The 11th Annual Halloweensie Writing Contest is here!!! Susanna Hill runs several fun kidlit micro-fiction contests, and Halloweensie is no exception.

This year's essential info:

• Write a 100-word Halloween story for kids aged 12 & under
• Must include glow-in-the-dark, goosebumps, and goodies
• Can be sweet, fun, or scary
• Entries to be posted between Oct. 29th & Oct. 31st on Susanna's blog
  

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• My piece squeaks in under the limit at 99 words & is a bit on the "scary" side. I enjoyed playing with a different genre from my usual. Hope you like it!

THE JIMJAM
by Carrie Karnes-Fannin
 
Black licorice,
two bruised apples,
a toothbrush…
 
What kind of neighborhood is this?!? 
 
“Guys! C’mon, c’mon…one more.”
 
Your friends shrug.
They peel off, their glow-in-the-dark buckets
heavy with full-sized goodies.
 
Even your goosebumps have goosebumps
in the shivery October air.
 
You trudge on.
 
Under a broken streetlight,
on a shadowed street,
the house
​waits.
 
It gives you
heebie-jeebies...the willies…
the jimjams.
 
You mutter,
“I wouldn’t live here as a ghost,” 
 
Still…
you knock.
 
It opens--
empty, wide.
 
“Oh, aren’t you a sweetie?” A nothing beckons.
“Come! We’ll fill that bag right up.”
 
No treats for you tonight--
you’re tricked.

Once a House 
by Carrie Karnes-Fannin
(177 words)
 
She was once a house,
but that was long ago. She remembered
what it was like.
 
seasons
stacked memories,
piled like cordwood ahead of winter snows
 
For at her heart
were the trees.
 
timbers
people called them,
turning the black forest
into boards and rafters
 
And trees
never forget
those they’ve sheltered.
 
Chicks under the eaves
with broken shells clinging
to their damp heads.
 
Mice and their hidden highways
between golden paneled walls.
 
A girl’s laughter ringing in the hall,
and through the years.
 
she’d loved them all
 
But,
the wood reclaimed her
as its own,
while
 
time dripped down
slowly slowly
 
leafy crowns bathed by crystal rains
fed the tender roots
that coursed through cracks

twisting turning tasting
 
and drank deep from her well
of memories.
 
A thousand dappled suns
kissed her ruined walls,
casting shadows
among the saplings.
 
she loved them still
 
Now
under a frosty blanket,
her bones slept
 
yellow orange red
drifting falling dreaming
 
as the
once-and-future girl climbed,
ascending
echoes
 
of
the house
who used to be a home,
and would always
remember.