Spooky Tales

[Julie Bertagna]

I've just put up a short spooky tale on my website blog (http://spark-gap.blogspot.com/) plus some links for a 'Happy Hallowgreen.'

Anyone want to add their own short, spooky Halloween tale here (100-200 words)? Or for a really hard dare, try a spooky tale in 50 words or less.

The usual forum rules apply (ie. unsuitable stuff won't get posted)

If you don't have a tale, what's your favourite story or film to read or watch on Halloween?

Happy Halloween!

 

[Namorvia]

We're putting our spooky stories on the forum? Shall see what I can do, probably will just end up scaring no one but myself.

 

[HardScienceFan]

Last Halloween an urn with my grandmothers ashes fell into a chili com carne
i was making.
I still served it to the guest i was having, without telling anyone what had happened.
After dinner, my good friend Selma started babbling about how women should have the right to vote,how wonderful radio was,and how afraid she was about a war involving the French, the Germans and the English.

when she had thown up her dinner,she stopped talking about these subjects.

however ,it turned out that the urn didn't contain grandma's ashes,but had contained a dried herb used by Voodoo priests for conjuring up dead spirits.

All of this caused bemusement on my part,as Selma,being a vegetarian,hadn't eaten ANY of the Chili con carne,but only the appetizers.*veggy ones*

 

[Namorvia]

This will probably be more wierd than scary, but I wrote it so its going up.
Now, why do I always end up writing in present tense, I got half way through doing this without realizing I was doing it, I blame you Julie!



She wakes as a breeze lifts her fringe from her brow. When she opens her eyes her focus is unsteady, it shifts in and out, giving her brief glimpses of a clouded sky, framed by the broken, circular wall of an aging tower, now roofless and crumbling. She carefully stands and looks around herself. Apart from a lone door and the stone slab she’d been lain on the tower is completely bare, no windows or stairs rising up to the heights of the tower. It seems as though this towers only purpose is for her to wake upon it with no memory of how she came to be there. Stepping out through the doorway she finds herself looking out over a wasteland, barely meters from the door the foundations of the tower drop away to a sheer cliff face that as she follows it leads all the way round. Out in the expanse of the wasteland there is nothing but a dark endless tangle of savage thorns swaying ever so slightly in the never ceasing breeze. She turns back to the tower and sees an inscription on the side of her sleeping slab: “One hundred years have come and gone, Sleeping Beauty has no prince, may she never wake.”



Went over by about 10 words.

 

[Julie Bertagna]

Couldn't get more of a contrast than the tales above: Nice

I've been blamed for worse, Namorvia!... the present tense can be really bring a story into focus - as you do.

Here's a 90-second scary story from Weekend America: Ten tales of Terror (90-second scary stories) You can find more of these spooky shorts, including one from Neil Gaiman, on http://weekendamerica.publicradio.org/programs/2007/10/27/_ten_tales_of_terror.html

Even though I'm allergic to cats, I liked Zombie Cat, by John Moe:

Oh, the cat was dead. Had been for a long time. Rotting flesh, the whole thing. Still it waited on my back step. Wouldn't take food. Or water. Didn't seem to enjoy being petted, just stared at me, moaning rrrraaawwrrr.

I adopted it. The ungodly moans keep away the squirrels and raccoons and clergy. No vet bills. Except for occasionally trying to eat my brains, it's a good cat. Deady, I call it. But the zombie army amassing in the backyard is starting to bother me a bit.