It shouldn’t be a big deal. All Billy's friends have visited the widow's house and each seemed to come away better for the experience. Visiting her has been a rite of passage for boys in town for as long as anyone can remember.

Billy knows he should want this. The whispers about him have been growing and even his friends are starting to ask questions. Tonight is the night if he's going to end the rumors. Should it matter if it’s Halloween and there’s a full moon in the sky?

It shouldn’t be a big deal. All Billy's friends have visited the widow's house and each seemed to come away better for the experience. Visiting her has been a rite of passage for boys in town for as long as anyone can remember.

Billy knows he should want this. The whispers about him have been growing and even his friends are starting to ask questions. Tonight is the night if he's going to end the rumors. Should it matter if it’s Halloween and there’s a full moon in the sky?

All Hello’s Night

Harold Benjimin Harrigan was a loner. He had been a loner all his life. At school, he had merged into the background but did well enough to apply for a few good jobs. He wasn’t a handyman but had one redeeming skill that set him apart. It was the inability to become bored with repetition.

He landed a job with the London City Council. It was probably because nobody else was interested in being in charge of the public toilet maintenance, mainly making sure that they were cleaned regularly and ordering the tons of toilet paper.

Note: This is not the Halloween story that I had planned. That story will likely be much longer, and being sick all last week killed any time that I had to work on it. I knew I wasn't going to finish it in time for the contest and then this idea hit me this morning and I managed to finish it just in time. I've really gotta stop these last-minute one day rushes for contests.

It shouldn’t be a big deal. All Billy's friends have visited the widow's house and each seemed to come away better for the experience. Visiting her has been a rite of passage for boys in town for as long as anyone can remember.

Billy knows he should want this. The whispers about him have been growing and even his friends are starting to ask questions. Tonight is the night if he's going to end the rumors. Should it matter if it’s Halloween and there’s a full moon in the sky?

Chapter 6

September, 1918

‘Dear Tamsyn,

The outside world is more amazing and more terrifying than I ever knew. Everywhere I look there are reminders of how small and insignificant I am compared to the horror all around me, and yet my love of you drives me forward.

It shouldn’t be a big deal. All Billy's friends have visited the widow's house and each seemed to come away better for the experience. Visiting her has been a rite of passage for boys in town for as long as anyone can remember.

Billy knows he should want this. The whispers about him have been growing and even his friends are starting to ask questions. Tonight is the night if he's going to end the rumors. Should it matter if it’s Halloween and there’s a full moon in the sky?

I am Worried about my Brother

October 2024 All Hallow Eve's Story Contest

I'm so tired
I must get up for air
But I can't find it
What's up or what's down out here
I'm caught in your undertow

To win a one hundred dollar bet, Cody Williams attends a Halloween party dressed as a Sexy School Girl. Halloween's over -- but returning to his pre-Jack-o-lantern life . . . proves to be scary and another kind of gamble!