The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

Halloween Feast
by Elizabeth H. Smith

When Billy approached the next porch, he found nothing more than a hat laid upon a chair—no bowl of candy, or adult to hand it out. But the decorations glazed his eyes with wonder. They weren’t cheap plastic, but nice, expensive looking ones. He decided to wait; maybe they went inside and would be back out soon. After all, their carved pumpkin still had its candle aflame.

When a cloud of fog rose from the bucket on the table he watched if waft up in a nebulous state. Rather than drift off into the air and disappear, the smoke moved with intent, and went toward the hat on the chair. As it slipped beneath it, the hat twitched with life.

Billy watched with terrified eyes as a pale-fleshed hand reached out from beneath the cap and held out its palm. A voice echoed beneath the pointed hat. “Trick or treat.”

With a shaking hand, Billy took a piece of candy from his bag and dropped it into the hand’s grasp. It wrapped its fingers around the silvery wrapper and drew back beneath the hat.

As Billy ran from that place, he heard the sound of chewing behind him.

..

Fiction © Copyright Elizabeth H. Smith
Image courtesy of Pixabay

More About Elizabeth H. Smith:
Elizabeth H. Smith is a storyteller who writes while trying to keep her cat, Luna off the keyboard. The musical group, Rasputina is her muse. She was born in the state of New York and would never feel at home anywhere else.

Through Clouded Eyes: A Zombie’s Point of View

Through Clouded Eyes: A Zombie’s Point of View: a collection of twelve stories told from the Zombie’s perspective.

They’re shambling toward you, feet dragging on the broken roadway. Arms outstretched, faces slack, they move as if they’re tracking your scent on the wind. You want to run, but you know there’s nowhere to hide.

Aware of their insatiable hunger, fear paralyzes you. These things were once human, people someone loved. Is there anything left inside them – some sliver of humanity that may save you from this nightmare? Your mind doesn’t want to accept the inevitable, a single thought consumes you: what are they thinking?

With your chance of escape dwindling, you snap out of it and run like hell knowing there is little to no hope; fate is coming for you. Soon you will see what they see Through Clouded Eyes…

Featuring stories from Maynard Blackoak, Calvin Demmer, Paul M. Feeney, Stacy Fileccia, Trevor Firetog, DH Hanni, Shannon Lawrence, Josh MacLeod, Zachary O’Shea, Neal Privett, Mark Steinwachs, and Alex Woolf

Available on Amazon!