Decorating for the Halloween Party

If you missed this morning’s prompts post, I am responding to the prompts from Halloween Party.

For today’s Photo Challenge prompt “Party” I spent my morning setting up all my lights outside for Halloween with my light up ghosts, and skull and hands coming out of the ground. I put the scary skulls door cover on the front door and the rubber bats in the bushes by the front door. After lunch I had a carving party with a small pumpkin. Though these pictures don’t show off the lights, since it’s a bright, sunny day, they show off my new party atmosphere. I can’t wait until the sun goes down.

OctPoWriMo 2023:Facing Our Fears

A Future Unseen

At this supreme Halloween bash
My full masked costume makes a splash
The spirits are tasty and free
No one can identify me

A live band plays all spooky hits
We dance because we can’t resist
Sweaty and tired but on joy’s wing
No one can identify me

Scary stories round the bonfire
to which all others will aspire
No other place I long to be
No one can identify me

At the supreme Halloween bash
no one will identify me

Writober 2023

The Train Has A Million Legs

Joshua sprinted down the stairs. A quick glance over his shoulder reassured him that he had lost the cop tailing him when he ducked into the subway entrance. He ran across the platform and climbed down to the maintenance path along the side of the tracks. Another street kid had shown him this entrance to an old abandoned station a few months back when they needed to get out of the cold. He said to only use it in emergencies, but never explained why. He had disappeared before Joshua woke up the next morning, and he never saw him again.  Joshua squeezed through the boards under the Keep Out and Danger signs.

The smell of death became stronger with each descending step. He grasped the handrail and stepped carefully toward the ghostly light below, expecting to encounter a decaying rat, or raccoon at any moment. When he reached the platform, he was shocked to see people waiting. They were still and silent, standing in clusters or separated and alone, but they were all staring at the tracks toward the tunnel.

When he was here before, it was dark, dusty, and full of cobwebs. The tiles were falling off the wall, paint peeling off the pillars, and part of the ceiling had fallen down. The tracks had been covered in garbage and debris. Now, everything looked pristine, almost new. Joshua’s eyes went wide as he took it all in. Why would the city spend so much on an abandoned subway station? He slowly walked along the back wall. No one was seated on the benches. A woman in a long dress with a bustle and small veiled hat, who might have stepped out of the 1800’s, held a greyhound on a leash. Even the dog was silent and watching the tunnel.

The rumble that approached from the tunnel didn’t sound like a train at all. It was a skittering, a clattering, like rock on rock, or nails tapping on a countertop. The whistle announcing the train’s arrival was more of a ghostly moan than an announcement. Those waiting shifted their weight, or took slight steps closer to the edge. Joshua also moved forward, thinking he would join them and ride this train wherever it went, but then it emerged from the tunnel. It was chalky white with two black windows at the front that looked like skeletal eyes. Joshua couldn’t see a  conductor. And no wheels held it to the rails. It had legs. Short insectoid legs on each side like a millipede, pumping up and down in waves. Joshua wanted to scream, but no one else reacted at all.

The train stopped, and doors slid open on its side. Joshua felt a rush forward and was swept up in the crowd. He pushed back, used all his weight to resist the push, but crowding bodies pulled him off his feet. The doors closed with a hiss. He pounded on the wall where the door had been, screaming Let Me Out, but the wall felt mushy like a wad of spiderwebs. His pounding made no sound, and held him in place. A speaker crackled like an itch in Joshua’s brain. It said, “Next stop, The Gates.” All the silent riders’ mouths opened wide and filled the train with tortured screams.

Yesterday, I designed and made a new football-shaped quilt square for my quilt pocket calendar with Seahawks fabric left over from shorts I made in High School. The idea of my pocket quilt calendar is to put little treats in each of the pockets to reward myself for reaching my writing goals each day. The quandary now is what to put in the pockets that I will find rewarding, and what achievements to reward.

For Halloween, Amazon kindle presents Creature Feature Collection, a series of short horror stories by bestselling horror authors, free for prime members. So far I read The Pram by Joe Hill and In Bloom by Paul Tremblay. I noticed that each story appeared to call back to a well-known horror story. The Pram made me think of Ira Levin’s Rosemary’s Baby and In Bloom made me think of The Blob. Both short stories were fun reads for the season.

I’ve downloaded the other four to my kindle and hope to add them to the Peril of the Short Story over the next few days.