Reacting to My Halloween Writing Prompts!

This is one of my last posts before Halloween, so: Happy Halloween, everyone!

I thought it would be fun since I'd been posting a few different Halloween/spooky writing prompts this month to actually use some of them myself and write some fun little stories!  So, without further ado, here are the stories I came up with using a few of the Halloween Prompts I had written in these previous posts.  I only gave myself ten minutes to write per each story.  Click these links to check out all the different prompts! First Prompts.  Second Prompts.   

#1 “You’re so chicken.  Nobody’s seen Old Man Jenkins’ ghost in twenty years."

“You’re so chicken, Sarah.  Nobody’s seen Old Man Jenkins’ ghost in twenty years,” Hunter taunted. 

That was because everyone who’d ever seen the ghost, never lived to tell anybody about it.  It was kind of what the entire legend of the Jenkins’ House was built on.  Dumb teenagers like us thought it was spooky, therefore fun to hang out in, but no one ever knew anyone who’d actually seen the ghost. 

Except the two kids who got murdered in the house last week.

“Did you ever think there might be a reason for that, Hunter?” I asked, placing my hands on my hips.  “Like everyone who sees the ghost ends up dead?  Under mysterious circumstances usually?  Ring any bells?”

He shook his head.  “No!  Nobody’s seen it because nobody’s been brave enough to go inside the house in twenty years.”

“Sarah’s right,” my best friend Anna agreed.  “Two kids from Brookland got murdered in the house like four days ago, and you seriously think there isn’t any reason to not go into the Jenkins’ House?  Are you trying to get murdered?”

I flashed her a look of gratitude before turning towards the house in question.  “We shouldn’t even be here right now.  It’s still a crime scene.”

Hunter’s eyebrows furrowed.  He had never liked being told what to do.  He had problems with authority figures according to our guidance counselor.  I could tell he wanted to go into the Jenkins’ House like nothing else.  What I didn’t get was why. 

“Why is it so important for you to go in there?” I asked him.  “You have to know it’s dangerous.  Even if there isn’t a ghost in there, kids were still just murdered in there.  What are you trying to prove by going in there?”

He crossed his arms over his chest.  “Nothing, Sarah.  I just think it’d be fun.  It’s a haunted house, you know?”

Emphasis on haunted, for sure.  Ghost or no ghost, it was definitely still haunted. 

“Here’s an idea,” Anna started, “what if we go to the haunted house run by the school instead?  I know it’s not going to be as scary, but I feel like we’re waaaaay less likely to die in the gymnasium 

than here at a literal haunted house.”

To be fair, I felt like I was dying every time I went there for gym class, but I got her point. 

#2 I’ve always been afraid of mummies.  I only took the job as a security guard for a history museum because I’d been desperate.

I’ve always been afraid of mummies.  I only took the job as a security guard for a history museum because I’d been desperate.  Like, I’d been searching for a decent job for four months and this was the only job that had even called me in for an interview level of desperate.

And it wan't like being afraid of mummies was irrational.  They were constantly in monster movies.  And I couldn’t pull off terrified action hero like Brendan Fraiser could! 

I sighed as I turned the corner into the Hall of Egypt, waving my flashlight instinctively to all the corners.  I wouldn’t even mind this job if it was during the day.  You never hear of mummies coming to life and attacking a bus full of third graders.  No, it was always in the middle of the night – like right now – and the mummy always went after the night security guard – which unfortunately, was me. 

After securing the corners, I shined the light right at the mummy case.  For some reason, our mummy wasn’t in a sarcophagus.  No, ours was taken out of there, taken out of the wrappings, and placed in a separate glass case.  Which was even more terrifying. 

It was one thing to imagine what a mummified grave digger would look like behind a sarcophagus.  It was a whole different thing to actually be able to see it!

A freaky, horrifying, sunken-in, scary as all get out mummy. 

I inwardly shuddered, seeing that the mummy had yet again not risen to kill me in the middle of the night.  But it was only 3 am.  I still had four hours until the day guard came to relieve me. 

Turning right back out of Egypt, I headed to the geology exhibit.  I had no fear of shiny, sparkly rocks coming alive and getting me in the night.  Though, I supposed the large geode hanging from the ceiling could snap its cables and crush me to death.  Still, that was better than being attacked by a mummy. 

Another hour passed and I heard my footsteps clack against the linoleum floor.  I stopped to check out the traveling Amelia Earheart exhibit.  After a few seconds, I realized I could still hear my footsteps.  Problem was, I wasn’t walking anymore.

Oh God.  Not tonight.          

#3 Why am I spending my Halloween in the most haunted cemetery in Salem, you ask?  Well…

Why am I spending my Halloween in the most haunted cemetery in Salem, you ask?  Well… it all started with my friend Jennifer and her ridiculous crush on the unattainable popular boy Josh.

She heard that he and his friends were hanging out in the cemetery for Halloween, and so apparently, that meant we are too? 

“Dude,” Josh says to one of his friends.  “I think this is where that guy got crushed to death with rocks!”

Seriously?  This entire group of people had grown up in Salem.  We all went on annual field trips to the cemetery and the museums.  We all know this stuff already.  It isn’t even scary. 

“Yeah,” Jennifer chimes in.  “He totally got pressed to death right here.”

Somehow, I had known Jennifer wouldn’t be able to not subtly correct them.  She’s an Honors kid, and she just can’t help herself.

I roll my eyes, then glance at some of the oldest gravestones in the place.  Half of them are fading off because they’re so old and weathered.  “You know there’s a sign like two feet that way that says we don’t actually know exactly where it happened.  They just guess it’s over there.”

Unlike Jennifer, I don’t care if I come off smart to these idiots.  Besides, if Josh doesn’t like her for herself – i.e. her brainy, Honors self – then he isn’t worth it.  But her hormones are rushing, and who am I to tell her who to like and not like. 

“Woah!” Josh replies, his voice shooting out through the cemetery.  “And where did the burn the witches at, Sammie?”

Ugh, why…

“In Europe,” I reply, crossing my arms over my chest.  “Can you please keep it down.  You know this place closes at nightfall, and it’s literally so small that the cops can see us from the street.”

“Sam,” Jennifer pleads, clearly not wanting me to make a bad impression for her to Josh. 

I shrug my shoulders.  This is her thing, yeah, but I don’t exactly want to spend my night getting arrested more than I want to spend it in this cemetery. 

Josh wraps his arm protectively around Jennifer.  “Hey, Sam’s just being helpful,” he says.  “Besides, she knows so much about this place!”

Oh my god, we all do!  Or should.  What a dumbass. 

“Yeah, totally,” Jennifer giggles. 

Make that two dumbasses. 

Happy Halloween to me.