Prompts for 31 October from Scoot
Write about a novice ghost
unsettled safety
“don’t go in there”
A character who hates Hallowe’en
Created with NightCafeStudio AI because it doesn’t exist IRL
Hazel hated Hallowe’en. Hooligans hopping house to house horrified her heart and set her head hammering.
Alliteration aside, Hazel hated what the holiday had become—something definitively unholy. Not the kids, per se. The toddling ghosts with holes cut in sheets so they could see were cute enough. Even the teenagers coming to the door later hoping for full-sized candy bars gave her a sense of unsettled safety, but she knew those kids. A couple of them took care of her dogs when she was called out of town. She preferred the commercialization, oddly enough. Unlike Christmas and Easter, removing the macabre in favor of princesses and Marvel characters pleased her.
What Hazel hated was the celebration that took up the entire month of October. Where were the apple farms, hay rides, and riotous colors of leaves? She had about 95 reasons to hold this new pattern in disdain. When did everyone start putting spiderwebs, skeletons, and cauldrons in their front yards as early as September? Skeletons in the Encore azaleas blooming bright pink? Ugh. Warning signs saying, “Don’t go in there” or “Beware” popped up before the weather began to cool. It seemed like the whims of darkness sought to stifle beauty and innocence. That was what she hated most of all. Autumn used to be a time of harvest and gratitude. Hallowe’en was a single day—and maybe a costume parade downtown. It was cute and quaint and, above all, short.
Hazel mostly kept her opinions to herself. There were bigger spiritual battles to fight, and free candy for the neighbors seemed a small price to pay for maintaining peace in the neighborhood. She chose a more subtle protest. Instead of ghosts and witches, Hazel opted for something scarier: a full-sized cardboard cutout of Martin Luther nailing his arguments to the door of an old German church. The neighborhood kids didn’t get it, but she knew that her subtle nod to Reformation Day was the right touch for her.
“That puts the hallow back at least.”
Feeling just a little smug and rebellious, Hazel sipped her coffee and settled in, bowl of candy in her lap.
“You hammer your way, Friar,” she said to the cutout.” I’ll hammer back mine.”
...till some Jesuit ruffians show up and kick his ass. Uh-oh!