What waits in the shadows and doles out riches one at a time?
Rotting, sagging orbs dripping with spilled innards dot the pathway. Spots of light flicker, casting ghostly shadows along dark concrete. The moon hides behind growing clouds. A chill raises the hairs on the back of your neck. Shivers wrack your extremities.
A dog howls.
Black birds take flight from a leafless tree, cawing into the open sky.
Decay permeates the air as a deep fog trickles up from the edges, softly, but growing thick and moving closer.
And closer. Filling the space. Separating you. From destiny.
One step.
Another.
Feet press forward as the jitters take hold, shaking hands and arms, the desire to turn around and run far greater than the wish for what awaits.
“Go on,” she says. “It’s your turn.”
A shove to your shoulder forces you one step closer. To the end. Cackling breaks through the silence of the night.
You freeze. Gasp. Inhale.
“Hurry up!” she says again. “We haven’t got all night.”
Waiting.
Wondering.
I can do this.
No, I can’t.
You turn back. “You go.”
“Nuh unh,” she says. “It’s … your … turn.”
A slow return and the dark face looms again. Light from two suns sear your pupils. A blink brings the scene back in focus. Nothing has changed. Danger still lurks.
What waits beyond must be worth it.
You’ve been told a thousands times.
Slowly at first, you race through, whipping away from the flames of the orbs β safety no longer at issue.
You reach out as the creak begins.
The door.
Opening.
An inch at a time.
Your body trembles as you hold your hands tight.
Farther still.
Until …
In the frame …
A black hat keeps a face in shadow. A long robe hides a body in states unknown. A wrinkly hand extends beyond the sleeve as a black cat mews and snakes itself around and back.
“Hello, little one,” the masked creature says β female from the voice.
Words escape you.
“How are you this evening?”
Nothing will permeate the barrier of your lips.
She dips fingers inside a black bowl, swirling around and sending chalkboard like sounds to chill your spine. “Now then,” she says. “What would you like to say?”
Click —–> forΒ the answer.
Happy Halloween!
You’ve just participated in theΒ Romance Girls Gone Goblin Blog Hop! Click the link to check out other participants and be sure to register for their Halloween giveaways!
Who hasn’t been a little freaked out by the elaborately carved pumpkins someone clearly, painstakingly carved for this year’s Halloween treat? The desire for candy far out weighs scary-faced pumpkins that have been outside a week or two too long. Or the scary lady dress in a devil costume who’ll only give out one piece (oh, wait … that’s me). π But ask my girls about their first trick or treating experience and it’ll sound/look a little like what was written above. Neither of them wanted to go up to doors or ring those bells. Neither of them. It took 3 years before one or the other would brave the extras our neighbors set up. Not to worry. They are now officially ready to beat back the scaries and earn their prizes.
Here’s a chance for YOU to get a prize without getting spooked on Halloween night!
Share your kid’s (or your) favorite or scariest moment in the comments for a chance to win:
- an ebook copy of Little White Lies by *me*
- a digital signed cover of Little White Lies by *me*
- a signed Little White Lies bookmark by *me*
See? Nothing scary about that!
Just be sure to comment by or before 9:00 pm ET on Monday, October 31, 2011 to be eligible!
Hehehehe, cute. What an adorable pic. π
Psst, don’t enter me, okay. I have a copy.
Thanks! π I LOVE that pic, too. π
I agree, what an amazing picture & cute post. We lived in rural Ontario, so my mom always shlepped us around in the car and the whole bunch of us went up to the door together. My daughter has no fear, just waltzes up to every door and sticks her bag out for the goods. I have to admit I miss dressing up. It was loads of fun.
Wonder where your daughter gets it, Jo? π
Aw, that’s so cute. I’m not entering the competition because I’m already lucky enough to own a copy of Little White Lies π
Everything scares me. I have an over-active imagination, and my daughter is just the same. My poor husband is constantly harassed to turn on lights and venture into scary-looking places ahead of us.
Husbands are good for checking out the shadows in the dark. π
LOL Love the pic and the video π
Let’s see, scariest moment… Hrm..
Well, when I was a kid we went trick-or-treating and there was a scarecrow in a rocking chair with a big bowl of candy. It said something along the lines of “Take ONE”.. if you only took one, great, move on to the next house. If you got greedy though, the scarecrow jumped up and yelled at you (and of course I was like 6, so duh, greedy).. I’m lucky I didn’t pee my pants!
Thanks for the giveaway!
Jess
It’s crazy what our littlest minds will conjure as they embark on what they THINK is supposed to be 100% fun. π Thanks for playing, Jess!
My little guy was never really afraid to go up to someone’s house, ring the bell and hold out his bag for candy unless they have one of those electronic witches/ghosts that go off when you approach the door. He stops dead in his tracks and will slowly back away from the door regardless of the candy he knows is waiting on the other side.
But I love experiencing Halloween through the eyes of a child.
Thanks!
Anne
Those witches are scary! π I’d run away from them, too! π
True story. When I was a little girl my dad worked nights. Which left my mom and her over-active imagination home alone with 3 children, me being the oldest. One evening she came into the bedroom I shared with my sister and shook me awake. ‘SSSHHHH’ she said, as she yanked me out of my warm bed, “I don’t want to wake up your sister.” Rubbing my 7yr old eyes and stumbling after her as she dragged me down the hallway and into the kitchen, I whispered “What, mama?” She had a chair pulled up by the phone (they were mounted on the wall back then) and told me to climb up on it. She then told me that she had heard a noise out in the garage and she was gonna go see what it was…and if she screamed…she wanted me to call the police. Then, she started to walk away. “WAIT!”, I said…”I don’t know the police’s phone number! Besides, now I’m scared, I’m not staying here by myself. What if whatever’s out there tries to get you…you might need my help!” I guess she could see there was no arguing with me…or she was scared enough to let a 7 yr old help her take on the big bad garage noise. Whatever the case may be….we steathly made our way to the dining room….then we listened there at the door to the garage for a minute and didn’t hear anything. Mom put her finger to her lips and opened the door…still, we heard nothing, so, we bravely stuck both our heads out. Mom had a flashlight…and shone it into the garage….AAAAGGGG!! We both screamed and ran into each other like keystone kops! The light had reflected off two very scary looking eyes that belonged to something that growled and made a loud banging sound. We slammed the door and fell on the floor trying to catch our breath! “What are we gonna do now, I cried…what WAS that?” Mom said “I don’t know…give me a minute to think.” In the meantime….whatever was in the garage was not happy and continued to bang around. Then it made a loud MEOW sound…yeah, that’s right…a MEOW sound! Mom and I sat up and looked at each other and in silent agreement walked over, opened the door to the garage and looked inside again. OH, man…IT WAS CHARLIE….the neighbors cat! He must have snuck in when my dad left for work that afternoon! The loud banging noise my mom heard…Charlie was sitting on top of the BBQ grill. He’s a big cat, everytime he moved it groaned and banged! Anyway, she opened the garage door, shooed Charlie out and we all went back to bed. So, there you have it…my scariest moment…I don’t know what we would’ve done if it would’ve been something more serious than the neighbors cat! Thank goodness it wasn’t! LOL!
barbbattaglia@yahoo.com
I’d have been pretty freaked, too!! π
My daughter is two this year but we took her trick or treating last year to a few houses….it was a disaster! She screamed the whole time and I ended up bringing her homE>>>LOL!
viajeradelmar@aol.com
It’s so funny what scares the little ones. Then in a couple years, nothing will scare her probably! π
The first year my oldest daughter went trick-or-treating we were visiting my folks in MI & it was cold & drizzling. Yuck! We went out anyway & had a blast for about 2 blocks & then it was time for the warmth of Grandma’s house. Thanks for the giveaway!
geschumann at live dot com
Oh for the warmth of Grandma’s house! π
What a great lead-in! You had me thinking of all manner of spookables.
Just got back from freezing my butt off as the kids raced from one house to the next. Remarkably little in the way of houses looking to add an extra shiver to the air and spines of the costumed hordes.
I wanted to do a Poltergeist type scene. An old entertainment unit and a big piece of nylon behind which I would hide and upon hearing the pitter patter of feet, I would reach out stretching the nylon like a bludging snow filled screen until my daughter said, “what’s a snow filled screen?”
“Well, when the channel doesn’t come in. Dead air.”
“You mean the stallite is down? Doesn’t the Blue Ray work?”
Sigh…
OMG! Dale you are too funny! I just read that out loud to my hubby and he and I both had a great laugh. This is just so much the ‘current’ generation. π
Congratulations, Barbara! You were the randomly selected winner!