The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!
Halloween Tales
by Alex Grehy
Gather closer, my children, sit in the
circle of candles, their soft glow will
shield you while I recount a frightening
Halloween tale, when pumpkins
cower in fear, awaiting their fate.
.
In spring, our field was full of potential
our seeds embraced the soft earth,
our seedlings discovered the sun.
.
In summer, bees kissed our flowers,
an exchange of ecstasy, we swelled
with new life in gentle rains.
.
The season turned, leaves withered,
vines twisted and dried, we rested
ready for winter, then they came.
.
Our biggest and cutest were cruelly taken,
they sit dead now on doorsteps, grimacing
mouths so ghastly, eyes hollowed and burning,
their innards scooped out, discarded or eaten,
our kin, once cherished, now demons.
.
Shush now, my children, don’t cry, it’s only a
story, we all tell tales at Halloween, but maybe
let us be thankful for our gross imperfections,
for we can lie here in peace ‘til the plough comes to call.
.
Fiction © Copyright Alex Grehy
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com
More from author Alex Grehy:
Thoughts, Prayers and Other Curses
Alex Grehy (she/her) enjoys writing quirky, thought-provoking horror. Widely published, her latest collection of short stories, Thoughts, Prayers and Other Curses is disturbing, clever and darkly entertaining – a wickedly imaginative journey through ten stories where time and technology have given humankind the chance to be kind, but why bother when there’s always an option to be beastly?
