The Endless Halloween

Thank you for returning to The Endless Halloween. Judging is about to get started.


Eerie music begins to play . . .  


The day is over, the sun is down, and now we walk through the field along a faintly lit path. Tiny clouds perch motionless in the sky with edges blanched by the light of the moon, and not far off a graveyard rests beside the path, overgrown and filled with cracked and mossy headstones. We venture on into the night where once again the silhouette of a crooked old mansion occupies the crest of a hill. With no sign of life to speak of, the place is surely abandoned, or one would think, but an orange light catches the eye and filters through the highest window. The light glows, tremulous yet weak. Perhaps, in that dark place, once through the groaning wooden door and up the crumbled, winding steps, past sheet after draped sheet of cobweb, down the drafty, dreary corridor awaits something we haven't quite seen before. Something we'll wish to never see again. . .


Without realizing it, we've come to a stop just where we last gathered. Looking amongst ourselves, we are each clad in our black cloaks, lit candles in hand. As if by fate's calling, we've formed a circle.


The mansion in the distance, that is a place for another time.


A familiar voice calls the warning from somewhere below. With our eyes fixed on the edifice ahead, we'd hardly noticed the mists coiling about our ankles. With a screech, a black cat launches from the mist, landing awkwardly on the same rock as before.


Rrrrreeeeowww! Ah, did anyone feel that? Something scaly? Slithery? S-s-s-slippery? Snake? No one told me a serpent would be paying a visit. That's the kind of thing you warn about, you know! Ah, well, what can be said. All are welcome, lest I forget. The dead, undead, or even a ghoul. Monsters and madmen, and everything cruel. Welcome all, and thank you so very much for attending.

We're all here now, but who exactly has decided to join us on this haunted Halloween night?


"You kidding me? It's not even summer yet!" someone blurts from the circle.


Doublecat hisses and slashes at the air.


For the thousandth time, at The Endless Halloween . . . You know what, I'm not even going to dignify that with a response. Why don't we . . ."


"And isn't "SCREAMS!!!"  back up again? Why do we even need two weekly horror contests anyway? You guys barely manage to land two entries a week if you're lucky, so how's that going to go now that we've got two choices?"


You're right. You bring up a good point. Which is why we've decided to make the decision easier going forward. It just so happens that there will only be one weekly horror contest. I was going to wait a little longer before making the announcement, but since you've brought it up, I will now officially declare that we are here at our last gathering for The Endless Halloween.


"But this just got started!"


Should the need ever arise again for a weekly horror contest—and we'll hope it won't—The Endless Halloween will be ready and available to step in until "SCREAMS!!!"  once more returns to its former glory. On top of that, a few outspoken, kindly and opinionated folks have pointed out that a Halloween-themed contest seems a bit strange, even if we have appointed it to be of the Endless variety. With the number of entries per week being what they are, the last thing we'd want is a potential split among the weekly horror writers. There simply aren't enough consistent entries in a week to justify the continuation of this contest and the potential draw away from a pre-existing contest. Although Screams!!! is far more established and renowned, of course. So The Endless Halloween will not be competing with "SCREAMS!!!"  for weekly horror entries. No prompts will be provided this week.


However, given the renewed and/or increased excitement October and Halloween itself create for the horror-addled, this contest will resume once again at that more appropriate time. For anyone who has fan'd this item, I'll be sure to post an update when the time comes.


And now, back to what we all came here for!


It appears that three hopeful souls have come to share their dreadful tales here at The Endless Halloween!! Our winner from last week, WriterAngel , has returned to throw her witch's hat in the ring once more as well. Can she scare our scaredy-cat judge into naming her entry the victor for a second time running? She certainly came with a story of my dreams. Dreams of the nightmare kind, of course.


S. Serpent is here too. A judge from "SCREAMS!!!" , a contest that I encourage you all to check out if you haven't already. Sleepy Serpent has slithered his way on over to shed us a tail sure to frighten you almost as much as coming paw to scale against a live snake!


New to the contest but not new to horror, Weirdone-Back in the games has decided to grace us with a fitting entry as well.


WriterAngel chose to follow the prompt concerning a traveling salesman. Weirdone also followed this prompt, leaving S. Serpent as the sole entrant to share his take on visiting a loved one's deathbed.


Three terrifying tales, but only one can be named the winner. For our last time together, one entry managed to beat out all the others, although the competition was fierce.

































































After much deliberation, the winner is S. Serpent with your terrifically terrible, horribly horrific entry,

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Congratulations, and your prize is on its way!


Thank you to everyone who competed, thank you to everyone who has competed, and of course thank you to those who have come for the stories like me. In the future, I hope we'll meet again at Screams!!! It's been an absolute pleasure getting to know some of you for the first time, getting to know others of you better, and of course reading all of the dreadful, bone-chilling horror.

Until this contest resumes, have a great, Halloween-free summer!