The Ladies of HorrorPicture-Prompt Writing Challenge! This Creepy House  by Alex Grehy All the creepy creatures come to roost in my dark domain. At close of day the bats fly in and roaches play with millipedes, while spiders thrum their resonant webs to entice a net of juicy flies that dance a frenzied jive; they may escape captivity but arachnid poison means…

The Ladies of HorrorPicture-Prompt Writing Challenge! Blue Moon Harvestby Tawny McCarty We stacked the hearts in the root cellar, ridged and resting slow, skins the color of old bruises in the hush below the snow. A moon that lost its sky in the place where willows never weep And dust keeps score against its rationed sleep We fed them dark, we fed them ash, we fed them careful names, …

The Ladies of HorrorPicture-Prompt Writing Challenge! The Mad Hat by Rie Sheridan Rose I don’t remember where I came from. I do know my materials are top of the line. Butter-soft Corinthian leather stitched with silk; band braided from leather sourced from Spain and dyed with precious saffron. I am elegance personified as far as hats go. The first owner I remember was an old wise man…I believe they called him a “wizard” as we traveled through the world.

The Ladies of HorrorPicture-Prompt Writing Challenge! The Stillness   by Kathleen McCluskey The world ended without thunder or flame. It ended in silence, the kind that seeps into your bones and fills every hollow space. No one could say when the sound began to fade. First the distant hum of traffic dulled, then the birds grew mute until finally even the wind forgot how to move.

The Ladies of HorrorPicture-Prompt Writing Challenge! Patient Zero  by Kendra Smart   The screampark was alive as haunt by haunt the lights were flickering with pops and buzzes. The outdoor haunts had thuds and clanks as the relay were activating and bringing the mechanisms to life. All of the string lights over the path lit the ways to fear, and the Main Stage.

The Ladies of HorrorPicture-Prompt Writing Challenge! Willa Wispby Mary Ann Peden-Coviello We was drunk. No excuse, yeah, but we was. Got thrown outta the bar ’cause Jimmo made some kinda crack about the barmaid’s backside. Well, she shoulda been able t’take a friggin’ joke, shouldn’t she? Was it our fault the half-witted lumberjack tendin’ bar with her was her brother?

The Ladies of HorrorPicture-Prompt Writing Challenge! Gentleman Jim by Naching T. Kassa “Over here,” the Reaper said. She motioned toward a trail, lit by jack-o’-lanterns. Gentleman Jim Ford, freshly dead, followed the robed figure through the trees. “Would you mind if I asked a question?” Gentleman Jim asked. “I would not,” the Reaper replied, her voice soulless and hollow.

The Ladies of HorrorPicture-Prompt Writing Challenge! Bad Girls Run to the Woods  by Alex Grehy I remember the day my courses started how I was kept indoors, no longer a girl, no longer allowed to laugh or run or play. I remember how the trappings of womanhood were suddenly the community’s concern. How my mother took me to the Goodwives…

The Ladies of HorrorPicture-Prompt Writing Challenge! Strongholds of Both the Blessed and the Damned by Amanda Worthington My family’s totem represents the death of flight A hollow skull accented in the feathers of the still-alive Probably plucked without consent and arranged Like flowers at a tombstone I resent my family But I quite like the totem Token of endurance that it is…

The Ladies of HorrorPicture-Prompt Writing Challenge! Surviving Reprisal by Elizabeth H. Smith The morning sun burned her eyes. She’d been in darkness too long, shrouded in rags, planted without a marker by a man she’d never forget. The scent of his blood remained with her, a memento of the claw marks she left. The heaviness in her heart and soul preserved her despite the worms crawling in and out of her flesh.

The Ladies of HorrorPicture-Prompt Writing Challenge! Punkins Gotta Punkby Kim Richards In the misty evening night Arise the Punkins Eyes glowing firey bright They rock and roll through tall trees Seeking a new prey To devour their souls Empty porch steps beckon them Squat and grin so wide Waiting for mayhem’s hour Taking Jack-O-Lantern’s place…

The Ladies of HorrorPicture-Prompt Writing Challenge! No Place Like Homeby K.R. Morrison “There’s no place like home!” I had uttered those words when I’d first woken up/gotten back/whatever. Everyone was so relieved to see me come back to life. But now that line didn’t seem to work anymore. Maybe it was because the cops had brought me home in the wee hours more than a couple of times this past month.

The Ladies of HorrorPicture-Prompt Writing Challenge! Who Waits For You In The Endby Melissa R. Mendelson “There are two estranged sisters. One is Karma, the other is Life. Karma has been talking incessantly lately, but Life is lost for words.” “I thought this was supposed to be a ghost story.” “Shut up, Bob.” “You shut up, Amy. She invites all of us over for a good Halloween party, and we’re crashing at her house since her parents are away.

The Ladies of HorrorPicture-Prompt Writing Challenge! Burn Pit Prophet by Donna J. W. Munro  By the time the last flame died, and the coals cooled, I wasn’t myself. My sun brown skin crackled with black ridges, weeping valleys, and crusted plateaus. My braids had melted away leaving only the wiry strands of metal I’d plaited in before they’d come for us.

The Ladies of HorrorPicture-Prompt Writing Challenge! Clever Jack by Rie Sheridan Rose Jack was a failed one. He knew it. Had always known it. His eyes didn’t match; his teeth were lop-sided; his maker had carved him too late—the rot had already begun… But Jack was clever. He used his psychic abilities—which all jack-o’-lanterns are born with—to whisper into Cedric’s ear.

The Ladies of HorrorPicture-Prompt Writing Challenge! Honors for Dead Loversby Marge Simon  Summer has fled. It is the dying season, when multiple graves beyond the house must be tended. I begin with floral arrangements, some more bountiful than others. Asters for Bob, who smelled of Lucky Strikes and leather, his kisses drove me wild. Wood Roses for Michael, strong as stone, with a grin that made me melt.

The Ladies of HorrorPicture-Prompt Writing Challenge! The Choirmaster by Elaine Pascale Their parents had painstakingly crafted the costumes for the Halloween musical. Cats, bats, crows, and owls. Instructions were vague but the labor was large. Invitations to the musical had been brought home in backpacks, mailed to members of the Booster’s club, and left in hymnals at three different denominations.

The Ladies of HorrorPicture-Prompt Writing Challenge! Insatiable by R.A. Clarke  You'll require a gift. Step lightly and swift into the web of wishes. Make yourself seen. Entice the dark Queen. Survive in the web of wishes. Soft curves of black flesh, webbed with dark mesh, Arise in the web of wishes. Soon two and then five.

The Ladies of HorrorPicture-Prompt Writing Challenge! The Rotting Jack   by Kathleen McCluskey Every Halloween, when the sun dipped behind the trees, the pumpkin appeared in the overgrown forest. It was always perfect, round and heavy. The skin was smooth as glass and orange like autumn fire. Its grin gleamed, edges still damp, as though carved only moments before. Eli had first seen it when he was ten years old, standing beside his father in the crisp, cool air.

The Ladies of HorrorPicture-Prompt Writing Challenge! Destiny's Thread by Tawny McCarty The one most high within these walls of my flesh and bone may be enshrouded in darkness, yet at once, the sole source of absolute light. Circumstance has lain claim and it changes my heart none. My friend of the corvid kind blesses me with his watchful eye as I sip from the chalice of the devils favorite virgin; flashing lights begin to whirl around me, like my own personal kaleidoscope of tragedy, and despite this, a hauntingly beautiful chord rings out as if from the harp of Heaven itself.

The Ladies of HorrorPicture-Prompt Writing Challenge! The Masks of Owls by A.F. Stewart He waits, expectant ofbroken bones from glittering ingenues,scattered decorations for my nightmares,littering this road to nowhere I hear the drumbeat pounding… He waits, expectant ofa shadowed stain, a white chalk outlineall hollowed eyes and alabaster feathers;the stare of annihilation I hear the drumbeat sounding…

The Ladies of HorrorPicture-Prompt Writing Challenge! Holding a Candle by Donna J. W. Munro  The candle she lit in his bones was just for show. His ribcage, picked clean a fortnight before, shone bright against the darkness of the sooty chapel walls. So many flames. So many bones. He’d left her at the beginning of summer. With promises of riches and glory, he’d held the pike he’d never learned to use and wore a shoddy tin helmet looking almost as smart as those who’d prepared and practiced.

The Ladies of HorrorPicture-Prompt Writing Challenge! Sparkle by Nina D'Arcangela It looks glamorous, doesn't it? The shine and sparkle. The soft filtered non-reality of what could be me. But that's not the world I come from. My world is… different. A place of cuts and bruises, shaved heads, grime smeared faces with no placid smiles to be had. It's a pretty facade, but a facade nonetheless.

The Ladies of HorrorPicture-Prompt Writing Challenge! Petrified by Death by Nadia Corin Through all the lonely nights Alice suffered, the sharp cold of solitude kept her solidified in mourning. Edgar had been laid to rest nearly a year, but still she could not bear the light of day. She drew all the shades, and remained in parts of the house where there were the fewest windows.

The Ladies of HorrorPicture-Prompt Writing Challenge! What Remains by Lee Mitchell Just look at him now. So peaceful. I can hardly believe it. The ache deepens in my chest, and I remind myself to breathe. I steady my hands by balling them into tight fists, crossing my arms in front of me along the wooden banister as I lean in and look down at the remains.