04 Oct The Halloween Contest

📅 Published on October 4, 2025

“The Halloween Contest”

Written by Brandon Rapier
Edited by Craig Groshek
Thumbnail Art by Craig Groshek
Narrated by N/A

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🎧 Available Audio Adaptations: None Available

⏰ ESTIMATED READING TIME — 11 minutes

Rating: 9.11/10. From 36 votes.

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It was eleven a.m. when Carl finally rolled off the couch and onto the floor, abruptly waking him.

“Dang it Trevor. Try that again.” he shouted as he jumped up with his fists up and ready for a fight. He and his brother, Trevor had been living in this house since their Great-aunt Pauline had left it to them after she had died about ten years ago. It was at this point, he realized that it was just a dream. How did I end up here on the couch? He thought to himself. He scratched his shaved head and felt the stubble under his fingers. He did have shoulder length hair last week, but because of some circumstances that he would rather not talk about, he had to shave what was left. Stupid barbecues. He walked into the kitchen to grab a beer to drown the memories and sat at the kitchen table. The peace was short lived though as his brother Trevor ran in through the screen door. When I say “through” the screen door, I mean straight through it. There was now a gaping hole where the screen once was.

“Aw crap. I forgot that we put a new screen in there.” said Trevor as he admired his handiwork.

“Well, now it looks like my ex wife, a big gaping hole that won’t keep anybody out.” said Carl.

“What’s so important that you’d have to run in here like that anyhow? he continued.

“Oh! I almost forgot.” Trevor got that excited look on his face as he rushed over to the table and plopped his scrawny butt down. Carl hated that look. Last time he saw it, he still had his flowing locks. He rubbed his head as he thought of it.

“Stanley, from the hardware store, said that the town is having a Halloween decoration contest. The house with the best decorations gets a great prize.” He sits staring at Carl like he’s building anticipation.

“Well, are you going to tell me sometime before Christmas?” asked Carl.

“The person with the best decorated house gets a five thousand dollar gift card to any place of their choosing.” Trevor said excitedly. He now had his brother’s full, undivided attention. Carl sat frozen in his chair with his jaw hanging as loose as the muffler on his dusty, old pick-up truck.

“Anywhere?” Carl asked. “Do you know how much beer we can get with five thousand dollars?” He rubbed his mustache while he thought of all the things he’d do with that beer.

“We need to have the scariest house in the neighborhood, so we can win that prize.” said Trevor.

“Too bad I can’t just stick Stanley himself out there in a bikini. He’d scare everyone to death.”said Carl with a chuckle. He stood up and walked over to the door.

“We’re going to have to do something huge if we’re going to win this.” he said as he again stroked his mustache.

“Too bad monsters aren’t real. That would scare everyone.” said Trevor. Carl stood thinking. He looked at various objects around the yard as he tried his hardest to come up with something. Then it hit him like the train that hit their cousin. Nothing is scarier than the real thing.

“Trevor. We are going to win that contest. We just need a few things.” Carl and Trevor went over their plans and waited until nightfall.

“Alright, Trevor, you grab the flashlight, and head to the truck. I’ll grab the shovels.” They each grabbed their supplies and headed out to the town cemetery. Carl parked the truck and jumped out.

“Alright Trevor. We need to find the oldest graves. They’re the ones that have the skeletons. Hand me the flashlight.”

Trevor looked at him for a moment

” Oh, you said flashlight. That makes more sense.” he said. “Did you not bring the flashlight?”

” No, I thought you said something different.” said Trevor as he pulled out a male sex toy. ” I was wondering why you wanted to bring this to a cemetery in the middle of the night.”

Carl shot him a glare, took a deep breath, and walked back to the truck while grumbling under his breath. He pulled it around and turned on the headlights facing the graves. The brothers then went around the cemetery looking for the oldest dated tombstones. Carl came across one that had faded so badly that you couldn’t read anything on it.

“I think I found one over here.” he shouted. “It’s got nothing on it.

Grab the shovels.”

Trevor came running over, and the two started digging. After a while, they had finally gotten to the treasure they were looking for. The skeleton was old and very creepy looking. It had random tufts of long black hair, some sort of headband, and tattered, purple clothes. Carl beamed with pride.

“We’re going to win this contest for sure.” he said.

They started pulling the skeleton out of the grave, when something completely unexpected happened. The skeleton reached up and grabbed Carl by the throat.

“What the heck!” he forced out, struggling to keep breathing. “Trevor!

Do something!”

The skeleton rose to it’s feet, still gripping Carl by his throat. It began chanting in some odd language and more skeletons around the cemetery started crawling up out of the graves.

“If we knew that was all you had to say, we could’ve left the shovels at home” said Trevor as he watched the skeletons crawling out of the ground.

“TREVOR!” Carl croaked out. “Stop your gawking and help me!”

Trevor turned and saw his brother fighting to get free. He was struggling,but the skeleton wasn’t moving an inch. He turned, ran back to the truck and came running back. He had a beer in his hand and reached it out toward the skeleton.

“Maybe all it wants is a beer. I know if I was buried for decades, that would be the first thing I’d want.”

The skeleton slowly turned it’s head toward Trevor. It looked at the beer can, then back at Trevor. Even though the skeleton didn’t have skin, or muscles or even a face of any kind, Trevor could tell the look he was getting was the same one his mother would give him. The one he got when she grumbled under her breath and asked “Why did I give birth to such an idiot.” It then reached over and slapped the beer from his hand. The two glared at each other. Trevor glared for the disrespect of having the beer slapped from his hand. The skeleton glared for the disrespect of the disturbed grave. Carl just choked. During the stare down, a skeleton runs over, pops open the beer and chugs it. They watch as the beer trickles down its bones and puddles at its feet. It looks down in disappointment and slams the can on the ground. With a very upsetting look, if it had a face that is, it trudged off deeper into the cemetery. Finally in the moment of distraction,Trevor grabbed a shovel and smacked the skeleton’s arm, knocking it off, which allowed Carl to get free. The two of them ran

back to the truck and shot out of there faster than a greased rocket. It took the rest of the night and a case of beer for Carl to recover.

“That was freakin’ scary.” he said the next morning. “Which is exactly why we need them in order to win the contest.”

He slid the ashtray across the table to Jennifer. Jenny as they called her, was a good family friend. She worked down at the courthouse, keeping records and such. She was one of the smartest people Carl and Trevor knew. She didn’t even have to go to college. Carl never understood why anyone would willingly want to go through more school. You had twelve years to learn at normal school. He thought it was probably these kids that didn’t pay attention during the normal years of school, so they would go on to college to learn what they missed. One of their classmates had said that he was going to be a doctor. He had to do fourteen years of college. If you can’t learn in the first twelve and still need fourteen more, you probably shouldn’t become a doctor. He appreciated the effort, but if you have that much trouble with learning, it’s probably best to just stop. Like their mom always told them, once an idiot, always an idiot. He looked up at Trevor who pulled a piece of bologna out of the fridge. He squirted some mustard on it, rolled it up and shoved it in his mouth. Jennifer lit her cigarette, and took a deep drag. She had brought over some records on the cemetery. Carl had called her first thing this morning, and filled her in on their little escapade.

“First of all, digging up graves is illegal.” Jenny started. “Second, that grave you dug up, belonged to a woman from the seventeen hundreds. She was accused of being a witch and buried alive. If what you’re saying is true, then she is probably using magic to keep herself alive.”

“Wait. That was a woman?” asked Trevor in disbelief. “But it didn’t have boobs.”

“As long as she’s been buried, her flesh would’ve already rotted away.

There wouldn’t be any boobs.” Jenny said.

“Do you remember when I dug up great aunt Pauline looking for that key to her basement? She was a skeleton and still had boobs.”said Trevor.

A deep shiver went down Carl’s spine at the thought of that basement.

They should’ve never opened that door.

“I actually brought them home with me.” Trevor continued. “What? Where have you been keeping them?” asked Carl.

” In the freezer. You said yourself that they made great ice packs.”

Carl immediately knew what Trevor was talking about. He felt a little queasy at the thought.

“Anyway, back on the subject of the witch. We need a little more information. I need you two to go back and see what it is that she wants.” said Jenny as she got up from the table and picked up the records. “If she wants to rest, bury her. If she wants world domination, well, we will have to figure that out. Right now, I’ve gotta get back.

Sheriff Andrews needs me to find a few things.” She finished grabbing her things and was out the door.

Later that night, Carl and Trevor went back to the cemetery to gather intel. They started sneaking around like spies rolling in-between the tombstones. Carl had added that roll in there to make it look like he hadn’t just slid down. Trevor thought that it was just a secret maneuver and copied the action. Most of the skeletons were up in a house that the caretaker once lived in. After he died, no one wanted to live in a creepy cemetery. But I guess skeletons don’t have that problem. They were having what looked like a massive party. Lights were flashing and loud music was

playing. Carl thought that aside from all the dead folk, it looked like fun. The two then watched some skeletons as they ripped the head from a mop, soak it in gasoline and they shoved it in another one’s skull. They lit it on fire, and put a jack-o’-lantern over its head. It then started running around through the cemetery waving its hands with a flaming jack- o’-lantern on its head. Carl had to admit, it looked really cool. There was a gargoyle out in the front lawn that the skeletons were covering in toilet paper. Carl and Trevor creeped in closer and looked through each of the windows until they found the skeleton they had angered. She was sitting alone in a bedroom and chanting something odd. To the boys, it sounded like a bunch of gibberish. As they watched, something strange started to happen. Well, something a little more strange than spying on a bunch of dead people that are partying like a bunch of drunken college kids. She started to glow in a purple light. Her hair started to grow back out, and her flesh started to regenerate. Within a couple minutes, she was no longer a skeleton, but a beautiful young lady with dark hair and beautiful brown eyes. Carl was speechless. Tears started to stream down his cheeks. Maybe she could make his hair grow back too. He couldn’t hold himself back any longer. He opened the window and hopped inside, with Trevor following suit. The former skeleton recognized the pair as the ones who dug her up. She pulled a knife from a bag that she had around her waist and lunged at Carl. Defensively he throws his hands up.

“Wait. Wait. Wait.” he yelled. “We’re not here to hurt you.”

The lady stopped, still holding the knife up, and looked at each of the brothers.

“Then what are you doing here?” she asked. “I will not be buried again.”

“I just want to know if you can make my hair grow back the same way yours did.” said Carl.

Trevor walked up and also held up his hands. “We also want to know what you want.” he said. The lady then looked over at Trevor.

“All I want, is to be left alone to live my life in peace.” she said. Trevor took a couple steps closer.

“We don’t want to fight. We just came to talk.”

He sat down on the floor. Carl came over and sat down beside his brother. The lady looked at them, and lowered the knife.

“Fine. Talk. But if you try anything, I will kill you.” She walked over and sat on the edge of the bed.

“What is it that you want to talk about?” she asked.

Carl explained to her about the Halloween contest, his idea about the decorations, how Trevor didn’t bring the flashlight, and their talk with Jenny. He explained how they didn’t have bad intentions. They just wanted that gift card. Then realizing that she was from a different century, they had to explain what a Halloween contest was, what a gift card was, what a flashlight and sex toy was, and what beer was. She told them that her name was Catherine. She then told them her story about how she got caught practicing magic and they buried her alive. She cast a spell on herself, so that she could one day be able to live the life that was taken from her. The boys were misty eyed after hearing the tragic tale.

“So in a roundabout way, we gave you back your life.” said Carl. “I suppose you did. Even if you didn’t know what you were doing.”

“So in a roundabout way, you owe us a favor.”he said with a devilish grin.

Catherine glared at him for a moment.

“I suppose so. What are you asking of me?”

“Well, if you could be so kind as to have some skeletons use themselves for decorations in our yard for the Halloween contest, I would greatly appreciate it.”

She thought about it for a moment and then finally agreed. The conditions were simple. The skeletons would act as decorations on Halloween, but afterwards they would all return to their graves to rest in peace.

The big day finally arrived. Trevor and Carl were so excited. The last time Carl was this excited was when his ex-wife moved out. Dirty, money grabbing moocher. Jenny walked in the front door.

“I have to admit, those decorations are kinda creepy.” she said. “They almost look real.” She shot Carl a look. “They are just decorations, right?”

“Sure. Yeah. Why wouldn’t they be?”

She glared a second longer then turned to get her some apple cider and a slice of pumpkin pie. A few moments later, a skeleton with a beehive wig, sunglasses and a bikini on, walks into the kitchen, grabs a beer and opens the freezer. Jenny stared at Carl. He threw up his hands and shrugged like he didn’t know what was going on.

“There’s where they went. I was looking for these.” The skeleton pulled the breast implants out of the freezer and stuck them in her bikini top.

“Wait. Great Aunt Pauline? Is that you?”asked Carl.

“Well, duh, who else would I be? And where is the key to my sex dungeon? I’ve got some boning to get done.” After saying this, Great Aunt Pauline grabs a can of whipped cream from the counter and scurries off into the night.

Carl looked over at Jenny who was giving him the look.

” I’ll explain later, but for right now, the judging is about to start.”

Everyone gathered together out in the street as the judges had discussions on what they liked, and what they didn’t like about each house. Everyone was anxious to see which house would be chosen. Some did it for the gift card. Some did it for bragging rights around the neighborhood. And some did it just for the joy of the season. That last group of people probably just don’t have anything better to live for, but to each their own, I guess. Sheriff Andrews stepped up to the microphone and started the announcement that everyone had been waiting for.

“I’d like to thank each of you for participating this year. Thanks to all of you, the town feels a lot more festive than it has in the past.

It’s important that we hold on to these traditions, so that our children can enjoy the same experiences that we had growing up.”

Carl wondered how long the sheriff was going to drone on. Nobody cared about this crap. They just wanted to know if they won or not. Finally after about five minutes of yammering, he got to the juicy bits.

“Your neighborhood winner is….”he dragged it out trying to build anticipation. “Marcus!!”

There was a lot of groaning and mumbling coming from the crowd. Carl ran over to the judges.

“How did Marcus win of all people? What was wrong with mine?” he asked angrily.

“Well, yours was boring. All you had was skeletons everywhere. Marcus had diversity and his looked more realistic.”said one of the judges.

Carl groaned in frustration. He didn’t know how it could look more real than the actual thing. But there was always next year. At least they had made a new friend, and had a new adventure. Carl smiled to himself.

Great-aunt Pauline walked up and patted him on the back. “Better luck next year.” She said.

“Oh, I found my key.” About that time, her implant had thawed out and dropped out of her bikini, rolled across the sidewalk and into the yard.

“That’s what I get for a cheap boob job.”

At that point, Carl decided to go have a beer.