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#65: Spooky Season

What is it about Halloween that we find so deeply appealing? Is it the excuse to dress up and pretend to be something other than ourselves for a few hours? The exploration of all things creepy and macabre, of subjects normally too taboo to engage with? Perhaps it’s just the abundance of all our favorite candies at the same time.

 

Whatever the reason, there’s no denying the allure of this thrilling and chilling holiday. And while many people’s Halloween celebrations will need to be very different this year, there’s no reason why we can’t still enjoy a bit of spooky fun!

 

Whether you like horror, the creepy aesthetic, or just overloading on candy, this week’s prompts have plenty of inspiration to get you into the Halloween mood.

🥇 Winner

“Bridgemoss Guardians” by Joshua G. J. Insole

She waited for 15 minutes after the sliver of light beneath her bedroom door disappeared. Once she was sure her parents were asleep, Sadie slid the window up and stole down the trellis. The autumnal air swished down into her lungs — crisp, chilly, and delicious. She landed like a cat, crouched, hands on the floor. Sadie didn’t need to jump the last of the way to the ground, but where would the fun be in not doing that?Her ten-speed leaned next to the bins — where she’d left it. With a glance up at the droopy eyes of the ...

220 comments 220 WINNER 🏆
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⭐️ Shortlisted

“Marshmallow Wrapped In Barbed Wire” by Deidra Whitt Lovegren

Twenty five years in, she found herself a ghost. She stood unseen in the living room, stupidly holding a large bowl of homemade caramel corn. The noise from the widescreen television washed over her, the whistles and calls, the screaming of the fans, the roar of the crowd. The men in the room, overgrown and overfed, booed and hooted, depending on their agreement with the referees. Empty bottles of beer and depleted bags of chips lay pillaged. She sat the bowl down. Quick meaty hands dug to the bottom, shoved gooey warm caramel...

54 comments 54 SHORTLIST ⭐️
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“Freed” by Lina Oz

“Victoria, please.”“This is so stupid. And you know I hate it when you call me that.”“It’s really not. You just have to dig up my grave, burn my bones, and then I’ll be set free.”I stare at my dead sister’s ghost. This is, quite possibly, the worst birthday I've ever had. And that's saying something, seeing as she died on the last one.“And how the hell do you know that’ll work?”“I’ve seen it before.”“From where?”“Er…a T.V. show?”I glower. She rubs her neck. “You have got...

87 comments 87 SHORTLIST ⭐️
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“Vampire Lawn Care” by David G.

He couldn’t recall exactly when having a nice lawn had started to matter to him.He and Mary used to joke about it when they’d moved out from the city, how the neighbors would talk about grass treatments and how tall to mow the blades, how they all had the same houses with the portico and the dormer windows and the multi-crested roofs and the two-car garage with the same foreign SUV out front, how they dressed in identical fleece pullovers with logos displayed across the chest and named their children after presidents – M...

17 comments 17 SHORTLIST ⭐️
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“Good Night” by Amy St. Pierre

The day had been unseasonably warm for October, but the night air was cold. I put on extra thick socks and my coziest hoodie, and I packed two extra blankets with my sleeping bag. Then I watched outside from my bedroom window, peering outside through the blinds, waiting for the flash of headlights coming down the road. Moments later, Jade pulled up outside my mother’s house. She was driving her mother’s old bla...

4 comments 4 SHORTLIST ⭐️
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“A Witch’s Guide to Being Brave” by Itxy Lopez

My hands are clenched inside my robe’s pockets. Better, I think, bunched up and out of sight than to see them shaking. I’m breathing one, two, three, in, and one, two, three, out, but my heart’s still beating in my chest like an annoying neighbor who can’t take a hint. I want to call them—Paola, Saanvi, and Emma—and tell them I’m out. That I’ll join them next Halloween, but Emma’s words won’t stop playing in my head. They were the last words she said to me the first day I met her: “Witches don’t have a choice but to...

9 comments 9 SHORTLIST ⭐️
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“When Dracula Moved Next Door To Mr. Rogers” by Maureen Mancini

                                                                              Word Count:  2,452

5 comments 5 SHORTLIST ⭐️
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This week's prompts

Start your story with two characters deciding to spend the night in a graveyard.

Novel – 323 stories

Write about someone’s first Halloween as a ghost.

Halloween – 208 stories

Write about a group of witches meeting up on Halloween night.

Halloween – 141 stories

Write about a vampire or werewolf who moves into a quiet suburban neighborhood.

Vampire – 166 stories

Write about someone taking a child trick-or-treating for the very first time.

Kids – 87 stories

Stories

“Bridgemoss Guardians” by Joshua G. J. Insole

She waited for 15 minutes after the sliver of light beneath her bedroom door disappeared. Once she was sure her parents were asleep, Sadie slid the window up and stole down the trellis. The autumnal air swished down into her lungs — crisp, chilly, and delicious. She landed like a cat, crouched, hands on the floor. Sadie didn’t need to jump the last of the way to the ground, but where would the fun be in not doing that?Her ten-speed leaned next to the bins — where she’d left it. With a glance up at the droopy eyes of the ...

220 comments 220 WINNER 🏆
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“The Whole Story” by Anna Elizabeth

“If this goes south, I need you to promise me something.”“Anything.”“Don’t leave until you know the whole story.”Her last words ring in my ears and swirl around my head. They always land on the same two words. Don’t leave. The bed feels stiff under my body and the blanket presses down on me like a twenty ton weight. The room has a faint glow from the dawn’s light slipping through the window. A numbing wave of acceptance rolls through my body.I roll out of bed and peer out the window. It’s barely six o’...

114 comments 114
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“The Witch-Out” by Melissa Hassan

“Order...order!” Eleanora yelled over the loud protests from the coven of sister witches gathered in the great hall of her manor.“What do you mean by, a 'witch-out'?” asked one of the sister witches.“It means we are not going to be doing our usual witching tonight,” replied Eleanora pounding the gavel on the table as the protesters began to yell even louder this time.“Order...I shall have order in this hall!” Eleanor yelled loudly as her voice echoed through the hall and reverberated o...

27 comments 27
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“Marshmallow Wrapped In Barbed Wire” by Deidra Whitt Lovegren

Twenty five years in, she found herself a ghost. She stood unseen in the living room, stupidly holding a large bowl of homemade caramel corn. The noise from the widescreen television washed over her, the whistles and calls, the screaming of the fans, the roar of the crowd. The men in the room, overgrown and overfed, booed and hooted, depending on their agreement with the referees. Empty bottles of beer and depleted bags of chips lay pillaged. She sat the bowl down. Quick meaty hands dug to the bottom, shoved gooey warm caramel...

54 comments 54 SHORTLIST ⭐️
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“Ghostly fun times” by B. W.

Oh, why? why did any of this ever have to happen? I could have just been at home still and watching a movie with my friends or something. We always did like watching hocus pocus on Halloween...We could have been out trick-or-treating as well...either of those options was good. I remember how last year I had dressed up as Katara and one of them had dressed up as Aang...Do any of them even miss me? I know that I had only died a week ago or so...but they shouldn't even miss me that mu...

293 comments 293
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“He isn't real...or is he?” by B. W.

All you had wanted to do for Halloween was just stay home the entire night and watch a movie or fall asleep. You never even liked the holiday, you hated dressing up for it as well. Some friends of yours would always tell you, "Come on Vayd it'll be fun!" Though it never seemed like it would be fun. You were just planning on watching a comedy and eating some peanut butter at three in the mo...

663 comments 663
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“That Which Comes For Them.” by Cam Croz

As the faded black quilt of the night masks out the everlasting intense flare we call luminescence,And the harmonies of all blissful things fall prey to the mournful music of the ever obfuscous vault.The quiet mellow wind will drift, consuming the ones who shiver in the rawest of frost.And then, when all the voices of the world remain unspoken, That's when, the eternal deepening pained souls,The beaten.The discouraged.The crippledThe broken...For them, it will come. ...

126 comments 126
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“A Haunted Prank ” by Alina Manha

"Come on Kiyara. Walk faster." Jane, my best friend said as we walked down the street. Aaah what did I get myself into I thought. Yesterday when we were watching a horror movie Jane came up with a plan, that we could go to the graveyard and spend the night there. I didn't want to go there, it was very spooky at night especially on a Halloween night. I shuddered as I thought about it. But I had to say yes because I didn't want her to think that I was scared and didn't want to go. Which was true, I was really scare...

71 comments 71
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“The Coffin” by Julia Boddie

"Let's go," Rebbeca told her. Magaret did not want to go. She was terrified of graveyards. Rebbeca of course, who wasn't scared of anything, was only doing this because of a dare. Of all people, why did Magaret's best friend have to be a daredevil? "Do I have to go? Why can't you just go by yourself?" Magaret asked. She regretted those words when they left her mouth. She co...

35 comments 35
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“Freed” by Lina Oz

“Victoria, please.”“This is so stupid. And you know I hate it when you call me that.”“It’s really not. You just have to dig up my grave, burn my bones, and then I’ll be set free.”I stare at my dead sister’s ghost. This is, quite possibly, the worst birthday I've ever had. And that's saying something, seeing as she died on the last one.“And how the hell do you know that’ll work?”“I’ve seen it before.”“From where?”“Er…a T.V. show?”I glower. She rubs her neck. “You have got...

87 comments 87 SHORTLIST ⭐️
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“Entries from a Werewolf Lover's Diary” by Alby Carter

June 19, 2240Three days after.Our town is hollow, lost without the soft music of the werewolves' howls, some of which were yours. We're not allowed to say it anymore, but we loved those howls. Every night, we were frozen with anticipation, waiting for the sweet melody to sing us to sleep. Every morning, we mourned its loss. Now that the howls are no longer, the town is like it was the minutes before the howling started. Numb, unsure, and worried. We are always worried.<...

47 comments 47
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“A strange night (part 2)” by B. W.

Nothing seemed to really happen during the day, all I ever did was go and pick the classes that I wanted to be in since I had forgotten to yesterday. Everything seemed quite interesting on the list.I mostly just stayed in my dorm or walked around a few times, the assistant had told me that I'd start classes the next day. How would that even go through? How would the other ones react to me?I was going to have to try and figure this stuff out, what monster would I need to be? While I was thinking about th...

227 comments 227
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“October Masks ” by Rhondalise Mitza

Imagine:  Nima Lachapelle.  A ballerina from Arkansas, disillusioned and disenchanted, cheated out of a fortune by her scummy ex boyfriend. She’s running from the law after a late night tire slashing with friends gone wrong.  She’s currently late for an audition, but standing in front of a coffee shop with cold hands and a mask covering half her face.  The order will be ...

119 comments 119
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“Lost” by ✯𝐋𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐚 𝐋𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫✯

LostBy: Haripriya“Are you sure we are not lost?” I asked, looking panicked.  I was going to faint any second now.  “No! You’re being silly, that’s all! Besides, just because we didn’t go to the cabins like we were supposed to doesn’t automatically make us lost!” Navya said, her voice trembling with fear.  I knew that she was scared, but just trying to hide the fact that there was no hope. “Please, tell me the truth, we are lost, aren’t we? Don’t lie to me, it is ...

45 comments 45
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“Potions For You” by Orenda .

(this is super silly and exaggerated, but I had so much fun writing it :')~Bitter winds howled and leaves rustled, floating away in the air. It was so cold, you could literally freeze into the frozen people from the Znarnia. But that didn't bother anyone. The weather had been just brilliant and suitable.Regardless of the horrible weather, people went to work and life went on. It was a custom that every weekend, they'd gather at midnight, circle around the bonfire and exchange st...

2548 comments 2548
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$50

Prize money

925

Contest entries

0

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Oct 30, 2020 EST

Won by Joshua G. J. Insole 🏆

Title: Bridgemoss Guardians

Submissions must be between 1,000 - 3,000 words and will be approved and published on Reedsy Prompts within 7 days of the contest closing.

Read the full terms & conditions or check out the FAQ if you have any questions!

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