A Collection of Halloween Drabbles
A drabble is a story in exactly 100 words. What follows is a collection of seven drabbles that will delight or terrify—or perhaps even a bit of both.
Happy Halloween from all of us here at Androids and Dragons!
Reaper
By Anna Cormack
The crops are scarce this year. The frost comes early and even the children can feel the chill in their bones. Darkness creeps into the golden afternoons like a panther, clawing the summer warmth to shreds, sending everyone running for their firesides.
Gathered around the hearth, even the stories turn to gloom and terror. Ghouls and ghosts prowl as the wild wind wuthers and rattles the windowpanes. Just beyond the safety of the fire's glow, barren trees seem to reach with grasping fingers.
With a grim smile, a hooded figure sharpens His scythe. The harvest will be plentiful this winter.
Witchy Ms. Weatherworth
By Amanda Burton
Ms. Weatherworth peeked out the window and watched as the spying neighborhood kids ran from her yard. Stupid children, why did they always bother her? She kept to herself, tending the garden and cooking all day; currently, her house was warmed by the aroma of a hearty stew bubbling on the stove.
She took note of the sprouts in the garden. Harvest time. Ms. Weatherworth went out and pulled gingerly. With a pop, a full head emerged from the ground covered in dirt—the reward for what she’d planted with a spell. The perfect final ingredient for her soup. Yum.
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The Dew is on the Pumpkin
By Jade Anderson
Grandpa Lee picked up four-year-old Amy. His stubble hurt her cheek when he hugged her. It always did. She didn’t care. He loved her. She knew he did even though he never said so. Sitting on his forearm they wandered through the pumpkin patch. The morning air was cool, but the sun was hot in the clear blue sky.
The leaves on the vines were dry, but the pumpkins were wet. She wondered aloud why. Setting her down grandpa talked while he cut the top out of a warm inside pumpkin. And now she understood why she loved him back.
Boycotting Halloween
By Dawn Colclasure
“I’m not trick-or-treating this year,” Daphne informed her friend, who stood on her doorstep wearing a taco costume. “I’m boycotting Halloween!”
Her friend looked at her with surprise. “Why? Because of capitalism? A scary experience last year?”
“No,” Daphne replied. “The store didn’t have any costumes I liked.”
Her friend laughed. “Forget that! Just go as yourself!”
Daphne considered this. Her friend had a point. After all, her kind were considered creatures of Halloween.
“Fine!” she said. She grabbed her cape from a nearby hook, tied it around her neck, and exposed her fangs. Smiling, she stepped outside. “Let’s go!”
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Young (Giant) Child
By Denny E. Marshall
The planet is large, like the humanlike forms that occupy it.
In the northeastern hemisphere of the blue planet is a country called Myston. One of its many cities is Pantone. Beyond Pantone lie many ancient castles occupied by vampires. If the vampires visited Earth, they’d appear as giants to us.
They celebrate a Halloween type event. A group of vampire children go out to get treats. One of the children doesn’t return home. Months later he returns, and his parents ground him. His father asks, “What’s that you’re carrying?”
“A big bag of live bit-size humans,” said the child.
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Hauntingly Beautiful
By Jenna Hanan Moore
Hauntingly beautiful. That’s how people describe my paintings. They never meant it literally, at least not until now.
The old man commissioned a painting of his late wife. He handed me a photograph and made one request. “Make her hauntingly beautiful.”
In the photo, his wife sat serenely, hands folded on her lap, her hair placidly adorning her shoulders. I painted her atop a white horse, riding across the moor, raven hair flowing behind her in the wind.
“Thank you,” the man said.
He brought the painting back the next day. “She asked for a red ribbon in her hair.”
Finally, the End of the World
By Amanda Burton
The apocalypse came right after Halloween, 2053. Nobody knows how, but it’s speculated that there was some sort of human interference, like how we were trying to build self-aware AI. Or all that pollution in the sky, maybe.
Have you ever run from a pumpkin? One with a toothy grin and gangly, mutant arms that clawed at the ground to propel it forward, lurching with a hungry fervor? They were much faster than anyone expected. Those spindly arms were long and quick.
We camped out in the school, but soon it was infested. Then there was nowhere else to go.
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