The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

November Remnant
by Lynn Ruzzo

Leaves left their homes and joined the masses in the exodus from the trees. They joined together on the street where the old hat lay. People walked past it, seeing, but ignoring it. “Don’t touch it,” they said, “we don’t know where it’s been.” It sat unloved and unwanted, its owner nowhere to be found.

As the days went by, the branches above bared themselves even further. They let loose the rest of their haul as the November days got colder.

“Maybe someone lost part of their Halloween costume,” one passerby said.

“Maybe it’s a trick,” said another.

But what they didn’t see was that it was a treat. Anyone who picked up that hat would have gotten an unexpected gift, though some may have seen it as a curse… They didn’t know the power that ornament of clothing held. Its owner was not coming back, and there it would lay until someone picked it up. There it waited to give its offering to anyone who might care enough to remove it from the ground. Some caring hand with its curious inspection, any pedestrian willing to rescue it, they would receive all it had to offer.

For its owner left an offering of their own when they discarded it. The hat had been imbued with all their knowledge and power, waiting for whomever might discover it…