Frighten Me! Please?

"Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!”

Quoth the Raven, “Nevermore.” - Edgar Allen Poe, The Raven

Haunted mansions, hungry monsters, and harrowing miscreants,

Acid blood spilling from alien creatures, causing agonized screams,

Lycanthropes baring fangs lathered in lustrous and poisoned slaver,

Lethal, lonely, lovely vampires lingering deep in lightless caverns,

Open mouths shrieking from oval faces painted in outward terror,

Witches brewing wicked potions to trap unwary and willful children,

Evil killers wielding sharp-edged knives or curved axes etched in blood,

Echos of eternal souls prowling endlessly in vast, empty asylums,

Never blinking, never sleeping, for the nightmares never slumber

***

It’s official, y’all: We’ve finally made it to the fall! Peace out, Summer!✌🏼The sweltering months are behind us, and the cool breezes have arrived, along with colorful leaves, pumpkin-spiced lattes, and the best holiday of the year, Halloween! We’re going to celebrate by kicking off a new - and hopefully creepy - unofficial challenge.

One of my favorite fall activities is stretching out on my recliner, sipping on a nice hot coffee, and reading a good horror. This year, I want to read yours. Give me your scariest, most mind-numbing stories. Traumatize me! 😂 I don’t care whether they’re supernatural monster tales or terrifying slashers. Give me a gothic tale with vengeful ghosts, take me camping with ravenous werewolves, or show me your version of a bloodthirsty axe murderer. The choice is yours, but please, no sparkling vampires.

“Come on back, and we’ll see if you remember the simplest thing of all – how it is to be children, secure in belief and thus afraid of the dark.” - Stephen King, IT.

The challenge: Write an original horror story that is between 600 and 1000 words between now and October 31st.

The prizes are $30 for first place and $20 for second place. The winners will also receive a special shout-out on my Substack blog.

The rules:

• Each entry must be between 600 and 1000 words
• Entries must leave a comment below linking their published story, and each entry must link back to this original post.
• Entries must be from new stories written in October this year and originally written for Vocal Media. You can certainly submit a story you’ve already submitted to another vocal challenge (double-dipping, anyone?) as long as they were written in October this year.
• Stories will be scored by giving up to 20 points in each of five different categories: Originality, Fear factor, Descriptiveness, Length, and, of course, my personal enjoyment. If you stay within the minimum and maximum word limits, you get an easy 20, but I'll take off 5 points for every 5 words outside the limit (that's up to 20 words).
• In the case of any ties, I will award 5 bonus points one time to any story in a tiebreaker scenario that includes an Easter Egg from a horror novel or movie I recognize (Hint: I loooooove Stephen King). If there is still a tie after that, then each author will receive the maximum prize for their placement.

This isn't an official rule, but please be supportive and read a couple of the other stories in this unofficial challenge and be sure to leave a comment. The main purpose of this challenge (other than gratifying my love of darker stories) is to foster community development amongst each other and provide the encouragement and support we writers surely need.

“No tears, please. It’s a waste of good suffering.” - Clive Barker, The Hellbound Heart

Need some motivation? Check out this eerie Halloween music:

Happy writing and happy Halloween!