Halloween At Nightfall

Summerween Writing Challenge#5 TREAT

Old wooden cottage with broken roof and moss-covered chimney in leafless forest

Artwork by WP AI

Mary Mannering ‘s house was the house to visit on Halloween because she handed  out crispy sweet popcorn balls dipped in orange icing and stuffed  inside the Popcorn Pumpkins were sweet and sour gummy worms. Along with the treats. Sometimes she made cookies that looked like bones and when they snapped open in your mouth cinnamon flavored gel would ooze out and coat  the inside your mouth red.

Mary’s house certainly looked like a witch’s house with it’s pointed roof and ivy chocked chimney, her windows that glowed by candlelight and her giant black dog  Freybug always on her porch or at the end of her walkway.

For Halloween she put Devil’s horns on Freybug’s head and she replaced his collar with a length of rope  with his name written in red along the coils.

Mary Mannering dressed  herself like a Witch and she would answer the door holding a plastic cauldron  with her sweet treats piled inside.  ” My, my  ” she said  ” have you been good little trick or treaters this year? ”

The collection of scarecrows and zombies and Princesses would assure Mary Mannering that they were very good trick or treaters,

” I egged two houses. ” said a Princess with no eyes and a jaw holding on to her face with a few tendons and  a blood stained pink ribbon.

” I laid on Mr Kelvin’s front yard and pretended to be dead ” said a scarecrow with a missing arm ‘ then when Mr Kelvin came outside and said who left that gory decoration in his yard , I jumped up and screamed ” my arm, my arm Mr Kelvin took my arm!”

” I chased some people around a cemetery with an ax ” said a zombie with a rat looking out from  his the hole where his left ear used to be. ” But I caught one on  accident though so…” his voice trailed off.

With a beautiful big smile she would  hold her cauldron out and the Trick or Treaters would help themselves to her treats and happily stuff them into their treat bags.

‘ Now remember children ‘ Mary Mannering would say as the  Children left her porch to Trick or Treat the other houses in town- which is known as Nightfall. I don’t know what that little town up in the Cascade’s is really called. Maybe it never had a name.  Some towns are like that, they just spring up in the middle of nowhere and one day they just disappear ” what happens when you raise Hell? ”

In one voice that sounded like the rustle of dry, dead leaves they said, ‘ you raise a mirror. ”

Mary Manning, the Witch of Nightfall hugged her cauldron to her chest and she said, ” Oh yes, yes we do.  Indeed we do.”

Rustic kitchen with cobwebs, wooden cabinets, old stove, and lantern

Artwork WP AI

Outlook 1964

 WP Prompt:  What’s a quote that perfectly describes your outlook on life?

Death smiles at us all, all a man can do is smile back.” — Marcus Aurelius

AI Artwork by: Cursejourney

Say Cheese!

RDP Tuesday: Obstreperous

When I was little and my Dad was trying to take my picture, he would always have tell me  to smile. I wasn’t a smile on demand type of kid.

I remember once he told me to smile and I did right on cue, he raised his camera up and looked through the view finder.

” Anita, what the Hell are you doing with your face? ”

” I’m smiling ”

” You look like you have rabies, cut it out and smile right. ”

” I don’t want to. ” I said.

I could see his left eye start to twitch . ” I’m asking you nicely to smile. ”

” And I’m nicely saying I don’t want to. And I don’t have rabies. ”

Maybe you don’t.  But  you do  have an attitude, little girl. A big bad one.”

After he said that I really did smile, it was bright and wide and my eyes even sparkled.

In six year old Anita Marie’s universe a compliement was a compliement even if it was wrapped  in barbed wire.

AI Artwork- Ctreated by Cursejourney