Celebrate the dark nights that stretch out before us with two (or more) horror stories.
Eyes is a haunted house story.
Eyes
My brother and I stayed too long at the neighbours. Night like a heavy black cloak conceals all light but the single cat scratch moon and pinprick stars.
"I know a shortcut." My brother leads me through the woods, but we aren't supposed to go that way.
But if I don't follow him, I'll be on my own--without the flashlight. I follow him.
There's nothing around for miles, but now I see...
Grass, bush chokes the house. It's caving into the soil.
What's that? In the window... What is...? Who is...?
Struggling to catch up to my brother, I ask, "Who lives in that h--?"
The way he looks at me--I know when to keep quiet. He starts to run. We don't stop running until home is in view.
Breathless, we collapse onto the grass. When I can speak, I ask again.
My brother says, "No one lives there. Not any more. Not for twenty years."
I gulp.
"But you saw something, didn't you?"
"There, there was, was something, someone in the window."
He holds the flashlight under his chin. "Some say it was a broken heart. Others insanity. But all agree, he killed himself in that house. They found him dead--throat cut, eyes missing. His body was hauled out, but his ghost is still there." My brother's voice falls to a whisper. "Never tell anyone that you saw him. If you do, he'll take your eyes."
In Skull a monster speaks.
Skull
When I was but a lad, I was given a special gift, a talent, really. Look into people's eyes, I could, to read their minds. I could hear their thoughts, hear them sing...
Rap, rap, rap/Let my ghost out
Crack open my skull/And let my ghost out
So I may travel, hither and yon/So I may float like a cloud/so I can see distant lands
Rap, rap, rap/Let my ghost out
Hear, I never had no choice. I had to help them. Had to.
"Scarecrow"
circa 1980s
More short stories...
I enjoyed listening to Clive Barker's The Forbidden--which became the horror movie The Candyman.
Larry by Leanne Dyck is a ghost story
Ownership by Leanne Dyck is a haunted house story
It Was Nothing by Leanne Dyck
"On Halloween, if you hear a knock, don't open the door.
Just look at who could be on the other side..."
Yes, this is me--the one who answered the door.
On This Blog in November
