Halloween Journal Entries

20 creative works found

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• Spirit Walks Challenge Finalists
  by Damian

  The ten groups involved in the Spirit Walks Challenge have decided their winning entries, and they are now open for a public vote for…

  The ten groups involved in the Spirit Walks Challenge have decided their winning entries, and they are now open for a public vote for an overall winner. Thanks to all of the members of Practising the Dark Arts; Blood Red – All things vampiric; Monsters Ink; THE PHANTASMAGORICAL; Short stories – Spherical Scriptings; 1 In The Beginning – Ancient Practices; Fantasy Art; The Art of 3D; Myths, Legends, and Fairy Tales and Flash Fiction. The challenge attracted 105 entries, made up of 34 written works and 71 images. Not bad for 10 days! There is AUS$20 for the overall image winner, and AUS$20 for the overall writing winner. Runners-up in the writing and image section will recieve a copy of the In the Moment publication. The writing finalists are In The Beginning – Ancient Practices / (1) Alison Pearce with The Last Leaves of Autumn Blood Red – All Things Vampiric / (2) Empress with To Tempt A Taste Fantasy Art / (3) Alison Pearce with Finding the Faery Flash Fiction / (4) Anne van Alkemade with Happy Samhain Monsters Ink / (5) Damian with Blood Spilt Myths, Legends, and Fairy Tales / (6) Damian with The Wild Hunt Practising the Dark Arts / (7) Alison Pearce with Spirit Waters Short Stories – Spherical Scriptings / (8) Miri with Schoolgirl Error The image finalists are In The Beginning – Ancient Practices / (1) Helene Kippert with Circle magic / Blood Red – All Things Vampiric / (2) Melanie Dooley with Black Widow / Fantasy Art / (3) F.M. Gore-Kelly with Little Witch / Monsters Ink / (4) Ravenor with Dark Invocation / Myths, Legends, and Fairy Tales / (5) Angela Barnett with Samhain Goddess : The Crone / Practising the Dark Arts / (6) Geoff Coleman with Ianus Semitas / THE PHANTASMAGORICAL / (7) colin with Samhain / The Art of 3D / (8) GoofyFoot with Remorseless Appetite / Voting has closed The Winners are here You can go and have a look around the groups that participated below. / 1 In The Beginning – Ancient Practices / Blood Red – All Things Vampiric / Fantasy Art / Flash Fiction / Monsters Ink / Myths, Legends, and Fairy Tales / Practising the Dark Arts / Short Stories – Spherical Scriptings / THE PHANTASMAGORICAL / The Art of 3D

• YEAH!!!! MY FIRST SALE!!!!
  by Catherine Crimmins

  i just had my first sale!! i sold a card. The one i sold was a Sweet and Simple Halloween card… and it was to Henk. / Thank you!!!!!

  i just had my first sale!! i sold a card. The one i sold was a Sweet and Simple Halloween card… and it was to Henk. / Thank you!!!!!

• *Spirit Walks Challenge - A Multi-Group Experience!*
  by Damian

  Spirit Walks Challenge Ten groups have come together in a challenge to welcome All Hallow’s Eve/Samhain/Halloween, the beginning of …

  Spirit Walks Challenge Ten groups have come together in a challenge to welcome All Hallow’s Eve/Samhain/Halloween, the beginning of winter, for the southern hemisphere. The participating groups are Practising the Dark Arts; Blood Red – All things vampiric; Monsters Ink; THE PHANTASMAGORICAL; Short stories – Spherical Scriptings; 1 In The Beginning – Ancient Practices; Fantasy Art; The Art of 3D; Myths, Legends, and Fairy Tales and Flash Fiction. Background and Inspiration / All Hallow’s Eve is the day when the worlds merge, that of Spirit and flesh, where the veils are at their thinnest, and the Ancestors can freely roam between the two membranes of time and existence. We can communicate more clearly with them, communing together in dreams and shadows. / Samhain corresponds to the Wisdom Cycle of life, the Winter Deities, and thus ensures that our communing with the Ancestors is clear and well grounded. / Samhain is when the Wild Hunt emerges from Faerie to roam the winter countryside. Mortals getting in the path of the Hunt could be kidnapped and brought to the land of the dead. How to be a part of it / Create an image and/or written work that captures the essence of an aspect of the above information. / Add your work to the appropriate group, and paste a link to it in the forum topic in that group, so the host knows it’s an entry! (Allow for different host timezones please, some hosts may still be asleep while other groups have already launched). / The challenge is open to the whole world, not just people in the southern hemisphere :) How it will work / Enter your work to the challenge as above. / Your hosts will judge a winning image and written work for the group. / The group winners will then be open to a public vote to pick the overall winners across all ten groups! Entries close midnight (your time) April 28th. / Group winners will be announced April 30th, and public voting will run for a week (voting details will be provided at that time) to decide the overall winning image and written work (and winning group!) Prizes. There is AUS$20 for the overall image winner, and AUS$20 for the overall writing winner. Written works up to 1000 words. This challenge is in the spirit of fun and group interaction, and is not about determining if one group is better than another :)

• The Spirit Walks Winners
  by Damian

  After a week of public voting, the winners of the Spirit Walks multi-group challenge are now finalised. The writing winner is *Aliso…

  After a week of public voting, the winners of the Spirit Walks multi-group challenge are now finalised. The writing winner is Alison Pearce with The Last Leaves of Autumn, which was the group finalist of In The Beginning – Ancient Practices The writing runner-up is Miri with Schoolgirl Error, which was the group finalist of Short Stories – Spherical Scriptings The image winner is Angela Barnett with Samhain Goddess : The Crone, which was the group finalist of Myths, Legends, and Fairy Tales / The image runner-up is GoofyFoot with Remorseless Appetite, which was the group finalist of The Art of 3D / Both winners, Alison Pearce and Angela Barnett, have won a $20 RedBubble voucher. / Both runner-ups, Miri and GoofyFoot, have won a copy of the In the Moment publication. You can see all of the finalists here. Thanks to the hosts of the ten groups that took part in this challenge, and thanks to all of the group members for participating! Hopefully we can do another multi-group challenge in the future.

• Halloween in Australia
  by Damian

  Something novel for me, my first ever trick-or-treaters LOL! Despite the date being six months wrong for Australia, for the actual pur…

  Something novel for me, my first ever trick-or-treaters LOL! Despite the date being six months wrong for Australia, for the actual purpose of the day from the old traditions, we still have the occassion on the same date as the northern hemisphere. Doesn’t feel quite right to be sweltering in summer conditions (that’s what it felt like today!), and be preparing for the onset of winter! Still, it’s a good fun occassion, despite being basically a non-event on the calender. My workplace had some spooky stuff going on, which was cool too. Still, never thought I’d see the trick-or-treaters!

• Excited
  by Justin Aerni

  Hey Everyone – I’m new to this site and I am excited to make friends and see what I can accomplish here. I already see some great galler…

  Hey Everyone – I’m new to this site and I am excited to make friends and see what I can accomplish here. I already see some great galleries and artists that I would like to talk too. Also Please Check out my website WWW.JUSTINAERNI.COM

• Charles Chaplin - Prophet
  by Colin Tobin

  So this year I am going be be Charlie Chaplin’s Little Tramp Character for Halloween. To celebrate, I thought I’d post up this brillia…

  So this year I am going be be Charlie Chaplin’s Little Tramp Character for Halloween. To celebrate, I thought I’d post up this brilliant speech from Chaplin’s first “talkie” film, The Great Dictator. Even though he wrote this speech with the intention of lampooning Hitler and Mussolini, it is 100% relevant to today’s world. I’m sorry, but I don’t want to be an emperor. That’s not my business. I don’t want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone if possible – Jew, Gentile – black man – white. We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that. We want to live by each other’s happiness – not by each other’s misery. We don’t want to hate and despise one another. In this world there’s room for everyone and the good earth is rich and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful, but we have lost the way. Greed has poisoned men’s souls – has barricaded the world with hate – has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical; our cleverness, hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery we need humanity. More than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost. The aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in man – cries for universal brotherhood – for the unity of us all. Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world – millions of despairing men, women, and little children – victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people. To those who can hear me, I say: ‘Do not despair.’ The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed – the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress. The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish. Soldiers! Don’t give yourselves to brutes – men who despise you and enslave you – who regiment your lives – tell you what to do – what to think and what to feel! Who drill you – diet you – treat you like cattle, use you as cannon fodder. Don’t give yourselves to these unnatural men – machine men with machine minds and machine hearts! You are not machines! You are not cattle! You are men! You have the love of humanity in your hearts. You don’t hate, only the unloved hate – the unloved and the unnatural! Soldiers! Don’t fight for slavery! Fight for liberty! In the seventeenth chapter of St Luke, it is written the kingdom of God is within man not one man nor a group of men, but in all men! In you! You, the people, have the power – the power to create machines. The power to create happiness! You, the people, have the power to make this life free and beautiful – to make this life a wonderful adventure. Then in the name of democracy – let us use that power – let us all unite. Let us fight for a new world – a decent world that will give men a chance to work – that will give youth a future and old age a security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power. But they lie! They do not fulfil that promise. They never will! Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people. Now let us fight to fulfil that promise! Let us fight to free the world – to do away with national barriers – to do away with greed, with hate and intolerance. Let us fight for a world of reason – a world where science and progress will lead to all men’s happiness. Soldiers, in the name of democracy, let us unite! Anyone who hasn’t seen this film yet really should. It’s definitly in my top 5 favorites of all time.

• JOHNNY (A CHILDHOOD HALLOWEEN STORY)
  by KEITH R. WILLIAMS

  once upon a time / there was this boy named johnny / he was a good kid, and everybody love him / one day johnny’s mother asked him / to go to…

  once upon a time / there was this boy named johnny / he was a good kid, and everybody love him / one day johnny’s mother asked him / to go to the store and buy some liver for dinner / she said hurry up, and don’t hang around with your friends / so johnny said alright mommy i will / and went to the store / on the way he ran into some friends playing marbles / they were playing for money too! / johnny come on and play with us they said / johnny said no! i have something to do / aw! come on johnny they said / we’re playing for money too! / ok said johnny it won’t hurt to chill too!! / so johnny started playing, and at first he was winning / but soon johnny lost all his money / oh no! johnny thought what am i going to do? / my mother’s going to kill me if i don’t bring some liver home soon / so johnny was scared, and crying / and when he was on the way home / he stopped at the graveyard / and stole a old man’s liver too! / he took it home, and gave it to his mother / she said oh johnny it’s rotten i can’t cook this / he said i’m sorry momma i should of smelled it / so his mother cooked something else / and sent johnny to bed / later on that night at the door there was a strange sound / so the steps in the house johnny ran down / it was a old man screaming this sound / johnny i want my liver back!! / johnny do you hear me? / johnny i want my liver back!! / johnny ran up the stairs scared, and crying / i don’t have your liver!! / but all the old man said was / johnny i want my liver back!! / johnny i want my liver back!! / johnny i coming in, and i want my liver back!! / johnny crying, and crying scream i don’t have it! / i don’t have it! he cried / then all of a sudden he heard a loud noise / the old man was in the house / johnny i want my liver back!! / i don’t have it / i don’t have it he cried!! / johnny i’m on the first step / johnny i want my liver back / i don’t have your liver he cried!! / and he ran, and hid under the bed / johnny i’m on the second step / i want my liver back!! / johnny i’m on the third step / i want my liver back! / i don’t have it, i don’t have it johnny screamed / johnny i’m on the fifth step / johnny i’m on the sixth step / johnny i want my liver back!! / by this time johnny is shivering, trembling with fright / johnny i’m on the seventh step / johnny im on the eight step / johnny i want my liver back!! / johnny’s crying, and crying!! / i don’t have it, i don’t have it / but all the old man said / was johnny i’m on your floor / johnny i’m by your door / johnny i want my liver back!! / i don’t have it he cried!! / johnny i want my liver back!! / johnny i’m in your room / no! mommy help me! help me! he cried / i don’t have your liver he cried!! / mommy help me! he cried in a sad voice / but all the old man said was / johnny i want my liver back / johnny i see you / johnny i’m by the bed / johnny i got you / the next day johnny’s mother came to wake him up / little johnny was gone / they never heard from him again / the moral of this story / it pays to listen to your mother

• A Halloween Story
  by frogster

  This is a short story I wrote for Halloween a few years back. Hope you enjoy it. / The Joke...

  This is a short story I wrote for Halloween a few years back. Hope you enjoy it. / The Joke

• Didn't know that it would create such a stir.
  by Patricia L. Ballard

  When I photographed the white pumpkin this weekend, it was because I think they’re so beautiful. I didn’t know that they aren’t grown in …

  When I photographed the white pumpkin this weekend, it was because I think they’re so beautiful. I didn’t know that they aren’t grown in Australia. What I was looking for was a blank canvas to rework in Photoshop. This one turned out to be a little too blank as the ridges didn’t extend all the way to the bottom of the pumpkin. Not enough contrast to use the whole pumpkin, but it was fun working with it. I’ve been thinking about looking at an object and focusing the interest on the main feature. This started with my reducing my fractals and is spreading to my other images. Anyway, I had a great time making this image. I’ll look through my autumn shots and see if I can find a display the includes more white pumpkins.

• Happy Halloween
  by nikspix

  Hello! So it’s halloween again. My kids have scattered this year—the first year they’d prefer going candy collecting with their frien…

  Hello! So it’s halloween again. My kids have scattered this year—the first year they’d prefer going candy collecting with their friends instead of me. :( lol I guess they all grow up, don’t they. Well, my son’s still a mama’s kid so he wants me to take him out tonight. He’s twelve. He expects me to dress up and go door to door with him, with my own candy bag. LOL I think I just will. Why not? Why should the kids have all the fun, anyhow? Wishing you all a safe and happy halloween! Cheers, / Nikki

• Happy Halloween!
  by Lina

  So I’ve personalized my main page so that it’s all Halloween/ Autumn stuff! Even some of the names have been changed to go with my theme!...

  So I’ve personalized my main page so that it’s all Halloween/ Autumn stuff! Even some of the names have been changed to go with my theme! hehe. It sure was fun taking that “Skull” photo at the last minute Have fun!

• Happy Halloween
  by Rhonda Walker

  So are all of you ready for Halloween? I think this is the first time that I have everything ready before hand. Also it looks like the …

  So are all of you ready for Halloween? I think this is the first time that I have everything ready before hand. Also it looks like the weather is going to be awesome this year. No having to put the kids costumes over their snowsuits. It’s supposed to be 13C tomorrow. This is the first time for as long as I can remember that there will be no snow on Halloween. Last year it was horrible, about -20C and blowing snow, both our boys ended up with colds the next day. So I’m really looking forward to taking them Trick or Treating tomorrow. The only problem is I’m having a bad bout of insomia this last week. It’s getting so bad that all my new work is starting to look the same to me. I’ve also been having trouble naming my works. Ever have this happen? I know alot of people just name it Untitled, but if I did that I would probably forget about it. I’m pretty addle-minded. Have a Happy Halloween everyone!

• Happy Halloween!
  by Beckylee

  Hope you and your children have a wonderful and SAFE Halloween!

  Hope you and your children have a wonderful and SAFE Halloween!

• A FEW HITS!
  by John Davis

  I would like to thank every one for viewing DARKNESS BECOMES HER!, and for the home page feature from REDBUBBLE. THIS SITE ROCKS!!!...

  I would like to thank every one for viewing DARKNESS BECOMES HER!, and for the home page feature from REDBUBBLE. THIS SITE ROCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! JOHN DAVIS

• FILTH MIRROR.COM IS NOW OPEN
  by FILTH MIRROR Dedicated To The Horror

  Thats right go check it out, Custom masks and horror props! / Thank you all for your support, and please help spread the word! / -Salem / h…

  Thats right go check it out, Custom masks and horror props! / Thank you all for your support, and please help spread the word! / -Salem / http://www.filthmirror.com

• Night of the Vampyre
  by Adrena87

  Ebony night covers the land / The sun finds her bed to sleep / Creatures creep into the streets / To steal victims for their keep / Fangs tea…

  Ebony night covers the land / The sun finds her bed to sleep / Creatures creep into the streets / To steal victims for their keep / Fangs tear into bodily flesh / A scream penetrates dead silence / Twisting, turning, trying to escape / The weak one strikes the stronger / Demonic nails end resistance / Blood drains slowly from prey to killer / The finish is soon to come / Slowly sunlight arrives once more / And the evil one finds his home

• "Apa trece, pietrele ramin."
  by CowGirlZen

  HAPPY ALL HALLOWS EVE~ “The water flows, the rocks remain.” / —Old Romanian Proverb Bram Stoker’s Dracula, published in 1897, c…

  HAPPY ALL HALLOWS EVE~ “The water flows, the rocks remain.” / —Old Romanian Proverb Bram Stoker’s Dracula, published in 1897, continues to send shivers down the spine of anyone who reads it. It is dark Gothic at its best, a brilliant, imaginative and can’t-put-down work of art. The atmosphere it creates is, in this writer’s opinion, spookier than any Stephen King novel. But…many people who have read the book are not aware that the character Dracula the vampire is based on was a highborn member of a Romanian court, prominent in European history – and much more terrifying than his fictional descendant. While not the black-cloaked, centuries-old, fanged bloodsucker of literary fame, the infamy of the historical figure outperforms that of Stoker’s creation. Prince Vlad, or as he was called even in his own time, Dracula (which means “Son of the Dragon”) tops the list of Romania’s many, many Christian crusaders who, in the transition years between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, fought to keep the Muslim-faithed Ottoman Turks out of their country. Odd that a name known for stirring nightmares actually belonged to a crusader of a religious cause! Still, Dracula was not a saint. He ruled his military kingdom of Wallachia – southern Romania – with a heavy and blood-soaked fist. To not only the Turks but also to many of his own countrymen he was Vlad The Impaler, Vlad Die Tepes (pronounced Tee-pish). Determined not to be overtaken by the intrigue of an intriguing political underhandedness, in a world in which princes fell daily to smiling, hypocritical “allies,” paranoia among the aristocracy was, and probably needed to be, utmost in a sovereign’s disposition. Dracula built a defense around him that dared not open kindness nor trust to anyone. During his tenure, he killed by the droves, impaling on a forest of spikes around his castle thousands of subjects who he saw as either traitors, would-be traitors or enemies to the security of Romania and the Roman Catholic Church. Sometimes, he slew merely to show other possible insurgents and criminals just what their fate would be if they became troublesome. Vlad Dracula / (AP) / A pamphlet published in Nuremburg, Germany, immediately following his death in 1476, tells of his burning beggars after allowing them free food at his court. “He felt they were eating the people’s food for nothing, and could not repay it,” the broadside explains. And there are countless of other tales of Dracula’s wickedness written down ages ago, many of which will be related in this article. But, Vlad Dracula was more than just a medieval despot. Biographers Radu R. Florescu and Raymond T. McNally call him “a man of many faces”. He was a politician; a voivode (warrior); an erudite and well-learned gentleman when the occasion-to-be fit; and, as has been indicated, he was a mass murderer. He spoke several languages – Romanian, Turkish, Latin and German – and steeped himself in the use of broadsword and crossbow. He was an equestrian, riding at the head of his attacking army like a Berskerker. At three separate times, Dracula governed Wallachia, one of three Hungarian principalities that later merged with the others – Transylvania (to the north) and Moldavia (to the east) – to become the country of Romania. Because Wallachia, his province, sat directly above the open Danube River Plain, which separated the Ottoman Empire from free Romania, his was the frontal defense against the non- Christian Turks. Despite his cruelties and severe punishments, and because of his seething hatred for anything Turkish, he is considered today a national hero by the populace. Because he died in warfare against the foe, even fought against a brother whom he considered a sell-out to the enemy, he is often upheld as a martyr. Statues stand in his honor, and his birthplace at Sighisoara and resting-place at Snagov are considered almost canonical. “Though many Westerners are baffled that a man whose political and military career was as steeped in blood as was that of Vlad Dracula,” writes Elizabeth Miller for Journal of the Dark magazine, “the fact remains that for many Romanians he is an icon of heroism…It is this duality that is part of his appeal.” The adventurous life led by Dracula put him in contact with the era’s most fascinating people, among them “White Knight” Jonas Hunyadi, Hungarian King Matthias Corvinus and the ambitious Sultan Mehmed of Turkey. In his lifetime, Dracula witnessed the rising use of gunpowder as a means of destruction, the Holy Crusades, the fall of Constantinople and the nouveau philosophy of art, alchemy and culture that became known as the Renaissance. It was no idle choice that the red-bearded Irish novelist Bram Stoker in 1896 chose the factual Impaler as the model for his nosferatu, his “undead” vampire. Although admittedly never having set foot on Romanian soil, having done most of his research at the London Library, it is obvious that the infamous Count Dracula emulates his historical counterpart. Poring over texts such as An Extraordinary and Shocking History of a Great Berserker Called Prince Dracula, The Historie and Superstitions of Romantic Romania and Wilkinson’s Account of Wallachia and Moldavia, Stoker chanced upon the tales of Dracula. (It has been suggested by scholars that such histories would be incomplete without generous space attributed to the man.) In the tomes he studied, Stoker assuredly read of the voivode Dracula, whose atrocities trembled the Christian Western World and whose audacity saved it from Allah. A few 20th Century authors have denied any connection between the Romanian prince of fact and the bloodthirsty count of fiction, opining that Stoker merely used the rhythmical name he discovered in the pages of old histories. They base their interpretation primarily on two premises. The first is that Stoker’s ghoul resides in a castle in the Transylvanian Alps and not in Wallachia’s foothills, the better part of some 150 miles. The other is that the vampire is described by Stoker as being of Szekely blood, from a race of people in the “northern country,” and not of an older Wallachian stock. Other writers, however, recognizing the liberties afforded by literary license, point to the striking similarities that speak very strongly beyond coincidence. Most notable are the references to Count Dracula’s past as uttered by the fictional nobleman himself. They paint a history parallel to Vlad Dracula’s. In the novel, when Jonathan Harker, a British solicitor, visits Dracula’s castle in Transylvania for the purpose of closing a real estate deal (the vampire is relocating to London to pursue fresh blood), the count describes the land over which Harker has just journeyed as “ground fought over for centuries by the Wallachian, the Saxon and the Turk…enriched by the blood of men, patriots or invaders.” In a subsequent chapter, Count Dracula relates to Harker a virtual history of his own royal heritage. “Is it a wonder that we were a conquering race,” he asks, “that we were proud; that when the Magyar, the Lombard, the Avar, the Bulgar or the Turk poured his thousands on our frontiers we drove them back?...To us, for centuries, was trusted the guarding of the frontier of Turkeyland; aye, and more than that, endless duty of the frontier guard.” At one point, Count Dracula alludes to an “ancestor” who “sold his people to the Turk and brought the shame of slavery on them!” Vlad Dracula had such a brother. There are other tens of references, actually, throughout the novel that not-too-subtly point to Vlad Dracula as the accurate source – references to particular military campaigns in which he took part, contemporaries with whom he acquainted, and places he visited. In summary, had Stoker not taken his character from the crimson cloth of Vlad the Impaler, he then certainly adorned his creation with a cloak colored amazingly close to the same hue. I thank Messrs. Bogdan Banu and Nemecsek Einar, both Romanian-born and both quite knowledgeable of the Vlad Tepes days, for their input and clarifications in this story.

• A Halloween Story The Truth Can Be Strange
  by Jon Ayres

  A Halloween Story / By / Jon D. Ayres In a past life I used to be a conservation officer with the Georgia Department of Natural Resource…

  A Halloween Story / By / Jon D. Ayres In a past life I used to be a conservation officer with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, game warden for those who do not know what a conservation officer is. It was a job I enjoyed since it allowed me to be in the outdoors and work alone most of the time. Sure, the job had its ups and downs, but I’m a pretty laid back type of person, if I thought a hunter or fisherman made a mistake, I wouldn’t write them, for example if I checked a fisherman at the local damn, I would just hold their driver’s license and make them run to the local bait shop down the road and buy a fishing license, I kind of picked what I would give somebody a break on and what I would not. Night hunters I caught got no breaks along with vandals. Part of my duties was enforcing laws which dealt with the protection of historic sites. A historic site in my state was considered to be anything 100 years or older, this included many old country cemeteries. I usually would look over any cemetery and if I came across signs of kids partying, getting drunk and vandalizing the graves or signs of night hunters, I knew I would be staking out the cemetery and spending the night in a spooky old lonely graveyard soon. Night hunters love to use old country graveyards as night hunting targets because deer and rabbits would come out in the open to grave on the grass at night and they can be damn right mean sometimes, I mean killing mean. Kids partying were no trouble, but night hunters sometimes were know for shooting not only deer and rabbits, but also game wardens. When you’re going to lose what ever your hunting in, I’m talking about vehicle, your guns, pay a stiff fine and do some jail time, some night hunters would just as soon kill a game warden. It might not be so bad if the county sheriff’s would back us up, but I have worked in counties where the sheriff ordered his deputies not to help conservation officers, we were pretty much on our own. Well the day before Halloween, I found signs in an old country graveyard that night hunting was going on there. The cemetery was located in the middle of the woods next to a plantation in Southwest Georgia, a dirt road lead to the church which still held services. I notice car tracks in the field next to the church and cemetery and a few shell casings, so it was not hard to see that something was going on here, could be legal hunting during the day, but unless I spent a night or two there, I would never know. So I looked over everything carefully, ways into the area and ways out of the area, the best place to park my patrol truck and best location to look over everything and offer some cover. I decided that it would be best to park my truck behind the church so it would not be seen and watch things from the graveyard since the vehicle tracks I had seen pasted close by the graveyard. This was because the night hunters would scan both the graveyard and the field next to the church looking for something to shoot. As I looked over the cemetery for the best place to station myself, I always take not of the various graves, names dates and what not to see if there has been any vandalism caused my kids coming there at night, getting drunk and spray painting or stealing tombstones. I actually caught somebody one night trying to steal a large tombstone because he wanted to make a coffee table out of it. Out of habit, I usually would notice one or two graves to look un-kept and forgotten about, so I would usually pickup a few flowers when I go into town to place on the graves. Just out of respect I guess, not that I believe in ghosts, I have spent many a night in old out of the way country cemeteries and I yet to see a ghost, but because I haven’t seen one, sure as heck dose not mean there are not any. Maybe I did this as insurance, I mean why not get on the spirits good side, after all, part of my job is to protect there burial place. I did it I guess as insurance, why press my luck. It is now 10:00 am, I’ll head to the office, advised my commander what was up and what I’ll be doing to night, stop by the flower store and pickup a few flowers, then go home and get some rest because it was going to be a long night. I arrived at the church and cemetery about 30 minutes before nightfall. I parked my truck behind the church, between the church and woods, then walked over to the graveyard to place flowers on the three graves I chosen, the grave of a young lady in her twenties who dies in 1923, the grave of a little girl who died in 1906 and the grave of a veteran of WWI who was KIA.. Then I walked over to the spot I had chosen to watch things from, a small crypt, most likely a family was buried in it. I choose this spot because it offered a good view of everything, plus if the need were to arise, I hope good cover if there was going to be a firefight. If anybody is going to come here tonight, I hope they come pretty early so I’m not going to have to spend all night here. It really was not that bad spending all night in a graveyard; I’ve done it many times before. Just part of the job, but you can not help but think of ghosts when you’re looking at tombstones in the moonlight. It only really bothered me when I thought of the movie, “Night of the Living Dead.” That movie always came on TV on Halloween night when I was a teenager and even though it scared the hell out of me, I always watched it, even though it always frightens me. When I was a child, the TV show, “The Outer Limits,” for some reason that theme song scared me, when ever it would come on, I would run out of the room. The TV show was never scary, just that theme song. Sitting in the middle of a cemetery in the middle of the night is the last place you want to think about “Night of the Living Dead or The Outer Limits theme song.” Take my word for it, even though I carried a Colt .45 and AR-15, I did not think these are not too effective against the supernatural things like mean ghosts and ghouls. When ever I started thinking about these things, I usually would think about the ones buried in the graves I bought flowers for, what did they look like, what kind of lives did they have, every so often I would hold one sided conversations with them just to get my mind off of ghouls, all those darn horror movies I used to watch on TV every Friday night and what not. I sure hope that if Barnabas Collins is lurking about here tonight, he remembers that I’m his buddy and used to watch “Dark Shadows” on TV when I would get home from school. You have no idea how boring it can be sitting in the middle of a graveyard in the middle of the night. About the only thing to do is to watch and listen to everything going on around you. It’s really not that spooky at all when the weather is nice, but when there is a thick fog hanging close to the ground, that can be somewhat spooky I must admit. Fog reflects light and you can think you’re seeing something from the reflected moonlight that really isn’t there. If I were lucky, I could sit in my patrol truck and wait for something to happen, but a lot of times, I could not because the truck you be out in the open and if seen by night hunters or vandals, it would spook them away, so many a night I would have to hide in a cemetery itself or field waiting for “Where The Action Is” to start. At about 1:30 am, after waiting in this cemetery for over six hours, I finally saw my quarry, headlights coming down the farm road and starting to circle around he field. Bang---Bang, Bang and the truck stopped at the far edge of the cemetery. That’s all I needed, I radioed GSP (Georgia State Patrol) Albany and told them my location and that I was fixing to make a stop of a truck which just fired three shots. Looking through my binoculars, I gave them the tag number of the F100 pickup, Baker, Tom, Cindy, 582. I then cocked my .45 and placed it on safe and said a prayer as I rush out toward the Ford pickup, keeping cover with the tombstones, but trying not to step on the graves. I had made it about halfway to the pickup moving quickly and carefully through the graveyard when I suddenly said out loud to myself, “What the &^&!” I was laying flat on my back, not only was I flat on my back; I was lying in a big hole, hell I was in a grave. I jumped up and tried to get out, but the Georgia Red Clay was slick as ice, I ended up on my butt more than I wanted to by slipping on the red clay. I finally clamed down enough to get my senses back and think this situation I now found myself in. Apparently I had stepped into a grave that had been dug during the day after I had scouted out the graveyard that morning. I could not believe just what I had done. Darn it, I would have to let those night hunters get away. I stopped to think things over while I smoked a cigarette. I did not want to call GSP Albany, let alone anybody else; I would never live this down. As I smoked my cigarette, I finally thought, why not take your knife out and dig out a couple of steps to get out of this hole? Good, I thought, so I felt my belt where I kept my Tanto, “Where is my Tanto?” I always carry my Tanto with me, it was my service blade. “I can not believe this, what else is going to go wrong tonight, I guess I will have a wreck on my way home, maybe this grave is the safest place after all?” I looked at my watch; it was now 4:00am. “How am I going to get out of this grave?” I just finished another cigarette when a voice said, “Need a hand friend?” I replied, I sure do! Thank you!” “Papa, is he one of us?” Than a ladies voice said, “No Mary Sue, he’s not Quaker.” A firm hand griped my hand and it felt as if I were flying through the air and landed on solid ground beside the grave. “Thank you, you sure saved me some trouble and embarrassment.” “Think nothing of it Friend.” I stopped and lit a cigarette and almost fell back into the grave by what I saw. From the reflection of my lighter, I saw a man dressed in a WWII uniform, a little blond girl about four years old dressed in a bonnet, and fancy dress and shawl and a lovely young lady in her 20’s dressed also in a white bonnet, dress to her ankles and shawl. I started shaking so bad I could not lit my cigarette and my lighter went out. I was trembling like I never trembled before; I could not speak, but finally was able to say thank you and all three replied, “Thank You!” I finally got my lighter lit and lit another cigarette and nobody was there, I switched on my Maglite, nothing, not a single person anywhere. As I walked back to my truck, all I could think about was, “Am I getting too old for this job?” Some night, tonight was, this is one job where anything can happen, one day I’m wrestling alligators in people’s swimming pools, the next day wading around barefoot in ponds looking for drowned people, and spending the next night in some forgotten cemetery. That’s the life of a Georgia Conservation Officer, I guess next I’ll be looking for Big Foot when somebody calls and says they’ve seen something strange in the woods.

• Halloween
  by Lisa Stearns-Herrman

  My sweet daughter, in her excitement over halloween, asked me about some of the nocturnal ghoulies in the halloween stories she is readin…

  My sweet daughter, in her excitement over halloween, asked me about some of the nocturnal ghoulies in the halloween stories she is reading. In her sweet little pink sparkling world, the inky black that stalks the night is stark contrast to the images she keeps in her pristine heart. Her mother, damaged and stained, struggled to put a friendly spin on the haunting and bloodthirsty tales that sustain me. Difficult to explain why a vampire’s teeth must be so sharp, and why a ghost would turn its back on heaven to find those that had wronged it in life. After all, aren’t people supposed to turn the other cheek? Forgive those that trespass against us? Apologize for stepping on their toe, much less rip out their hearts? / Hmmm…. / For the sake of her future image of me (less gallant a reason than to do the right thing) I soft pedaled the grisly images to help her candy coat her soft, fluffy sweet smelling world. I am the last one to dump a potful of ink into her cotton candy heart. / I love you Lucy… I hope that you will know that, even when the world shows you it’s ugly side. / Mama