I’m early this week! Yippee! Thank you as always to Rochelle for hosting Friday Fictioneers!
Since “paranormal” seems to be winning in my NaNoWriMo poll (see here), I thought I’d better start practicing.
PHOTO PROMPT © Rochelle Wisoff-Fields
The Dare
Me afraid? Just because it’s Halloween, pitch-black, and the wind slides leaves like skeletal feet on concrete, and I’m alone in the haunted castle? Noooooo.
Somehow, I drift to sleep.
An icy grip awakens me. The pale boy frowns. “I have to leave you now. But they will come. They came for me.”
He disappears. He looked familiar, like the little neighborhood boy who died here one Halloween during a dare. Scared to death, some say.
I’m done. They can call me a coward.
My palm cups the door handle as the bolt snaps into place by unseen fingers.
end
Sascha Darlington
This isn’t what I want to read before I go to bed. Grrrrr. 😉
My apologies, Miss Maggie. I should have been more explicit in my into. 🙁
I love the way the pale boy provides the inverted reassurance – it will be okay . No it won’t be!
Nice spine chiller.
So true!
Thanks, James! 🙂
Very scary. I like a good spook in the morning. Less so before I go to bed.
Thanks you so much, Sandra. I’m glad we timed it right! 🙂
Never believe a pale boy in a haunted house
I will keep that advice in mind, Neil. Many thanks! 🙂
Spooky. Bet they really wish they had said no to that dare!
Seriously!
Thanks, Iain! 🙂
Yikes! Nicely creepy 😀
I don’t even like paranormal, but I got chills at the end. It takes a really good writer to draw me into a paranormal story, like a Stephen King. I read somewhere, perhaps plastered on your blog, that you write like Stephen King. Well done.
Thank you. I will say that while I usually *write* like Stephen King, I don’t frequently write like *Stephen King*. 🙂
That was brilliant! Drew me in completely and I don’t read paranormal or Stephen King because it’s too damn scary for me! lol
lol I had many a sleepless night thanks to Stephen King. 🙂
I know, right?! I can’t handle it, too much for me. I can’t watch horror movies, or violent movies either and Julia Roberts Sleeping with the enemy about did me in. I’ve never been anxious about suspenseful movies, but that one had me hopping out of my seat and moving from chair to chair until it was over. Who knew!!
I haven’t watched a horror movie since The Ring. That was one of the best ones ever. I think the need to be frightened changes over time. .. or something.
I think it does. We become acclimated to what we see and they make it more real all the time which is scarier still. lol I’m just a marshmallow lol
I never understand why the warnings don’t come sooner, while there is still time to get out. Great story.
Thank you, Jo! Yeah…why are the warnings too late?!
LOL 😊
That’s actually a case of too much courage.
I’m sure what the pale boy meant was that he would soon have company on the other side 🙂
Another ghost trying to scare humans! Nice story.
Thank you! 🙂
I guess the warning came just a little too late. The pale boy will soon have some company, anyway!
Nice and creepy. Well done!
One of my worst nightmares when I was little. Thanks so much for the memory 🙂
Brrrr! Time to light the Tilley lamp and dispel the miasma of fear with the stink of paraffin!
Love your spooky take, Dahlia! Well done. And, thankfully, I read this in broad daylight 😉
Thank you, Dale! 🙂
Dear Sascha,
Perhaps it’s the old stone or just the season, this prompt did seem to conjure up a few spooks. Well done.
Shalom,
Rochelle
Yes. Always this time of year. Thanks, Rochelle!
It must be the time of the year, dark nights takes us to dark stories,
Very true! Thanks, Michael!
Sometimes it’s just better to be called a coward.
Yes, indeed!
Thanks, Bjorn!
Very spooky!
Chillingly fun!
Thanks so much, Dawn!