Stories 4 You: Halloween stories

Showing posts with label Halloween stories. Show all posts

Saturday, October 13, 2018

I Dare You to Write a Halloween Story: Part 1

I challenged the authors in our Facebook group to write their own unique story by continuing after the paragraph I posted.
~Erika M Szabo

The first paragraph of the story:
John enjoyed the quiet evening with Mandy, his wife, and with his loyal dog, Honeydew, after the Trick or Treater children stopped knocking on the door demanding candy. Mandy fell asleep on the sofa and the golden retriever was dreaming on her pillow close to the crackling fire about something that made her kick and grunt in her sleep. John put another log in the fireplace and sat back on his rocking chair thinking about Hallows' Eve when the barrier between our world and the world of ghosts and spirits is thin. Anything could happen tonight, he thought closing his eyes. Suddenly, he heard Honeydew's soft growl. John looked at his dog and a chill shot through him. The dog stared at the dark corner with fright in her brown eyes, whimpered and moved closer to John’s chair putting her large head on his master’s lap.

My Halloween story:

“What’s wrong, Honeydew?” John asked patting the dog’s head and turned his head to look at the dark corner.

John jumped up in fright when he saw an eerie, shadowy figure. The dog growled as the smoky figure lingered in the corner.

“What do you want? Leave her alone!” John yelled as he reached Mandy with a few long strides and cuddled her in his arms.
Honeydew continued growling and barked loudly as she positioned herself between the shimmering figure and the people she loved most. The ghostly figure didn’t move, it hovered above the floor.
John keeping an eye on the ghostly figure shook his wife, "Mandy, wake up!"
Mandy's head lolled from side to side as John shook her and a deep moan escaped her lips. Her eyes remained closed and when John moved her, her arms limply fell to her side.
Something is wrong, something is very wrong. Frantic thoughts ran through John's mind. He reached for the phone and dialed 911 while still tried to shake Mandy awake.
Honeydew whimpered and moved closer to John and when he looked up, the ghostly figure was gone. He heard the ambulance pulling up the driveway. He turned Mandy on her side and rushed to open the door.
The paramedic checked Mandy's vital signs and asked John about her medical history while checking Mandy's blood sugar. "Oh, boy! Her sugar level is so low, no wonder you couldn't wake her up!" he said as he administered glucose.
A few minutes later Mandy opened her eyes and looked around feeling confused and tired, "What happened?" she asked.
"Your sugar level dropped and you passed out. You're okay now, thanks to the ghost who warned me to check on you."
"A ghost?" Mandy asked while stared at the dark corner wide-eyed and shivered as she remembered looking down from above in her dream. She recalled hearing Honeydew's whimper and John's frantic shouting, and then she woke up.

Spooky enough? Read Toi's story Sunday, the 14th

Erika's Books

ERIKA M SZABO

Founder and manager

of Our Author Gang

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Fantasy novels, children's books, and health-related books

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https://asmallgangofauthors.blogspot.com/2018/10/full-moon-dare.html

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COMMENTS

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Ruth de Jauregui via Google+

3 months ago - Shared publicly

Erika M. Szabo uses an #OurAuthorGang prompt to write a fantastic short story, just in time for Halloween. Stop by and check out her little tale! It's GREAT!

Ruth de Jauregui

3 months ago - Shared publicly

Oh that was great! Thank you Erika!

Toi Thomas

3 months ago - Shared publicly

Whoa! This is so good. Was she or wasn't she caling from beyond, not ready to let go. I love it. Kudos Erika.

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Erika M Szabo

3 months ago

Thanks Toi :)

Tricia Drammeh

3 months ago - Shared publicly

I love this! Great story!

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Erika M Szabo

3 months ago

Thanks :)

Cindy Smith shared this via Google+

3 months ago - Shared publicly

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Cindy Smith

3 months ago - Shared publicly

Love it!

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Erika M Szabo

3 months ago

Thanks :)

Erika M Szabo via Google+

3 months ago - Shared publicly

Was it a ghost or something else?

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Lorraine Carey

3 months ago - Shared publicly

You've got me in on this one. Can't wait for Toi's addition to the story tomorrow! Love a good ghost story!

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Erika M Szabo

3 months ago

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Glad I did :)

Lorraine Carey

3 months ago

+Erika M Szabo Me too. I would have joined in but timing was just not good now. Best of luck to you. x

Tuesday, October 31, 2017

Our Halloween Stories #OurAuthorGang

Halloween stories by the Author Gang

Erika M. Szabo

http://www.authorerikamszabo.com/

My first Halloween in the US was a memorable one. I grew up in Europe where we celebrated all Saints day November 1st when the graves are cleaned, the gravestones are washed and adorned with flowers and wreaths. In the evening people gather at the graves, they light candles, pray for the dead and share precious memories about their lost loved ones.

Foto credit to www.dailynewshungary.com

On Halloween day the building where I used to live was buzzing with excitement. The doorman decorated the lobby and I got enough candy for trick or treaters to feed an army. In late afternoon the kids started ringing the doorbells demanding treats, so I was excited when the first trick or treater rang mine. I opened the door and saw an adorable little girl in pink tutu smiling at me and holding her pumpkin basket for treat. I held the candy bowl and let her choose when I noticed black, furry legs behind her. I lifted my eyes and scanned the hairy torso and my eyes reached all the way up around six feet a huge gorilla head.

The head bobbed and said, “Trick or treat!” in a deep voice. My stomach sank and I almost fainted. The gorilla sensing my distress reached up and took his head off, which instead of easing my distress added to it, revealing a handsome man behind the mask. He apologized and grabbing the hand of the little girl, they quickly left. After that when I heard the doorbell I looked out the peephole before I opened the door.

Rich Feitelberg

http://feitelberg.net/

When I was a boy, growing up in a neighborhood of Boston, I dressed for Halloween as Spiderman and went out to collect candy. I went alone because I was old enough and times were different then. There was *much* less violence in the city.

On the way home, I was stopped by a man dressed in a policeman’s uniform who asked me all kinds of questions about what I was up to. I was scared, to say the least, but explained that I was on my way home after trick-or-treating. He told me to get home because it wasn’t safe on the street alone. There were reports of mischievous pranks in this area.

He let me go, and I hurried home. I said nothing of this to anyone when I arrived. Later in the evening, I heard from my brothers there was a kid dressed in a police costume stopping children and taking their candy as punishment for some illegal activity. I felt like a fool because that was obviously who I had spoken to. He didn’t get my candy but I should’ve have known from the old style of the uniform, he wasn’t a real policeman.

That’s my one Halloween story.

Toi Thomas

https://etoithomas.com/

Aside from the one time I dressed as a pumpkin for a Homecoming parade near Halloween, I always dressed as a black cat. The thing is, though, my family didn’t really celebrate Halloween. Often my mom would have to chaperone a school dance, so she’d dress up me and my sister and we’d tag along. I have many fond memories of dancing with middle and high schoolers who thought I was just adorable. Fast forward a few years to college and my black cat on the frat house dance floor wasn’t exactly adorable; the words sensual come to mind… Ah, the days of being young and sexy. I’d say the scariest time I’ve actually had on Halloween was when the cops broke up one of those parties and I was the token sober girl who kept the hosts out of jail… Yolo, as they say.

Mary Anne Yarde

My parents were not big on Halloween. My mum like carving various root vegetables — swedes and turnips were a favourite for some reasons! So we always had a couple of Jack-O'-Lanterns. Living in the country, there wasn't much call for trick-or-treating. I only went trick-or-treating once, and that was when I was at my aunt's house. I didn't have a costume, so she cut some holes in a sheet, and I became a ghost!

Grace Augustine

http://www.graceaugustine.weebly.com

(Photo courtesy of Pinterest)

As a child, I joined my neighborhood friends going door to door for candy on Halloween. It was the mid 60’s and northern Montana...you didn’t have to worry about all of the things today’s society brings to our children. We’d have Halloween parties at school, usually on the Friday afternoon before the holiday. We’d spend weeks planning what we were going to “be.” More times than not I had a mask of some kind from the Ben Franklin store.

When I had children of my own in the early to mid 80’s, I dressed up and took them around the neighborhood. After we were finished, the boys would get into their pajamas and gather around the table as we dumped all the candy out and sorted it. It worked out great because each like different candy. What they didn’t like was given to us.

(photo courtesy of history.com)

When my boys were 7 and 4 they decided it would be much more fun to stay at home and hand out the candy. They thought it was dumb to go begging door to door for something we could buy at the store.

Ruth de Jauregui

www.ruthdj.weebly.com

Halloween brings back memories of homemade popcorn balls, the fire crackling in the fireplace, a cold night and the few houses where we were allowed to trick-or-treat. Costumes were a mostly a plastic mask I couldn’t see out of or a sheet (or both) and a pillowcase for the treats. Flashlights carved streaks through the dark and children laughed as they trooped from one house to the next. And when we got home, chilled to the bone, hot chocolate, and a treat or two doled out by Mom.

Joe Bonadonna

https://www.amazon.com/Joe-Bonadonna/e/B009I1KYIK

Halloween in Chicago, when I was a kid, was all-out warfare between the gangs hanging on different corners, and in different neighborhoods. But it was all in fun. Eggs, tomatoes, shaving cream, soap, toilet paper, Nair, cans of black spray paint . . . these were our weapons. When I was in high school, eggs were about 35-cents a dozen -- and we bought a lot! We’d buy them weeks in advance and keep them in very warm places. Every other corner in my Italian neighborhood had small grocery stores, and bushels of all kinds of vegetables were set out on the sidewalk. We’d help the owners carry the bushels in and out of their stores, get paid like 50-cents a week, and use that money to buy eggs and other things. In exchange for also making sure no damage would hit those stores on Halloween, the owners would save up all the rotten tomatoes for us. In high school, one guy’s father owned a butcher’s shop, and he had a small panel truck with no side windows in the back, and no business name on the truck at all. It was the perfect “troop transport.” We’d load that truck with bushels of rotten tomatoes and dozens of rotten eggs, not to mention shaving cream, soap, spray paint, and Nair. Then we’d put on these butcher’s aprons and smocks, drive all over the west side of Chicago, and wherever we saw other teenagers hanging out on the streets, we stopped the van, got out, and attacked. The Nair was saved for those we had a grudge against: we’d rub it in their hair, and you all know what Nair does. No doubt you also know what the soap, shaving cream, and toilet paper were for. As for the black spray paint? Wherever we saw a police car parked outside a restaurant and the cops eating dinner inside, we sprayed the windshields and back windows of the squads with black paint. We never got caught. Not even when we’d slash their tires. We didn’t much care for the police when we were kids: didn’t trust them. Still don’t. Ah, good Halloween memories. And NO one ever got hurt!