I whipped up the following last week for our yearly Writer’s Club Halloween party. For a couple of days I’ve thought about posting it here, since it got a good response. Then I heard that another of our writers posted his story. So that spurred me to get it done. Here is the story:
I lay underneath a pine tree in the Black Forest, asleep. I had hiked for so long, alone, that I thought a little nap would quickly refresh me for the walk home.
A bit of fiendish laughter woke me up–or so I thought. All around was so dark that I couldn’t see who it came from. I sat up; something clanked against my chest. I patted my chest with my hand until I found an amulet of some sort, shaped like a bat.
“What is this?” I cried. Somebody giggled again, then scurried away, stirring up pine needles. I got up to continue on my way home.
Was something watching me? What could be here? Those were just fairy tales, stories meant to scare children. There were no ghosts or goblins or witches or fairies in the Black Forest. Though an animal was a far more likely possibility, so I pushed my legs faster.
Till I tripped. My backpack pulled me over and my ankle twisted. I bent over and held onto it, hoping it was just a sprain that would be over with quickly.
What did I trip over? That dratted giggling again!
“Show yourself!”
A mist, even darker than the blackness, swirled around the treetops, falling down ever faster toward me. It leaped off the trunk right over my head, and landed on the ground in front of me.
“Let me help you with that,” it said. “You are the one chosen by my goblin slave. Very pretty–good choice!”
The mist dissolved into a black-clad human shape, a man, tall with black hair and slanted, onyx eyes. He bent down and touched my ankle, which stopped hurting.
“Who are you?” I said. Goblin king? Vampire?
“I am–”
I awoke to a moth landing on my nose. Dang it, right when I was about to find out! I sighed and dragged myself up off the ground, resigned to finish my hike out of the forest.
Something clanked against my chest. I looked down and found a bat-shaped amulet.
END