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#169 I've Got Goosebumps

Whether you celebrate Halloween or not, late October is an interesting time, full of contradictions. On the one hand, you’ve got chunky sweaters, auburn leaves, tea, grinning pumpkins, the flicker of candles. On the other, the looming threat of winter, darkness hiding just under the surface of all this cozy festivity.


This week, let’s see if we can give each other the creeps.

🥇 Winner

Maniacal, Manipulative, Psychotic

Winner of Weekly Contest #169 🏆

The storm had felt like a rumor all day, but now, the sky was delivering. For a second, like a knife catching a glint of light and refracting it in multitude, everything gleamed white. The lightning split the whole sky in half, and in that moment, it was brighter than daylight. The tops of the gravestones seemed to pulse like strobe lights in a night club before blackness settled them down again.She was kneeling in front of her sister’s grave. She came here often—after all, that’s what a mourning sister did—but she felt better coming at nigh...

249 likes 144 comments 144
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⭐️ Shortlisted

No more laundry.

Shortlisted for Contest #169 ⭐️

It's a mortuary fact that dead bodies should not be buried without a banana. Most of the dead people around our town drink too much coffee and spout their mouths out in public, then they just die, die, and the explosive parts of their personality gather energy.For example, Hilda Benderhole used to have the most terrible intergestion about the way my dog urinated all over her flowers. We all know that flowers need the dogs, especially in a drought. When Hilda died, her husband wouldn't even use those flowers for her gravesite. Bad Muju.Well, ...

70 likes 71 comments 71
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The Keeper of the Flame

Shortlisted for Contest #169 ⭐️

Lightning cracks the dark in a second’s flash. In a moment of bone-white brilliance, stone angels pulse to life before darkness claims them once more. I start counting slowly under my breath: one and two and, three and…hurriedly passing crosses and tombstones bearing names and dates carved deep into my memory.The thunder rumbles in the distance, but not as far away as I would like. I quicken my step along the graveyard’s overgrown path, reaching the tower as lightning illuminates the old oak door. Thunder for a second time, like the storm is...

51 likes 49 comments 49
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Monster Rules

Shortlisted for Contest #169 ⭐️

To the monster living under my bed, it’s time to set some rules. We can skip right past the interrogation, how long have you been living here?, what are you doing under there, and why? I don’t really need to know all that, or I’m too scared to ask after we locked eyes the other night when I came home past 2AM a little more drunk than usual. Your bumpy, spiked reptilian tail was enough to scare the living bageezus out of me, did you really have to turn around and stare like that? With those florescent, glow-in-the-dark, green eyes? ...

48 likes 46 comments 46
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The Benefit Society

Shortlisted for Contest #169 ⭐️

There's a graveyard in Old Home, California, that hasn't changed its prices since 1978. The locals know it. They are suspicious of strangers coming to their town with pickup trucks because everyone in the world would like a free plot of land just to bury their kin.One time Sally Greenbow told us that the military did not pay enough to bury her husband after Iraq. The commercials on the television say that the average funeral cost is the same price as a used Toyota. The same price as a 5-year-old car that will get you to work. I'm sure that m...

45 likes 33 comments 33
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Monster Under My Bed

Shortlisted for Contest #169 ⭐️

Monster Under My Bed The exact details are hazy. I was in college, my junior or senior year, and it was a creative writing class. We were in the computer lab that day, working on our personal essays, but many of us were stuck. “Take a snapshot from your life,” our professor told us. “Select a good one- a hard one, a happy one. Take your pick. And then write about it. How hard can it be?” Behind the glib tone, however, a smile; he was heckling us, and we returned it with equal fervor. Mock fervor; pretend outrage. Our relationship with him...

38 likes 14 comments 14
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Carving Jack

Shortlisted for Contest #169 ⭐️

 Carving JackLydia Smith bought a house in New Hampshire simply because she fell in love with autumn. In New Hampshire, autumn gives lungs to Vivaldi’s violins. It drinks from a witch’s brew of smoky smells and corduroy textures then follows it up with a warm cinnamon chaser. It is the height of perfection, and gone so quickly all that remains is a sense of it, like a dream you can’t quite recall, but that affects you nonetheless.  Lydia’s dreams were affecting her during this particular autumn, but not because of the falling ...

27 likes 19 comments 19
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The Curious Case of Ambrose Sykes

Shortlisted for Contest #169 ⭐️

I.From the Journal of Ambrose Sykes, Aspiring Writer & PoetThe Curious Case of Storms in Graveyards – 1849The graveyard blazes to life in a brief flash of white light, and all at once, the lightning seems to inhabit every space–each imperfection on the silent sentinels keeping watch over the dead. Angelic faces weep. Crosses burn in the heat of it. It is chaos in an instant and no more. When it dies, darkness returns. Layers of the blackest ink spilled–spread across the dotted cemetery, fleeing the long, annoyed groan of thunder as it mu...

22 likes 9 comments 9
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This week's prompts

Start your story with a character encountering a black cat.

– 72 stories

Write a story where someone sees the shadow of someone standing behind them.

– 62 stories

Start your story with a blast of lightning casting a graveyard in a flash of brief, white light.

– 35 stories

Write about someone finding a monster under their bed.

– 31 stories

Write a murder story where the murder weapon is the knife used to carve a pumpkin.

– 49 stories

Stories

Maniacal, Manipulative, Psychotic

Winner of Weekly Contest #169 🏆

The storm had felt like a rumor all day, but now, the sky was delivering. For a second, like a knife catching a glint of light and refracting it in multitude, everything gleamed white. The lightning split the whole sky in half, and in that moment, it was brighter than daylight. The tops of the gravestones seemed to pulse like strobe lights in a night club before blackness settled them down again.She was kneeling in front of her sister’s grave. She came here often—after all, that’s what a mourning sister did—but she felt better coming at nigh...

249 likes 144 comments 144
Read story

No more laundry.

Shortlisted for Contest #169 ⭐️

It's a mortuary fact that dead bodies should not be buried without a banana. Most of the dead people around our town drink too much coffee and spout their mouths out in public, then they just die, die, and the explosive parts of their personality gather energy.For example, Hilda Benderhole used to have the most terrible intergestion about the way my dog urinated all over her flowers. We all know that flowers need the dogs, especially in a drought. When Hilda died, her husband wouldn't even use those flowers for her gravesite. Bad Muju.Well, ...

70 likes 71 comments 71
Read story

The Keeper of the Flame

Shortlisted for Contest #169 ⭐️

Lightning cracks the dark in a second’s flash. In a moment of bone-white brilliance, stone angels pulse to life before darkness claims them once more. I start counting slowly under my breath: one and two and, three and…hurriedly passing crosses and tombstones bearing names and dates carved deep into my memory.The thunder rumbles in the distance, but not as far away as I would like. I quicken my step along the graveyard’s overgrown path, reaching the tower as lightning illuminates the old oak door. Thunder for a second time, like the storm is...

51 likes 49 comments 49
Read story

Gerald

Weekly Contest #169

“Somebody has to tell Gerald that Peter moved out.”Morgan and Nic, Peter’s parents, thought about doing rocks, paper, scissors to see who would do it. It’s not that they were afraid of Gerald. They simply didn’t know how to broach the subject with a three-headed monster. Which head would they give the news to? Did it matter? Neither one of them had been in Peter’s room since they packed up his things and dropped him off at the university.“Don’t forget to tell Gerald that I’m gone,” he said to them as he was folding t-shirts in his new dorm, ...

48 likes 39 comments 39
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Worst Day of the Year

Weekly Contest #169

Shelby the rat skidded to a stop on the dew-slick grass when she saw a black cat. No, not just a black cat, but the jet black cat Jack, an insufferably arrogant cat that only ever ate, lounged, disdained, and occasionally partook in his sole hobby – mousing. And he was a savage mouser.Hallowe’en was without a doubt the worst day of the year, and this one was already shaping up to break records. Of course, the stupid shindig yesterday wasn’t much better. Shelby knew better than to spend all night partying, but in her defence Ramón was there, ...

48 likes 41 comments 41
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Monster Rules

Shortlisted for Contest #169 ⭐️

To the monster living under my bed, it’s time to set some rules. We can skip right past the interrogation, how long have you been living here?, what are you doing under there, and why? I don’t really need to know all that, or I’m too scared to ask after we locked eyes the other night when I came home past 2AM a little more drunk than usual. Your bumpy, spiked reptilian tail was enough to scare the living bageezus out of me, did you really have to turn around and stare like that? With those florescent, glow-in-the-dark, green eyes? ...

48 likes 46 comments 46
Read story

The Benefit Society

Shortlisted for Contest #169 ⭐️

There's a graveyard in Old Home, California, that hasn't changed its prices since 1978. The locals know it. They are suspicious of strangers coming to their town with pickup trucks because everyone in the world would like a free plot of land just to bury their kin.One time Sally Greenbow told us that the military did not pay enough to bury her husband after Iraq. The commercials on the television say that the average funeral cost is the same price as a used Toyota. The same price as a 5-year-old car that will get you to work. I'm sure that m...

45 likes 33 comments 33
Read story

Double Walker

Weekly Contest #169

I had only one regret, and this might be the only chance I will have to tell it. I was going to visit my grandparents in Germany, mainly at the behest of my parents. Mind you, I love my grandparents, but I haven't seen them in years; I only hoped that they would recognize me. The last time I was in Germany, I was barely past the age of twelve years and, as a kid, I was privy to share much of my experiences with them. They, in turn, would share their experiences with me. My grandfather told me about how his grandparents fought in resistan...

39 likes 8 comments 8
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Monster Under My Bed

Shortlisted for Contest #169 ⭐️

Monster Under My Bed The exact details are hazy. I was in college, my junior or senior year, and it was a creative writing class. We were in the computer lab that day, working on our personal essays, but many of us were stuck. “Take a snapshot from your life,” our professor told us. “Select a good one- a hard one, a happy one. Take your pick. And then write about it. How hard can it be?” Behind the glib tone, however, a smile; he was heckling us, and we returned it with equal fervor. Mock fervor; pretend outrage. Our relationship with him...

38 likes 14 comments 14
Read story

Do it For Charlie

Weekly Contest #169

TW: Contains physical violence/ gore, swearing, and themes of abuse.Do it for Charlie. I repeated the mantra in my head over and over again as Bruce towered over me, screaming in my face. The stench of stale beer clung to him, his eyes were glassy and bloodshot, and his white vest was riddled with stains. Some people, most people, would call this situation a nightmare. I called it Saturday.I wanted more than anything to retreat into myself. To become an island. It would’ve been easier then. After all, what does an island care if a storm smas...

35 likes 30 comments 30
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Mechanical Hearts

Weekly Contest #169

I met Seneca’s shadow before I met Seneca. It seems a strange thing to say but that’s how I remember it. We were both going to the local 24-hour grocery store at 3:38 A.M. on a Tuesday morning. Tuesdays, by their very nature, are unromantic, but that’s where the romance began. A girl with no legs captured my cupid-immune heart.**************“Yo! Buddy! Move aside for the mobile people!”Anson had seen a shadow creep up behind him as he waited for the “WALK” sign to activate at the street corner. It was a short, squat shadow that didn’t seem t...

34 likes 35 comments 35
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Copycat

Weekly Contest #169

“SHOO!” Bertrand Aurelier had been walking home along the moonlit country road when something in his bleary-eyed vision caused him to freeze in place. Swaying from the strong effects of drinking a little bit too much local wine at a Halloween party, he looked oddly out of place dressed as a skeleton amongst the hedgerows of the French countryside. “I said, Shoo! Allez Maitenant!” A curious black cat had unexpectedly appeared in response to Bertrand’s wailing, off-key singing. Positioning itself dead centre of the rural lane, it sat with tai...

34 likes 33 comments 33
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A New Tail

Weekly Contest #169

I look at the fluffy monster, crouched in the corner of the room.            “Why? Billie?” I ask my wife. “Why do we need another cat?” Its tail flicks as it watches me, as if it knows I’m threatening to send it back to the streets.            “In case Genzo gets lonely when we’re out.” She knows I’m annoyed so she’s doing the puss in boots eyes and hiding behind our adorable baby daughter.     &nb...

32 likes 17 comments 17
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He Turned

Weekly Contest #169

He Turned            Sweat trickled down from the crease in his forehead, first to the corner of his right eye, then down past his nose onto his lip. He wanted to wipe it away. But he didn’t dare. His hands clenched the sides of his jacket – tightly, to stop them from trembling. Controlling even the depth of his respirations to limit the movement of his ribcage, he stood facing the wall.            Just a whisp of a shadow, ever ...

28 likes 20 comments 20
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The Accident

Weekly Contest #169

A black cat jumped onto the sofa, where Sophie had made herself comfortable for the evening. She regarded the cat with deep suspicion. It wasn't her cat. The cat glared at her with an accusation in its’ cold green eyes. Then, lifting an elegant yet deadly paw, it started to lick itself as if it had every right to be there, and, in fact, Sophie did not.She hadn’t remembered leaving a window open; the doors had been locked since the early hours. Sophie wasn’t expecting visitors. She loved her own company, having no need for spurious gossip or ...

28 likes 11 comments 11
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