SECRET PROTECTORS

(Prologue)

In anticipation of the night...

They walk among the Secret Protectors!

RLJ

(30)

SECRET PROTECTORS

During this night,

The night before this year's Halloween,

The rain that has fallen for a whole week has passed...

Leaving in its wake cooler nighttime air and the anticipation of...

Youthful Trick Or Treaters!

It is a rare occurrence that a child is lost during Halloween night!

Think about it... children would be easy pickings for the haunts of the night!

But there is a mysterious understanding that affect all dark creatures this night!

The children are off limits on Halloween night... their energy is fuel!

Leave them along this night so they will return energized next year!

RLJ

I DON'T MAKE THE RULES

(Another FOURTH LINE OF HORROR tale)

(Prologue)

Sometimes you MUST follow the rules!

RLJ

(29)

I DON'T MAKE THE RULES

I don't make the rules in my horror world,

I am just compelled live by them!

The number one rule in my horror world is... 

Kill a human man before you sleep at night, or die!

The other horror rules don't matter much if the first rule is not met on a daily basis!

So, 

As I now stand here sweaty and bloody, 

I can carry on another day having just executed the rule... again!

Boris Yannis 

(RLJ)

BETTER TODAY THAN YESTERDAY

In your hour of greatest despair,

Would it not be a great thing to have a witch as a friend?

RLJ

(28)

BETTER TODAY THAN YESTERDAY

(Mahwah, N.J.)

Yesterday was simply an awful day! My good friend since way bask in elementary school, Mary, wanted me to conjure her deceased husband back to life!

I told Mary that, hey, I'm Lorie Jones, the woman you keep telling that she is your best friend in the world... that it is impossible for me to bring him back alive because he has been dead for a month and his brain has rotted by now!

Of course, as these horror stories go, she didn't care about what I had to say, about the consequences of blasphemy, she only wanted her her Harry back! And she was in a state of distraught so severe that she was psychotic! The look in her eyes told me she, her mind, was simply gone! 

So, I used my powers over magic and illusion to change her perception of reality! I determined that there was only one way to give my friend the relief from her grief that she needed. I gave Harry back to her. She and Harry are now in heaven together, forevermore living in bliss... inside the brain inside the skull of her comatose body!

And as the ambulance pulled away from her driveway, and as I locked her front door before driving to the office of her lawyer, who happens to be my lawyer as well, to give him the keys to her house, I stopped to think about what had just happened... to my childless friend... who only had me and her dead husband to call upon... all I could say is, surely she is better today than she was yesterday!

Mary Steele

(RLJ)

THE VISITING OF OLD DREAMS

(Prologue)

What makes some men crazy?

RLJ

(27)

THE VISITING OF OLD DREAMS

What does a man say to his sanity when he begins to revisit old nightmares during night time sleeping hours?

What can be said about the man who has horror dreams so vivid, so often... his mind now resorting to revisiting old night terrors?

Sanity is lost, most truly, when a man begins to run out of what is now focusing his reality... replacing it with horror that once was?

It is an awful feeling, this dream Deja Vu, for it takes away one's ability to discern reality from craziness.. and makes you bat shit crazy!

RLJ

BITE YOU IN YOUR NECK

 (PROLOGUE)

One better watch what one says about life and death.

Later in life,

That folly might come back to bite you in your neck!

RLJ

(26)

BITE YOU IN YOUR NECK

(Burke, Virginia)

Aunt Judy was well know around town about her attitude toward life and death!

She said, "I won't worry about a thing after I'm dead... you, the living, deal with it!"

So, after she died from a violent attack and arose later as a living dead vampire,

We, her living relatives did something about it... with a wooden stake through her heart!

(Alan Peptone... Vampire Hunter)

 

RLJ

MOSQUITO BUZZ

(Prologue)

Fear that high pitched buzz in your ear!

RLJ

 

(25)

MOSQUITO BUZZ

(Southport, N.C.)

That tiny flying insect is a vexing monster... hear its high pitch buzzing by your ear?

Lowly is not the word to describe the status of a mosquito... it causes too much death!

The ugly truth is confirmed, though, as to the diabolical nature of this tiny beast!

This terror horrifyingly transfers blood and spit and disease from creature to creature!

What a true monster of horror is this living and flying and biting insect infection!

This buzzing thing that flies directly at you is truly... death with wings!

And every coastal North Carolina mosquito bite could potentially end in a hospital visit!

And you just got bitten... 

The first jab of burning pain in your neck of this day... 

And, as usual, everyday, you wait until tomorrow to see how you feel!

Malaria is no goddamn joke!

So, before you go to bed tonight, you will say your prayers!

And you will hope tomorrow is not the beginning of another week of horror!

RLJ

WHO MURDERED JOHN BROWN

 

(Prologue)

Here,

for your perusal...

Another Fourth Line Of Horror entry!

RLJ

(24)

WHO MURDERED JOHN BROWN

The dead man's twisted body was still warm!

Some blood was pooled in the right corner of his lips!

There is something thick and nasty looking in his opened mouth!

"Oh my god," choked out Detective  Overton, "Is that a tongue in there?"

RLJ

HOW LONG TONIGHT

"Really, can these ghosts tell time?"

RLJ

(23)

HOW LONG TONIGHT

Mary Trask, again, finds herself right in the middle of a conversation between two haunting entities she cannot see. Oh, it has long been established that they see, and hear, her. But when they, again, begin to argue like an old long-suffering-of-each-other married couple, Mary huffs and puffs and asks them to quiet down, please... but they do not listen.

Mary used to think she was going crazy because of the voices. They began their first argument, that she knows of, the first night she moved into this apartment. Clear as day and close to her as she lay in her bed listening to the conversation, invisible voices began to debate philosophers she had never heard. After about two weeks of this, she finally caught on that she was paying rent to live in a haunted apartment.

And the apartment managers played coy and shy when she confronted them about her plight. They told her that they forgot to tell her about the voices. Mary found herself actually declining their offer to move to another apartment. Something inside of her, maybe morbid curiosity, made her stay.

And so, on a Wednesday night of her work week, she now sits on her bed with her pillow pulled up to her chin, waiting for them to eventually fade out of sound. Sometimes it takes them minutes, and sometimes they debate for hours.

"How long will it be tonight, guys," she whispers in a resigned tone. "How long tonight..."

RLJ

THE DEAD DO NOT CRY

The medium spoke from her trance-like state!

She channeled the final words of her deceased husband.

His widow sat motionless as she received his thoughts.

"Please God," she whispered under her breath. "I hope the dead do not cry!"

RLJ

 

(22)

THE DEAD DO NOT CRY

So, you're dead as a doornail... pushing daises... six feet under... and other clichés!

And your spirit has now raised up from the grave to look down on your resting place!

The funeral was a week ago and you were still so dead that you did not see a thing!

But now you have raised up from your embalmed body and you are looking down at dirt!

You know you should be sad and anxious as you experience the impossible!

Your spirit mind should be exploding with confusion as you are now... conscious!

But, not a single emotion is in there for you to tap into!

For, you are dead... and your emotions died with your physical body!

You cannot cry because you are not alive to cry!

Your emotions are nullified because your organic brain is sitting is a jar somewhere.

And now that the bright light has blinked on above you... you are being called to it!

Goodbye world... don't cry for me...I am OK... because the dead do not cry!

The final thoughts of Mark Sands

(RLJ)

SOMEDAY

Is that a haunted house across the way?

Samantha Jones will find out...

Someday!

RLJ

(21)

SOMEDAY

The house across the street has been vacant for 8 years!

I know that information because I have lived here those 8 years!

The only person to visit the house, during the day time, is the yard keeper!

And he is so weird that I avoid eye contact when I am outside, when he is there!

Stranger still is the fact that every night I see movement in that house!

There are weird shadows waltzing in the dark behind those yellowed shades!

And there are the occasional, indecipherable animal-like noises over there!

And no... I have not been out of my house, alone, after dark for at least 7 years! 

Oh no, I will not expose myself to the strange things going on over there!

That is why I tolerate my annoying younger brother living with me!

But some day I will get the nerve to confront my soul numbing fear of...

That yard keeper... and that creepy house... and what is in the inside of that house!

Someday...

Samantha Jones

(RLJ)

MEAL FOR A VAMPIRE

To all vampires,

Every human being is a,

Meal For A Vampire!

RLJ

(20)

MEAL FOR A VAMPIRE

As Max spasmed just before he passed out from the severe blood loss.

Milly recoiled in shocked surprise because she had never seen that reaction.

 Always, when her prey dies as she sucks into her mouth the last drops of blood,

They simply stop the struggle and go limp... and that is the end of that feeding.

She liked Max Roberts,

But love was never to be between them.

You can like the food you are nurturing to maturity,

But you cannot love it because that confusion leads only to heartache.

Milly has long since stopped trying to be human!

But she is a forever 19 year old vampire teenager... plus 102 years.

And boys and men alike love her looks... even in the dark!

What would they think of her if they only knew what she thought of them!

Full of blood now, she would now twist off Max's head from his body!

She would take the body to the ghouls out in the woods down the street!

The head must be buried somewhere else!

She then takes a long rest to digest her food... before her next Meal For A Vampire!

RLJ

WHAT THE OLD MAN SAID

All of our eyes will see the inviting light,

Or the frightful darkness,

When death finally reaches out to touch us...

Is what the old man said!

RLJ

 

(19)

WHAT THE OLD MAN SAID

What said he, 

The dying old man named Jed Smith,

Sitting proud and stubborn in his death watch rocking chair,

Looking across the street at the neighborhood activities!

Hey you kids over there...

You ones...

Come over here and listen to me right now...

Listen to me tell you something about life that you need to know!

All six of you...

Jumping and yelling and running around like wild cats...

Burning all your teenage energy chasing your own crazy tails...

Not one of you spending a second to look at my decay!

All of you need to sober up right now...

Because I am staring at death and and I see something very dark...

Something heart stopping scary staring through me as it looks at all of you...

Death smiling as it bides its time until it catches you, too!

RLJ

HUMAN MEMORIES

 

Ah, those memories are fleeting, indeed!

RLJ

(18)

HUMAN MEMORIES

Look through the eerie glow of the full moon...

Out there in the feral woods...

Like the small forest out behind your house!

Halloween is coming...

Even though the creatures out there...

They have no true concept of what Halloween means!

Over there...

Behind the ancient pecan tree...

An animal of black darkness has caught a wild turkey to slaughter!

While ripping the wild bird to shreds...

A faint holiday thought flashes across thus creature's mind...

But, those are the quickly forgotten thoughts of when it is in human form!

RLJ

UNDER THE OLD OAK TREE

 Childhood friends reunite as adults!

They both share a very strange secret from their childhood past!

And at least one of them wants to dig... Under The Old Oak Tree!

RLJ

(17)

UNDER THE OLD OAK TREE

Hey Hamilton... it was great seeing you at the gas station last week. I am truly happy we exchanged our email addresses and phone numbers. The fact that we haven't seen each other in over 30 years is straight sad. I should have made a better effort at keeping in contact, but life has a way of making time shift in what seems like a blink of an eye.

I did not tell you that I still live in my childhood house. Mom and dad passed away about 4 years ago and they willed the house to me. Being an only child, like you are, means that everything associated with this house is up to me to take care of. And so, I decided to move back in this house to take care of it and to watch over the thing in the back yard that used to obsess, and frighten, us as kids.

That's right, Hamilton, the old oak tree is still out back and it is even larger and louder than it was when we were kids forced to go out back and play when your mom, and you, came over for them to visit and gossip.

The voices are still whispering from under the old oak tree. You and I thought it was weird and a little scary when we were kids, but I never took it seriously. To me, the sounds simply were creepy earth noises. I remember you basically thought the same thing. And when you moved away, I thought the sounds would go away, but they didn't.

During my high school years, I became too busy to go out to the tree and place my ears to the tree roots to hear the sounds. And during my 5 years of college, I simply forgot the oak tree and whispers. By the time both of my parents had died, and I finally moved my family into the house, I slowly began to be drawn back to the oak tree. And now the whispers are full on words and some of the things said are a very disturbing.

Hamilton, there are ghosts or spirits or something down there among the roots of the oak tree... and they are asking for both of us to dig down into the earth around the tree roots so that they can have peace. Ultimately, I don't know what that means. But I want to find out. Oh, and they are calling for us by our names.

So, I hope you will write me back and tell me what you think about my missive. I am going to start digging in a couple of days. I am not going to bother you by calling you. I only hope you are interested in what I've stated here. 

I am going to find out what is UNDER THE OLD OAK TREE!

Sincerely, your friend Greg Jones

(RLJ)

HUMAN PREY

 ...Said one vampire to another...

RLJ

(16)

HUMAN PREY

(Wilmington, N.C,)

The weakest prey of them all are suppose to be the humans!

But, be careful of them because they are exceptionally cunning!

Last year, one of them actually broke my neck when I tried to feed from her!

She flipped me over her back and stomped my neck... that is why you hunt my prey for me!

RLJ

A WOLF IN A JAIL CELL

Jonny Mack just wants to be left alone!

He walks these Texas plains alone.

But when the cops saw him and attacked him and jailed him,

Little did they know they are detaining a wolf in a jail cell!

RLJ

 

(15)

A WOLF IN A JAIL CELL

I am scratching this note into the wall down near the floor!

I begged them not to put me in a jail cell!

I begged them not to lock me up with people in detention!

I then warned them that they would regret ignoring my plea!

But they beat me with their batons and threw me in there anyway!

By now, I know humans never believe me when I tell them I'm a werewolf!

Well, tomorrow is the first night of new full moon!

And, to make matters worse, this will be a Harvest Moon!

The wolf is much more vicious under a Harvest Moon!

Oh my god, I can smell the upcoming carnage and death and blood!

Concrete walls and metal bars will not prevent the carnage!

Fucking racist Texas backwater cops never listen to anyone they don't like!

I am just a simple drifter staying away from humanity!

They will pay for their monstrous hatred tomorrow night!

Unfortunately, so too will the inmates!

Jonny Mack

(RLJ)

CAN SHE CARRY HER OWN WEIGHT

When the world had gone to crap,

And a man comes upon a woman in need...

All he might want from her for his good deed is to know...

Can she carry her own weight?

RLJ

(14)

CAN SHE CARRY HER WEIGHT

Journal Entry 319: 

The unbelievable has happened to me today. 

I discovered another human being battling HER way through this insane zombie apocalypse!

She was trapped in a large gasless SUV.

To me, she was pretty safe...

But 20 zombies could wait her out indefinitely!

There was no way I was going to leave here there...

To surely suffer what would be a terrible fate!

I consider myself to be an expert zombie killer!

Dispatching a horde of shambling decaying monsters is like an...

Exercise workout for me after years of practice.

I can hack to pieces dozens of zombies per minute...

Without getting a single drop of their muck-like blood on me!

The woman is very attractive and seems hardy enough!

She tells me she is 28 years old and has been alone for years!

Of course, 

I don't trust her one stinking bit,

But I will allow her to tag along for as long as she is useful.

All that confusing man/woman bullshit is confusing and dangerous!

So none of that mess!

All I want to know is can she carry her own weight!

Cam Jones

(RLJ)

THE DISTANT HOWLS

 

Robert knows they will call him soon.

He does not want to go!

But he cannot resist the distant howls!

RLJ

(Another Forth Line Of Horror tale)

(13)

THE DISTANT HOWLS

Sleep, sweet deep REM sleep, cannot lighten this nightmare I suffer through!

I've even closed my mind during the day, but I cannot get away from my horror!

Change can be the real nightmare, especially when you cannot stop the change!

The moon is full tonight... I will not sleep tonight... I can already hear the distant howls!

ROS

THE HORROR

 It just might too late to want your life back,

When you did not do what needed to be done to prevent...

The Horror!

RLJ

(12)

THE HORROR

(Killeen, Texas)

So...

If I contract COVID-19 DELTA VARIANT,

And if I die because I have refused vaccination,

I will not get to tell the story of my long life...

Of all the loves I've found and lost and found again...

Of all the good times I had living my life...

And to tell the tales of the many bad times I've had, too!

To tell the world of how beautiful it is to breath fresh air...

To suck into my lungs the particle filled air that I need to live!

I will not get to tell those who will listen what COVID suffocation feels like!

And of the pain of a intubation breathing tube forced down my throat!

And talk about the drug induced nightmares haunting me in the hospital bed!

If I contract COVID-19 DELTA VARIENT,

And if I die because I have refused vaccination...

Oh, what a horror tale that would be!

And what can I do about... the horror?

Harold "Tex" Smith

(RLJ)

DEAD KIDS

The thought of dead kids is not pleasant!

The thought of a bunch of dead kids is a horror!

What happens to these dead kids after death is a matter of interpretation!

RLJ

(11)

DEAD KIDS

(Somewhere dark and dangerous, TEXAS)

    There are 12 of them who roam the earth, drifting from place to place, searching for peace they may never find. These are ghosts of another mass act of American Violence. They have a blood bond between them that they nurtured when they were alive... and now that they were all murdered at the blasphemous mass murder event 3 years ago, the tragedy of it all has solidified their bond beyond death and they now haunt as a team who could not leave each other if they wanted to.

    There obviously are supernatural forces at work here that mere humans may never understand.

    But they each know the actual reason they could not fully die. For bad, or for worse, the parents of these 12 dead kids cremated their bodies... all in a same day ceremony. And with their bodies all reduced to a few handfuls of ash, their roaming souls no longer had the physical manifestation for a final resting place. So, they are now all restless spirits haunting the earth.

    They are now all a bunch of Dead Kids with no place to call home! And they are not happy about it...!

THE END 

(RLJ)

AT THE END OF THE STREET

 They say you better never be caught walking down the wrong street...

In the wrong place at the wrong time!

Especially, during nighttime hours!

Where you live, is it safe at the end of the street?

RLJ!

(10)

AT THE END OF THE STREET

Down there, at the end of the street, where the neighborhood ends in dark shadows and fog...

We never go down there because we've seen, and heard, things and sounds... frightening!

The glowing red eyes at night and the dancing fog and the howls that come out of those woods!

No, we stay up here on our block... on our street... with the scary human beings we know!

-APG-

(RLJ)

THE LOVE OF THE NIGHT

This man-thing was once named Quincy Abram!

That man died 9 decades ago!

And shortly after his burial, he became awake... and hungry!

He feeds during the love of the night!

RLJ

(9)

THE LOVE OF THE NIGHT

(Midlothian, Virginia)

(a 'fourth line of horror' horror short)

I am compelled to love the night... I have to... for I am a too long lived ghoul!

I cannot love the day that hates me... for, I am an abomination... and there are rules!

I cannot change my horror... I eat the human dead for survival... and I look like this!

I watch the sun fall into darkness, then I come out of hiding to eat you... if you die!

RLJ

INSTINCT

 When does the will to live finally become a horrible burden?

Mary Stanley has just made that decision and it goes against her...

Instinct!

RLJ

INSTINCT

(Arlington, Virginia)

I used to be Mary Stanley.

I was that woman 121 years ago... until I was turned at 26 years old.

But now I am something else, other than a human woman, that never dies.

And I battle that scary something deep and feral and mystical called... instinct.

I battle my instinct to kill on a daily basis.

In order for me to survive from day to night back to day again is...

To murder a live human male and then eat his still beating heart!

Over a century of this horrid life has taken a psychological toll on my mind.

Today, I fear that I might, indeed, be on my way to insanity.

I had a chance to kill my food tonight and for the first time I let him go.

Something in my dead soul just did not want to kill another man for food.

And now I am suffering as my body is reacting to the hunger that is overtaking me.

My hands are turning into demon claws!

My teeth are growing and the hair now fills my blouse.

I am reverting to the unknown something that I am inside, by the hunger.

Within minutes I will be a monster of all sharp claws and sharp teeth.

And I do not know who will die a horrible death when I am a mindless monster.

I can still hold the gun in my hand!

I purchased this Colt .45 many decades ago.

I keep one hallow point bullet in the chamber.

Tonight is the night I have to taste the silver as it penetrates my brain.

No more excuses in the name of instinct!

No more death and serial killer existence!

One bullet up my mouth through the palate and through the brain!

To hell with self-preserving instinct... a pull of the trigger...

(RLJ)

THE MUSHROOM RING

 

Never doubt the old wives tales orated by your grandmother.

Oh yea, especially the ones about fairy rings!

Seamus Obrien

(RLJ)

(7)

THE MUSHROOM RING

(Harrisonburg, Virginia)

"Nanna" Patty was very old school, all the way up to her death 3 years ago.

She was full on a Celtic lady and lived much of her life in the old ways.

Her cooking, her command of the language and her love of old fairy tales entertained me.

I miss her so much and I never leave the house without her whisperings in my mind.

I am writing these words down on paper right now so as not to lose my clarity.

I just saw something out in my back yard garden that shocked me a little.

Nanna loved to tell me wild old country tales of Fairy Rings... 

And of the bad things that could happen if you stepped inside of one.

To me, those were tales to make me think and scare me straight.

I never believed that mushrooms would grow in a perfect circle formation.

And if you stepped in a Fairy Ring, you would have to dance yourself to death.

Or, other gruesome demonic made consequences of not watching where you step.

Well, a few minutes ago, I was about to pick a few garden tomatoes and... 

Oh, my god... on the other side of the gate... right in my path were white mushrooms.

They were were right there... in my path... 34 small mushrooms in a 2 foot across circle.

And... I almost stomped my right foot right inside of the circle... holy crap!

So, anyway, I am going to stop right here on this writing pad.

Darla, my lovely wife, is at work and I'm not going to bother her.

I'm going back out to my garden and investigate this weirdness!

And, yes, I will have my "Nanna's" many cautionary words in my brain as I investigate.

Oh boy, wish me luck...

Seamus Obrien

(RLJ) 

 

HORRORS FROM HER NIGHTMARES

 A special young woman decided,

A long time ago,

That is is better to keep who, and what, she is to herself.

It makes it much easier to stop the Horrors From Her Nightmares!

RLJ

(6)

HORRORS FROM HER NIGHTMARES

Sara Tran has just had another of her cold sweat, nightmare premonitions.

She had a great day of attending her classes and spending time with her college friends.

And she had a great evening of practice, a little TV and a little studying before retiring.

And at exactly 2:37 AM she bolted upright in her bed and bore witness to her dream!

Before her eyes, in the darkness of her dorm room, she watched another nightmare scenario.

Like a full color movie, she watched her roommate die at the hands of a faceless murderer.

She was walking between buildings, and the murdered grabbed her and pulled her into an alley.

She observed the violent, bloody death by the hand stabbing her with a huge kitchen knife.

All that bad action happened last night and Sara was terrorized for her sleeping roommate.

She spent the rest of the night wide awake and deciding the reality of what she had witnessed.

She knows all her vision are real, and that she needs abort her own classes today.

The noble something inside her compelled her to become April's bodyguard for the day.

Tran had full confidence in her 3rd Dan level Tae Kwan Do abilities!

She has juggled school and martial arts training from age 6 to now at 21 years old.

Again, her purpose appears to have manifested in a nightmare, and later today things get real.

Better to keep her roommate ignorant... better to extinguish the horrors from her nightmares!

RLJ

THE RAIN MAKES THE PAIN GO AWAY

 

"... a couple of minutes in the existence of a house trapped ghost..."

RLJ

(5)

THE RAIN MAKES THE PAIN GO AWAY

Even a ghost can feel the calming effects of the rain pattering on a window.

And the sudden blanket of darkness as the storm clouds roll in is sleep inducing.

The thunder is music to the ears of formally alive Max Sanders... music to the ears.

And the electricity unleashed in a flash of lightening... he feels it tingling his nothingness.

Oh, there is pain in being a dead man haunting the place of your murder!

You are trapped is a cage that is the four walls of the huge house you once owned!

And you have to endure the perverse torture of watching your wife enjoy her life!

Both she and her murderous boyfriend are having a wine and song frat party every day!

So, a ghost can feel pain... in his mind... and imagine it as physical pain.

And a super shock of lightning level electricity slicing through the air is felt by him.

Of course, physical pain is not this ghost's reality... but, mental torture is profound.

What a conundrum is this ghost's existence... but, at least the rain makes the pain go away! 

RLJ

SOMETHING MORE THAN A WOLF

You never really know what strangeness is out there in the midnight darkness.

And when what that is out there comes to your back yard,

And you discover a bit of horror left behind after its visit,

You might conclude that is was... Something More Than A Wolf!

RLJ

(4)

 SOMETHING MORE THAN A WOLF

(Hogback Mountain, Virginia)

My name is Albert Jones and...

I know there are wolves up there on that mountain.

And over the years, I've personally seen a couple of bears and I've seen several foxes.

Deer hide behind a blade of grass, but they are all over the mountain.

The squirrels are legion in Northern Virginia, and so are the rabbit numbers.

Opossums and raccoons are all over the place, too.

And now, as of a couple of nights ago, I think something else is up there.

I awakened on that late Saturday night to the sound of a major commotion in my back yard.

Something out there in the midnight darkness was murdering something else.

I peered out of my window into the darkness, but I could not see a thing.

I believe whatever was out there saw the light from my window and ran off.

The rest of the night was quiet and I did fall back into my slumber.

Early the next morning, I went out back and oh my, the shock of what I saw.

For five years, I have allowed the groundhog that lives under my deck to live in peace.

It is a cute creature that always runs back into its burrow when I go out back.

It's OK... I love to have a little bit of wild nature living out there.

But the sight of what I saw that morning shocked, and haunted, me.

Something had dragged the Groundhog out of its burrow and ripped it to bits!

And what was absurd about this horror was... nothing of it had been eaten!

Something had destroyed this animal just for the sport of the hunt!

And whatever it was had climbed over my six foot high fence.

No, not a bear,,, and no, not a wolf... and no, definitely not a stray cat!

This creature had gripped the wood of the fence with demon claws!

I saw the outline in the wooden planks that looked like powerful clawed hands!

And it had murdered the groundhog... and it had seen me in the window!

So, as I stated at the very beginning of this missive, 

I know there are wolves up there on that mountain!

Lots of new people move into this area on a weekly basis.

I'm thinking, someone has brought something here... or someone is a thing!

I've recruited my brother, Harry, to go on a little Bow hunt with me tomorrow evening! 

I've got silver tipped arrows, Harry is an expert tracker... and tomorrow IS a full moon!

RLJ

ATTIC TALK

 This is a short anecdote about a woman who loves her football!

She will even risk her life for the sake of the game!

Even if she has to confront the dark things that bump around in her attic...

For the sake of the NFL!

She is about to have a little scary... ATTIC TALK!

RLJ 

ATTIC TALK

(Leesburg, Virginia)

Dear diary... 

Today's entry is going to be short and sweet/sour, according to one's perspective.

I am getting ready to watch this much anticipated NFL football game.

But, before I settle in to watch the action, I have to talk to THEM!

I never want to go up to the attic hatch, open it and stick my head up there into the darkness.

But, they are especially noisy tonight and I have to assert myself in order to quite them.

They seem to forget that the noise they make in the darkness up there sounds like a haunted house!

And, because they exist in a spectral plane, their noises have no boundaries!

I believe they sense the Halloween season has begun again... and so, the noises.

I don't mind the boos and the whisperings... but the screams? 

That is when I say no!

So I am about to ask them to quite down for a couple of hours, please.

I am sure they will comply, as usual, since I really don't bother them too often.

Oh yea, and I will, of course, not shine a light into the darkness to see them.

It only took one time, one night, with one flashlight, to realize they HATE the light!

One of them destroyed my heavy metal Maglite, crushing it like a grape...

Almost taking my hand with it!

So, I will show my trust in them and ask them for quietness for a little while.

I will tell you tomorrow night if I survive this encounter... 

And how the game ends.

Goodnight, dear diary... until tomorrow!

Sally Aston signing out...  

RLJ

WHO WHISPERED THAT

 

Sometimes those sounds you hear in the darkness are scary.

And when the nighttime sounds begin to threaten your safety,

Then maybe it is time to address the darkness, asking...

WHO WHISPERED THAT?

RLJ

 (2)

WHO WHISPERED THAT

(Centreville, Virginia)

Herbert Brown no longer takes a late evening Friday stroll to wind down after another work week. He would stroll along the walking trail out behind his apartment building. An hour long walk, around and between the trees and the direction markers, used to be fun... before the whispering began to emit from dark places behind the trees... and the markers.

At first, Herbert ignored the sounds, truly believing that his imagination was actually playing tricks on him. He blamed the sounds on the wind, or perhaps on the practically invisible deer hiding from him. But, when the whispers began to say his name... well, now he focused of the weirdness of what was happening to him.

Herbert never heard the whispers during any other aspect of his life. And so, it was easy for him to simply forget about the apprehension he felt on his walk after he made his way back home, took his shower, watched a little TV and finally climbed into his bed to pass out into his usual deep slumber, within minutes.

But come Friday night, the sounds would return when he walked the trail. 

And so, came Friday stroll number eight, and the last straw happened. The whispers decidedly began to actually threat him with not so subtle words. For the first time, the whispers changed from wispy hushed unintelligible sounds to actual words coming at him from all sides. Words like murder, rend the flesh from his bones, bathe in his blood, crush his bones with my teeth... and more. And after he rushed home that night, he decided that walking the trail after dark was no longer an option.

Herbert can see the entrance to the trail from his third floor bedroom window. The city maintained park begins off the sidewalk, he only needs to take that turn and he is inside the park surround by tall trees. But he doesn't dare go back in there. The two moon reflecting blood red eyes staring back at him from the darkness is his final warning!

Herbert will not be walking the trail during the daytime, too!

RLJ

THEY COME OUT TONIGHT

 DEMON CLAWS short story tales are back!

Let us explore some horror landscape, if we may.

And, why not, walk down the dimly lit path to Halloween night?

DEMON CLAWS tap, tap, tap down this path every night!

Here is an introductory tale to start this month long journey!

Story two... "WHO WISPERED THAT"...  tomorrow night!

RLJ

(one)

THEY COME OUT TONIGHT

(Herndon, Va.)

The crispy cool night air has yet to settle in after darkness replaces the day...

As the distant diminishing sun falls off the sky in the approached dusky darkness!

The ignorant of their surroundings might not even realize the countdown has begun...

To the awakening of the monsters, and the other things, that bump around in crisp fall air!

Demons and ghosts, were-monsters and tree trolls, vampires and ghouls, and more...

Awaken from a strange months long slumber to now haunt and hunt their prey!

The crickets awaken to irritate the nerves of humans, the owls begin to hoot and flutter,

Fall plants begin to flower emitting weird sweet aromas and teeth are sharpened on dry bone!

It is now Halloween season... and do these frightening things of the night know that fact?

Or is it simply the change in the season, the movement of the moon, that is the trigger!

The werewolves burst out of human form when the moon is full... they know...

And vampires are very prone to hunt their prey under the full moon's strobe effects! 

 

Listen to the sounds outside your windows tonight... do they not sound different?

Frog croaks fade away and cricket calls irritate your nerves... is it all a warning?

The moths that flutter around your lights are now just a little different, aren't they?

And what was all of that loud commotion on the roof of your house at 4:AM last morning?

Tonight is night one toward the October Halloween night some of us love to celebrate!

The cold is coming soon and paradoxically the things that bump in your night awaken!

Here in the HORRORWALKER WORLD, this weirdness is always chronicled in some form!

Tonight begins another month long trek along the horror path of this most scary season.

And here we go!

30 more nightly stories of Halloween season horror.

Some scary tales, some weird tales, some humor thrown in!

Let us enjoy some tales of... DEMON CLAWS!

RLJ