Halloween Tales

By Roy Hudson

This collection includes Halloween tales such as:

"Last Halloween," in which the prior year's Halloween prank led to a death, and someone is getting revenge in the present.

"Mirror Madness," in which a group of twisted friends make their own horrifying Halloween attraction.

"The Blog of Eternal Funk," in which a case of cyber bullying earns a frightening and final comeuppance.

"Count The Roadkill," in which two college roommates on the drive home for the Halloween weekend leads to the revelation of a local legend.

These stories and more celebrate Halloween as it should be, with horror.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Roy Hudson
• Release date: Oct 15, 2011
• ISBN: 9781465857101

Roy Hudson

A lifelong resident of Augusta, GA, Roy Hudson is a full-time writer with experience in the University of South Carolina Aiken's Broken Ink magazine and campus newspaper, Pacer Times. In 2010, a sample of his novel The Odic Touch won him a full scholarship at the former Augusta State University's Sandhills Writers' Conference. In addition to The Odic Touch, Roy Hudson has one other published novel, a Halloween-set tale and tribute to the horror film genre, Relic (via Firefly & Wisp). His stories have been published in Firefly & Wisp's anthologies 13 Tales of The Paranormal and the zombie collection Thorn of Death. He has also self-published two holiday story anthologies: Halloween Tales and Now, Dasher- The Saga of a Vampire Santa Claus. All of these are available on Smashwords and various other e-book retailers such as Amazon.com, BN.com, and the Apple book store.

Book preview

Halloween Tales

Published by Roy Hudson at Smashwords

Copyright 2011 Roy Hudson

Note: Several of the following tales were originally published on Facebook.

Table of Contents

Last Halloween

Mirror Madness

The Blog of Eternal Funk

Count The Roadkill

A Blog Calypse

Star

Hurricane Zelda

The Sky Gazers

The Green Man

Caught Dead in New Orleans

The Day After Halloween

Halloween Prop: A 5x5 Short Story;

Monsters’ Halloween

Last Halloween

Poor Mortimer Morrison… he’s going to be asked all kinds of questions to which I won’t be able to help him answer. It’s really all my fault. Then again… it’s actually Rick Dexter’s fault. And John Blake. I remember it as if it were yesterday, rather than last Halloween…

Rick, Morty, and I had been really close through high school, and up to our freshman year of college, which was last year. There were even rumors that I had lost my virginity to Rick... which were purely speculation and not true.

The prank was Rick’s idea. John Blake was supposedly a lovestruck nerd whose crush bordered on obsessive. We didn’t know how bad it was. I didn’t understand the attraction. Morty has always thought the object of John’s affection was beautiful, but I just didn’t see it.

The idea was simple. John would go to Rick’s Halloween party at the mansion on top of the cliff with Ruth Baxter, who would pretend to get drunk and pass out. Rick would then burst into the room and accuse John of rape, all the while Morty was in the closet with the video camera. That was the plan.

Unfortunately, Rick didn’t account for all the alcohol numbing his and Morty’s comprehension, so they both wound up in the closet with the camera and kind of forgot the whole point. And when John Blake pulled a knife on his date, the shit really hit the fan. I later found out from Morty what had happened.

When John decided not to take any chances on his date being too drunk to defend herself, Morty freaked out. He wanted to burst from the closet and play hero for real. Rick, on the other hand, was more worried about how they would explain the situation to the police.

What would we say if the cops ask us what we were doing in the closet? Rick asked.

Morty wasn’t worried about that. His concern for his good friend Ruth was overwhelming, so he jumped out of the closet with the intention of preventing the rape. Unfortunately, he was too late. His appearance surprised Blake, who slashed Morty’s belly without even pulling up his pants. His date, frustrated by the violation, took advantage of the distraction, and jumped on his back. They struggled for a few moments, until John and his date fell backwards through the window… over the cliff.

John’s pants around his ankles saved him from going completely through the window, as they snagged on a corner of the bed. Ruth wasn’t that lucky. She lost her grip of her rapist and fell screaming over the cliff and into the ocean. They never found her body.

It just wasn’t the same after that. I blamed Rick for the prank that cost an innocent girl her life, but I did not desert Morty. Rick moved out of the family mansion and got a ratty little apartment off-campus. Morty had to start therapy.

Fast-forward to last Saturday, October 24. Rick invited Morty over to his apartment, and I tagged along. Rick asked Morty, Are you okay? You look shaken up.

Morty replied, I saw Ruth today… again. I think she’s pissed off at me for getting her killed.

I said, We both know that’s impossible, but Rick shrugged it off.

He said, We agreed to never talk about that again, which is an agreement I have to break. That’s why I invited you over.

I asked, What are you talking about?

Rick said, John Blake was released from the mental hospital this morning.

Morty turned white as I asked, How do you know that?

"Someone taped the newspaper article to the windshield of my car. I’m not sure how they knew I was