless building. In each window, the same pale woman, a crimson stain at her breast. Street rises. Falling faster! The figures blur into a single animation. She raises an accusing hand, shrieks my cursed name as I explode upon the pavement.

25. THE SMILE

    Torture always makes me smile, but – oh, boy! – I’ve really outdone myself this time! My bloody grin is spreading, stretching, widening! Gums fully revealed now. Corners of my mouth pulling, pulling up towards my ears! Skin tearing! Teeth cracking! Dying now, with a smile on my face!

26. THE BULL

    It’s dark inside the iron bull, until its belly begins to glow red-hot. The heat sears, and my skin begins to stick as it sizzles, but I do not scream. I store the pain, build it into a curse for them all. Finally, I make that bull bellow!

27. White Fangs

    They smile at me, their fangs shining white. I make a run for the door, but they block me. No escape. He smiles and walks towards me. I back into his desk. He grabs me by the shoulders.
    “You’ll do perfectly,” he says before sinking his teeth into my neck.

28. I’m A Monster

    “What have you done?” I back up into a wall, the vampire coming towards me.
    “I saved your life,” he says.
    “No, you turned me into this monster!”
    I look at my bloody hands, then to my family. All dead. Their blood on my teeth.
    “I’m a monster,” I sob.

29. All Alone

    Lingering in the dark was dangerous. The longer I stayed in one place, the more likely I’d be found. If that happened I was in big trouble. Good thing I was able to snatch her quick, before the adults noticed.

30. Who’s to Know

    It was hard to understand why he’d told me to bring them back. It’s not like anyone was left. Without cars it would be a brutal. I hadn’t eaten in three days, either. So lifting the televisions would be difficult. And besides, hadn’t they started all this?

31. Speak Up

    It certainly was the weirdest interview I’d ever done.
    The questions were hard to craft
    and the answers harder to hear.
    She’d bought a high quality coffin,
    so I asked her to open it.
    Unfortunately
    she obliged.
    Now I can hear her perfectly.
    It’s everything else that’s muffled.

32. You.

    Come.

    Closer.

    Yes.

    Come closer.

    Not there.

    Here.

    Yes.

    Good.

    Gather round.

    Huddle tightly.

    Shhh… Dont. Breathe.

    *YUMMMM*

    What?

    No.

    That was wind.

    Come.

    Come BACK!

    Fine…

    I will follow.

    I will shadow you.

    Until you stop.

    Breathing.

    Yes.

    You will ALL stop.

    Someday.

    That wretched breathing.

    *YUMMMM*

33. Be Still The Beating Heart

    Working carefully, I teased open the brown, oily bandages wrapping what I held. I paid careful attention as I eased the last piece of bandage away from the long dead heart, of the sacrifice laid out on the museum bench in front of me.

    At that moment, it started beating.

34. Flight or Fright

    The moon ogles me between stiff gauze clouds, the cold needling my gown as my slippers pelt stones and—
    Snap!
    The hairs on my neck stand upright, as thick as thread, a rivulet of sweat trickling down my spine.
    I rub, inking my fingertips with the iron stench of blood.

35. FAVOR RETURNED

    Think of every bug you’ve killed
    Clapped or squashed with sickly savor
    Souls unleashed from black earth tilled
    Marching to return the favor
    See your eyes with houseflies filled
    Nose encamped by ants made braver
    Hear your ears with crickets trilled
    Throat choked off with spider flavor

36. All is w/hell

    my commenting here is purely coincidence.

    I may come across as strange, though it is quite normal for strangeness to be broadcast in this format but

    something is trying to control my words and

    I drank something that is changing me from inside and

    Read backwards please it hurts

37. Two

    One rainy afternoon, watching vine compilations on YouTube.

    “Honey, could you come down here for a second?” called Mom’s voice.

    I got up, and saw her standing in my doorway.

    “Don’t answer,” she said. “I heard her too.”

38. Unread Message

    After Dad’s funeral I didn’t really know what to do. I don’t think anyone does.

    You’re just left waiting for the day to end so you can go to sleep. Out of habit, I took out my phone.

    1 text from Dad.

    “You’re next”

39. Thump-thump

    The priest tries his best to stammer through the lines, whilst my father looks on in tears.

    Thump.

    Everyone has heard it, nobody knows how to react. The priest pauses, starts again.

    Thump-thump.

    Dad screams. Something is knocking from inside my mother’s coffin.

40. Blink and you’ll miss it

    Something wakes me up. Maybe it’s my clock, it has to be broken. It reads 24:00 even though it must be later than that.

    I turn on the light, look around. Everything’s normal.

    I look in the mirror, my reflection blinks.

    I didn’t blink.

    My reflection is staring at me.

41. Ouija

    Double shot of tequila for Jess. Rum and Coke for me. Whiskey for Ash.

    The board lies in the corner. Jess and I giggle and push Ash towards it.

    We sit. Our hands start to spell out the words.

    “L O O K B E H I N D Y”

42. SMOLDER

    She had a hard time falling asleep in the new house. Instead, trying not to wake her parents, she tiptoed down into the kitchen, where the logs in the tiled stove gave off a rest of warmth, and snacked from the cupboards.
    Knock. Knock.
    It came from inside the stove.

43. INFESTATION

    Like you, the previous reader sat on the couch, legs tucked beneath her. Like you, brown recluse had infested the couch. They crept from cushions, spindly legs testing fabric, ascending soft as a whisper. A bite stabbed her neck, injecting poison, devouring flesh. She died in five minutes. Like you.

44. The New Girl

    The foreign child couldn’t speak English.
    She screamed whenever someone touched her, so they called her father.
    A foreigner arrived.
    “You must be her father.”
    “Yes, that would be me.”
    They let him to retrieve his daughter from the bathroom.
    If only they’d remembered that the father couldn’t speak English.

45. Payment
    “I want to find my mother,” I said.
    “It will cost you,” the obeah lady said.
    “I’m willing to pay.”
    She pointed to a bowl of water. My mother’s hand reached out from it and grabbed mine. Water surrounded me.
    I floated above the sign that said,’Payment Accepted.’

    1. Baby Food:

       Day 3. My breath escapes in a gasp as the reptile tightens around my ribs. Short hiccups still provide the oxygen keeping me alive.

       When she struck. I thought the constrictor would consume me quickly. No, she was waiting. The eggs are beginning to hatch. Then the feeding will begin.

46. Breath

    The downside to being in a well-lit cabin at night was that she couldn’t see out. The upside to lurking in the predawn mist was that he could see in. They remained oblivious to each other until she touched a circle of fog on the window that didn’t wipe away.

47. Night Terrors

    On spider legs, he comes. Clicking teeth and dripping maw. You squeeze your eyes tight and try not to breathe. It’s always worse when you’re awake. Slowly, each leg slides up your thigh. Hair prickles against your skin. Something wet drips on your neck. You shudder. He knows you’re awake.

48. B r e a t h

    You switch the lights off,
    and put your headphones on
    you take the remote and switch on the AC behind you
    you feel the air
    on your neck

    little did you know,
    that your remote isn’t working
    the AC had not turned on
    Behind you
    is something
    breathing
    onto
    you

49. Resistance

    It is midnight,
    everyone is sleeping
    You walk down the hallway
    while carrying your laptop
    and dragging the charger behind you.
    All of a sudden
    the wire is stuck.
    You look behind you:
    there is nothing.
    Around the corner
    is a ghost,
    stepping on your wire.

50. Jack drives fast along the empty road. All he wants is to feel Becky’s warm body again. There’s a man walking down the road. Jack slows down. The man turns around and smiles. ‘There you are’. Jack is perplexed, until he sees what the man is holding.

    Becky’s severed head.

51. I see a stranger in my dreams, a horrible face that sits near my bed at 2. A walk through the woods feels pleasant only if you aren’t dragging a body. But what could I’ve done when he kept whispering, “I’m coming for you…”

52. Heidi’s eyes rolled across the floor, searching for the misplaced mouse. Damned worthless Kitty; such a waste buying expensive treats he wouldn’t eat and now refusing to hunt!

    Kitty slammed his paw against the eyes then swept them into his toothy maw. Heidi’s taste in treats had improved. About time!

53. Reality

    I woke up. Shook my head.

    “It was just a dream.”

    I stood. Inched towards the door. Gripped the knob shaking.

    “You.. Are.. Awake….” I reminded myself.

    My door creaked as it opened.

    “Mirror!” My thoughts screamed.

    I hurried to the bathroom.

    But what I saw,

    was no dream.

54. CAMPFIRE

    Zack held his marshmallow over the campfire. He glanced across the fire at his parents and sister, whose marshmallows were flaming. Also, his parents and sister had turned into mannequins and their faces began to melt. Pleased by this, Zack looked around for graham crackers in hopes of making s’mores.

55. He woke up and heard her playing the piano. She was wearing her nightdress, loose hair swaying on the back. As attractive as ever, she turned to him and smiled. He saw with relief the same large dark patch of blood on her chest as he had on her corpse.

56. “Deserted”
    I’m running, alone on the deserted and empty road. I hear footsteps that are not mine, but when I look back, all I see is my shadow. As I turn back forward, something catches my eye. There, in the shadow of my house, is the murderer, holding the butcher knife.

57. Passing Under a Weeping Willow on a Windy, Moon-Lit Night

    Her blue-black hair flutter like leaves. Her pale face shimmers like the moon.
    They found her here, on this day last October, hanging from the willow tree.
    I look away and quicken my steps, steeling myself against her grasping, icy touch. Mournful whispers, “Stay, my love…,” echo in my ears.

58. “Bills”

    Every week, I received a bill. Every week, I paid him one hundred dollars. He knew he had me under his control. He knew I was bloodthirsty and desperate for revenge. It has been twenty weeks. How much more would I have to pay him until the deed was done?

59. What is the worst that could happen?

    What is the worst that could happen? I am spending the night alone in the only haunted cemetery in town. I picked a rare night when a full moon, and Halloween coincided. What is the worst that could happen? I am now finding out. People can be scared to death.

60. Shadow’s in the Darkness

    Marissa was driving on a dirt road to meet her friend at her family’s cabin. “Boom!!” she immediately stops her car in fear, because she thought she had hit someone. She then looked outside and saw nothing but fog. Marissa wonders, “was it a shadow or was it something else?”

61. The Disappearance

    Cassie went with her boyfriend to his cabin in the woods. She fell asleep while he was outside looking for firewood. When she woke up all she could see was blood, blood everywhere. She then ran away afraid because no one was around. She didn’t know what to do?

62. A NIGHTMARE
    It was black like the mamba snake with horns like that of the popular hellboy. His tail, strong, long and furry waddled vigorously as cicadas buzzed happily round it. It’s nails were long nd sharp enough to pierce through my chest and rip my heart. What was this spine- shivering monster?

63. Are You Listening?

    There it was, a tiny drop of blood, the ruby color runs through us all. But when not inside, it sometimes becomes a bad story nobody wants to tell. The tiny ruby drop will speak it’s own language, so wretched, so riveting, none can turn away.
    “Are you listening?”

64. Dinner and a Nap

    Carlie shivered slightly from the cold ground. The growing pool of warm blood offered odd relief. Her foot twitched, but her mind knew it was a phantom reaction. She whimpered and convulsed as red, glowing eyes rose from the feast and lunged at her throat, sending her into eternal sleep.

65. Dance With The Undead

    As the song ends, Ruby looks up adoringly at her dancing partner. As his smiling eyes meet hers, she notices a vintage painting on the wall across from the dance floor. The uncanny resemblance to her dancing partner made Ruby’s palms ice cold.
    “My sweet Ruby, where are you going?”

    1. I want to read this book!!

66. “Mommy, I made a face with breakfast. See? I used the finger sandwiches for eyes, toenails for teeth, a squirt of blood sauce for the smile, and a nose for the nose,” said Eddie. “Don’t play with your food! Eat your body parts like a good zombie.” Mommy smiled toothlessly.

67. Excruciating Pain

    The pumpkins were extremely afraid of the spindly tree but couldn’t help themselves. They rolled down a hill until they ran into the tree. The tree groaned.

    The pumpkins knew real fear when the tree lifted itself out of the ground and sat on them. Excruciating pain replaced their fear.

68. Pitch Black

    Standing in the woods, alone, I felt my body shiver as the cold air gently graced my skin. I was lost. I heard a noise creeping up behind me, but I could see nothing, it was pitch black. I continued walking, then I felt its teeth sink into my neck.

69. Imagination?

    I raised him from a pup, but his eyes suddenly look evil
    And I hear his anxious panting. He is transforming into Cujo.
    Sitting up in bed, I’m paralyzed with fear as we have a stare down.
    I close my eyes first, praying for it to be my beastly imagination.

70. You never know

    The eyeball cameras pop out at random.
    Head down so you won’t be the next.
    Their slimy tentacles wrap around your throat so you can’t scream.
    I’ve seen it happen, by chance. Right next to me.
    You never know when or where; the life will be extracted from your body.

71. The Children

    I listen for the sounds of the children who haunt this bed and breakfast.
    Not that I want to, but the townspeople say this historic building was a school.
    They’ve seen ghost children playing at night. But they won’t be able to play if I’m here.
    I need this job.

72. Caged In Your Grip

    My eyes lay open. My mouth stays shut. My body quivers, frozen in time. I hear everything though. Angry guttural screams, paired with a seemingly peaceful world. They, are fixated on me. They, murder my sleep just to smell my neck. In this order and chaos, I patiently await dawn.

73. The Devil’s Trumpets

    Night arrived like an eyelid closing. I sat in the garden being overtaken by gloom. Only the datura flowers glowed white, bone radiant cones consuming dim moonlight. Within, something glowered. Tooth or fang, nail or claw, mouth or maw. I hurried to the back door and locked myself in, outside.

74. Inertia

    Everyone gathered in the parlor to jabber. I sat on a couch with a view of the balcony. A woman teetered against railing, railing at ceiling. Does it matter how long I watched her before it happened? Only once she’d landed, amid chandelier, scattered, did I pull out my camera.

75. The Library

    She walks through the library turning off lights as she goes, the last to leave she checks all the stacks, reading nooks, and carrels. A light flickers down by the 133s. She laughs as she locks the door, “The ghosts are starting their shift early tonight.”

76. Face in the Sy

    I made a turn on a street I did not want to be on. Driving on I noticed people standing and looking up into the sky with expressions of horror. I looked through my windshield into the sky, saw an undescribable looking face about to spit fire. Screaming I crashed.

77. The Library

    I glance at the library’s bell tower gleaming in the moonlight.
    A dark shadow moves around the defunct bell long ago replaced by an electronic speaker.
    A shiver runs up my spine and goosebumps rise on my skin as the bell begins to toll and the stones crumble over my soul.

78. A Dance

    It was dark, that’s all I remember, that’s all I knew. I was always cold so I danced to keep warm. The dark never ended, and there was nothing in the darkness. I was incredibly lonely, I became very happy though, when it asked me.
    “May I have this dance?”

79. Snow

    She was making snow angles, laughing and giggling the day away. When the little girl first saw the snow a blanket of white covered the roads and cars, it was a quiet day. Nobody was out and about. She was happy until she let a flake touch her tongue. Ash.

80. A Bonfire

    They gathered around the fire, talking, drinking, laughing, and even singing. She wanted to enjoy the night, the fire, the drinks, the company. They began to sing and surround her, she looked up to the sky. Stars glittered across the sky, until she saw the knife strike down on her.

81. SOMETIMES THE MONSTERS GET HUNGRY

    Billy gawked at the haunted house, which sat isolated in back of the carnival. He bought a ticket.

    Inside, his cart rolled through the darkness… then abruptly stopped. Silence.

    Billy heard a cage creak open. Snarling. Slow, heavy footsteps.

    Outside, the gloomy ticket taker sighed, putting the “Closed” sign up.

82. Raining Cats and Dogs

    I heard ungodly noises outside. Dogs barking, cats hissing, people screaming, thumping and crashing sounds, explosions, sirens heard in the distance. Peering through my kitchen window, blood splashed against it. A bloody hand hit the window, I screamed and jumped back, I saw it was literally raining cats and dogs.

83. THE NIGHT HUNTER

    “Damn cat! One more fucking time…” griped the man during a midnight bathroom run.

    The cat was nefarious for leaving half-eaten rodent torsos on the upstairs carpet.

    Returning with paper towels, he turned on the light and discovered a severed cat’s paw.

    While downstairs, something unthinkable made chomping noises.

84. COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN

    “Refresh all the bins nightly, except number five. Don’t ever open that one,” the owner said concluding the Crawley’s Creepy Critters employee orientation.

    Dora’s curiosity piqued; she later cracked open the lid.

    The maggot-infested corpse sent her shrieking away in terror.

    An unseen label read “CAUTION – STATE FORENSICS EXPERIMENT.”

85. THE WELCOMING COMMITTEE

    After the couple received their newborn from the surrogate, local word got out.

    Dozens of curious neighbors anxiously stopped by to see the little darling.

    During the next lunar eclipse, the couple’s home was surrounded by chanting zealots.

    A hell-beast was unleashed and it feasted, on the imposing crowd’s flesh.

86. THE BIRD WATCHER

    Two children played together in the town park.
    An old man watched from a nearby bench.
    The girl walked over, sat and talked to the man, then came back.
    “We’ve been told – never talk to strangers.”
    “He’s no stranger, that’s my grandpa.”
    “But you said he died last winter?”

87. THE PECULIAR PATTERN

    Something didn’t seem right.

    “Maybe we shouldn’t stay?” the woman stared at the mansion’s textured walls.

    “Relax, its mildew on drywall, that’s all,” he said.

    Unpacking, they slept regardless.

    Suddenly she awoke, as he lay choking with green fuzzy things crawling over his face.

    She screamed; he was dead wrong.

88. LARVA

    Ending their millennium dormancy, they emerge from the ground, cyclic, mouth-less. Like mayflies, continuing is their sole purpose. Hosts are plentiful in which to lay their eggs— warm moist sarcophagi at 98.6°.
    Minoans, Mayans, Indus Valley, and Roanoke—host city populations disappeared without a trace. New York was no different.

89. SUB-Q

    He felt an itching under his skin, he scratched until it tore open.

    Green scaly flesh was revealed beneath.

    His legs morphed into a thick coil, and large wings sprouted from shoulder blades.

    Everything was shed until his true form revealed.

    The Quetzalcoatl flew south, overdue for a Mexican vacation.

90. THE BUMPY TRAIL

    Two boys rode hard through the bike path.

    The slower rider ran over something and skidded to a halt.

    As he approached the screeching thing, green goop ejected, stinging his arm.

    The secretion attracted hundreds of angry hive members; as the friend returned, both boys became swarmed and devoured whole.

91. A PACK OF LY’S

    The backwoods shortcut crippled the couple’s vehicle.

    “We’ll be fine,” Connie said lightening the mood.

    Trish couldn’t hold it any longer and went looking for bushes.

    She returned to an abandoned car.

    Fearful, she locked the doors.

    Connie’s familiar form briefly reappeared past midnight, eager to introduce her lupine friends.

92. THE CURIOUS CASE

    Bloody fingernails speckled the hallway leading to the last door.

    Following the trail, she peered through the keyhole.
    The room seemed empty.
    She entered, finding a rusty tin box in the corner.

    Opening the box, she shrieked and dropped it.

    As two bony hands tumbled out; two nubby stumps appeared.

93. IT’S NOT EASY BEING GREEN

    Rainy season arrived; the streets were plastered with pulps of flesh, slime, and bone.

    Frogs were en masse during their October exodus and Jim’s tires, slicked in gore, slid off the road.

    The Prius rolled; he was pinned.

    A huge throaty croaking came from the darkness, and it crept closer.

94. Breathe

    We lumbered though the dense night in thigh high mud.
    We knew what we were running from, but not what towards.
    I heard my friend ‘grunt’ into something and shriek, then a loud slurping sound.
    I dove into the mud. If I could stay still and breathe, I might survive.

95. BLANK PAGE NO LONGER

    Anselm clutched the ancient grimoire reverently. Murder had made it his at last. The tome unexpectedly opened. Icy green fire arced toward his head and burned away all traces of his humanity. If eyes were indeed the windows to the soul, his new black eyes referenced perfectly what lay within.

96. THE END OF IT

    Life. Life, with its laughter, its charms, its coquettish tricks and twists. Life, filled to its overflowing brim with love, fury, passion. Predators and pleasures, carnality and commitment, jealousy and joy. Her mind burned thinking of it, of the life she was bound to.
    She couldn’t have feared it more.

97. The Genre

    In the cold dark night deep in a forest left colourless by the snowfall. The hollow of a sharp high pitched scream echoed around the barren sleeping trees. This is where killer and victim came to play out the saga of spilling red upon white canvas in horror stylized medium.

98. Where’s Max?
    It was later that she found the shoe, laces torn, at the end of the driveway. Her breath caught quickly, a stifled cry. Just the left. An arrow drawn in the sand pointed toward the woods, and a bit further, a smiley face, crooked. She was no longer the hunter.

99. The Hunter

    I stand in front of the fresh dirt with the shovel between my sweaty hands. Warm, sticky liquid is stuck under my nails and staining my shirt. I look around the dark forest that surrounds me. Acres upon acres of unoccupied land; I guess you could say it’s occupied now.

100. Living For Videogames
     Better check on the baby.
     “Whoa–Little Man–how’d you get that?…You like it?”
     Little Man drools on the gun.
     “Oh, yuck! Give me the gun, Little Man.”
     Little Man frowns. Little Man smiles. Little Man turns the gun. Every one is looking at Little Man’s little fingers.

     1. Swipe Right

        I swiped right. He was a hottie and mysteriously intriguing. He wants to know the real me.

        Later that night…

        As I lay, his deep blue eyes stare into mine. He says he wants to know the person inside as I lay there with my insides spilled out.

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