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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#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.

This week's prompts

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

Novel – 320 stories

Write about someone’s first Halloween as a ghost.

Halloween – 206 stories

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

Halloween – 135 stories

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

Vampire – 160 stories

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

Kids – 87 stories

Stories

“Halloween Trick or Treating ” by Tabetha Paulsen

Submitted to Contest #65

“Mom” I heard a yell from the other room as Jenny walked up to me with her Fairy costume in hand. “Can we get ready to go trick or treating“. She asked as she started to strip out of her street clothes. I mentioned to get that we couldn’t do that until the night time and to keep her clothes on before it was time to get ready! ”In the meantime Jenny we will carve pumpkins and decorate for the other kids in the neighborhood when they come for trick or treating”. As I leaned in to kiss her forehead. I mentioned to her “We have to be patient lit...

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“Water and Stone” by Claire Lindsey

Submitted to Contest #65

They walked hand in hand through the tall grass, the blades bending beneath their footsteps with papery sighs. The sun was setting in the distance, over the tops of the mountains which hemmed the valley in shadows. The air hung heavy with the last of the day’s warmth, full of the slow song of crickets and the few birds yet to escape the impending winter.Gwen smiled at her fiancé, her face alight with the fire of the evening sky. They knew that they should head back, that the night threatened to overtake them before they could return to the h...

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“Janet's First Halloween” by Daniel Brown

Submitted to Contest #65

Janet sobs over the gaping hole in her hand-me-down vampire costume. “Halloween is ruined,” she sighs with her head braced against my leg. Loretta can stitch the roughest patch in a marriage together with her thread and needle. OK, that’s a stretch but the massive hole in this vampire cape would be effortless for her. Not to mention, she scoured the entire house and dug up my old vampire costume; of all the nights to cover someone’s shift, why did it have to be this one? “I’ll do my best with it,” I wipe Janet’s tears back ...

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“Kali Kat” by Kathleen March

Submitted to Contest #65

My daughter was born in January. Funny, but I can’t recall if it was the same year or the following one that I took her trick-or-treating. She was either nine and a half months or twenty-one months old. It’s strange that I can’t recall which, but I do remember most of the rest. Despite the clear memories of the actual walking around the neighborhood trick-or-treating with Kali trying to be a good mother, I am having serious doubts now about what I did that night. By that I mean I think I did something very bad to my daughter that nig...

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“The Hunt” by Michael J. Conroy

Submitted to Contest #65

Outside, the snow was three feet deep.While inside, under cover of The Shamrock, Griffin was adjusting his trapper hat for what Kit Stevens reckoned was the tenth time.‘Nice hat, Griff. Where did you get it?’ he asked.‘Mollie – birthday present.’Kit considered this and asked, ‘Is that so? Happy belated birthday, I guess. I’m not good with dates, you know, and I often wonder why?’‘Perhaps if you came up for air every once and a while, you might save a brain cell or two.’Griffin was referring to the amount of marijuana Kit Stevens smoked...

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“Halloween for Zen ” by Dorothy Claybourn

Submitted to Contest #65

Zen was so excited, Today was the day, It was finally here. He had waited forever { four whole years } to be able to Trick or Treat. We spent weeks looking for the perfect costume. A Pirate, An Astronaut, A little green Army man, or Maybe A Cowboy or An Indian. He wanted something Adventurous for his first time. Something that would be original not like a Prince or a Robot or a comic book character. He wanted something real and old fashioned, Something that screamed Zen. We searched store after store, Looked at thousands of costumes avail...

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“Rewriting my fate” by Matouš Kejval

Submitted to Contest #65

Trigger warning: domestic violence I slowly walk closer to my bed, lift the blanket, and tuck myself under it. I know well that I will get little to no sleep tonight. I stare at the ceiling while thinking about last year’s horrors. It’s Halloween tomorrow... Normally I would be thinking about what my wife and I would do while Christopher is out trick-or-treating. It’s not going to be the same this year. I haven’t talked to my family since last Halloween. Don’t get me wrong, I want to talk to them, but it is not possible. Acc...

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“The Apprentice.” by Patricia Green

Submitted to Contest #65

Daniel stood at the window looking out over the busy two-lane highway. “Where the hell am I?” Daniel didn’t recognise anything, but he knew this wasn’t his office building. He couldn’t remember anything since he went to bed to try to ease his headaches. Daniel had been having very bad headaches for the last month or so and he intended to go to see his GP, but had been putting it off, today the headache seemed to have gone. He turned around and started to walk towards the door of the room, but realised he still had his white- rabbit- patt...

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“Rosemary's Kindness” by Tim Law

Submitted to Contest #65

Rosemary remembered the first time she saw the boy. His chestnut hair so glossy was half hidden under a bleach blonde wig. He was hunched over with a big hump on his back. That Halloween he had dressed as Quasimodo. He had stood on her porch and politely knocked. Rosemary thought he could not have been more than seven years old and in her opinion seven was way too young to be out alone. “Come in,” she had said and encouraged the boy to enter her home. It had not been until after, when she had spoken with her daughter about the strange visi...

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“A GRIEVANCE AT GRAVEYARD” by Dawood Abbasi

Submitted to Contest #65

Hassam was fond of mystical matters to a greater extent. He used to study the spirits or ghosts concerning books. Once he read a book of attaining the spiritual powers. It was an account of various spiritual skills and potency of dealing with the spirits. The book contained many methods to master the spirits controlling techniques. Hassam traced an easy method of attaining the authority over spirits of either vice or nice origins. From numerous such tricks, he selected a suitable trick for him of passing two Friday nights in a graveyard. It...

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“Unlucky for Some” by Joshua G. J. Insole

Submitted to Contest #65

Of the 26 in the forest clearing, only half were there of their own volition.Two rings of people surrounded the cauldron, which bubbled with pleasure. A ladle, half-submerged in the liquid, leant to one side. Steam and mist poured over the lip, thick and viscous. It pooled in the soil around the great, black pot.The first circle knelt in the dirt, hands bound behind backs, mouths gagged. The second circle stood behind, each with a knife and a chalice in hand. Of the outer group, all were female, and all wore black.As was usual, Cordelia was ...

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“Birthday Halloween” by Carylle Delim

Submitted to Contest #65

It’s so annoying how Halloween trick or treating looks weird after you turn to a teenager. You join the kids in their fairy costumes, toilet paper wrap, and tiny pumpkins and the whole neighborhood would be so fond of them because they’re little, so they get more candy. Meanwhile, when you see a 14-year-old dressed as a fairy, mummy, or pumpkin, the neighborhood would give you side eyes for “not dressing like your age.” But like, really, mummies are hundreds of years old, pumpkins are symbol for Halloween, and come on, you adults claim that ...

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“Family Reunion” by Haylee Crouch

Submitted to Contest #65

Screw Abigail. It’s such a stereotype, having the coven meet on Halloween. It’s just a whole fake holiday for candy companies and dental income. It’s so insulting! Just because we are witches does not mean we should act like our stereotype sisters. Alas, Abigail is a stickler for tradition, meeting on the last night of winter. And before you ask, yes, she is ancient, but young. No voodoo or blood sacrifice required. Just 1843 years of the correct herb combinations and incantations. The rest of us are young though. Me, Carlie, Dakota, Elise, ...

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“Hollow Heart” by Vameerah Darren

Submitted to Contest #65

I shouldn’t be spending Halloween like this. Milling around, seeing all, but not being seen. I’ve been dead for a year now, trapped in my wooden cage. Tonight will be the first time that I have left it since my soul was entrapped here. It would be the first Halloween that I would spend without my family. I had died in a car accident, it was instant on impact. I hadn’t gotten to say goodbye to my boyfriend, or my family. Finally, the sun went down and I heard the click of the lock on the coffin. I floated out and into the open air. I kn...

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“The Ghost of Hallow's Eve” by Mel Kheios

Submitted to Contest #65

"I'm here, Jesse." Hanzo's figure is merely a darker shade of night, highlighted by the dim glow of the clear, moonless velvet sky. He stands lonely, surrounded by the empty grass lot pockmarked with small stone markers. His voice is soft, broken, hardly daring to break the spell of the night, and Jesse's heart breaks as he speaks again, no more than a whisper. "If what you said is true... If the veil between worlds is truly at its thinnest tonight... Please. Come back to me." "Oh, darlin'," Jesse breathes, aching for his lover, his belove...

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$50

Prize money

908

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.

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