Halloween Week - Drabble Wednesday: Infernal Ghosts

Welcome to the Halloween Week Edition of Drabble Wednesday. Today I bring you spectres, spooks and phantoms from the deepest, darkest bowels of the underworld...

Twilight Whispers

The clouds hung the sky in muted grey, settling low to meld with the horizon. The gloom of dusk stole the last burnished rays of sunset and crept up to meet the clouds. The air spread a leaden cast, a hint of dampness clinging to a vigorous wind.

From the old burial ground, with its sunken earth and broken gravestones, came a scratching, rasping, slithering sound. A noise of crawlers and claws, of burrowing and hiss. Dirt bulged and ground erupted, in a spray of grime and worms.

And momentary silence.

To be broken by skittering whispers.

Death is coming...

~*~

Autumn in the Country

The cold howl of the not-yet-winter wind as it blew through the bare branched trees. The smell of leaf rot and smoke, of apple cider. Sweet memories of my uncle’s home, the grand Marbury Estate.

We visited him every autumn, my parents and I, each weekend until the last week in October. I so enjoyed the visits, I never questioned the reasons.

Until it was too late.

Why didn’t I ask? Why didn’t I wonder?

They might be alive if I had.

Oh, what that thing did to them...

What it made me do...

I don’t want to kill again.

~*~

Mislaid

Another teenager has gone missing.

The third one in eight months. Plus two more from last year.

I hear the murmurs from the townsfolk as they pass, the scared voices wondering what happened to the boy and the others. Some say they were kidnapped, some say crazy Old Man Potter killed them, others think they simply ran off. Teenagers do that, you know.

Of course, they’re all wrong. They never left. All the town’s missing are so close.

You see, each missing teen trespassed in the abandoned Pritchard house.

My house.

So I tucked them away.

Even ghosts need company.

© A. F. Stewart 2016 All Rights Reserved

That's it for today, but don't forget my Halloween Horror Haiku Giveaway (live until October 31st) You can find it by clicking on the Giveaway Tab at the top of the blog or this link: Halloween Horror Haiku Giveaway!

October Frights Blog Hop: Welcome To The Terror!

Welcome to the October Frights Blog Hop!

Hosted by Clarissa Johal

It's ten days of of chills and thrills, scares and hauntings!

Come revel in terrifying tales and drabbles of dread!

To kick off October, Are You Afraid of the Dark? will be playing on the dark side with a fantastic bevy of other paranormal and horror writers as part of the October Frights Blog Hop (running from Oct. 1st to 10th). It promises to be lots of scary fun and and there will be tons of prizes (and you won't even have to sell your soul to enter the giveaways).

As my part in this whole ten day terror fest, I'll be doing a ghostly theme.

Yes, that's right I'll be posting ghost stories. I have some short tales, some drabbles, and some haunting poetry for you, all about those phantoms that linger after death. Plus, I have a look at the new Xchyler Publishing paranormal anthology, Beyond the Wail, that includes my ghost story, The Weeping Lady.  

Now a bit about my contest. I have a ten day long Rafflecopter giveaway for a prize pack of four of my Smashwords ebooks. These are my books up for grabs:

My Giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway

And to end out today's welcome, I have our feature story...

Midnight in the Graveyard

Every night I walk through the graveyard.

That may seem strange to some. Some may say there are better places and a better time to wander. Such people may be right, but my nightly strolls have never seemed strange to me.

I’ve always found cemeteries to be peaceful places. No one around to make chit chat or bother you with small talk. Even in the daylight hours. Everyone cocooned in his or her own private world of grief and remembrance.

Of course, at night, a graveyard is quite different. Very atmospheric. That’s why I love to walk there, especially under the moonlight. It has such quiet beauty, a serenity. Yet, there’s an untamed edge, almost mystical. Or so it seems to me.

Yet, the ambience is not my only motivation. There is the gravestone.

It sits on a small rise well in the rear of the cemetery. Every night I walk there, and pause beneath an oak tree. I stare at it, afraid to go closer. I have cause to be afraid. The person interred beneath that soil is why I haunt the graveyard at night. The stone is the reason I cannot leave this place in peace.

The grave is an old one, some say the oldest one here. Some even say the body buried there was cursed, bound to the earth and the stone that marked her grave.

Those people would be correct.

I am a coward. I fear to read my own name etched into that grave marker. It’s a hard thing for me to admit I’m dead. That I’ve been dead for centuries. That the only peace I’ll ever know is in the beauty of a graveyard on a moonlit night.

© A. F. Stewart 2015 All Rights Reserved 

That concludes my first offering for October Frights.

Please, come back tomorrow for more tales of the dead...

For More October Frights Fun Check Out The Bloggers List: