Sweetest reader. It is that time of the year again. The leaves are turning, the hot edge of summer’s heat is cooling, frost threatens.

It’s spooky season. And I got so busy visiting pumpkin patches and planning a special DnD episode for my podcast that I forgot to start my annual writing challenge where I write seven stories in seven days. I usually start it on the 25th so the last day in on Halloween. Whoops. Welp, starting now. Better late than never right?

Today’s prompt is from Marilyn D. who actually sent me to her website where there were a few options to choose from.

I went with: It’s your last year of trick-or-treating, and your parents have let you go alone. At your last house, you ask to use the restroom, and when you leave the house, you realize the streets are all empty and all the lights along the street are out… including the house you were just in.

Onwards:

I had to pee again. I knew it wasn’t a real need. It was how scared I was. I peered down another silent street. The lights were off in every house, even though my dino watch said it was only 6pm.

I shivered.

It was dark. The streetlights flickered, dimmed.

I went up to a house that still had jack o lanterns with flickering candles. I rang the doorbell and heard it chime. I knocked and no one came.

Pressing my knees together, I didn’t need to pee. But it felt like it.

I turned and left.

Stripped trees creaked in rising winds that sent showers of damp leaves over the sidewalks.

There should have been other kids. Grown ups.

My pillowcase barely had any candy in it, but it still felt so heavy.

I was lost. Every street was dark. We’d only just moved here a week ago.

After Joan’s funeral.

My parents said we needed a fresh start. I just knew I hated Joan even more dead than when she’d been alive.

She’d always been their favourite.

I sat on a curb and pulled some candy out of my bag, checking it like Mom taught me, so I wouldn’t eat a razor blade. I tried to remind my body, I didn’t actually need to pee.

In fact, thinking I did was what got me into this mess.

I didn’t really want to go trick or treating tonight. I didn’t have any friends. I didn’t want to go alone. But going alone in my old Batman costume was better than staying home and listening to Mom cry.

I always felt like peeing when I was scared. It started with Joan’s favourite game: hide and seek. I always had to be the one hiding. She said it was because I was younger. But if she caught me, she would pin me down and pinch me with pliers until I screamed.

So I hid and shook, and hoped she wouldn’t find me and that Dad would come home soon.

By the fifth house, being asked again where my friends were, I really thought I needed to pee. So when my math teacher, Ms. Smalls, opened the next door, I asked to use her bathroom.

I didn’t pee. I just cried.

Then I flushed and pretended to wash my hands. When I came out, everyone was gone.

I swallow the candy and realize how thirsty I am. The candy only made it worse.

Somewhere down the street, someone giggled.

I stood, listening, heart pounding.

The giggle repeated.

I turned from the sound and ran.

My watch said 8pm. I really had to pee and the giggles were getting closer. I turned down another dark street, my candy bag abandoned a long time ago. I didn’t bother knocking at any more doors. No one was answering.

She was catching up.

Snot poured down my lips and chin. I turned down a side yard and spotted a small wooden hutch pressed against the side of the house.

I couldn’t see what time it was. I squirmed in the rotting vegetables and coffee grounds, trying to filter the smell through my costume.

I couldn’t hear anything, maybe she’d gone away.

Then the lid was pulled away.

I was yanked out by my hair and she stood over me in the same dress Mom picked out for her to be buried in.

“Found you!” she said, pliers in hand.

As she gripped my throat and lowered the pliers to my face, hot liquid gushed over my thighs, soaking my costume.

The End.

Hope you enjoyed my first story! Be sure to stop by tomorrow for the next one! You can still submit a prompt too, if you have one. Just use this form:

x PLM