Winner of the Halloween story competition

A few weeks ago I set a writing challenge to write a scary short story for Halloween. Entrants were asked to submit on the comments on the original article, so you can see all entries here.

The winner

The winner is Johnny from the games Estrangement & The horror of Cthulu, and you can read his story in full below. According to his profile, Johnny is “A gorilla who is good at math”. As promised, Johnny wins a lifetime Hero membership.

Special thanks go to Locke & 1An0maly1 who helped me judge, and made a difficult decision much easier! Both of these also get special awards on their profile for helping.

The winning Halloween story by Johnny

Archie looked through the window, horrified by what he saw. The thing, it might have been a man when it was alive, that unwholesome dead thing, was hunched over her. He could not see its face fully, half turned as it was. She… was dead… God PLEASE let her be dead!… and this thing was pulling her bowels through a bloody tear in her abdomen. He could see her crimson streaked legs twitching as it straddled her. It brought the gory links to its lips and slurped and suckled at it as it chewed, blood and filth and bowel plopping wetly onto her exposed breast. He screamed a maddened howl of denial, but he heard himself as if from a great distance.

Then, he saw her arm come up, helplessly… weakly… trying to push it away. God, NO! she was still alive. Sobbing pathetically, he raised his fists to smash the window. He brought them down on the pane with all his desperate strength, but the glass did not break. He tried again and again, but accomplished nothing… He felt nothing. The glass wouldn’t break. He frantically traced the frame, looking for a flaw.

But… gasp!… it was not a window. It was a mirror! He spun about. He was not outside looking in. He was IN the room! He took an unsteady step toward it as it fed on her, his love. He lurched and reached out to grab it, snatch it away from her as she coughed a gout of gore that arced and splashed into her eyes.

But, his hand found nothing, passing through as if it were a phantasm.

Only, it was no phantasm. HE was. And the thing that might have been a man when it was alive… the thing eating his beloved…

Was HIM!