Gallow's Road

Strange things happen on Gallow’s Road on Halloween night but throw in a blue moon, and things get monstrously evil quickly. On an average night, people driving along had reported their vehicles dying and a strange tapping on the roof of their cars. But on a blue moon Halloween night, the area locals avoided the road at all costs, and the following day, the locals would find travelers dead, hanging from the trees above their stalled cars.

Many, many years ago, much before anyone here alive was born, Gallow’s Road used to be called Soggy Bottom Drive. Its name change happened due to an atrocity committed on the road at an old dance hall that used to stand halfway down.

So gather round, get nice and comfortable, and sit by the fire while I tell you of the sin of your great-great grandfathers. Come now and hear the tale your parents and grandparents are ashamed for you to know.

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The year was 1944, and Halloween had a blue moon, just like this year. A group of young adults of mixed races decided they wanted to gather and celebrate with dancing and Halloween games at the old Soggy Bottom Dance Hall in the middle of Soggy Bottom Road. They were highly excited about throwing this mixed party and did not think anyone would notice them in their costumes going out there or that anyone would even care.

What they forgot about, what they didn’t count on, was the Ku Klux Klan. The Klan back then always knew when anyone was stepping out of their social lines, and they would always be there to put them back into their places.

So, anyway, all those young adults decided to gather and have fun, and the Klan now waited for the Halloween party to get good and started before they set their plan into action. That night, the Klan captured each one of the young people. They beat them half to death, black and white alike, just for the sin of intermingling and getting along with other races. Once they beat them, they took every male at the party that night and hung them along the roadway from the trees, leaving them to die. The poor women fared worse than their men, in my opinion. The Klan performed many atrocities on their bodies, including rape. The Sheriff’s Department found many of those women the following day, sitting catatonic, and the women never really recovered.

No one ever came forward and claimed the rapes and murders. The Ku Klux Klan stood behind their white sheets like the cowards they always were. So, no, there were no charges on anyone.

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Now, children, I know you wonder why I tell you of this atrocious, vile deed performed by our ancestors. I tell you as a warning. Tonight is a blue moon. Under no circumstances must you go down Gallow’s Road tonight. For tonight is the night the spirits return to seek revenge on those who slay them. To go down Gallow’s Road tonight of all nights would spell certain doom for any who attempt to go. Once you go, no one will see you alive again, but the Sheriff’s Department will be cutting you down from the trees in the morning, for the spirits of those men will hang a noose upon anyone’s head tonight and drag their souls to hell to be tortured for all time.

So heed this warning, children, and avoid Gallow’s Road whenever a blue moon falls on Halloween. If you don’t heed this warning, you will not live to regret the decision.