3 Spooky Stories to get ready for Halloween!
Ghosts, fearsome creatures, heart-pumping action, and more!
Everyone 8+ will enjoy these fun short stories (Caution: they include scary content, think on the lines of campfire stories)
The Strange Driveway
by: E. J. Nowicki
1.
A chill blew through the street turning Tommy’s blood to ice. He should have worn a coat but then no one would have seen his awesome ninja costume. It was Halloween. Costumes were the whole point.
“…the purple one?” his little sister, Cara, asked. She was decked out in a full purple dragon costume she had made herself. The upside, for her, was that it was based around a nice warm purple coat. When her arms extended she had sort-of wings. And a long pole of a tail dragged behind, leaving sparkles and sequins like a slug’s slime trail. It was awful.
“What?” Tommy asked, feeling the weight of the blue pillowcase he carried. It was loaded with loot. They’d hit every house in the neighborhood.
“Can I have the purple one—the toothbrush from the Wilkensons? You can have the gray one I got.” Cara shot him a pleading look.
“For a price… two peanut butter bars,” he said and then laughed as her face scrunched up like when she didn’t get her way. “Yeah, fine, I don’t want the purple one, anyway.”
Cara grinned. “Wait! Tommy—we didn’t go down there.”
“Where?” Tommy stopped short. He cocked his head to the left and stared at the dirt driveway Cara pointed at. They were passing a wooded empty lot. There wasn’t a driveway there. At least there hadn’t been. “Strange.”
“Someone must have built it,” Cara said easily. “It must be a long driveway. I can’t see the house.”
“If it’s new maybe no one’s moved in yet,” Tommy pointed out. He wasn’t going to turn down more candy but didn’t feel like walking forever just to find an empty house.
“Or maybe we’ll get extra special candy for being the only ones who came!” Cara bounced with excitement, her tail showering glitter in the twilight. “Oh, please Tommy!”
“We can go for three chocolate—” he laughed before he could finish. His sister’s face had turned into a dangerous level of scrunch. It was too easy to get under her skin. “Fine! We’ll go. Only because I’m a great big brother. The best!”
Cara bounded down the driveway. Her tail swished as her legs moved.
The sunlight was almost completely gone. Tommy hoped the driveway wasn’t too long. “Wait up!” he called.
2.
“We’re turning back,” Tommy said firmly. “There isn’t a house.”
“But Tommy, there has to be. I just know it!” Cara pleaded. “Please, let’s keep going!”
The dirt path had turned so narrow a car couldn’t even fit on it. There was no way it was a driveway. Darkness had settled over them and Tommy didn’t like the way the woods crowded on each side in a hazy smell of wet dirt and pine tree.
“Let’s turn around,” he said and stopped.
Cara kept walking.
“I said!” He frowned. His sister was so stubborn sometimes. But he was the one in charge. “I’m telling Mom you didn’t listen.”
“No! Don’t!” Cara’s steps halted. “Uh—Tommy!”
His name was said with real fear, not the tone she used when she was joking. Tommy knew the difference. He raced forward and skidded to a gut-wrenching stop at Cara’s side.
A pair of blue eyes glowed in the darkness.
And a pair of purple eyes.
And yellow.
A breathy growl said, “I like to make noises from theirrrrr closet. Gets them scarrrrred—easy.”
“I like to hide under the bed and blow on their feet when they dangle down. A small thing but really gets the frightened juices flowing,” a deep voice rumbled.
A round of laughter followed, it sounded like rocks grating against one another.
The third voice was softer and paused carefully after every word. “Nothing. Beats. Making. Them. Scream.”
Cara clutched Tommy’s arm. He took a step back. What were these glowing eyes talking about… exactly?
The third voice continued, “They. Never. Think. It’s Real.”
“That’s trrrrrue,” the first growled. “The adults neverrrrr believe the kids. The deliciously easy to scarrrrre kids. All that fearrrrr. I can almost taste it.”
The eyes grew bigger. The voices louder.
It didn’t matter what they were, Tommy wasn’t letting them get him or Cara.
“Come on,” he breathed in Cara’s ear and grabbed her hand. He pulled her to the side of the path, into the trees.
“What did they mean? Tasting fear?” Cara whispered but it was louder than Tommy would have liked. He shook his head to signal her to stop and held his breath.
The first voice said it. “Did you hearrrrr that?
Tommy’s neck started to sweat despite the cold. If they went deeper into the woods there was less chance of being seen… but more chance of being heard as they rustled over the trees. He held Cara’s hand harder. It didn’t hurt since it was cushioned with purple gloves to match her costume—her large, poofy costume! There was no way they could move without making a ton of noise in that. Another reason not to like the costume.
“I heard it, too,” the second voice rasped. Two sets of eyes moved around as if giant monsters were moving their heads—
That’s it! Tommy worked away the panic that surged forward. They were monsters. They hid in kid's closets and under their beds and terrorized them. Feeding on their fear, it sounded like.
But what else did they do?
Especially to kids they found alone in the woods?
“I think I smell something,” the first voice added. “Smells like fearrrrr.”
3.
“You. Are. Imagining. Things.” the third voice said in its slow way.
“No, I smell it. It’s kids. I know,” the first voice insisted.
“Not so loud. You’ll make them run,” the second voice chimed in. “Hello kids, are you lost?” it said in a perfect mimic of a nice old lady. If Tommy didn’t know better he’d of run out to ask for help.
Cara’s costume shuddered under his hand. She was shaking.
“If I can taste their fearrrrr I will always be able to find them, no matter if they rrrrrun,” the first voice slurred as if he was sucking up some fear.
Or was it tasting their fear for real? And now it would always be able to find them!
The three sets of eyes came closer. Tommy felt the ground. His hand landed on a branch but it wasn’t very big.
“What. Is. This?” the third voice said. “It. Glows. It. Is. Fairy Dust!”
“Where?” the other two voices gasped.
Tommy blinked as he focused. The eyes were searching the ground. They were looking at little specks of shiny purple… all laid out in a trail…
Cara’s costume! The glitter and sequins would lead the monsters right to them. That awful costume!
Tommy scrambled to find something on the ground. His hand landed on a rock. He hurled it in the air as far away from them as possible.
The monsters jumped in alert.
“That way!” the first voice said and they took off running.
Tommy grabbed Cara. “Come on!” he pushed her into a run. They went up the path, away from the monsters. He didn’t know where they’d go, but it had to be better than here.
4.
The woods opened up into a glen. Eyes dotted the darkness in every color and every hue. Some were high above the ground while others crawled along the dirt.
Tommy grabbed Cara and pushed her behind a fallen log.
Monsters were everywhere. And they were all going to taste their fear. It was over. They were overrun. Tommy had no idea what was going to happen to him and Cara.
But then a new sound entered the grunts and growls of the night. A tinkering sound that turned into a squealing “wheeeee.”
Swarms of little creatures with bright wings burst into the open. Silver lightning shot through the air.
“Fairies!” Cara gasped.
The monsters had talked of fairy dust and Tommy could see why. The fairies shot lightning through the night, their dust swamping the air. Monsters growled in distress. The glen became a smoky battleground. The dusty fog covered so thick Tommy couldn’t make anything out.
“I don’t like it, Tommy,” Cara said. The sounds were growing louder. The screams and growls echoed around them.
“I know,” Tommy said and pulled her down so he could crouch over her. It was the only protection he could give.
There was nothing they could do but wait.
5.
The noise around them stopped. The air filled with silence. Tommy stood straighter and gasped. The glen was gone. The monsters were gone. The fairies were gone.
They were in the middle of the plain old woods, trees on all sides.
“It’s okay,” Tommy told Cara and she straightened. Her purple head falling to one side. “We’re alone.”
“It’s like it never happened,” Cara said slowly. “And Tommy! We’re lost! There’s no path anywhere!”
Tommy sucked in a breath. They’d walked forever. They’d never find their way back.
The moonlight glimmered through the rustling branches. It lightened up enough of the woods that he could see a little. There were glowing specks on the ground…
Fairy dust?
No! Glitter and sequins!
“Cara! Your costume! It’ll show us the way back!” Tommy pointed out the trail.
Cara grinned. “We go that way!”
It took a moment to get Cara turned around in the puffy costume. And it got stuck once or twice on bushes but, really… right now it was the best costume in the world.
Tommy kept his eye out for monsters. The fairies had gotten some of them but he knew there were more. Just waiting to find a kid to attach to. To make noises from their closets and grab their feet from their beds. To feed off them.
“It’s over,” Cara said as they stepped back onto the street. Their street. Probably where the monsters had come out.
“Sure,” Tommy said calmly. But they had witnessed something no one else had. A fight between good and evil. A different realm of creatures battling it out.
And monsters… were real.
As they walked the short distance home Tommy stayed alert. Were there yellow eyes in the woods staring at them? Or purple from under the bush? Or blue from behind that porch?
It might never be over.
Hope everyone has a fun and safe Halloween!
Read the previous spooky stories:
Disclaimer: These are just my thoughts and opinions to be taken in a non-professional manner. All worksheets on my site are free to use
This story is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The author does not have any control over and does not assume responsibility for other websites and their content.
© 2022 E.J. Nowicki All Rights Reserved. This short story may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express permission of the author, E.J. Nowicki, with the exception of brief quotes used in any comments or reviews. You can send a permissions request on my CONTACT page.
Questions? Contact me by clicking HERE.