Adorable ghosts and witches on Hallmark cards. Costume-party Barbie dolls. Harvest festivals.

They're trying to kill off what Halloween is all about. They want to bury it deep beneath a mound of cartoon naiveté, saccharine sweetness, and political correctness. They want to make Halloween safe.

They're doomed to failure.

The darkened closet. The rotting skull. Hot breath on an innocent throat. Low chuckles in shadowy attics. Open graves.

Fear.

They can't kill that with purple plastic pumpkins, Power Ranger costumes, or moralizing letters-to-the-editor. But they'll still try, won't they?

Fight back.

And earn XP for it, too.

Halloween traditionally sees a horror story Quest here on E2 -- last year, Rancid_Pickle gave us Everything Quests: Scary Stories, and before that, icicle put together I can make you howl. And vice versa. Let's get down to business. Same thing now: write an original scary story or node a story that is in the public domain. It can be any length and any topic -- as long as it's scary. You can even node true stories, if you have them, but make sure they're scary -- straight factual writeups won't cut it here.

Your reward? You mean other than upvotes? Other than any chings? Other than the bliss of scaring the pants off innocent readers? Lucy-S is co-sponsoring this Quest, and she'll hand out treats of 13 XPs for every writeup you submit for the Quest. There is a limit of ten blessings per noder, but you're welcome to add more than ten writeups. (though I may participate in this Quest, none of my writeups will receive the 13-point blessing; however, I'm insisting that Lucy get the 13 XPs, 'cause her stuff's so damn good)

Be warned: if you cut-and-paste or plagiarize someone else's copyrighted work, your writeup will be deleted, and you'll be assessed a -13 XP penalty.

What's the runtime for the Quest? The entire month of October, plus November 1, server time. Yes, if you've already written a scary story this month, it can still count.

When you write a story for the Quest, just /msg me with the node title and softlink your writeup to this node. I'll include a list of all the Quest participants below.

Let the fear begin.
Numbers by MALTP
My rotting sweetheart by yours truly
O day and night, but this is wondrous strange! by kthejoker
Maud by XWiz
today i clean her little fingerprints from my window by etouffee
There's a certain silence driving me mad by kthejoker
Pushing Flesh by XWiz
At the Funeral by borgo
death grip by Rancid_Pickle
Day in the Life by malcster
The Wreck of the Evangeline by kthejoker
How to kill your mates on Everything2 by shyHyena
Whelmed by the Bemming by AnBolb
The Reenactment by drownzsurf
Can'st thou not minister to a mind diseased? by allseeingeye
Chucky's vagina by TheDeadGuy
My life may no longer be my own by RPGeek
your dreams in a little box in the closet by kthejoker
Enough of this Teacher by Simulacron3
Viper by Ereneta
Pale opaque bricks by JohnnyGoodyear
Losing grip by aionaever
In meinen Träumen kommt sie zu mir and verlässt mich gleich danach by izubachi
Helpless to my own mistakes by weasello
Live and Run and Hate by Mukkachuk
beautiful and sick, like oak apples by Narya
We were never really friends by kthejoker
The child, she cannot sleep by symptoma
The last vermin by symptoma
Finest Hour by PopeHypocriteIII
October 19, 2003 by BuffcorePhil
White Hole by PopeHypocriteIII
Stone Fox by XWiz
Dead chicks rock the house by pelsmith
Of Gingerbread Houses, and Happy Endings by arcanamundi
Little Orphant Annie by Lometa
Unwelcome visitors by weasello
Decomposing by kthejoker
What to do about trolls by Rancid_Pickle
Fall of Darkness by Lucy-S
Inside the gingerbread house, the witch is waiting by icicle
October 21, 2003 by randombit
A House Divided by PopeHypocriteIII
Coyote/La Niña by Lucy-S
Friends in Life and Death by Sverre
The Park by TanisNikana
Cut to the chase by PopeHypocriteIII
I want you in my mouth by lovejoyman
Delicious jams and jellies by Servo5678
You're never alone by kthejoker
Hot coals in inky night by MoonBox
I want you in my mouth by nota
I'm not what you think by Servo5678
For what you wish by Wiccanpiper
The Letter by Photon Hills Pimp
This isn't a fairy tale by Servo5678
Deadlines by 69lovesongs
Now that was a scary ending by TehBesto
purple_curtain is an undead brain-eating zombie by AnBolb
Occam's Revenge by briglass
Friedrich Wilhelm von Junzt by yours truly
Just a collection of ones and zeroes by Servo5678
Don't send me roses by no_one
Be nice to smokers: any cigarette can be their last by BuffcorePhil
The Marching of the Ants by GoodKingNerdnor
Tinkle by Ouroboros
Seal of Solomon by AriaMech
I've got the music in me by Servo5678
Complex Massacre by NickLandry
She runs by Cornbread
With this plant I can take on the world by Servo5678
The Giant Pumpkin Murders by GrouchyOldMan
The Strangeness by ac_hyper
Why there is no moloch13 by moloch36
Murder in the Red Barn by Timeshredder
The Rear-Guard by epli_ellifu
Cursed vehicle by Voodoo Chile
Bianca and the Little Blue Bear by artman2003
Good fiction has a price by Servo5678
A Death in the Nodegel by allseeingeye
Marie by Cinderella
Dream Log: October 31, 2003 by Inflatable_Monk
A Death in the Nodegel by kthejoker
In my spare time, I enjoy the occasional murder by RMSzero
A Death in the Nodegel by sam512
Quarantine by Lord Brawl
Wink by TenMinJoe
The Giant Pumpkin Murders by Cinderella
The Birth by isle
The Giant Pumpkin Murders by yours truly
Bad fiction has a price by isogolem
Prospecting the Oort by smartalix
easier by sid
Utopia by XWiz
The Fear of the Vampire by Simulacron3
The map of his purpose by lovejoyman

The Quest is now over! Thanks to all who contributed scary stories this year!

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