NAWG Autumn 250 - 2025

Spooky Flash Fiction

Short Story with theme Ghost or Horror

(This round is now finished)

 £25 WINNERS' PRIZE goes to SUSAN KING

<<check back here soon for details of the next round>>

 The Autumn £25 WINNERS' PRIZE

was awarded to Susan King

2^nd Margaret MacKay : 'Rescued'

 3^rd Stephen Palmer : 'Bird'

Here's the winning Entry 'RUSSIAN ROULETTE'

I dread this day. Pumpkins with grinning faces and kids running about dressed

as ghosts. Ghosts don’t wear costumes, they’d know that if they’d seen one. I

can cope with all that – it’s the knocking on doors blackmailing adults into

giving them treats that frightens me. Don’t they know how dangerous this is?

Agnes has a bucket of Cadbury Heroes by the door. Her children have

grown up and left home which is a relief to me, I can tell you I want to yell at the

little ones who stand with expectant faces when she opens the door. Bugger off,

I want to shout. But of course, I can’t.

You can’t imagine the horror of watching her fill her syringe and pierce

the wrapper of a chocolate bar, plunging the needle into the gooey inside and

withdrawing it empty. You don’t know what it’s like to watch helpless as she

smiles and hands out the sweets.

She’s not daft enough to poison each one. For her it’s a game of Russian

roulette. She waits for the post on the village Facebook page. She reads the

hundreds of messages of sympathy with glee, scrolls slowly through emojis of

crying faces, pink hearts and praying hands. She notes the date of the funeral

and gets out her dark clothes.

It’s the same black dress and coat she wore my cremation. A human black

widow spider, she dispensed with me after our children were born.

It’s just other people’s children she dislikes.

To see the Second and Third entries and Judge's feedback see the next issue of Link.