31 Harrowing Halloween Tales (part two)

*This story is under my folder “31 Halloween tales”. Gacha Club character designs are under this forum: https://www.writerfeed.com/topic/117842-my-character-designs-lt-33-3?start=315. Enjoy and Happy Spooky Season!*

Tale Sixteen-Love’s like a leech

Kyrin stood outside the haunted house attraction, waiting. Lindsay was curled up on his neck, sucking his blood with her layers of razor-sharp teeth.

He had been studying any magic books he could find online or in bookstores, but there was nothing about undoing spells that turned people into leeches. He wasn’t going to wait any longer, so he thought he’d talk to Eerie the witch.

She was a real witch, he caught her in the act of using her magic a few times. He hoped she’d be able to turn his girlfriend back into a human, but he’d have to wait and see.

Upon doing so, he saw an orange-and-black striped smoke cloud forming, breaking away to reveal a little girl in a witch costume-Eerie, the witch, not a real child-and a human little girl in a pirate costume.

They were both headed to the house-

“Stop!” Kyrin cried out.

They both did stop, with Eerie glaring her orange eyes at him.

“You can see me? What is that you want? What could you possibly want that is more important than Halloween magic?” Eerie yelled, her teeth bared at him. Her gums were orange and each tooth had a bit of black gunk on them.

Kyrin wrapped his fingers around Lindsay’s body and gently pulled her from his neck, letting her rest in the open palm of his hand. He extended it towards Eerie.

“I’ve seen the magic that is surrounding you, I have been studying on how to wield powers beyond nature…but I still need help with some things. Can you please turn my girlfriend back into a human?” He asked, glancing at Lindsay, the squirming and shiny black worm-creature.

Eerie stared at Lindsay, seeming to really think about it. The little human girl’s bottom lip curled in disgust at Lindsay. Kyrin’s free hand curled into a fist. Yes, she was only a child…but that was his girlfriend and no one was allowed to look at her like that.

The witch finally looked up at him and said:

“Well, I can’t really turn humans back into humans. That’s not my forte. But I can try to help her out.”

Eerie raised her hands, letting orange and black smoke fall from her claws and circle to Lindsay, lifting her from his hand, out onto the grass…

The smoke cleared. Lindsay lay on the dried grass, wearing her bunny costume, which was worn out, dirty, and missing the ears, back to her human self…kind of. Her mouth was still a gaping black hole with carnivorous teeth and her eyes were still white and predatory, but she wasn’t a leech anymore.

Lindsay shook as if she was being electrocuted, so Kyrin extended a hand for her to take. She accepted it.

“She’s herself now, but not quite. She’s got a bit of the leech in her. She’ll still want to drink blood, but at least she’s better. Right?” Eerie grinned playfully before disappearing with the human girl in the same orange and black smoke as before.

Still holding his hand, Lindsay rested her head on his neck, on the part where it still bled.

…………………………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………………

They were both back at his house, Lindsay lying next to him on his bed. She held him close, her teeth clicking together, but she did not bite him. 

“Do you want to go home?” Kyrin asked. His throat felt coated in a burning poison.

Lindsay clutched his shirt desperately, her knuckles turning whiter as she held tighter.

“Can’t…freak…I…need…human.”

Her voice was scratchy but almost the way she normally talked, she didn’t look him in the eyes.

“You want to be fully human?”

She nodded.

“I’ll do all that I can to help you. I will. Maybe I’ll make Eerie help, but if she doesn’t…I’ll force Peggy to turn you back fully. You will be human.”

He didn’t think Peggy would be the one to turn her back, but if she was the one who made Lindsay a leech, then she could make her a full human again. 

“Drink my blood. You’ll need it.”

“I-“

“Do it.”

Lindsay shook for just a moment, but with a cry of shame that sounded a little like a growl, she bit into his wound, drinking fast, the color rushing on her skin quicker than he could think.

And by thinking, Kyrin was thinking of all the spells he needed to look at, all the magic he needed to pluck out either from himself or others, just so he could help Lindsay.

He was going to help her. It didn’t matter how long it would take or what would happen to him.

He would be there for her. Always.

Tale Seventeen-Please just take one

Konfetti watched the children come and go from the window of her spooky and sweet clown mansion, making sure that each child only took one candy from the bowl. While she would have loved to burst out of the door and greet them herself, it’d be far too much work and she had to save her energy for making another batch of candy. Yes, she made the candy all by herself! It looked like enough but one never knew with how much humans ate.

So that’s why she watched, wearing her rollerblades. Everyone had to take one piece, so that it was equal for everybody and she didn’t have to make more as much. Konfetti paid close attention to every single one…

One kid, a little girl who looked like she was getting a little bit older, maybe eleven or twelve years old, had taken a handful of wrapped cotton-candy treats, running off as if she hadn’t done anything wrong.

Konfetti’s claws curled tightly on the polka-dot curtains and she let go, rollerblading her way to the door.

“Hey! Put those back, please!” She called out from the open door.

The girl ran faster. Konfetti knew that she definitely heard her, since she was insanely loud, so she skated faster down the cement and snatched the girl, covering her mouth with an orange claw and skating backwards to her clown mansion.

No one else was out at the moment but the two of them. No one had seen.

…………………………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………………

“You must really love candy, don’t you?”

The little girl did not respond. She stared at Konfetti, squirming in the chair she tied the girl in. She was tied up with tulle rainbow scarves, which could be tight if one knew how to tie them correctly.

Konfetti giggled. She wasn’t one to do what she was about to do, her husband, Pierce, usually did that stuff, but humans like her wouldn’t learn otherwise!

“But if you take too much, then there isn’t any left for others. That’s not fair, is it? Soo…”

She glided over to the girl, turning her face to look at the kaleidoscopic painted wall in front of her.

“I’m afraid I’ll have to use you to make special candy! Don’t worry, I won’t give you to the humans!”

Konfetti’s heart raced feverishly as she slashed apart the girl with her claws, glittering red blood splattering on her polka-dot dress. Such things were only disgusting when Pierce did them, but boy oh boy, did she hate how selfish humans could be!

If the girl wanted to scream, she couldn’t. Konfetti was too fast for that.

Tale Eighteen-Can it all stay intact?

All the dolls on my shelf

All the tiny fairy statues that watch

Arms and wings are missing from more than a few

Fingers that were not careful

The little porcelain creatures slipped

Parts of them cracked and torn

Only one doll was thrown in an act of anger

But one time is enough

How I’ve grown into quite the monster

The years of the world has tortured me so

These beings I’ve called my children

How they slink away from me now

Yet I can’t tell with their still expressions 

How can I understand?

I must be careful, must watch them closely

I want to, I really do

Still the fury escapes me

Before I can contain it

And still my fingers lead them to doom

Before I can stop them

Perhaps the only way I’ll ever understand 

Or stay close to them

Is if I twist myself to their size

Smile the way they do

Sit with them up high

To give up my human life

Is something that frightens me so

But love must have sacrifices

So I’ll do it for them

Only for them

My children that have always listened

Who never did a thing wrong

My perfect pretty porcelain children 

The only ones

Tale Nineteen-Ghoulish girl

Annora’s got a secret

Clutched close to her decaying chest

She’s stalked the night

And eaten the dead

How she didn’t want it to be true

For her skin to fall away

For her to be the ghoul

But oh, she can’t deny

The taste of worn bones

How it makes her smile wide

Never will she tell her friends

A word of what she is

Perhaps Annora can still live amongst them

Without anyone knowing of this

Of course her parents know the truth

For they are this way too

But maybe a little more time as a “human”

Before she goes to the dark

Oh ghoulish girl

How you love your friends so

But never show them your sharp teeth

Because then

They’ll let you go

Tale Twenty-Shadow of the walls

“Are you sure we have to do this?” Zelina asked.

Lavelle could hear her inside her mind, the mind that was both of theirs, an echoing sound like Lavelle’s realm of mirrors. They both stood over the person who dared to be frightened of them, only it was Lavelle’s body that was really taking control.

Well. Lavelle was a reflection, not a body, but still the same thing. Kind of.

The shadow twitched slightly as if she wanted to run. Zelina used to have her own shadow, until Lavelle came and took it away. Now they both shared a shadow, just as they both shared a body.

“Yes. Anyone who dares to look at us in fear has to die. I told you this. You shouldn’t feel sorry for them. They didn’t understand you.”

The walls of the physical world started to melt away, along with the man who had seen him. The windows got taller, glossing over like the surface of a pond. The shadow would disappear too. There were no shadows in the world of mirrors.

“But I kind of understand why they’d be afraid of us. We’re a girl in a mirror. Can’t we make them our friends?”

Lavelle froze. They were both fully in the mirror dimension, where everything glittered and shone their face right back at them, the man’s body used to grow the universe they shared.

Zelina never said anything like that before. She always agreed with Lavelle. They worked together to rid the world of cowards. How could she…did she not love her?

“No. Most of them don’t want to be our friends! Zelina, I…you’re scaring me. Please don’t talk like that. We have to do this so we can have all of this.”

Lavelle was already leading them both towards their house, where costume dresses would wait for them to try on, each one prettier than the last. She’d let Zelina take over so she could see all of the dresses properly.

“I just don’t like seeing them get hurt.” Zelina said.

Lavelle hoped that Zelina wasn’t growing afraid of her, but there was a falter, a quiver in her voice that said otherwise. Though Lavelle did not have a heart, she still felt something rattling inside her.

Please don’t be scared of me.

“I know. But sometimes it has to happen. Look at my mind next time, not through my eyes.” 

Because Zelina could never see well when Lavelle was in control, she could still see enough. And Lavelle didn’t want her to see anything terrible.

In their house of toys and chandeliers and dresses, they would forget the rest of the world and think only of one another. Lavelle would cheer Zelina up.

It was her right to do so.

Tale Twenty-One-A friend awaits to take

Azaelia had been swimming for months. She didn’t know how long, but she knew that it was long enough for her to feel like her lungs were going to explode and yet she still didn’t die from lack of oxygen.

She took that to be a sign that her journey was worthwhile and swam on. Below her were rainbows of coral reefs and vines of kelp, tiny shells and sparkling…wait…

Crowns, necklaces, gem stones and gold were scattered on the white sand, the kind anyone could only dream of or think of in movies.

But that was not what caught Azaelia’s eye.

Tied up on a tall, slithering kelp stalk, dotted with white barnacles, was Azaelia’s old fashion doll, Macey. Her blond hair with pink streaks was clumped together and matted, her face details were slightly rubbed off and her pink bikini had turned into a faded, almost brown color.

It was still her. The lost doll. The very reason she swam in the ocean at all.

Azaelia wasted no time and headed straight for Macey, untying her from the kelp vines and swimming up to the top-

“Wait! Human! Don’t go any further.”

She stopped, startled from the voice.

Below her was a woman with french rose pink skin, her tail a glittering orange and her hair a cloud of red with bits of gemstone sprinkles embedded inside it. She smiled at Azaelia, her teeth sharp but sparkling like rhinestones.

“Me and my sisters have waited for you. Let us guide you and your doll home.” The mermaid-a real life mermaid-said, reaching out with webbed claws towards Azaelia.

A taller mermaid who was dark green and black, with a more snake-like tail and straight black hair, joined the pink mermaid, along with a yellow and white mermaid who wore a ghostly veil over her head, her ginger hair twisting like springs. The three mermaids flashed their teeth and reached out, beckoning Azaelia to come down.

She paused. She didn’t know if or when she would see the mermaids again and certainly, she couldn’t go back on her own. She didn’t even know where she was going to begin with! She just wanted to find Macey.

So, amazed by their painting-esque eyes and their swaying movements, Azaelia swam down to the mermaids, holding onto Macey the way the mermaids held her. Tightly and unyieldingly, as if she were something they’d never want to let go.

Azaelia couldn’t help but smile to herself as she thought, They love me. The mermaids love me! I’m so happy that they do. 

She always wanted to be loved by magical creatures, to be wanted by beings that were more than her. Though it worried her a little bit that they were getting closer to the darkness, to the bottom, she didn’t let it bother her. The mermaids knew the water better than she did. The mermaids would know what to do.

As they swam on, with the mermaids doing the swimming and Azaelia letting them lead her, she saw that the treasures were disappearing and the coral reefs were no more. There were only gray and black stones, green algae creeping up the surface and then-

They threw her into a rusted, algae covered cage, locking the door and throwing the key into the abyss of the water.

But they didn’t take away Macey.

Tale Twenty-Two-Birthday cake

Today’s a special day

It’s my husband’s birthday!

So I can’t just buy any old cake

First I’ll lie down on this very nice white plate

I got one big enough to fit me

Then I’ll take handfuls of frosting 

And smooth it all over my body 

Hmm

My dress is getting dirty

But that won’t matter!

Next I’ll take some sprinkles and cherries

Nestle it on top of the cold icing 

Now for the finishing touches:

There are candles next to me

Long and sharp, like wooden stakes

But these are made of plastic and some kind of metal

They’re rainbow-colored, perfect for the occasion!

I grab a handful of them and stab them into my skin

Ow! That hurts!

But the red looks so pretty!

It’s coloring the white frosting

Now he’ll have a pink cake

I like the color pink too

My throat feels heavy

I can’t think too well

They say to win a man’s heart

Is through his stomach 

If that really is the case

And all I’ve done before was for nought

Then maybe I’ll make him happy

As his own birthday cake

I hope I taste sweet

Tale Twenty-Three-Wire world

Zaron kept his arm wrapped around Miranda as he led her through the technicolor glitching landscape, the ground breaking apart with every step they took. Miranda was squirming before, but she didn’t move anymore.

“i hAd tO pUlL tOgEtHeR sTrIngS oF cOdE tO cOmE aLivE aGaIn.” He said. His throat stung with the human language he had to speak, but he’d do anything to speak to her.

Miranda’s brown eyes turned white with terror. Her legs twitched like she wanted to run, but of course she couldn’t. His electricity was flowing from his veins and keeping her still.

“How are you alive?” She asked.

Zaron shook his head and smiled. He could not explain the details of it to her, it was too much. But he could say one simple thing:

“yOu.”

She looked down shyly. Was she blushing or was he imagining? He hoped she was. He hoped that he sounded tender to her.

“doN’T bE aFraId. I wILl aLwAYs bE hEre.”

They had made it. There was one wall of colors and numbers that moved veil-like, with the rhythm of a curtain. It was where Miranda would be kept safely.

He kissed her on the cheek before letting her go, the code of the wall breaking apart to let her in. He too had let himself sink into the world, for he did not need a body.

They would exist forever as data, living everywhere and never leaving for the outside.

He’d take apart Miranda’s flesh to make sure of that.

Tale Twenty-Four-Do not wake, the night wishes to take 

Coriander scratched her claws on the window’s glass, just barely keeping down the low, guttural growl that was itching to come out.

She hadn’t eaten for hours, but it was enough for the darkness to look as blurry as the ghostly world, enough for her to hear the human heart drowning out the noise of the crickets and the carriages.

Humans were starting to get slippery. The children, the women, the men, they were far from her. Too close to others. Too close to the light. Coriander could not kill like that. She needed to be alone. She needed to have them to herself.

And there she was. That young woman, her chest rising softly against the sheets, her black hair splayed against the white pillows. She lived alone. She was too weak to fight.

Coriander smiled, her mouth almost taking up her entire face as her teeth turned up in a jagged, drooling grin.

She punched the window with a claw. Then she punched two more times.

The glass fell to the grass below her and the floor inside, but still, she crawled through the hole, for it was already big enough for her. What did it matter that there were glass shards everywhere anyway? The young woman would not live to see it all. Humans could speculate and search all they wanted, but they would never know what happened to her.

Coriander rose from the ground after crawling in, her eyes wandering around the room curiously. There were bits and pieces of things the woman owned, but on a mannequin was a dazzling, flowing white bridal dress, a veil draped above it.

Ah, the woman was to be married.

She slunk closer to the bed and tangled her claws in the woman’s hair, holding tightly as she raised the woman’s neck up to her lips.

It looked smooth and scarless, pearlescent to her eyes.

Coriander did not wait any longer. She opened her mouth wide, her skin stretching with the pull of how big her hunger was and then…

Glorious, crimson-night blood spiraled inside, layering in like candy with different flavors, fast but not fast enough. Coriander didn’t let go of the woman’s hair, but one claw clenched the woman’s arm, nails digging deep into the skin to keep her from running.

But perhaps Coriander bit too hard, because she heard the woman’s eyelids open before the strangled scream.

No. Her blood was too sweet to drain and the woman too bright, too glowing of a reflection to die.

She drew back, but did not let go of the woman’s hair. Instead, Coriander brought her arm up to her fangs and let the teeth draw blood that was not quite real, not quite her own.

“Drink it.” Coriander commanded, bringing her bleeding arm to the woman’s lips.

She shook her head, sapphire blue eyes sparkling with tears.

Coriander snarled, drool dripping with the blood in her teeth. Fine. The woman could cry like the pathetic human she was. But that would not stop her.

She yanked the woman’s face up to her arm by her hair, making sure her lips were firmly planted on the wound.

“Open your mouth.”

The woman did not. Coriander began to slowly pull on some strands, planning to yank a handful of them from her scalp. She thought the woman should know that, so she said:

“I will tear out that luminous wreath of hair which rests upon your head one handful at a time. I will eat slabs of your shiny flesh and leave the white of your bones visible to the world. I will make you the most hideous creature to have ever walked the earth. Nobody will want to marry you. You wish to remain beautiful, do you not? So drink.”

The woman stilled. A tear dropped from her eye. But Coriander felt her lips open as she swallowed the waves of the corpse-sap, of the blasphemous ichor.

Yes. Of course. Young women never wanted to be disgusting. It was worst than death for them. It was a death of possibility, of who they could have been. They were like little girls, so simple and so shallow.

She let the woman drink her blood a little more before she let go of her hair, before she moved her arm away.

The woman looked down at her hands, slumped in shame. Blood dripped on her pink nightgown from her lips, flowing on the silk surface like blooming roses.

“Aww, don’t be sad. You’re going to be quite the creature…Nellie.”

Nellie’s head shot up, her eyes bloodshot and fearful. 

“What did you just say?” She asked in a hollow voice that was caked in dry sobs.

Coriander cackled, enjoying how Nellie clenched the bedsheets as if to root herself there permanently. Some time when Nellie was drinking her blood, she had heard the woman’s name, the two syllables rocking rhythmically through her dead-skin and decayed bones. But she did not want to say it until the very end.

“Your name.” Coriander sneered.

She grinned one last monstrous leer before she jumped out from the hole into the pitch blackness that would hide her, knowing that Nellie could not see her well in the dark, would not remember her well.

Perhaps there were some things that were just as rewarding as eating people.

Tale Twenty-Five-A fighting human spirit

Fayette hated being little. If she were older then she could be stronger. Then she could fight the older boy that was dragging her on the grass as he held onto her wrists with sharp claws.

He had taken her socks off after he caught her watching him. She didn’t know why. Her feet hurt on the sticks and rocks. She didn’t know how he could kill her parents just by biting them, either. Maybe he was a vampire. Maybe he was something else.

But he wasn’t letting go of her. There weren’t any stars or moon out. The sky was so dark it looked like there was no sky at all. A distant thought occurred to Fayette that she should have screamed. She couldn’t. It all hurt too much-

And then she did. They weren’t on the grass anymore. She could feel the cement on her bare feet, ripping open her skin the way she tore loose strings off her clothes. The boy’s head shot to face her, “Quiet.” he snarled. 

He pushed her down on the sidewalk, holding her arms in place above her head. Fayette still screamed, kicking her bloody feet on the boy’s torso. Somebody had to wake up. Somebody had to hear her! She needed to scream, louder, louder still…

The boy’s mouth opened, two of his teeth long and vaguely white. They looked more yellow and rusty than white. He didn’t give Fayette time to scream when he leaned down and bit on her neck.

It felt like he was taking her soul. Like those scary stories Mommy told about the monsters who would take the child’s life with just a snap of their teeth. So quick, so effortless for them. They didn’t have to think about it at all.

…………………………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………………

When Fayette woke up, it was morning. She could tell from how much lighter the sky looked, even though everything was gray and black.

She felt her feet sting a little, but not as much as before. The boy was gone. It was still too early for everybody else to be awake.

Fayette stood up from the ground, brushing mud and dirt off her pajamas. She would go back home and use toilet paper as bandages for her feet, but she couldn’t stay. She had to find somewhere else to be.

But at least the boy was gone. She never wanted to see him again.

If she did, she’d kill him. She’d make sure of it.