Hello everyone! I hope this post finds you well.
Today I have a short story for you, unlike flash fiction. This story is about 700 words long, and was based on a vague prompt. "A beach party at a cemetery during midnight." As someone who loves Halloween, I decided this prompt screamed Halloween. I hope you like this story as much as I had fun writing it! To my fellow writers, I've chosen to call this a short story instead of flash fiction because I tend to define flash fiction as 500 words or under.
I step on the soft sand separating the beach from the cemetery. Many soldiers were buried here to honor their sacrifices during war time. I have my camera with me to try and find some ghosts tonight. Would ghosts even want to come out on Halloween? Wouldn’t they be scared of all the noise humans are making?
The beach seems so much brighter than the grass. The sand seems to give the beach a vibrant glowing that shouldn’t happen at night. I pick up some sand and let it fall through my hand. Nothing abnormal about it. Glancing back at the gravestones, I see nothing out of order.
“Did you get the punch?”
I turn my head towards the noise, seeing only darkness down the shoreline.
“Yea, obviously. You wanted Kool-Aid, right?”
That’s another voice, but where is it coming from?
I decide to trek closer to the shore to where the voices might be coming from. As I round the corner and hear a strange rattling noise and the bass boom of speakers. I duck behind the outhouse to avoid being seen and start my camera. Echoes of “The Monster Mash” bounce off the gravestones and back into my ears.
“Did someone bring the cigarettes?”
I jerk my head to find a group of skeletons sitting in beach chairs wearing torn uniforms. I’m no good with army rankings but my guess is they’re infantry from the stones I was reading only a moment earlier.
I hold up my camera to try and get footage of the skeletons. They don’t appear on the screen, so I try to get closer.
“You like Camels right?”
A female voice emerges from one of the skeletons as it throws a pack of cigarettes to one of the others.
“You always remember what I like, Pamela.”
Before I reach the nearest garbage can, I hear the sound of more voices and rattling. I swing my camera to the graveyard in time to catch the next group of soldiers walking from behind the gravetones and towards the beach. But they don’t become visible until they step onto the sand, as if there’s some magic instilled in the beach that can give them life. Still, I hide behind the can so don’t come after me.
“Halloween’s the best time of year.”
“The only time we get to party!”
“I can’t rest in peace forever. I get too antsy.”
Some of the skeletons wear different uniforms than the previous three. But everyone seems to be getting along as more skeletons carry in food, drinks, and other party items. Someone carries in a disco ball that freaks out the exposure on my camera because of the bright light it adds to the dark sky. Somehow it helps capture the skeletons better, and now I have clear footage of the dancing bones.
And dance they do, because they seem to be having a big dance party. The Ghostbusters theme starts to play as more skeletons crowd the shore, kicking up sand and not minding their status as dead. No ranks seem to matter as those who look to be higher officials join the party.
I don’t stop my camera, but realizing I shouldn’t leave without contributing, I throw the roll of Mentos in my pocket towards the beach.
“Who brought these?”
“Does it matter? Let’s make soda fountains!”
I watch as the skeletons set up bottles of Coca-Cola and fill them with Mentos. They explode like volcanoes, the carbonation creating a spilling foam over the side of the plastic bottles. The soda and the Mentos seem to be endless. They should’ve run out a few minutes ago, but the beach seems to make an infinite amount of whatever the skeletons touch.
Satisfied with my footage, I run home to review it and scare all my friends with it. What would Halloween be without a little haunted fun?
Thanks for reading! I appreciate the readers who've stuck around for all of my writing content. Car content will resurface in June, as the cruise nights near me will be starting again this week. I won't attend every single one, but I'll be sure to snag some pictures every few weeks!
Have a great day,
-Rosetta 💖
Image By Kenny Eliason