Halloween Contest Winning Entries

Each of these gorgeous entries is copyrighted by the authors. Read the stories and enjoy! 

GRAND PRIZE: SHVETA THAKRAR

When the poison sank into his bones, he gasped at the mirror. She had drawn on him, scrawled secrets, all graceful loops and fine lines. Hers was a venom no less deadly than truth; she'd shaded and cross-hatched until half his skin dissolved, revealing another's rich brown flesh.

Another time, another life. Him. He remembered now--her virtuous nature, his restless heart. Hands knotting, he collapsed onto the cold checkered floor.

Across the hall, the Scarlet Scourge smiled. "You wanted to know who you are. Once you loved me. Then you left me. Now? Now you, too, break in half."
                                                                 

FIRST PRIZE: KENNEDY CANNON

My darling one,
He saw you beneath the moonlight
With lips like poison berries--
Crimson,deceitful, alluring--
And hair like knotted twigs,
So you drew him close,
Planted seeds beneath his skin,
Allowed your thorns
To make their home there.
He wrote you poetry
Scrawled in blood and brought you roses
Red as sin,
And you watched them decay,
My purest one,
Turn to nothing,
While he worshiped you
Until his knees cracked
Beneath the weight of his love
And he could no longer stand.
And then what did you do,
My virtuous one?
You broke his heart in two.
                                 

SECOND PRIZE: DONAVAN MCRAE

I can taste the poison . . . He told us not to eat from this tree, he warned us. He warned us, Eve! We were supposed to Live a Virtuous life, true to HIM. That is what HE scrawled across our hearts. LOOK AT US NOW! The poison has transformed me. My beautiful skin has begun to lighten and the very thought of it leaves a knot in my throat. But that is not my biggest fear. My fear is that HE will find me and see what I have done, see you covered in red and know that it was me.
                                      
THIRD PRIZE: PAMELA WYATT

I couldn't help looking at her milky white skin. My God she was beautiful. But I know if I go to her and kiss her full red lips, I would taste the poison that would seep into my virtuous soul and devour it; destroying what goodness was left inside me.

As the knot in my stomach grew with anticipation, all hesitation and doubt left me. I looked in the mirror before me one last time to scrawl the words, "remember me." I slowly walk to her and glide my hands down her naked back and remove the rest of her red velvet dress.

She looked at me with those beautiful chestnut eyes and smiled. I took a hesitant breath and leaned in to kiss her. I could feel the venom slide down my throat and burn the inside of my body. I slowly pull back and whisper breathlessly, "I love you." Then everything went black as I slid to the ground as my soul burned away to leave me as one of the damned.

FOURTH PRIZES:

SHANNON HAWKINS

"This is what you were.
In the hours that my fingers pulled the knot out of your skin and slid kisses out of your hair, you wore a dripping red dress to wreck me. To poison me and hurt me as I watched you walk along that marble floor to go out the window.

I'll remember the scrawl of a life we didn't get enough of poking out along your back, the fire that we kept down when our bed would have been the place to hold the flames.

Just remember you were a virtuous woman who deserved the world."
                                             
PANCHALI DEVI WALFORD

The skin on his back was winter white and the scrawl on his shoulder rotted red. He couldn't see it in the mirror, not then anyway, but the rot clung to him. She had said it was a mark of The Virtuous. That it would show others that the poison had left him. His lips quirked into an ugly shape and he resisted the urge to spit. Pulling a lock of hair from his temple, he wound it into a knot and placed it in his mouth and under his tongue. Her back still faced him and he swallowed.

BETH ADKINS
                                               
He watched her walk away with a knot in his stomach. She knew what she was doing to him. She had scrawled invisible words on his skin while she whispered love and poison in his ear. He had been known as a virtuous man before he got involved with her. He couldn't break free from her now. He was tied to her with an invisible cord. Maybe by the words she wrote. Either way, he was hers.