Writing Contest [H/A]

[Gift Giver]

Halloween/Autumn
Writing Contest

As Part of the 2015 Halloween/Autumn contests, this contest relates to the Writing Contest!

In this contest, you are to come up with a poem, story, song, etc. that relates to Halloween or Autumn. The choice of which is up to you, but it needs to be related to those two things. (If you have another idea for it, feel free to message me and I'll gladly hear it). These submissions are to be purely writing. There should be no pictures to accompany, no voice to go with it, etc. This is meant to show off writing abilities only. The writing can be as long or as short as you want it to. There are no rules as far as length goes.

This contest's submission phase ends at 11:59 PM MST on October 31st. Voting begins immediately after the submission phase ends. And no phase ends unless I've posted to end it. So if I haven't posted to end the submission phase, you can still submit, and the same goes for voting.

Please keep submission IN THIS THREAD ONLY. Do not make more than one post in this thread. All OOC comments are to be made in the main "Halloween/Autumn contest thread"

Let the submissions begin!

[Celaena Kamyuja]

Sinister experiences of Halloween’s night.

This was the way it always started. Your body reacts faster than the mind can comprehend and a person with experience learns never to ignore what the hairs standing at attention on your arms are telling you. The house was quiet, had been deathly silent for the past three hours. Silent, dark and empty. Victoria Backman was about to move from her position at the end of the bed and head to the hallway when she felt the first prickles of goose-flesh break out across the back of her neck, until every follicle on her scalp was tingling with anticipation. The sharp whine of a monitor went off in the living room below and stopped suddenly, as if smothered by someone or something that didn’t want its presence to be known. Victoria’s heartbeat started to race as the first jolt of adrenaline raced through her system. She had to force herself to inhale slowly from her mouth to dampen the noise of her own breathing in her head. Here, in the dark, her sense of hearing was the primary tool in her arsenal.

She carefully clicked her penlight on, shining it onto her notebook so she could mark the time.
2:50am – Living Room Alarm…short burst…Halloween night almost over…Goosebumps…not alone
Holding her breath, Victoria sat as still as a rock, waiting.

Pap.

Just outside the bedroom door, a slight tap, like the sound of a pebble bouncing off the carpeted hallway. The night vision camera sat on a tripod in the corner of the room, pointing at the doorway. If something had fallen onto the floor, the camera would hopefully have captured it. Victoria waited for more. She could feel the building tension now in her chest and head. It was as if the house was gathering its strength, building and building until the air was redolent with static electricity and the pressure in her ears was ready to pop.

The sound of scratching on the walls, like a large determined cat trapped between the rafters, wafted throughout the house. She couldn’t tell where it originated from, and it stopped the moment she rose from the bed and took her first step to the door. She paused, waiting a few moments for it to resume, then continued into the hallway. Leaning forward over the steel banister, she looked down into the living room and adjoining dining room. Everything was as she had left it. Halloween decorations hanging about, the normal however earlier that night, she had placed glow-in-the-dark masking tape around the perimeter of each piece of furniture, as well as the framed pictures on the walls. The glowing yellow squares, circles and rectangles gave the dark living room the appearance of an alien landscape found in the ocean depths, populated by sleeping, iridescent sea creatures. She had tacked down tape around all of the movable objects so she could easily see what had shifted from its proper place during the course of the night. By virtue of being alone, she was assured that no one else could disturb the contents of the house. One of the drawers in the kitchen could be heard slowly sliding open. Victoria darted down the stairs and into the kitchen, careful not to bump into anything along the way. This was her seventh night in the Saint-Virginia house and she had taken great pains to memorize every detail of the layout.

The middle drawer to the left of the sink, where the owners kept their odds and ends, was halfway open. Victoria took a picture of the open drawer with her digital camera, shielding her eyes from the flash. A quick breeze whispered past her back in the kitchen. She had closed every window and door five hours earlier, sealing them shut with special tape so any manipulations by passing air could be eliminated. She shivered, more from the tightening of the tension in her body than the temporary icy gust that crept around her. She looked once again at the drawer, the exposure of its contents mocking her, daring her to find the secret hidden within the walls of the Tudor house.
One of her set up cameras in the upstairs bathroom popped a flashing sound for several seconds before the sound of it tumbling to the floor replaced the pop. She heard the plastic device smack the hard, unyielding tile, bouncing twice before settling to a standstill. The camera was used to measure changes in electromagnetic, electric and radio/microwave fields. Flash whenever something non-living decided to pop in. She wasn’t entirely sold on its efficacy, but it was the best of the limited lot available to paranormal research. And now she was down one.

“Oh, I see,” Victoria said aloud. “You want to play your games, just not with me. Can it be that you’re afraid of a nineteen-year-old girl? I’m all alone and I have all night. In fact, the other girls left the house to me all weekend, so I have nothing but time.” Victoria’s ears popped a split second before she saw the couch in the living room move a few inches to the right. The legs of the couch scraped across the hardwood floor and the camera on the table next to it blinked like a Morse code. She decided to coax the presence in the house a little further. “Moving furniture in other rooms doesn’t impress me. You did that once before and I was bored then.”
Slam! The kitchen drawer shut itself with enough force to crack the wood face. Victoria considered the intensity required to do such a thing. This was new. The visiter was either getting stronger or angrier…or both. Good.

She pulled her digital recorder from the custom designed leather holster around her waist and clicked it on. Even though there were more cameras down here, one in the kitchen and two in the living room, she wanted every piece of equipment she had at the ready to record her observations. She had also placed IR lights around the room to expand the scope of her cameras. IR lights boosted the distance her cameras could record in night vision mode.

“Kitchen drawer just closed so hard, the wood cracked. Time is three-twenty-eight a.m. I dared the spirit to be more demonstrative and it’s taking up the challenge. The air smells funky, like burning wires. No signs of smoke.” She stopped. Something started tapping on the walls around her.

Tap-tap, pause, tap-tap-tap, pause, tap.

Victoria continued, using meditative breathing exercises to calm herself, “I hope I caught that. It’s tapping out in a sequence.” Tap-tap. “Two taps, followed by three, then one. I’m not sure if it’s some form of Morse code or the beat to a song or what. It just keeps tapping, and the burning smell is getting stronger,” she whispered into the audio recorder. Then, much louder, “Are you trying to tell me something? If you speak into this recorder in my hand, I may be able to hear you. What does the tapping mean? Or are you just trying to scare me?”
A heavy rumble shook the floor beneath her feet.

Tap-tap-tap.
Tap.
Tap-tap.

Victoria put the recorder close to her lips. “I’m going to have to check the outlets. The burning smell is getting intense. Something ˗ whoa!”

The recorder was knocked from her hand and skidded across the linoleum floor. The hand that had been holding the recorder felt like it had been dipped in a tub of ice. She gave it a few sharp shakes to halt the pins and needles sensation that followed. The house was once again silent and the darkness seemed to intensify. Even though her eyes had acclimated to the night, she was finding it harder to make out the shapes of the furniture around her. It was as if a heavy, black gauze had oozed throughout the house like an obsidian blob.
She took a few tentative steps towards where she assumed her digital recorder lay. The air itself was heavy and she knew she was far from alone. She fought hard to fight back the tingling dread that threatened to dance up her spine. A part of her was sure that something was very close behind her. Silently, it approached with arms wide open, edging closer with each deliberate step. If she were to turn around now, she would come face to face with all of her worst nightmares brought to life.

If only she dared to take one simple peek. In the dark. So close she could feel the ripples of its intrusive essence caressing the back of her neck. Victoria stopped when she reached the threshold of the dining room and closed her eyes. She felt like a blind person in a crowded room of silent guests, no one daring to breathe lest they reveal their presence to the woman in their midst, yet eager to pounce if she gave the slightest inkling that she was aware of their proximity. Her heart skipped a beat as she breathed deep. The fight or flight instinct was battling for control. Her body was in the throes of the primal, physical ache to flee. It would be so easy to run now. The front door was only twenty feet away. Just turn a couple of locks and she could be outside. The floorboards creaked behind her, a slight groan of wood protesting the weight of a single, heavy footstep. Three more breaths. Her heart rate slowed to a steady rhythm. Another creak, this time to her right, near the breakfront. Victoria smiled and she felt the tension release its grip from her shoulders. Breathe in, hold, and breathe out. Something hard and small smacked into the glass top of the coffee table. Breathe in, hold, and breathe out. The sound of glass under stress, spider cracks crunching their way across the surface of the table.

Now!

Victoria turned quickly and shouted “Boo!”
The coffee table top exploded in a shower of glass pebbles as she faced the empty darkness behind her. Bits of glass bounced harmlessly off her leather jacket. A picture frame flew from the fireplace mantle and crashed into the opposite wall. All of the kitchen chairs slid out from under the table at once, one of them falling completely backwards. Victoria turned back towards the living room in time to see the blinds on the front window part as if someone ran a finger from top to bottom. Upstairs, it sounded as if a brawl had broken out. The ceiling fan shook under the pounding of footsteps and falling objects.
The house was alive and it was not happy.

[Coal]

Hail to the Pumpkin King

There are those who believe me to be only tale, reciting my life by the fire of the hearth, yet they do not pay me my respect

And they tuck their children in, a kiss on the cheek, and a hug just before they sleep away their parents neglect

Every day of every year, I watch as this continues, though I have not the power to act

But on one day a year, when the leaves turn dead and brown, I make up for the time that I lack

From their beds I do snatch, tiny babes barely hatched, and into the darkness do they sink

Fathers and mothers, from a rest do they stir, and they wonder at that terrible stink

It's the body of your child...what else did you think?

Hail to the Pumpkin King! On this day of Halloween! For your children are now ghouls in his parade of death! Hail to the Pumpkin King! When the leaves are dead and there is no Spring! For Autumn arrives and brings with it the Damned King! THE PUMPKIN KING!

He roams in the fields where your children once played, but if you were wise, you’d warn them away

For he waits for the time when the chill is just right, then arrive he has, for a terrible fright

And those children whom disobey their Mother, they will never again see their brother, for they will be whisked away in the night!

Yet those who fear, who keep their mothers near, well those are the children that the Pumpkin King would never go near

So tuck them in safe, but stay by their heads, and make sure that this night they truly go to bed

Or they will be stolen in the dead of the night, to become a demon, and hold the torch for his unholy light!

Hail to the Pumpkin King! On this day of Halloween! For your children are now ghouls in his parade of death! Hail to the Pumpkin King! When the leaves are dead and there is no Spring! For Autumn arrives and brings with it the Damned King! THE PUMPKIN KING!

Children and parents, there is surely need to fear, but if you do so, he will never come near

Be wary of the field, where the pumpkins grow, and never let your courage show

Never disobey and listen to the story, or else your life may end a bit gory, but not for me

Because I’ll do the slashing, your insides shown, your arms lashing, and then in my home you will forever stay

Because I am the Pumpkin King and I’ll have it no other way, so don’t stray, so that my eyes never look your way

[Celaena Kamyuja]

All Hallows Eve

A stronghold in a rainstorm,
Standing in solitude,
A putrid odour arises,
Like rotting flesh and bone.

A shattered stone-arched window,
Seen oil-lit through the haze,
A high-peaked crooked tower,
Found through the passage labyrinth.

A Gothic iron doorway,
A pentagon-molded room,
The glimmer of splendid white lightning,
Illuminates the gloom.

It startles the poor pariah youngster,
Clustered on the floor,
He's here against his will, of course,
But doesn't know what for.

A demon in a lab coat,
His teeth are bloodstained red,
He's laughing loud and maniacally,
His voice could wake the dead.

Those instruments of bad dreams,
Lined up on a rack,
Smooth and sharp and glistening,
Like buttering up hell.

Each one fully capable,
Of slicing through your skull,
Specialised in drawing out
This solitary cull.

He gradually meanders over,
His gaze fixed on the boy,
Picks up a jagged scalpel,
Let's play with this new toy...

[Wolf of the Falls]

Boys and girls of every age
Wouldn't you like to see something strange?

Come with us and you will see
This, our town of Halloween

This is Halloween, this is Halloween
Pumpkins scream in the dead of night

This is Halloween, everybody make a scene
Trick or treat till the neighbors gonna die of fright
It's our town, everybody scream
In this town of Halloween

I am the one hiding under your bed
Teeth ground sharp and eyes glowing red

I am the one hiding under yours stairs
Fingers like snakes and spiders in my hair

This is Halloween, this is Halloween

Halloween! Halloween! Halloween! Halloween!
In this town we call home
Everyone hail to the pumpkin song

In this town, don't we love it now?
Everybody's waiting for the next surprise

Round that corner, man hiding in the trash can
Something's waiting no to pounce, and how you'll...

Scream! This is Halloween
Red 'n' black, slimy green

Aren't you scared?

Well, that's just fine
Say it once, say it twice
Take a chance and roll the dice
Ride with the moon in the dead of night

Everybody scream, everybody scream

In our town of Halloween!

I am the clown with the tear-away face
Here in a flash and gone without a trace

I am the "who" when you call, "Who's there?"
I am the wind blowing through your hair

I am the shadow on the moon at night
Filling your dreams to the brim with fright

This is Halloween, this is Halloween
Halloween! Halloween! Halloween! Halloween!
Halloween! Halloween!

Tender lumplings everywhere
Life's no fun without a good scare

That's our job, but we're not mean
In our town of Halloween

In this town

Don't we love it now?

Everybody's waiting for the next surprise
Skeleton Jack might catch you in the back
And scream like a banshee
Make you jump out of your skin
This is Halloween, everybody scream
Wont' ya please make way for a very special guy

Our man jack is King of the Pumpkin patch
Everyone hail to the Pumpkin King, now!

This is Halloween, this is Halloween
Halloween! Halloween! Halloween! Halloween!

In this town we call home
Everyone hail to the pumpkin song

La la-la la, Halloween! Halloween!

[yunaki]

Beware Beware enter the Blood Mist Village if you so dare,
for even monsters and demons alike do not dwell here,
afraid of the ninja the reside inside,
known to live and are the embodiment of fear,

Rulers of the shadow and versatile with water,
Blood Mist nin are the opposite of canon fodder,
If you enter the village do hold dear,
any happy memories to overcome the fear,
for you'd be wise to not enter here,
Even our Academy nin are to be feared,

The'll use your bones for toys and organs for food,
drain your blood down to the boot,
use it to dine a substitute for fine wine,
Your fate controlled not by the divines,
but the demons inside who lurk at all times,

So heed my warning well,
for only unwise fools would so as to enter,
or those who fear not to enter place,
and leave with no corpse.