Spooky Tales by Irish Writers
Published 31/10/2017This year #DBF2017 falls on Halloween week, so we decided to embrace the dark side and ask some of our participating authors to craft their own short spooky story. Read more below… if you dare!
Sam Blake
“Watching
Blonde hair clipped up
The same seat on the train every day
But not 2day
I can still taste her scream. Red. Like her lipstick “
(Hear more from Sam Blake at Cracking Crime, Sat 4 Nov)
Caroline Busher
“There were wolves hiding in the trees. Dancing in the shadows. Waiting to pounce.
The blood red moon illuminates the grave where she slept for one hundred years before she clawed her way out.
A gnawing pain seared along her spine. Her bones stretched until her nose and mouth were those of a wolf.”
(Hear more from Caroline Busher at The Ghostly World of Gothic Fiction, Thurs 9 Nov)
Philip Davison
“The late Regina passes through the wall where there used to be a door. She gets run through in the street that is now one-way. She can’t find her husband. He has moved away. “
(Hear more from Philip Davidson as part of this panel event, Sun 5 Nov)
Lucinda Jacobs
“Hallowe’en
In the early dark
tiny witches and ghosts screech
joyful at my door”
(Hear more from Lucinda Jacobs at Hopscotch in the Sky, Sun 5 Nov)
Brian Kirk
“Death’s knocking at a neighbour’s door,
he’s walking down your street.
He’s clued-up on folklore,
wants to pose the question ‘trick or treat?’.”
“After Samhain the fires die out
and you’ll descend into the dark
so bury yourself in a bed of rotting leaves,
conjure dreams of vernal equinox. “
(Hear more from Brian Kirk at Lunchtime Readings, Fri 3 Nov)
“Who’s there?”, she croaked, as the scent of rotting lilies filled the air. Yet even before she heard the ragged, drawn-out sigh, she knew.
The metal taste rich in his mouth, Tom tried not to panic in the darkness, feeling his way around the wood which enclosed him on all sides
“What did you expect?”, she sneered. “He cheated for you, of course he was going to cheat on you”. It was the last thing she ever said.
(Hear more from Helen Moorhouse at Cracking Crime, Sat 4 Nov)
“On All Hallows’ Eve when spirits are rife, she danced with a shadow and it sucked out her life. Friends boogied on; no-one noticed her gone.”
(Hear more from Claire Savage at Magical Masquerade, Fri 10 Nov)
“Again they ring my bell
Blast those pesky kids 2 hell
Kill them all if I cud
Bury them with the others in the wood
A sudden scream makes me cry
Your soul is mine. Today you die! “
(Hear more from Rod Smith at Unlocking the Mystery to History, Thurs 9 Nov)