“What’s a Dullahan?’
‘He’s a headless horseman, in the service of the banshee.’
‘Headless?’
‘Yes.’
‘Seriously?’
‘Yes.’
‘So he has no head?’
‘That’s usually what headless means.’
‘No head at all?’
‘You’re really getting hung up on this headless thing, aren’t you?’
‘It’s just kind of silly, even for us.’
‘Yet you spend your days with a living skeleton.’
‘But at least he has a head.’
‘True.’
‘He even has a spare.”
Doing? waiting on a candle lit front porch for all those little vampires, witches, princesses, hulks, spidermans, batmans, soldiers and bumblebees who wanna get the Snickers, Kit Kats, Milky Ways, and Rollos – I have in a huge carved Jack-o-lantern sitting beside me…..
Everybody sat in the dark cellar, suspended in the suddenly frozen task of this October game; the wind blew outside, banging the house, the smell of pumpkins and apples filled the room with smell of the objects in their fingers while one boy cried, “I’ll go upstairs and look!” and he ran upstairs hopefully and out around the house, four times around the house, calling, “Marion, Marion, Marion!” over and over and at last coming slowly down the stairs into the waiting breathing cellar and saying to the darkness, “I can’t find her.”
Then… some idiot turned on the lights.
Excerpt: Long After Midnight, Ray Bradbury Image: bigbackground.com
“I am your sire. I am to guide you through your first days as a vampire. Your first feeding is a rite of passage, a sacrament. It will not be wasted on some hormone-driven frenzy. This is why I wanted you to feed from me.”
“I will not drink it in a house, I will not drink it with a mouse. I will not drink it here or there, I will not drink it anywhere,” I wheezed, hoping I was able to communicate adequate sarcasm through the crippling belly cramps.
Slowly the thing emerged from the gloom of the doorway, and despite the warning I had had, I felt a prickling sensation at the back of my neck just above my collar, and a feeling as of sudden chill ran through my forearms. It was tall, as we had been told, fully six feet from its bare-boned feet to hairless, parchment-covered skull; and the articulation of its skeleton could be seen plainly through the leathery skin that clung to the gaunt, staring bones. The nose was large, high-bridged and haughty, like the beak of a falcon or eagle, and the chin was prominent beneath the brownish sheath of skin that stretched drum-tight across it. The eyes were closed and showed only as twin depressions in the skull-like countenance, but the mummified lips had retracted to show a double line of teeth in a mirthless grin. Its movements were irregular and stiff, like the movements of some monstrous mechanical doll …
Excerpt:The Mummy Walks Among Us, Seabury Quinn Image: K.H. Wight – isn’t it a great picture?
Listening to: quiet… it’s 2 AM here and it’s the first day of one of my favorite months of the year – October. Shall I tell you why?
Fall is coming so that means a/c off, heater not on yet so saving some money on the electric bill always a good thing because
Christmas is coming soon have to start shopping for presents…
Gotta mention the pumpkins, hayrides and hot cider with a dollop
Add to that ghost stories, shivery thrillers, scary movies
But the number one in my book: Halloween… One of my absolutely favorite holidays.
Man I need some sleep…. <yawns> did I tell you it’s after 2 AM here?
According to the Stephen King manual – there are 3 types of terror:
The Gross-out: the sight of a severed head tumbling down a flight of stairs, it’s when the lights go out and something green and slimy splatters against your arm.
The Horror: the unnatural, spiders the size of bears, the dead waking up and walking around, it’s when the lights go out and something with claws grabs you by the arm. And the last and worse one:
Terror, when you come home and notice everything you own had been taken away and replaced by an exact substitute. It’s when the lights go out and you feel something behind you, you hear it, you feel its breath against your ear, but when you turn around, there’s nothing there…
Source: Stephen King
Inky’s Take : I think there is a fourth – The Angry Seven year old Kid. The one that looks at you with disdain when you drop a handful of taffy in his bag, a frown creasing his lips with a ‘really?’ sniff ‘that’s all you got?’ The self same one who conjours the TP Fairy late at night surrounded by his bubble gum pops, Hershey candy bars, and Snickers.
Ultimately the one that stands on the corner to watch your gaped mouth expression as you take in the rolls upon rolls of toilet paper blanketing every tall item on your lawn, including the 100 year old oak. Laughing gleefully as you answer the ringing cell to find the homeowners association screaming at you though the phone. Yup that one, he really gives me nightmares….. (shivers)
Have a really good All Hallow’s Eve, with lots of candy – the good kind, plenty of goosebumps and absolutely no visits from the toilet paper fairy!
Monsters come in all shapes and sizes, Some of them are things people are scared of. Some of them are things that look like things people used to be scared of a long time ago. Sometimes monsters are things people should be scared of, but they aren’t…
Source: Neil Gaiman, The Ocean at the End of the Lane
Inky’s Thoughts: The above photo is of a vintage Halloween costume. Impressive, rather frightening, and goosebumpingly creepy. I found the photo at City Rag among their vintage photo collection of past Halloween costumes. I can honestly say that many of the photos have a nightmarish quality, evoking uncomfortable squirming, and furtive glances to the darkness beyond the open window, and behind me in the room. The only illumination the weak light of the monitor.
It wouldn’t be so bad, if the cat didn’t stare unflinchingly out the window, ears straight and taunt in the quiet. I’m listening but all I hear is the steady drip of drizzling rain, the low howl of the neighbor’s dog across the meadow, and the deep breaths of the cat. Hmmm lights, I need lights…
‘It’s poor judgment’, said Grandpa ‘to call anything by a name. We don’t know what a hobgoblin or a vampire or a troll is. Could be lots of things. You can’t heave them into categories with labels and say they’ll act one way or another. That’d be silly. They’re people. People who do things. Yes, that’s the way to put it. People who *do* things.
Source: Ray Bradbury, The October Country
Photo: Francisco Farias Jr.
Inky’s Take: Halloween! I love the shivers from a good scream, the heavy ink of a moonless night, and scary stories… utterly orgasmic! Horror movies? Those I usually watch, all the lights on, peeking around a pillow screaming, ‘don’t go into that room’ or ‘why aren’t you running? Run! Now!’ but of course they never do.
Me? Speedy Gonzales would be left – In. The. Dust! Arriba, Arriba… Andalay, Andalay.. you don’t have to tell me twice!
Inky's Pen 