Young Writers Society

*Did you really think that I wouldn’t make my own 31 tales again? Of course I will! I’ll be doing this every year, so buckle up. Everyday on October I will uploading my own Halloween stories on this story. I will have Gacha Club character designs on my wall for you to check out. Now…let’s begin.

Tale One-Saccharine and his dear love

In a dark forest shrouded in fog and mystery, there lay a little cabin in the woods. It is said that if one went close enough, they could hear carnival music from within.

Most didn’t dare venture to such a place. The very thought of circus music coming from an abandoned cabin in the woods unnerved people enough to keep away from it.

But not these little trick-or-treaters.

Six year olds Amira, Lilly, and Gage wanted to know what lay in that cabin, what secrets it held, the whole works.

The night air was cold with anticipation, the feeling creeping into their spines.

“What do you think we’ll find? An old witch? A scary doll? A-“

“Amira, stop!” Lilly said. Only Amira would say such things.

Amira, in her sparkly pink Princess dress. Amira, with her brown curls and blue eyes.

Amira, who saw the world in such a glittery way, spoke of such horrid things. Horrid things that would disturb most six year olds.

Yet here they were, in the forest, looking for the cabin.

Gage didn’t utter a word. He didn’t wish to interfere. It was no use making an argument last longer than it should have.

The three of them trudged on. Pirate, Princess, and Ballerina. The three of them against the forces of the night.

…………………………………………………..

“Let’s go home, please. I don’t want to be here anymore. This is creepy.” Lilly moaned. Gage nodded in agreement.

Amira, however, wasn’t scared. At all.

In fact, she was furious with the both of them for even thinking about leaving.

“Come on, guys! We’re almost there and you’re giving up now?”

“We don’t want to go!” Lilly complained. Gage nodded his head vigorously, in agreement with Lilly.

“Fine! If you won’t go, I will!” Amira cried.

She turned her little heels and trudged towards the faint light that served as the cabin.

“Wait!” Lilly cried, chasing after her. Gage followed, clutching his candy bucket as tightly as he could.

…………………………………………………..

Amira smiled at the little wooden cabin tucked beneath the roots and leaves. This was the place. The real place.

The cabin.

“Amira, come o-“

Lilly cut herself off.

Flickering and dancing in front of them, was but a young lady. A glowing white lady, like a ghost. Her dress billowed in the air, even though the night was still. She was bleeding, too. The lady swayed back and forth, back and forth, back and forth…

Amira approached the woman.

“What’s your name?” Amira asked.

The woman knelt down to face the small child.

“My name is Marcellina, dear. But everyone called me Malevolent Marcellina.”

“Malevolent? What does that mean?”

“It means someone who wants to do bad. But don’t worry, dear. That is just an unfortunate nickname I was given. It doesn’t mean a thing.”

“Come on, let’s go home. I don’t like this.” Lilly said.

Amira rolled her eyes.

“You guys go home. I’m going with the lady.”

“I’m not leaving yo-“

Tinkling, twisted, interchanging…

Circus music.

Coming from the little cabin.

Marcellina smiled.

“Come, children. My love is home.”

“Your love? You have a boyfriend?” Amira asked, googly-eyed.

“More like my husband, but yes. Would you like to meet him?”

Before they could even let a word escape from their lips, Marcellina opened the front door and gestured inside.

The children walked inside, single file line, curious at what lay in store for them.

The music continued, louder than before, overwhelming to the core.

Something jumped to the ground, straight from nowhere.

The something was brightly colored, contrasted with all colors, and…

It was a clown.

There was a clown smiling before them, his sharp teeth glistening in the darkness.

“HIYA, cuties! Y’all can call me Saccharine!” The clown beamed.

Lilly and Gage weren’t having any of it. The two ran like the wind.

But Amira only smiled at Saccharine and Marcellina.

“Would ya like to see the rest of the home?” Saccharine asked.

Amira nodded. They were both so cool!

Tale two-The perfect girl

Marina stared at her mirror. She looked fine. That was how she thought of herself.

She clutched the straw hat in her hands. It was too tight for her and she had told her parents so. But they only laughed and said: “You just have a big head”.

Marina didn’t believe that to be true, at all. Why couldn’t they just listen to her? Why did they have to make a joke like that?

She sighed and walked away from her mirror. She didn’t need to spend all day staring at herself. She had a stupid straw hat to throw away.

Marina walked to the kitchen and opened one of the drawers, which revealed the trash can and dumped the hat in.

Stupid itchy short straw hat…

………………………………………………….

The next day, when Marina was eating her bowl of cereal at breakfast, her Dad turned to her and said:

“Chew with your mouth closed.”

Marina clutched the spoon tightly. She just wanted to eat her breakfast and here he was, going on about this chewing business.

Mom, as usual, shook her head and said to Marina:

“We’re only trying to help.”

Help? Yeah, right. More like make her life harder than it needed to be.

“I saw your hat in the trash. Why did you throw it out? It’s supposed to protect you.”

“Dad, it’s ugly and tight. I don’t want it.”

“That’s impossible! I picked it especially for you!”

“It’s just a hat. It doesn’t mean anything.”

“Yes, yes it does! It’s to help you! To protect you from the sun!”

Marina stood up. She had to go to her room. She had to think alone. She had to get away from her parents.

As she walked up the stairs to her bedroom, she heard them call out:

“Don’t stomp your feet! Walk nicely!”

“Shut up and leave me be!”

“What did you just say? Get down here, young lady!”

Marina only ignored her Mom’s words and flung open the door to her room, slamming it shut once she was hidden away.

Her room was the only place she felt safe nowadays. No one told her that she was this or that. No one scolded her for just being. She could finally breathe now.

Marina sank into her bed. Oh, how she wished that she were perfect. How she desired to be the perfect girl who didn’t chew too loudly or stomp too loudly or-

What was this pain in her head? It felt like someone cut an axe through it.

Marina tried touching it, but she only got a warm liquid in her hands.

She froze.

That wasn’t liquid.

It was blood.

Marina sat up from bed and staggered to her mirror, clutching her bleeding head which hurt even worst than it did under the hat.

She tried to scream, but the same cursed rouge substance gargled out of her lips.

The very heels of her feet felt broken and weak.

She couldn’t stand. She had to sit down…sit down…sit down….

Marina sat on the cold hardwood floor. It wasn’t much comfort, but it was the best spot she could sit on.

Some of her own blood trickled into her lips. It tasted like hot chocolate.

Marina smiled, showing off her rotten, bleeding teeth.

Maybe now she could be free…

Tale Three-The state test that killed

Dante sighed nervously. The clock ticked, ticked, ticked.

He looked back down at his paper.

He had a state test to take. There was no use looking back at the clock. He had to try his best. He had to answer every single question.

No matter what, he couldn’t stop.

Ever.

……………………………………………………..

Dante’s pencil hovered over question twenty-nine. He had about…he didn’t know how many questions he had left. The whole packet was a booklet. A brochure. A story which could never be completed…

His hand felt like it was going to fall off. His eyeballs didn’t feel real. He-

How much more time was left?

Dante looked back at the clock.

Only one more hour and he wasn’t even halfway done!

He looked back at the other kids. It was clear in his eyes that they too wear overwhelmed with the questions. Their tired eyes were strung with the pain of forever being trapped within the school wa-

What was this feeling? On his hand? Everywhere?

His whole vision became clouded with red. Everywhere was the horrid burgundy color, surrounding him, everywhere…

But he could still see that test. That damned test. That test which caused him so much trouble,  which glimmered and winked at him evilly…

It was the last thing he saw.

Tale Four-The case of the disappearing bathroom passes

The class of Ms.Henswick was an ordinary class of well-behaved students. The kids arrived on time, their work was always handed in, not a single child picked on one another…

But there was only one problem.

The bathroom passes kept disappearing. Never to be seen again. Just gone. Every single time a pass was gone, Ms.Henswick would get a new one. That new one would vanish, as would the next and the next…

It was on a miserable Monday in which Cassie asked for a bathroom pass. Ms.Henswick, glaring at her, said “Don’t lose the bathroom pass”.

“Of course not! I would ne-“

“Just go.”

Ms.Henswick waved her hand away at Cassie. Cassie, flustered, left as quickly as she could for the bathroom.

How dare she accuse her of losing the bathroom pass! She would never do such a thing! Never, ever!

……………………………………………………

Cassie finally found the bathroom and walked in, clutching the pa-

Scratching.

From a far corner.

The scratching sounded animalistic and feral, like some kind of alien creature.

Cassie walked closer to the sound.

Closer…

Closer…

She was staring at a…thing. It had long, straggly brown hair, and it wore a faded pink shirt and ripped jeans. Its boots were a devilish black and the skin was stretched to the point where its bones could be seen poking out. The thing had giant, pupil-less, white eyes, and it was scratching the walls with long, twisted claws.

It resembled a young girl, but Cassie couldn’t tell for sure.

Underneath the thing’s feet was a pile of bathroom passes. They seemed to have a golden glow surrounding them.

The thing took a pass from the pile and scratched the wall with it. The pass opened a hole. A black, gaping hole.

Cassie watched, wide-eyed. How could such a thing occur?

“How did you do that?” She asked.

The thing turned to her, shaking. Trembling. Shivering.

“These…passes…are gates…gates to freedom!”

Its voice had a ghostlike quality to it, almost like it forgot how to speak.

“Freedom? What do you mean?”

The thing stood, still shaking. It was the same height as Cassie. It stared at her for a moment, as if she were the one who had lost her mind.

“Don’t you get it?! You’re TRAPPED!”

“What do you me-“

It all disappeared in a flash. Cassie was back in the hallway, standing in front of her classroom.

There was no bathroom pass in her hand.

Ms.Henswick was going to kill her for losing it…

Tale Five-Like father, like daughter

Xylia didn’t like those mean words. They didn’t know her Daddy like she did. They didn’t love him like she did.

He was a strange, tall, pale man, who spent most of his days at home, brushing her hair, reading her stories, and dancing with her. He was very good at dancing. He had long legs that were very good for twirling and spinning.

He hated going outside. He said that the people outside wouldn’t like him. He said that they would think he was bad.

Now, on Halloween night, he was trick-or-treating with her! It was the very first night where she didn’t have to go by herself. The first time he was outside.

It was going to be wonderful!

…………………………………………………..

Xylia held tight to her Daddy’s hand. His fingers were very, very long. She liked them. With those long fingers, she knew that he was there. That he would hold on tight.

She looked up at his face. He didn’t look happy. He looked upset. Like he wanted to run away.

But there was nothing to be scared of! It was just a holiday! Nothing to be afraid of.

Xylia held his hand tighter. To know that it was okay.

He smiled at her, showing off his sharp teeth.

He was fine.

…………………………………………………..

They were walking back home now, Xylia with a lot of candy, when, Daddy stopped walking. He let go of her hand.

“Daddy?”

“Run!” He hissed.

“Run? Why should I run?”

“Run, Xylia!”

He started to shake. He screamed, a terrible, high-pitched sound.

Xylia didn’t think that a man could scream like that, but he did.

Then, he dropped to the ground and began crawling, while smiling really, really big. His teeth looked sharper than they did before.

“Daddy…what’s happening to you?”

“Hungry…hungry…hungry…”

“You’re hungry? Well, you can have my candy!”

Xylia went through her bucket for candy, but then…

She herself started shaking.

She felt her teeth grow longer and sharper. The same thing could be said for her fingers.

She couldn’t stop shaking. She just kept shaking and shaking and-

Finally, she stopped.

Xylia smiled.

Her Daddy smiled back at her.

Then, he stood to his full height.

“Food!” They seethed together.

That was when the real Halloween night began.

Tale six-Unbeknowst

Fifteen year old Mara smiled to herself. Mom was out for the day. Only her Dad and her oblivious twelve year old brother, Maverick, were around. As soon as Mom left, the guys took to the TV, to watch Anime. Like always, Mara vanished into her room. No one checked on her in that span of time. Not once, for they were too engrossed by the show to even care.

Once she was alone, she sighed in relief. Now she could tell him to come out. Now he would be free.

She had been doing this for three years. She would feed the pale boy with the many teeth and sharp claws snacks. The boy lived in her closet and was the same age as her. Mara would feed him simple bags of chips, which he would ravage.

The boy was once a human, but he got reduced to a monster after being abandoned by his family. He needed enough food to make himself strong for the bloodbath.

When Mara first met him, he was very gaunt. She could see his bones stick out from his skin. He wasn’t that gaunt anymore. In fact, he looked pretty healthy now.

Mara opened the closet door, where he was smiling at her.

“Are you ready?”

He nodded.

“Mara, dear, when I’m done eating the unlucky victims, I’ll be gone. Looking for more. You won’t remember me.”

“Yes, I will.”

Tears brimmed Mara’s eyes. She would never forget about the only person who cared about her. For him to even think that brought her into great sadness.

The boy cupped his hands over his mouth and spit something on them.

“Take out your hand.” He said.

Mara reached out her right hand, confused as to what he was asking of her.

He placed both hands on her hand and dropped peculiar small objects into it.

Mara looked down.

In her hand was a pile of fanged monster teeth, stained with blood, pink gums slick and gleaming in her bedroom light.

“My teeth. For you to remember me by. Do whatever you want with them. Make them into jewelry. Keep them as they are. Whatever you want! My token of love to you, Mara.”

Mara looked up from her hand. The boy was smiling at her again, but his teeth looked a tad more vicious than they did before.

“You grew new ones?”

He nodded.

Even though he was a monster, even though he just spat out his own teeth into her hand, he loved her.

In turn, she loved him.

Mara gave him a tight hug, still clutching the teeth in her right hand. She felt the boy’s long arms trap her in his cold embrace. His claws grazed her skin.

“What is your name?” She asked. She at least wanted to know what to call him.

“You can call me Keir.” He said.

“Keir.”

So his name was Keir. Alright. She would remember him. Keir and his beautiful teeth which she would cherish forever…

Tale Seven-The ballerinas

Chelsea coughed as she searched in the attic for her plastic doll from childhood. She missed having such mementos in her life.

So, here she was in the attic, searching all the bo-

Huh.

A VHS tape.

The tape was titled “1987 ballet recital Shingley Elementary”.

Shingley Elementary? She never heard of a “Shingley Elementary” before. And the tape was made in 1987? That was the year her Mom went to Elementary school. She would have told her if she did ballet. Mom loved to dance.

Well, it wouldn’t hurt to watch.

………………………………………………..

Chelsea walked downstairs, clutching the tape, prepared to watch it on the TV.

When she finally reached the living room, she slipped the tape into the DVD slot.

The television whirred and buzzed, the screen static with anticipation.

Finally, it settled into a calm video of little girls in ballerina tutus, twirling to the soft music.

Chelsea relaxed on the sofa. She didn’t know what to expect. It was just a boring video of ballerinas dancing. Nothing interesting. Maybe the school had shut down. Who knew?

In fact, it was so boring, she felt herself drifting off to sleep…

………………………………………………..

“Wake up.” A voice said.

Chelsea hazily opened her eyes. Pale moonlight was streaming into the living room. The TV screen was blank.

A silhouette was standing next to the cou-

Wait?

A silhouette?

Chelsea jolted up from her position. She squinted at the figure. Some time later, her vision registered in the moonlight and she found that she was looking at a little girl in a ballerina tutu. Only, there was blood caking her sk-

Blood?!

Why was the girl bleeding?

Chelsea knelt to touch the gi-

“Behind you! Run! Quickly!” The girl shrieked fearfully, pointing a bleeding finger behind Chelsea.

She could feel the hot breath of something inhuman standing behind her.

She slowly turned around…

Tale Eight-Only trying to help

Ms.Avalon loved her job as a teacher. She loved watching over the teens.

But often, they wouldn’t listen. They would do things that would get them in trouble. That would get them hurt.

She still remembered what happened last year very clearly.

It was a very tiresome Tuesday. Teens were given a thick packet which served as a test. They were complaining. They were throwing the test out. Some even left for a “bathroom break”, when in reality, they were leaving school.

Ms.Avalon did nothing of it. There wasn’t a thing for her to do. If they wanted to fail, then she’d let them.

However, there was this one teen girl, who had dared to shout, in the middle of class:

“This test means nothing and your class sucks!”

Ms.Avalon glared at her. She rose up from her chair and asked the bold thing:

“What did you say?”

The teen steadily held her gaze.

“I said that this test means nothing and that your class sucks.”

Ms.Avalon smiled at her, showing off her pearly white teeth.

“Of course this test means something. It’s to help you into your next life, when you’re a grown woman. It’s for the sake of your education. I don’t like giving out these tests, but I must.”

Then she had walked up to the girl’s desk, holding eye contact, never blinking once. The girl squirmed under a bit under her gaze, but stayed firmly still. Faking confidence, Ms.Avalon supposed.

“And this class sucks? I am the one who lets you kids play games on your phones. I let you kids bring in your friends even when they aren’t allowed and you dare to say that this class sucks? After all that I do for you?”

The teen sneered at Ms.Avalon, earning the laughter of her peers.

Ms.Avalon, however, took the girl’s hand and walked out the door with her.

They went down many staircases until they had finally stopped in front of a door that read “Basement”.

Ms.Avalon opened the door, still tightly gripping her hand.

“You shouldn’t say these things. I am only try to help you.”

The girl only rolled her eyes, a habit which annoyed Ms.Avalon greatly.

They acted like they were tough. Like they could face the world. Like there weren’t monsters waiting to snatch them in the darkness and gobble them into pieces.

They acted like they were better than everyone else.

Silly, stupid teens.

If it weren’t for their parents looking out for them, they'd be eaten away.

Ms.Avalon grinned yet again at the child, this time, her teeth were as sharp as a knife’s edge.

Did the teen deserve this? Absolutely. This was not the first time she and a few others have raised Hell in her classroom.

Did Ms.Avalon enjoy this? No, not really. It pained her to see them suff-

Maybe she enjoyed it a little bit. Just a little bit. Maybe the taste of blood thrilled her, the sound of screams excited he-

What?! The girl was trying to get away?! What blasphemy! She wouldn’t let it happen, she woul-

Ms.Avalon gripped her shoulders, letting her claws sink into the girl’s flesh.

“You have nowhere to run, child.”

And she sunk her teeth into the girl’s arm…

Tale Nine-Lost and alone

Abby didn’t want to hang out at her house for Halloween. She wanted to take a walk, to explore her neighborhood. See if she could find any houses that were well decorated.

So here she was, walking by herself. Looking at the houses-

A shadow. In the corner.

The shadow just stood in the corner of the sidewalk, under the glare of the streetlight.

Why were people trying so hard to be cr-

The shadow was gone.

Huh. Someone really was practicing their scares.

Abby continued walking.

Maybe she could find something to do other than walk, because this was incredibly bor-

Cold air. On her shoulder.

Probably just the wi-

Spinning. The whole world was spinning. She couldn’t feel her legs, her skin.

Nothing.

Everything was so blurry…

Tale Ten-Layla

There was an urban legend that went around the neighborhood of Bellville for two years. The legend was that far off in the woods, there was a thing which was supposed to eat unsuspecting travelers. No one knew how it got there or why it was around, but it was there. The thing didn’t have any victims for the longest while, until sixteen year old Layla Allison fell to its rotten, carnivorous jaws. It was said that if one listened closely, her screams could be heard in the wind.

That was how the legend went. That was how it was told.

Lilian never believed in such things. Why should she? They were just told to scare teens like her from going out to the forest.

So that’s why she was camping out there. To prove that the legend was just that, a legend.

She placed her cell phone on a selfie stick outside her tent and went to the camera app, where she pressed “video”.

Then, Lilian crept to her tent. Her phone would record any strange findings.

…………………………………………………

Rustling. Outside.

Lilian opened her eyes.

She then crawled out of the tent to find what had been making such noise.

Nothing.

Wait.

In the distance, underneath the trees…

There was a person.

The person walked closer and closer, until Lilian could see…

Oh god. The person was hideous! There was…so much blood…Lilian couldn’t tell what its facial features were…some of its flesh looked like it melted away…like…like…like…

Like it was digested.

The thing opened its mouth, revealing a gooey glop that dribbled from its lips. There was no teeth, no tongue. Nothing.

It garbled something unintelligible. Lilian didn’t understand what it was saying. Then it said the words again and this time, she understood. Itwords were:

“RuN sO yOU dOn’t hAve mY fAte.”

Lilian now realized that the thing standing in front of her wasn’t a thing, but the ghost of Layla Allison. Layla was warning her about the monster, but…

Lilian couldn’t move.

She was stuck, staring at Layla’s awful features, taking in the damage, feeling pity and fear and terror…

Tale Eleven-Timed mayhem

Morgan stared at the polished white Grandfather clock in her room.

Tick tock

It defined when she woke up.

Tick tock

It commanded her to go on with her day.

Tick tock

It glared at her if she chose to sleep.

Tick tock

Not once did it ever stop.

Morgan got the clock as a “gift” from her parents for her fifteenth birthday. Why would anyone want to have such a great hulking thing staring down at them?

It never stopped ticking. The clock ticks were seared into her soul. Always and always-

It stopped ticking.

It was so sudden, so abrupt, that it shocked her to take a step away.

It never stopped ticking.

Until now.

Morgan would have to tell her parents that it was broken-

Something behind her fell.

“What was that?”

Morgan turned around…

And immediately regretted it…

Tale Twelve-Ariana made a new friend

The afterlife in Zeze and Zuzu’s basement did get boring. And claustrophobic, too. All those dead kids kept coming in. They were packed like sardines down there.

Ariana hated it. She wished that she never went to their house last Halloween with her friends, she wished that she never trusted those clowns…

It was too late. There she was, yet another one of the dead ki-

Someone tapped her shoulder.

Ariana turned around.

A girl around her age, bleeding, wearing 1950s attire stared back at her.

“What’s your problem?” Ariana asked. She wasn’t really in the mood for con-

“Nothing. I just want to talk to you.”

“Why?”

“So you can be my friend.”

“You’re not going to hurt me, are yo-“

“You’re dead. What else can hurt you?”

Ariana paused. She did have a good point.

“Okay then. Who are you?”

“I’m Danika. I was the first victim here.”

“The first?”

“Yes. Zeze killed me. Just her.”

“Do you know why she did it?”

Danika sighed, staring at her feet.

Then she faced Ariana.

“We knew each other. I used to go to their circus. At the time I was going there, I dealt with…bullies. People who picked on me.”

Judging by how she said it, the bullies were so much more than annoying individuals. They were the kind that ruined someone’s peaceful state of mind.

Ariana knew what that was like. Her whole life, picked on for having a heart. For caring. For being compassionate.

Ariana’s kindness was the death of her.

“I tried to tell Zeze about it, but Mom would always pull me away. She didn’t want me to talk about them. She didn’t want us to look bad.”

“I think that Zeze cared about me. A lot.”

“That’s why she killed me. Years after her and her husband’s deaths, she searched for me. She did this to me. She wanted more children. To care for. To love. Zuzu didn’t agree with it at first, but when he saw that his wife was happy, I guess that he was fine with it and decided to join her.”

“Huh. When they killed me it seemed like they were exactly the same. Like they always killed people together. Like they were just two crazy, evil clowns.”

“Not always.”

Ariana despairingly looked up at the stairs. If only they could escape. If only the clowns living above them could understand, could finally see-

“Say now, you never told me what your name was.”

“It’s Ariana.” She replied abruptly to Danika, not caring for introductions.

“Nice to meet you, Ariana.” Danika said, smiling as she (with much difficulty, many kids crowded them) took out her hand for Ariana to shake.

But she ignored the hand, staring at the stairs.

“How do we help them?” Ariana asked. Maybe a little help could make them see that what they were doing was wrong.

Danika sighed haggardly, as if she knew the answer to that question all too well.

“I’m afraid that they’re beyond help now.”

Tale thirteen-Sick of the kids

Elise lazily scrolled through her phone, bored out of her mi-

Huh. A video of a beheading. What was that doing on her page? She only watched videos of makeup and cooking.

Well, it wouldn’t kill to read through the comments.

Elise clicked on the video and paused it. Then, she scrolled through the comments.

No one seemed disgusted. Not a soul.

All of the comments read as followed:

“Lol”

“The screaming sounded like a goat 🤣”

“Funny video”

“Beheading lol”

Elise couldn’t tell if the comments were real or if trolls typed them up.

Frankly, she didn’t care.

No one should say those cruel words and no such video should have been made.

Yet, what else could she do? One report wouldn’t make a difference.

Or would it?

Elise decided to give it a try.

…………………………………………………….

It was all over the news. Teens of her age experienced nightmares of extreme blood and gore, all in Elise's neighborhood.

Strange. She didn’t have any nightmares at all.

Not a single one…

Tale Fourteen-Sick of the world

Kate sighed as she lay in bed, thinking of her older sister, Elise. Elise thought that she was so perfect, that she was so kind. Any time she saw her watching videos with even the slightest violence and gore, Elise would snatch her phone away from her and give her a very boring lecture on how what she was doing was bad and she shouldn’t be doing it and…

Something fell in her room.

Kate crawled out of bed and turned on the light. Maybe it was nothing. Maybe she should just go back to sl-

Nothing was on the floor.

Strange. She could have sworn something fell.

And suddenly, she felt cold, clawed hands touching her back.

Kate just sat there, not daring to turn around.

Where did the claws come from? Were there even any claws? Was she only imagining it? W-

“Are you sick of the world?”

The voice behind her sounded like someone gargling their own blood. Like it was swirling in their throat and threatening to dribble off their lips.

Kate was perfectly still, sweat dripping down her head, heart pounding in her chest.

“Would you like to show them that you are more than what they see?”

Now she could actually feel the breath of the voice speaking. Contrary to its claws, its breath was hot and stifling, like the breath of the maggot-infested deceased, if they ever breathed.

“Then…join…me…”

Now she could feel its lips graze her ear. Kate still didn’t move. She couldn’t. Everything about her was paralyzed, stuck in position, not being able to move in the slightest…

And the world around swam with colors and sounds and the claws held tighter and the breath against her ear got hotter and then she couldn’t see or feel a single thing at all…

Tale Fifteen-True love never dies

Adrian loved Dorian, truly he did. But that was precisely the reason that he had to kill him.

It was too much, too much for him to bear. To face. No one would understand them. His parents certainly wouldn’t.

So he ended it. He ended their love. He ended it all.

Adrian drove into the eternal darkness of the highway. The saddest thing was that no one would know that Dorian was gone. Not the other students. Not his friends. Not the teachers. Not the neighbors. Not even Dorian’s own parents.

Nobody except him. It was as if Dorian were a ghost.

He could still hear his screams as he lowered that…that hatchet onto his body, could still see the blood, could see the wide, betrayed expression in his eyes, and then, finally, nothing.

Adrian buried his body in the grass next to the highway. No one would find him. Ever. Dorian would rot alone, eaten away by the bugs and worms, decaying into the Earth…

Did he have to do it? Did he have to kill him? Could they have been together, against all odds? Did he really have to bring that hatchet upon him? Did he have to do it?

Adrian’s hands on the steering began to aggressively shake. In no universe would they ever be able to be together. They would be taken apart, both destroyed, both broken, both walking the Earth as zombies. Alive, but not really living. The world would break, break, break, break them.

Or was he going mad? Was what he was thinking really true? Could they have been alright after all?

No matter. He already did the deed.

He continued driving back home, the trees and cars all a blur. The blood would wash off later. It’d all wash away eventually.

Adrian flinched a little. He could have sworn that he heard someone whimper next to him.

But no one was there. Only him, in his car.

Now he really was going mad, because he fancied that he heard someone tapping the glass of the car window.

It was just him, in the hig-

“Adrian.”

His back went cold.

He knew that voice.

It was cracked a little, as if bugs had already eaten away at the throat, and had an off note to it, but it was unmistakably, certainly, surely,

“Dorian? Is that you?”

“What do you think, idiot?”

Adrian stiffened. Dorian never spoke in a cruel, biting tone. Never, even if he had the right to.

But now, he sounded so angry-no, angry wasn’t the word. Annoyed? No, not merely annoyed.

He sounded…sounded..

Vengeful.

“I…I’m sorry…really I am…I just-“

“You just what? You kill me because you are scared. You’re scared to be yourself. You’re scared to be with me. You’re-“

“I’m sorry, all right! If it makes you feel any better, I’m going to live in misery. I’ll always regret what I did.”

Tears rimmed Adrian’s eyes. Why couldn’t he understand that…that he didn’t mean to? That he really loved him, that this murder would forever stay ingrained in his heart? He would suffer, forever and ever.

“Forgiveness? You ask me of…forgiveness?”

Dorian didn’t sound as terrible before, but now he spoke in a hollow whisper and that was much, much worse.

“That’s all I ask of.” Adrian replied calmly.

He didn’t reply back. He seemed to be considering his choices.

“You…don’t…deserve…forgiveness!”

“Don’t you understand? I was a person, just like you. I had dreams and hopes of my own. I wasn’t a shadow living off of you, like you would wish I was. I was my own person. Then…then you took that away from me.”

Suddenly, Adrian felt two slick, slimy, bleeding, rough hands on his neck. They were gripping onto his neck tightly. He could barely drive the car.

“You…killed me! You ended my life! You took away everything!”

The world was blurry all around him. All he could feel were those hands on his neck, gripping him tightly, tightly, tightly.

“But that’s okay, because now, we will be together forever.”

The car sped up, sped up, SPED UP, the wheel out of control and then…then…

An ear splitting crash which rocked the ground around him…

Tale Sixteen-Eyes of a doll

Robin hated his face.

He hated that his eyes were so big and doll-like, he hated the stares of his classmates, but most of all…

He hated that at any moment, it felt like his eyes might fall off. That they might land at the bottom of his feet, in a pool of goopy, gooey, blood and eyeballs.

Whenever Robin tried to explain the feeling to his parents, they wouldn’t listen. They said that he was only paranoid about his eyes and that he should “calm down”.

Sometimes Robin fancied removing his own eyes, just to get rid of that repulsive, aching feeling.

His friend Austen was the only one who had eyes like his and he was the only one who felt the same way.

Robin sighed, stepping away from the small mirror with the brown frame nailed to his bedroom wall.

Today would change.

He and Austen would meet in the woods today. Together, they would take off their eyes.

What was the worst that could happen? Sure, they may lose a bit of blood, and sure, they’d be blind, but they’d still be alive, wouldn’t they?

………………………………………………….

“Ready?” Austen asked.

The two of them were standing in the middle of the woods, the barren trees their only witnesses.

Robin nodded. He’s been dreaming of this moment his whole life.

Austen handed him a spoon. Robin nodded, bringing the spoon to his right eye, and ever so gently, scooped the thing out.

He smiled in satisfaction as it dropped to the ground, staring back at him, surrounded by soft, rouge blood.

He then brought the spoon to his other eye and did the exact same thing.

Now, his big eyes were gone. Lying on the ground. Staring back at him.

He saw Austen do the same thing with his eyes. Scooping out his eyes, plopping them onto the ground.

Something peculiar had happened with Austen.

He now had “normal” eyes, but they were completely white, with specks of black, like marble.

“Robin, your eyes…they look like…”

“Like marble?”

“Yes!”

Tale Seventeen-Evil never dies

Ashlynn didn’t want to believe in the legends. She didn’t want to let her imagination get into her head.

But every night, she could have sworn she saw a flash of curly blond hair and a black dress stained with blood.

The town she lived in, known affectionately as “Nightmare Hill”, hadn’t always been called that. It used to be known as “Glenview Hill”. An average name for an average town.

That is, until Eloise Blake came about.

Back in the 1960s, there was a classy boutique known as “Eloise’s Boutique”, inherited to Eloise from her parents after their deaths. It used to be known as “Blake Boutique” (something like that), but she had changed the name.

She made every single piece of clothing by hand. Every stitch sewn by herself.

Children who came into the store often ruined her clothes, with not a care in the world.

This frustrated Eloise and slowly, this frustration evolved into insanity.

She would kill children and turn them into clothes herself.

She was eventually crushed by a bookcase by her sisters, but in the event after her death, a mannequin in the store with curly blond hair wearing a black dress went missing. Many believe that her ghost possessed the mannequin and is still wrecking havoc upon children (and even teens).

But Ashlynn deemed the visions of blond, black, and blood as her own imagination getting the best of her. Certainly, Eloise couldn’t be real.

Certainly…

…………………………………………………..

Ashlynn stared out her window, bored out of her mind. She couldn’t sleep. Too much was going on in her mind. She couldn’t go outside. She’d just be told to go back in.

So she only stared out her window, into nothing, into-

Huh.

There was a clown standing outside her yard. The clown appeared to be female. She wore a red dress with a tulle skirt, yellow and pink striped socks, black boots, and her hair was so long and curly and blue.

The clown beckoned for Ashlynn to come forward.

Since Ashlynn had never heard of a clown haunting Nightmare Hill, and she was very bored, she decided to open her window and jump outside.

Once she successfully landed on the soft, green grass, she walked up to the clown, who took her hand.

And away they walked.

…………………………………………………..

“Where are you taking me?” Ashlynn asked, for they had been walking for hours.

“To the Nightmare Hill circus, my child.”

“Circus? There’s a circus here?”

“Why yes. Where else would I have come from?” The clown asked as if this were the most obvious thing in the world.

And maybe it was, but Ashlynn had never heard of a Nightmare Hill circus and she had lived here for years.

“You don’t know the entire legend of Eloise, do you?” The clown asked sympathetically.

Ashlynn couldn’t tell if the sympathy was genuine, because this was a clown talking to her, in a notably haunted town, but why not trust her? What did she have to lose?

“No. I don’t.” Ashlynn answered in a soft, barely heard whisper.

“Allow me to enlighten you.”

The two of them stopped at a run-down, dusty circus which had seen better days.

Hand in hand, they walked in one of the torn-down big top tents.

…………………………………………………..

“As you know, Eloise was a child murderer. She turned children into clo-“

“Yes, I know.”

The clown glared at her for a moment. Then, she continued.

“But Eloise didn’t kill every child. There was one she loved. Only one she cared for.”

“She loved one child?” Ashlynn asked in disbelief. She couldn’t imagine Eloise loving any child.

“Yes, she did. The child was a little girl and her name was Leona Fitzgerald. Leona was the one child who didn’t ruin her clothes, the one child who didn’t act up, the one child she loved dearly.”

“This child would grow up to become the ringmaster of this circus. The circus I performed in. The circus I died in.”

The clown took a step closer to Ashlynn.

“The circus she got trapped in.”

“She? Who?”

“Esmè. Her name was Esmè. She was one of the kids who really loved coming to the circus. One day, Esmè was cursed and trapped by Leona.”

“Cursed? TRAPPED? What do you mean?”

“I mean that Eloise and Leona were witches. They knew witchcraft. Eloise’s sisters knew witchcraft too. In fact, they used it to crush her with a bookcase.”

“Eloise killed kids, for the most part. She hardly used her powers. Only after her death did she use her gift to curse children.”

“How do you know all this?” Ashlynn asked.

“I was involved.”

“You were involved?”

“Yes. I was. In life, I was visited by the ghosts of Eloise’s victims. They were children with skin and without eyes. They told me what she did. I didn’t want to believe it at first, but then..”

She sighed heavily, as if she couldn’t bear to speak. Ashlynn could have sworn that she saw tears in her eyes.

“My daughter, Matilda…she was the last victim of Eloise…but…it still hurt when she…she…she came to me…faceless…and scared…she was so young…only six years old….”

“I’m sorry, I must be boring you. Matilda came to me after death, crying. She told me what had happened. I told my husband, Robin, but he wouldn’t believe me. Called me stricken with grief. And I was, but I very clearly saw Matilda with my own eyes.”

“I saw her one night as I was about to leave. Little did I know that on that same night, I would witness something sinister and ghastly.”

“What did you see?”

“There was fire all around me. I had to crawl on the ground, so I wouldn’t get burned. I saw Esmè in the fire, but she was different. She had the scales of a snake and the eyes of one, too. She held a…was it a match? Sticks? I don’t remember, but I know that she started the fire. She was grinning, too! Leona was there, lying on the ground. I thought that she was dead.”

“But she had risen up from the ground, laughing despite her burns. She saw me and told me all about her and Eloise and how she enjoyed cursing people, as she did to Esmè.”

“Leona cursed Esmè?”

“Yes, my child, she did.”

“And after telling me all of this, all of it, she killed me.”

The clown’s eyes grew unpleasantly wide with fright.

“She twisted my bones, like this.”

After saying this, her left arm twisted to face the sky.

“She tore my skin away and it fell to the ground.”

With this, a piece of skin fell off her face.

“All without moving an inch. You see, Leona knew how I felt. She knew that I felt as if I lived under a mask. So she made my face one.”

The clown lifted her hands to her face and aggressively, all too quickly, tore off her own face.

Now, Ashlynn stared at a bleeding, torn down face.

“My name was Edana. At the circus I was called Cotton. Cotton the clown. Call me whatever you like, but I am always here, with Matilda. Robin is much too old to have loved me like he used to. I believe he left me for another one after death.”

“I am always here, just like now. I do what I can to help kids and teens like you. But this is all I can do.”

Ashlynn took a step away from her. She’d had enough adventure for today.

“If you see a blond haired mannequin in a black dress outside your yard, don’t approach her. Wait for her to disappear.”

Ashlynn ran away from the clown with the bleeding face.

…………………………………………………..

Ashlynn now sat on the cold floor of her room, huddling herself in the darkness.

She peeked out her window.

Edana wasn’t there.

Instead, on the cool grass, there lay a mannequin with curly blond hair, wearing a black dress.

She sunk to the ground, not daring to steal herself another glance.

She’d stay here until morning.

Until morning…

Tale Eighteen-Who wouldn’t love Halloween?

Jazzlyn loved Halloween. Like any other teen in her town, Blakey Hill, she loved to dress up in the most outrageous Halloween costumes.

A gothic vampire? Check. Lonely ghost? Double check. Menacing clown? You know it.

But Jazzlyn had something no other teen in the world did.

She wasn’t human.

She was a special kind of creature. A monster who could shape shift into whatever Halloween costume she wished.

Despite being a monster, she did not wish to hurt people.

Only to share spooky joy with others.

Who wouldn’t love Halloween?

Tale Nineteen-The monster

Those who were poor must take not to complain of not having enough food, lest the monster find them.

The monster lived in the darkest depths of Earth. It was only summoned from the very despair of those who had less.

Then, it would pull them apart, tear their stomachs open, and fill them with the freshest food imaginable.

The monster gives food, yet not in the way one would imagine or love.

Tale Twenty-Annoying brother

Mary wished that Mike, her little brother, didn’t call her weird or hurtful. She wasn’t weird or hurtful at all. He just couldn’t keep up.

Silly, stupid boy.

She stared at her long nails, which were very similar to claws.

Why not teach him a lesson?

Tale Twenty-One-The mirror

Mikayla stared at the white mirror which hung on a wall in her room.

It looked like a regular mirror, but something about it just felt…

Off...

Tale Twenty-Two-To write forever

Karina’s hand shook as she wrote in her diary, with so many ideas and stories in her head.

She hadn’t stopped in forever.

Her hand continued to write and write and write…

Tale Twenty-Three-Monsters

Sometimes, Kalia saw flickers. Shadows. Coming from upstairs. They looked cartoonish and otherworldly.

They spread their terrible fingers out to her and called out her name and…

And…

They wouldn’t stop!

Tale Twenty-Four-To give blood

Sara sighed as the abominable creature known as a “vampire”, drained her of her life source. It was like this for her and a lot of other people every day. They were trapped in this farmhouse and like cattle, had to give their blood to the vampires.

It wasn’t always like this. She used to go to school freely and live in contentment.

But now, here she was, kept here like a prisoner.

Would she ever be free?

Sweat beaded down her head, she began to feel woozy, the world all around her blurred at the edges, as if it would end at any moment..

And…

And…

She…was…going…to…pass…out…

Tale Twenty-Five-Perfection?

Kevin had always been the perfect kid. Always with good grades, always with a pure heart, just overall a clean slate.

But whenever Kevin looked into the mirror, all he saw was a hazy, dark monster…

Was perfection really worth it?

Tale Twenty-Six-Damnation school

Helena couldn’t breathe. She was trapped within the walls of her “school”, within the cement.

And she could sense the presence of the other kids too. They were trapped here too.

She would just die here, all alone, nameless and forgotten...

Or maybe she could…

Make them all…

Pay.

Tale Twenty-Seven-At the ball pit

Little Mari was playing in her favorite ball pit place, tossing about the large, colorful balls and giggling all the while.

Suddenly, she noticed a very very white hand sticking up from the balls. It was just sticking up, not moving at all.

Mari crawled over to the hand and pulled on it.

Nothing. It wouldn’t move.

She tried yet again, but still it proved to be too heavy.

So, with all the might she could muster, she pulled on the hand one more time, super duper hard, and finally, finally, the entire body attached to the hand looked like a…a…

“You’re a clown.”  She said matter-of-factly.

Yes, he was a clown. But he also had cobwebs here and there. The clown had one wide brown eye and on the second eyehole, there was a rubber red ball.

He coughed, and a long stream of blood spewed out, with a bit of bugs, too.

“What happened to you?” Mari asked. She never saw that happen with anyone before and didn’t know what to make of it.

“I can’t tell you that.” He said weakly, as if there were more blood and bugs stuck in his throat.

“Why not?” Mari asked, scratching her head. Usually whenever she asked a question, people were supposed to answer her.

But he didn’t give her an answer. He just told her no. As if she wasn’t smart enough to understand.

The clown started walking towards her, so close that she was beginning to smell something really rotten and horrid.

She wished that there were other kids in the ball pit too, so that she didn’t have to face him alone.

He was suddenly very close to her, so close that Mari wanted to puke, and why weren’t there any other children here? Usually, this place was very crowded and-

“Please...leave.”

And then, he rudely pushed her off the ball pit-

“What?”

Mari opened her eyes.

She was lying on the floor of her bedroom, the soft lavender glow of her nightlight bringing her room in a lovely, dreamlike haze.

“It was a…dream?”

For Mari didn’t feel as if she had a dream. She felt as though she really were in the ball pit and that she really was talking to the clown.

A red ball, like a clown’s nose, rolled over to her.

She picked it up.

Mari never had any ball toys at home. She always thought that they were better at the ball pit.

It wasn’t a dream.

It was real.

Tale Twenty-Eight-The lockdown

Avery stood very, very still in the bathroom stall. She didn’t move an inch, fearful of what would come for her.

There was a school lockdown happening at the moment. She panicked and hid in a bathroom stall, making sure not to even breathe too loudly, lest the culprit hear her.

She heard something else in the bathroom stall. At first she thought it was another student hiding, breathing raggedly.

But then she heard the sound again and Avery knew that it was inhuman.

It sounded like the snarls of some kind of beast…some kind of animal…

Was she dreaming?

No...no…

Opening the stall door was a thick...black…

Tentacle.

Tale Twenty-Nine-Followed

Something was following Annie…

Something…

Or someone?

Tale thirty-Accepted

Kevin couldn’t believe what he was holding.

In his hand, there was a letter that read:

“You have been accepted into the Howard Gifted and Talented Program.”

After all this time of avoiding perfection, of keeping a low profile…

He still got roped into the land of “beauty”.

Tale thirty-one-Friends

Addy quitted using a writing app, where she felt someone was targeting her. Where someone was trying to get at her deepest, darkest secrets…

“Addy? What’s wrong?”

The voice sounded inhuman. It sounded evil.

Addy turned around.

“You have nothing to fear. We’re friends.” The voice said.