AN IDEAL HALLOWEEN

Happy Halloween, to all the adults out there!
Make sure you show the love and respect to kids across the country!
Horror, tonight, be it light as a feather and bright as a beautiful smile!
Let it be... An Ideal Halloween!

RLJ

AN IDEAL HALLOWEEN

(Herndon, Virginia)

In the dark of this night, just after the sun drops from the sky, Halloween becomes official!

Adults, mostly, open their homes to the littlest of little human monsters seeking tricks or treats!

Perhaps in 1816 tricks might be mixed in with the treats... but that was then, and now is different!

There will be no tricks of horror tonight... only sweets to sooth the tiny hearts and help them all dream of their happy tomorrow!

RLJ

A HARBINGER OF HORROR

Every time the full moon appears in the dark night,

Pushing its reflections on the ground below,

Things awaken in this forest and they are... A Harbinger of horror!\

RLJ

A HARBINGER OF HORROR

(Easton, Delaware)

The children of the night are restless on this cool late October night!

They, who come out when the sun goes down and the darkness comes out, await the moonlight!

Halloween night is near and they can feel the electricity in the air that is the harbinger of horror!

All seven of them turn as one to the left... there is a sound approaching... it is a human sound... they all hide, this time... the hunt can wait s few more nights!

SPL

EVEN WHEN THE RAIN BLOCKS THE MOONLIGHT

Listen!

In the deep woods!

The awful sounds of horror!

Even When The Rain Blocks The Moonlight!

RLJ

EVEN WHEN THE RAIN BLOCKS THE MOONLIGHT

(Bangor, Maine)

Does the cursed become the werewolf if the full moonlight is blocked by thick rain clouds?

Is the transformation just as perverse and profound if the moon's awesome glow is blocked?

Jason Laramie knows those answers all to well because he IS the werewolf about to change!

 The full moon make him a savage monster... and he is cursed... regardless of the moonlight... death stalks the stormy night tonight!

ALW

WHAT DO YOU EAT AS A LAST OPTION (AN EXCERPT)

Ellerby Babcock's private Beechcraft G36 Bonanza lost power and crashed.

Ellerby has an idea of where he is, but right now he is very hurt and isolated.

The airplane did not break apart, but he was terribly bounced around.

Days later, he is now very hungry and has no food.

What Do You Eat As A Last Option?

RLJ

WHAT DO YOU EAT AS A LAST OPTION  (AN EXCERPT)

(The Pinnacles, California)

Dear Journal: I really don't want to eat one of these huge rats, but what the hell else am I supposed to eat?

My airplane crashed in these mountains three days ago... and both of my legs are damaged!

I finally freed myself and have gathered all the stuff I need to survive the cold nights to come!

But, I have no food... and these rat like animals are everywhere... and they bite... but they've never met a starving human before!

ESB

HOW DEEP THE GRAVE FOR THE UNDEAD

The dead do come back!

The circumstance has to be right, but it does happen!

And sometimes the dead come back for REVENGE!

If you are in that world, you better consider...

How Deep The Grave For The Undead!

RLJ

HOW DEEP THE GRAVE FOR THE UNDEAD 

(Baton Rouge, Louisiana)

...They didn't bury Anderson Marks deep enough to keep him dead... and buried!

The voodoo princess performed her dark ritual on him three days ago... and he arose her zombie slave!

But, the elders have long since banned the ancient dark art... making the princesses actions a crime!

The village men had only one option, bury the now undead victim until he decomposed in the soul... but the grave was too shallow, and now...!...

DRE

THE GAP BETWEEN LIFE AND DEATH

Mister Arland Landry is a frightful sight there in his hospital bed.

He lies there unmoving... except for his cloudy blue eyes.

There is a lot of activity existing inside his brain.

Including, his understanding about... The Gap Between Life And Death!

RLJ

THE GAP BETWEEN LIFE AND DEATH

(Baltimore, Maryland)

An elderly man rhetorically reflects on his deathbed, "How wide is the gap between life and death?"

Through tired eyes faded by 92 years of survival on planet earth, he can now see the other side!

Like a parting of the waves of the brain patterns in his head, all of the answers to life and death are now his!

It is too bad for humanity that, in the horrific throws of Stiff Man Syndrome, another soon to be departed old man cannot tell tell the world what he now knows!

RLJ

WIND DAMAGE

One October day it is hot!

The next October day it is cold!

And that profound weather change came by wind!

And what the wind blows in causes the...

Wind Damage!

RLJ

WIND DAMAGE

(Richmond, Virginia)

Like a monstrously huge prehistoric beast tearing through the more ancient forest,

The cooling, howling winds of seasonal change just blew in today from the chilly north.

There will be no Halloween full moon this season... no, you will wait until 2020 for that horror!

But, plenty of strangeness blows in as it travels with the dark winds of change... and that howling outside your window tonight is not the wind!

SOL

OLD SECRETS UP AND DOWN THE RIVER BANK

Standing on the shore of the magnificent Saginaw River,

It is too easy to imagine the...

Old Secrets Up And Down The River Bank!

RLJ 

OLD SECRETS UP AND DOWN THE RIVER BANK

(Bay City, Michigan)

Out by the always energetic river, where the bank soil is always wet and fertile, mystery abounds.

The old forest trails there, worn down through ancient foot traffic, all lead to the fast moving water.

All kinds of things, living and never living, have been lost to the water... to finally settle in the bank soil.

It is the buried bones of humans past that tell the most profound tales of adventure, and horror... and there, over there, is a partially buried human skull to start the next story.

ESD

THE SPACE BETWEEN THEM

Two spiritually depraved ghouls met at a downtown bar.

Under the cover of the darkness of a midnight moon,

They sat in a dark corner in the smoky haze of the bar.

They discussed the border lines of the hunting territory in...

The Space Between Them!

RLJ

THE SPACE BETWEEN THEM

(Alameda, California)

I do what I do!

You do what you do!

And we'll meet somewhere in the in the space between us!

And remember, the people I eat are not the people you eat... remember that... or when we do meet in the space we'll be eating each other!

SWA

STEP OUT INTO THE MOONLIGHT (AN EXCERPT)

From her dark bedroom,
A little girl looks up into the dark midnight sky.
She is admiring the stunningly clear full moon.
She is enjoying the sounds of the call of the wild.
And, she is contemplating when she will...
Step Out Into The Moonlight!

RLJ

STEP OUT INTO THE MOONLIGHT  (AN EXCERPT)

(Idaho Falls, Montana)

...5 year old Tammy is standing at her bedroom window, looking out into the shimmery dark woods.

The moment is midnight, again, and the calls of the distant wolf-things are pulling her like a magnet.

She realizes that her mother will be very mad at her if she goes outside to follow the trail of the full moon.

But she knows they want her... whatever they are...and she wants them... all she has to do is step out into the moonlight... but not tonight!...

SMN

A DREAM INTERPRETATION (AN EXCERPT)

Is a dream reality?

Does what happen inside your head,

When you are sound asleep,

Really count as reality when you awaken?

Ask Allen Samuel, 

Who just woke up to bright sunshine heating his face...

And blood gushing from his neck,

Covering his sheets and pillowcase!

RLJ

A DREAM INTERPRETATION  (AN EXCERPT)

(Bristol, Connecticut)

...What is the frightening "it" that exists inside the ether between a dream and a nightmare?

The dreamer cannot possibly answer that question while consumed by lustful id confusion!

One night the dreamer is embraced by a fantasy dream lover who could only exists to serve his ego!

Another night, she is a sullen vampire ripping out his muscular throat and gorging on his squirting crimson blood!...

ALS

FRESH MEAT (AN EXCERPT)

The secrets inside deep woods forests,

In places so remote explorers travel to map them,

There exists the chance that one might end up as... Fresh Meat!

WKL

FRESH MEAT  (AN EXCERPT)

(Aniakchak National Preserve, Alaska)

...I admit it, the first time I tasted human flesh I was repulsed by what I was chewing on!

But, my mentor guided me in the ways to season human meat... and how to enjoy it!

It was never murder, he told me, when we captured a man and cooked him like a hog!

This is our sacred land and if those men insist on coming out here... well, we'll eat them, too!...

WKL

BETTER OFF ASLEEP

Quincy Lawrence had a crazy dream last night!

He eventually awakened... disappointed!

And he came to the undeniable conclusion that he is...

Better Off Asleep!

QOL

BETTER OFF ASLEEP

(Anchorage, Alaska)

I thought I saw God last night... in my bed... in a dream state eternity of enlightenment!

There was no woman involved in this bliss... only sandman star pillows and marshmallows!

I was just about to discover the meaning of life when... I woke the fuck up... pissed off!

And then the horror returned to me... I was only in a stupid dream... and there is still no god... and there is no woman, either!

QOL

THIS IS HOW I DIED TODAY

Sal Amendola is no longer of this earth!

His mortal coil has departed this plane of existence!

His wife helped his soul to leave his body behind!

If you could ask Sal a question he would answer with...

This Is How I Died Today!

SLA

THIS IS HOW I DIED TODAY

(Saddle River, New Jersey)

Well, it sure as hell is hot wasn't the frying pan smacking me in the back of my head!

It sure wasn't the twenty-four horrifically painful knife stabs to my back and my neck!

It wasn't the dragging of my damaged body from the kitchen to the tool shed behind the house!

It was the heart attack from the fear as I watched Martha power up the table saw!

SLA

HERE THEY COME AGAIN

Well... my name is Elmore Morehead.

The sounds in my attic have started again.

And all I can say, or do, about it is bemoan the fact that...

Here They Come Again!

ELM

HERE THEY COME AGAIN

(Norfolk, Virginia)

They are at it again, up there in the warm dark space inside my hollow stuffy attic!

When they start knocking and mumbling and moaning up there, Halloween is almost here!

Are they ghosts of goblins or demons, or such... so far, they will not reveal themselves to me!

Anyway, I'll try to get some sleep tonight even though some things invisible, and loud, stomps around in the attic above my bed!

ELM

HURRICANE DONALD TRUMP

I can almost taste the briny salt water blowing out of my TV from the force of...

Hurricane Donald Trump!

RLJ

HURRICANE DONALD TRUMP

(Herndon, Virginia)

I didn't really want to look at the TV news today because depression is not fun!

Yet, I was compelled to watch the horror of nature reforming human reality again!

Nature made beauty, in and around the Atlantic ocean, has been ripped apart like tissue paper!

I thought I had seen all the horror there was for the day... then, bat shit crazy Donald Trump blew into my TV, again, like a bigger hurricane!

RLJ

MONSTERS OF THE OCEAN

A minor poetic reach for an understanding of those...

Monsters Of The Ocean!

RLJ

MONSTERS OF THE OCEAN

(Planet Earth)

The biggest monsters in the world sit mostly just off the coasts of all the continents of the earth!

They are created by a thing godlike in its awesome power of wind and rain and warmth and energy!

Its name is Weather... and its deadliest spawn are tornadoes and hurricanes, by many names deadly!

Humans are at their mercy, for where can they hide when when it all decide to smash and destroy those who covet the desire to control them?

RLJ

THERE IS FIRE IN THAT SUNSHINE

The flesh that has been turned by a vampire's bite is cursed!

Every cell becomes infused with the ancient evil of the night!

And that flesh burns with a hellfire heat when exposed to full sunlight!

Vampires know... There Is Fire In That Sunshine!

RLJ

THERE IS FIRE IN THAT SUNSHINE

(Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)

Camella the vampyress is staring out at the brightening morning through the blinds of the bedroom window.

The sun is rapidly coming up and she is now essentially trapped inside the house of her latest victim.

Soon, the sleep of the damned undead will overtake her and she will unwillingly succumb to its clarion call!

She is in a panic... she enjoyed the big man's blood too much and lost track of time... and now she is trapped inside, because there is fire in that sunshine!

RLJ

PEROXIDE SCRUB DOWN

Horror is a messy, bloody business!

Sometimes it's so messy the only way to get clean is with a...

Peroxide Scrub Down!

WNM

PEROXIDE SCRUB DOWN

(Thomasboro, North Carolina)

Nancy Markson never feels totally clean until she finally gets home and takes a hot shower!

Oh, it is not the water and the soap that makes her feel like her sins are washing down the drain!

What she needs is her fresh bottle of Hydrogen Peroxide to scrub off the blood cells in her skin!

Being a ghoul is dirty, bloody work... but she still needs to be obsessively clean... even though her soul is as black as the hell that created her!

WNM

INTO THE BONE SHACK (AN EXCERPT)

This is today's final journal entry for me, Allen West!

I should be afraid and fill with trepidation...

But, I am not!

I do not give a goddamn!

I am out for revenge!

And I've found them!

And I will do to them what they did to my sweet Marnie.

In a few minutes I will enter... Into The Bone Shack!

ALW

INTO THE BONE SHACK  (AN EXCERPT)

(Weott, California)

...The bone shack is hidden away deep in the dimness of this dank California Redwood forest!

I've had this small shack made of moss laced dirty white bones under surveillance for over two weeks now!

The clan of 5 cannibals just left out of the house again after dragging today's still living victim inside for storage!

I am here to rescue her... and kill these monsters... as I will hide inside until they return, my guns ablazing!... and I'll have my wife's revenge by carnage end!...

ALW