October 2014 -- 75-word Writing Challenge -- VICTORY TO HEX!!

[Darkchrome]

Moko Jumbie

It’s dark and deserted on the midway now.

Raucous punters, wired on adrenaline and sugar, are coming down in safe homes. The barkers’ lies of impossible odds are silent, kaleidoscopic lights snuffed out.

I burrow further into the heavy canvas folds, holding my breath against stale smells of fried onions and mildew, but I can still hear it laughing, cooing my name.

Click... click... click... the long, relentless strides of wooden stilts on the duckboard.

 

[Talysia]

The Oubliette

He'd heard the reports. Many had heard the nocturnal knocking in the eastern corridor. Some had even disappeared. 'It's that Lady Martinet,' the castle's gossips cackled, 'seeking company from beyond the grave!' Absolute nonsense. The Queenslayer had been imprisoned beneath the castle, and he certainly didn't believe in ghosts!

He was so focused on disproving the rumour that he didn't see the shadowed hand that seized his ankle, dragging him slowly through the floor.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Though It Have No Tongue​

Carl always heard it, lying in bed late at night.....THUMP.....THUMP.....He never went to investigate, because he already knew.

Tonight, Jenn wanted to see.

No, he told her, no and no. But he was ashamed to tell the truth.

Ignoring his warning, she went out to the hall and flipped the light switch.

After an hour of it, his nerves raw, he stuffed his ears with wads of kleenex to block her screams.

 

[A. Fare Wells]

Safe

The nightmares had gone, but sleep remained elusive to Aubrey since the untimely death of her husband.

At 3:08 a.m., she again heard a THUD and bolted upright in bed. Seeing nothing, she sighed and laid back down.

Minutes later, as the daemon plunged toward the sleeping woman, Pete swatted it aside. It crashed into the wall, and Pete's wife awoke. He would protect her. He would keep her. Safe.

 

[Starbeast]

Iracund Cthulhu Wrought Up​

Dreaded, timeless abominations amass in sunless, forbidden dreamlands of mighty Cthulhu. Once there, cursed, nightmarish demonoids, perform unspeakable ceremonies.

Feared, slumbering leviathan, Cthulhu, awakens. Lumbers forth, responding to screaming, mad laughter from ancient astral monstrosities who've entered his dark realm. Cthulhu, summons domain gates to rapidly breach in a thunderous shockwave. Hideous, behemoth Cthulhu stands threateningly in his hellish doorway, raises a goliath fist, and shouts, "Hey you kids, you can't play in my yard!"

 

[Mr Orange]

Things that go BUMP in the night.


“Good legs?”

Hell, yeah. Legs that went all the way up.

“Really?”

Literally… Just legs. Bit weird to be honest.

“Ghoulie, right?”

Pronounced Julie. French, I think.

“That’s not how it’s written.”

Huh?

“Anyway, what was she like?”

An animal. They all are… Think it’ll change things. It doesn't of course. But…

“Yeah?”

It went wrong... She didn’t pass over-

“REAPIE, WHO YOU TALKIN’ TO? COME BACK INSIDE!”

“Ha! You better go, Reapie.”

Shutup, Stu.

 

[Tywin]

Returned

Exhausted, I left her in the lab.

I had been mad to think it possible.

Instead, I lay alone in our marriage bed.

A crash startled me from my reverie. I heard the creaking of planks, followed by a sliding noise.

It crept closer, as though some shambling abomination approached.

It stopped before my door, and I heard it groan. My heart raced as the door swung inward.

My love had returned to me.

 

[Glen]

Predictable

‘Whoooo-oooooo’
‘Aaaarggh!’
‘Whooo...oh I can’t be bothered.’
‘Aaaar...huh?’
‘So predictable! Day in, day out, hauling these chains around - for what?’
‘I’m sorry...’
‘It’s just not the same anymore.’
‘Are you condemned to roam here for eternity?’
‘It’s just a job. I could quit. But I long for the moment my existence makes the spookee question everything.’
‘Spookee?’
‘You’re all so comfortable now. So...insulated.’
‘I...’
‘Begone. You’ll join me soon enough.’
‘Aaaaaaaaaargggghhhh!!’

 

[Phyrebrat]

Good Housekeeping

After disposing of the body, Ella returned from the lake. Crimson leaves scuttled like crabs across the road, reminding her to clean the bloodstains.

At home she vacuumed thoroughly; the bag almost bursting with a grey harvest of hair, dead skin and scurf, and the odd dried pea.

She was woken at midnight by slumping shuffles and dust puffing from a patchwork monstrosity.

Should have emptied the bag, dear, it wheezed before descending on her.

 

[johnnyjet]

Curse of the Arachnaphobe

Simon wanted privacy, so he bought a house by a cemetery.

"Ghosts don't scare me," he told the realtor. "Nor ghouls, nor walking dead."

He looked around.

"Except I don't like spiders."

"We can take care of that. We'll get an exterminator in."

Later he happily moved into the pest free house, ready for peace and quiet.

That night the tortured spirits of spiders paid him a visit. Simon got his peace and quiet.

 

[Lukethebloody]

Explorers:

There were dozens of them, tall and slender, their many legs pocking the sand with giant, cylindrical hoof-prints.

“They some kind of giraffes?” Gred said, regarding the giants from his saddle.

Bren chuckled. “Nah.”

Gred craned his neck. Mandibles peeked below the clouds. “Strange place, this planet,” he muttered. “Let’s go.”

They started their bikes, riding down the hill, a tripwire tensing between them as they parted. “Let’s see how many we can trip.”

 

[StilLearning]

Not poetry. Bitterness...

One all hallows eve,
I sat by the bedside of my lover,
Looking for courage,
Cradling our new-born in my arms.

My lover could never awaken to meet our child;
So I promised my soul to the uninterested devil,
The uncaring gods,
And the creatures of the night… if…..

And, when she died,
I knew the truth:
The demons stay warm in hell,
For they know they are not required.

 

[Bowler1]

Vampire Nights

There are no prisoners; death is a recruiting sergeant.

Buried in our dark bunkers, we wait for daylight.

Yet they smell us out.

Come for our blood.

I hear them outside, whispering to me, calling my name.

Friends I once knew, taken… now desperate to reach me.

They bump and scrape against steel doors, begging to be let in.

I don’t want to live forever, but I do want to make it through the night.

 

[jastius]

The Boatman's Ball


Every midnight fogs roll in off the Delta.
I walk these banks looking for my Cherie.

Fifty year now since she found that Boatman.
He take her out onto Gambling Ship for Dance.
Untils that ship caught fire, they's all dancing.
Dancing to Bone in the flame.

Them's lights? That smoke rolling on the fogs?
Hear music, yes? They's dancing still in that
hellflame... forevers.

Listen to my Cherie. Laughing as she dances.

 

[mosaix]

You Can Look Now…

A shortcut through the cemetery on Halloween? Moonlit, flickering shadows across the path ahead? Tilting tombstones? Moaning wind? Not such a good idea after all, she’s thinking.

A noise close behind! Her heart misses a beat. Her step falters.

Just imagination! Don’t look back! Don’t look back!

Of course it was imagination. My kind never make a sound – ever. But I’m close enough now. She can look back any time she likes.

 

[alchemist]

Unwanted visitors


"What's that?"


"What's what?" Three days from Mars and Sergei was looking at me like I'd gone mad.


"That bump. From outside."


He shook his head. "Is no bump."


"Is bump. Potential hull breach, so..."


#


The night-black of space scrolled past as our servicebot crawled along the hull.


"Nothing," Sergei said.


"Hmm..." A splash of blood red. "There!"


I zoomed out, and Sergei gasped as the letters became clear...




Erth skum go home!

 

[jotun913]

Revenge
I followed her across the snowy field
aeons have past,it can't be her. I call to her she stops,turns. Blood dripping from fangs and claws. Red on white. I knew it wasn't you. Oh but it my dear. I died an unclean death, revenge will be mine. I can't allow you to do this. Think YOU can kill me.... I can't kill her, her death nearly killed me.
But I must...

 

[Boneman]

Fair Enough


We stole the money to fund our wickedness. Our parents never knew.

The darkness, the strange smells, the coloured lights drawing near, the discordant music, the sounds of... of things we'd never seen before, but heard the tales.

We risked life and limb, but slithered across the shiny surface, into our chosen place.

He demanded cash, and we gave it.

Electricity crackled, the Dodgem cars jerked into motion and we went bump in the night.

 

[Ursa major]

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Lap of the Gods…​

At times like this – taking my little devils round the neighbourhood at Hallowe’en – I wish we were back on Earth.

The kids already possess immortality, the Treat usually offered. And no local child would risk a Trick. Would you want to live in Hades for ever?

So this year, the kids will get something they both want and deserve.

“Fangs ready?” I ask.

My eldest nods, then knocks on Apollo’s door, demanding, “Ichor Eat?”

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[BigJ]

Things That Go "Bump" In the Night, Indeed!

I bought the house sight unseen, too good a deal to pass up despite the rumours of hauntings and ghosts and other such nonsense. An old couple had indeed died there, but I dismissed the stories as superstitious tripe.

Then I moved in. Every Saturday night, a terrible thumping rattled the walls, wailing and screaming rose to a dreadful crescendo, and then . . . silence.

Turns out the old couple died in the heat of passion.