A Halloween Tale

By Esteban Vazquez

A Halloween Tale is a collection of stories that occur in imaginary worlds with fictitious characters that don't necessarily occur on Halloween but have enigmatic characteristics and mystery that qualify them to be part of these events.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Newman Springs Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Jun 2, 2021
• ISBN: 9781648019364

Book preview

cover.jpg

A Halloween Tale

Esteban Vazquez

Copyright © 2021 Esteban Vazquez

All rights reserved

First Edition

NEWMAN SPRINGS PUBLISHING

320 Broad Street

Red Bank, NJ 07701

First originally published by Newman Springs Publishing 2021

ISBN 978-1-64801-935-7 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-64801-936-4 (Digital)

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

The Miraculous Book

The Mysterious Lake

The Glass Box

The Miraculous Book

There were remote times in the era of the kingdoms. There existed a powerful, bored, and capricious king. He used to walk around the city and hunt in the woods. He loved to swim in the river and play in the meadows. He used to organize events, invite the residents of the city to participate in talent contests, reward the winners, and hire them. Then for the ceremonies of the kingdom, he had inherited a great fortune and a vast territory, a numerous army, and a powerful fleet of ships. He had everything he could wish for, yet it was not what he wanted. A greedy relative who lived in his castle longed for his fortune.

One afternoon, while the king was hunting, the greedy cousin went around his back and shot him with an arrow, leaving him to die in the forest. Noticing his absence at night, the king’s servant gave the alarm to the guard of the castle, and they began to look for him. But he didn’t appear in any corner of the castle. The covetous cousin claimed to have seen him on the way to the forest, but he didn’t see him again later, so he ordered a brigade to leave and search for him immediately—and not to go back until they found him.

The cousin, who was very clever, went to the front after ordering the search for the prince. He took the lead, so that no one would suspect him. The evil cousin found him where he thought he was dead. When he saw that the king was still alive, he took him to the hill and let him fall off the cliff, but the lucky young king fell into the river instead, which dragged him until he was lost in the sierra.

After many hours searching, the cousin ordered the brigade to return to the castle and resume the search the next day. The day passed, and they never found the young king. Since the king didn’t have children or brothers, the crown would be given to the next heir of the family, which, in this case, was the covetous cousin. So this one seized the throne in his greed and began to exploit the people, demanding high rates of payment of their crops from the farmers; and for those who didn’t meet the required rate, they were locked in the dungeons of the castle and their land snatched. Then he enlisted his army and went out to conquer all the surrounding territories that wouldn’t yield to be part of his kingdom. Then he launched into the seas, conquering islands and nearby lands, controlling the traffic of the oceans. Then he married the fiancée of the supposed deceased young king, who was the daughter of the king of all the territories of the south coast. And when her father died, he united the two kingdoms under his.

After having conquered everything he wanted, the cousin still felt an internal emptiness, a great curiosity to know what had happened to the body of the king. In the dinners of the kingdom, he made comments about his late cousin. He said that he would have been happier if his beloved cousin had lived to share his conquests and the increase of his kingdom, and he preferred to see him married to his current wife, who was the late king’s fiancée, enjoying his family and his reign; but his restlessness led him to carry out a search for all the surrounding and bring before him all who live on the outskirts of