All manners of terrifying mythical gods and goddesses, fearsome creatures and masked spirits await you…take a spin in the Kintsugi Poets Ballroom where terrible myths and legends masked in dark poetry await your arrival…
Dance for your life…
Then hop to the other coffin hoppers in the #CoffinHop boneyard…
The Penultimate Annual Horror Event
24th Oct – 31st Oct
60 Horror Authors/Artists/Poets
8 days of Fearsome Fun
8 days of Generous giveaways/sweepstakes/contests
Terrifying tales, Petrifying Poetry, Spine-tingling stories, Freakish Flash Fiction, Heart-Racing Horror…
Join the Hop and support your favourite Horror Authors/Artists/Poets
The Kintsugi Poets Society invites you to the Terrible Myths & Legends Death Masquerade Ball…
Where your favourite terrible myths and legends come masked in deathly poetry…
Enter in the Rafflecopter Sweepstakes [Enter here > a Rafflecopter giveaway ] for a chance to win an Amazon Gift Card + Mystery Ebook Bundle.
Sweepstakes runs from 24th October (12AM) – 31st October (11:59AM)
Winners will be posted on this blog on Monday, 3rd November 2014.
*Dates and times = US EST Time Zone*
Hop along to CoffinHop for more terrible coffin-hopping fun and contests/giveaways.
Are you ready to do some grave-digging?
Are you ready to do some coffinhopping?
The CoffinHop Carnival has arrived.
Are you ready?
Are you brave enough to take a ride on the CoffinHop rides?
Exit only
Entry Fee: 1 Abandoned Soul
Welcome to The CoffinHop Carnival.
Sweepstakes GiveAway Time
Enter on the rafflecopter sweepstakes
[enter here > a Rafflecopter giveaway ]
for a chance to win an Amazon Gift Card.
Sweepstakes runs from 24th October 2014 (12am US EST) > 31st October 2014 (Midnight US EST).
Winner will be announced on this blog on Monday, 3rd November.
The Penultimate Annual Horror Event
24th Oct – 31st Oct
60 Horror Authors/Artists/Poets
8 days of Fearsome Fun
8 days of Generous giveaways/sweepstakes/contests
Terrifying tales, Petrifying Poetry, Spine-tingling stories, Freakish Flash Fiction, Heart-Racing Horror…
Join the Hop and support your favourite Horror Authors/Artists/Poets
Get ready to Kick those heels up and dance a dervish across the graves…Get ready to do some CoffinHopping…Hop along to the other coffin hoppers for a chance to win…You can only win if you hop..Don’t fall into any of the open graves…
Images Used in This Post
Photos taken at The Abandoned Six Flags Carnival, New Orleans.
Image Courtesy of Damien du Toit from Cape Town, South Africa
Ghosts of the Disappeared stalk the streets of Death
Screams of silence fill the graveyard of the Abandoned
Images courtesy of weburbanist.com
Gates creak open with unearthly screams
Come down to the Graveyard
Coffins spill their bone chilling secrets
Image courtesy of weburbanist.com
All Hallow’s Eve draws near
The battle-worn stone sentries slumber
It lies waiting for the fire in the sky to die
The soft light seduces it’s midnight soul
Golden eyes filled with scorpions wait
It longs to drink the light, to swallow its darkness
Image courtesy of ghost2ghost.org
Beware the lost Spirits
Slipping through the open spaces
Tread softly past their places of rest
Do not disturb the Abandoned and the Disappeared
Image courtesy of ghostvillage.com
The gargoyles screech their unbridled glee
The ravens cackle and call
The dragon forged in the fires of molten metal shatters
In its shroud of twisted metal a creature stirs
Deathly grey skin covered in bloody thorns
It lifts its heavy head and opens eye eons shut
Twin black crevices entrance me nearer
Image courtesy of travelcreepster.com
The twin crevices swallow my thoughts
This thing of death twists through my broken mind
Visions of desperate violence assail me
Strange unearthly places not yet forseen
This will be the place where my spirit flees
my place of death
Image courtesy of oddee.com
Twisting its way through my thoughts
Its thorns tangle and tear at my deepest fears
The broken city shrinks into nothingness
The silence that drinks my dreams stalks me
ssshhh
a whisper, a whimper
I stumble blinded into an empty classroom
Abandoned Classroom, Image courtesy of haikyo.org
The whimpering comes from the corner
I claw at my eyes desperate to see
The red mist lifts unveiling him
A boy, emaciated, shrunken yellow skin
He scratches at his gaping mouth, breath wheezing through in a whimper
The basket ball net twists tighter trapping his spirit
Suicide by basketball net (image courtesy of haikyo.org)
The witching hour draws near
The boy grasps desperately for me
His eyes pools of terror waiting to drown me
The anthracite sky parts, moonlight forms a ghostly finger
The rustling of pages makes me turn
A bible lies before me abandoned in the ashes
Image courtesy of haikyo.org
“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.”
The creature twists dementedly in my mind
Its thorns tear through my skin in desperation
Image courtesy of bloody-disgusting.com
Molten fire flows through my being
The creature shrieks until my ears bleed
The pages before me rustle again, I look down
“He will swallow up death in victory;and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the LORD hath spoken it.”
The liquid fire swirling in my being drowns the desperate creature
Its thorns tear an escape through my bleeding eyes
It leaves behind a trail of yellow mist and silence swallows its remaining screams
The veil of red mist lifts from my eyes, the room is filled with luminous moonlight
A small hand slips into my still bloody hand
The boy looks up at me, his eyes now flawless twin sapphires
He pulls me down, then whispers in my ear
“The battle is won
Death is destroyed
Lost spirits are free to rest”
He slips away with one last smile embraced in joy
My head hits the ground before I know I have fallen
A crown of thorns lies next to me
The silence is broken by the sweet singing of Seraphim
I breathe my last breath
It is done.
My spirits dances free of the caging skin and broken bone
I fly free on wings of eagles into the bright new dawn.
The CoffinHop has come to a dead end. But from death comes life and I know that Coffinhop has been a treasure chest of tricks, treats and inspiration.
It has been my honour to share the #CoffinHop with you my readers.
It has been my honour to spend the time prying open the lids of broken coffins of the other coffinhoppers.
A special shout out to Axel Howerton for being our Master Guardian of the #CoffinHop boneyard once more. You Rock Axel! 🙂
Please remember that The #CoffinHop Anthology, Death by Drive-In is now AVAILABLE and 100% of all proceeds go toLitworld in support of Child Literacy. Help a child read. Let that child enrich the world with their stories. Click on the anthology image below for purchase links.
The Prize winner for my “The Abandoned & the Disappeared” contest will be announced on 5th November, 2013.
There are so many amazing entries that it is going to be a close call to call the winner. Thanks you to everyone who entered. Your words awed me. Each and every one.
Ghosts of the Disappeared stalk the streets of Death
Screams of silence fill the graveyard of the Abandoned
Gates creak open with unearthly screams
Come down to the Graveyard
Coffins spill their bone chilling secrets
~ The Abandoned and the Disappeared ~
Tell me what happened to these Ghost Towns…
Twist a tale of terror,
Send shivers of horror down my spine with a story,
Flay the flesh from my skin as you open my veins and bleed me out with our poetry…
Rules
Submit your daily entry (1 per person per day) in the comments.
Submit either a Flash Fiction Piece/Prose
or
Short Story
or
Poetry
Prizes
There can be only 1 ultimate winner for this contest.
You will win
1 * Ebook – Death by Drivein (CoffinHop Anthology)
1 * Mystery Trick or Treat
Contest runs 24th – 31st October 2013
Winner to be announced – 5th November 2013
x
San Zhi, Taiwan
Dragons & Dystopian Spirits
Image courtesy of oddee.com
Built in the late 1970s as a luxury resort for American soldiers based there, it was abandoned before opening. People kept dying in the dystopian futuristic resort, not only in the resort but traveling to the resort.
Image courtesy of oddee.com
The history of the town starts centuries ago in 1661 when the Dutch East India Company occupied the country and settled in this area calling it Fort Zeelandia. The Dutch charged every person a “head tax” – literally paying taxes for the “right” to be alive – this led to a huge siege between the locals and the occupiers and the eventual massacre of hundreds of Dutch troops and their families.
Image courtesy of travelcreepster.com
When in the 1970s building was started on this new futuristic resort, the Chinese decided to clear the area by erecting a giant statue of a dragon. They believed this would bring luck to the building and protect the resort from any ills. Unfortunately this dragon ended up being very unlucky when the construction crew broke it in half: in Chinese lore, this is equivalent to breaking 1000 mirrors.
From the start, this breaking of the Luck Dragon was only the first disaster of many. From car crashes to seeming “innocent” construction accidents, people kept on dying here. To this day there has been no accounting for how many people have actually died there due to the top secrecy of the Taiwanese government. In fact any discussion of this abandoned, disaster-prone resort is strongly discouraged today.
Ghosts of the Disappeared stalk the streets of Death
Screams of silence fill the graveyard of the Abandoned
Gates creak open with unearthly screams
Come down to the Graveyard
Coffins spill their bone chilling secrets
~ The Abandoned and the Disappeared ~
Tell me what happened to these Ghost Towns…
Twist a tale of terror,
Send shivers of horror down my spine with a story,
Flay the flesh from my skin as you open my veins and bleed me out with our poetry…
Rules
Submit your daily entry (1 per person per day) in the comments.
Submit either a Flash Fiction Piece/Prose
or
Short Story
or
Poetry
Prizes
There can be only 1 ultimate winner for this contest.
You will win
1 * Ebook – Death by Drivein (CoffinHop Anthology)
1 * Mystery Trick or Treat
Contest runs 24th – 31st October 2013
Winner to be announced – 5th November 2013
xxxxx
Dudleytown, Connecticut
New England, USA
Note from the Connecticut State Police: Those who go, or attempt to go to Dudleytown will be arrested for trespassing and/or parking. The fines start at $75.00 per person and rapidly increase.
Welcome to the Village of the Damned…
Image courtesy of ghost2ghost.org
Shadowed by three mountains and in the heart of a forest called “Dark Entry Forest” there lies an abandoned village trapped in shadows and secrets. This village keeps terrible secrets of ghosts, demons and curses.
The story of this town begins in the faraway land of England…
In 1510 Edmund Dudley was beheaded for plotting to overthrow King Henry VIII. Legends go that at the time of his beheading, a curse was placed upon the heads of all Dudleys, present and future: The curse states that all Dudleys from Edmund’s lineage would find themselves surrounded by horrors. However this did not scare Edmund’s son, John Dudley the Duke of Northumberland, who followed in his father’s fatal footsteps and tried to overthrow the crown. John Dudley’s third son, Robert, Earl of Leicester, fled England to avoid losing his head for his father’s and his grandfather’s crimes of treason. Eventually his family would flee to America and the curse of the Dudleys followed them across the Atlantic.
In 1748 three Dudley brothers, Gideon, Barzillai and Abiel, purchased land to start a farm. Eventually they were joined by more Dudleys and the township became known as Dudleytown because the Dudley family made up the majority of the inhabitants.
It wasn’t long before the Troubles in Dudleytown began.
In August 1774: an unidentifed epidemic struck and killed the entire Adoniram Carter family. Soon after their relatives moved away and were attacked by Native America Indians who killed all but 3 children.
In April 1804: Sarah Faye, the wife of the famous Civil War General Heman Swift; was struck fatally by a lightning bolt. This drove her husband to reportedly become “slightly demented”.
In 1872: Mary Cheney, wife of Horace Greeley, took her own life one week before her husband lost his bid for the presidency of the USA.
The end of the 1800s: John Brophy’s wife died of consumption and shortly after his two children disappeared mysteriously. After losing his entire family, John Brophy then lost his home to an unexplained blazing inferno. John Brophy fled the town never to be seen again.
1899: Dudleytown was completely deserted and the “Dark Entry Forest” started reclaiming the land once more.
In 1920: Dr. William Clark, a cancer specialist from New York, came to the area for the quiet it promised after the bustle of city life. He was so entranced by the area that he built a summer house there.
In 1924: Dr. William Clark formed The Dark Entry Forest Association and declared the area a nature preserve. The Association’s original charter stated that the land must remain “forever wild”. During one of these summers Dr. Clark was called away to an emergency leaving his wife alone. When he returned, a few days later, his wife had reportedly “gone mad”. Reports at the time said that something had attacked her in the forest and the attack had left her completely insane. She lived out the remainder of her days in a mental hospital.
Dudleytown, today.
The Dark Entry Forest Association still owns much of the land where Dudleytown once stood. There are a group of homes where people there live a secluded existence. There have been numerous reportings of strange rituals and symbols marked on trees and rocks that have led people to believe satanists and black witches have taken to practicing in the area.
Dudleytown lies quiet for the third time in its history.
Image courtesy of ghostvillage.com
The Dark Entry Forest has swallowed the land once more and its secrets from civilisation.
Ghosts of the Disappeared stalk the streets of Death
Screams of silence fill the graveyard of the Abandoned
Gates creak open with unearthly screams
Come down to the Graveyard
Coffins spill their bone chilling secrets
~ The Abandoned and the Disappeared ~
Tell me what happened to these Ghost Towns…
Twist a tale of terror,
Send shivers of horror down my spine with a story,
Flay the flesh from my skin as you open my veins and bleed me out with our poetry…
Rules
Submit your daily entry (1 per person per day) in the comments.
Submit either a Flash Fiction Piece/Prose
or
Short Story
or
Poetry
Prizes
There can be only 1 ultimate winner for this contest.
You will win
1 * Ebook – Death by Drivein (CoffinHop Anthology)
1 * Mystery Trick or Treat
Contest runs 24th – 31st October 2013
Winner to be announced – 5th November 2013
xxxxx
Canate, Italy
Image courtesy of weburbanist.com
With roots in the 12th century built into the solid mountain walls of MT Lago, the village of Canate is lost in the spirits of time. The village can only be reached by foot along ancient stone footpaths.
The last families abandoned the village by 1958. They left with what they could carry on the steep stone paths and abandoned everything else.
Since 1958 this picturesque village on the mountains of the Italian coast has remained abandoned and deserted. This is not a village with crumbling walls even though it has been deserted for 55 years. This is a village that for whatever reason was just left behind. Why in 1958? A thriving village for 8 centuries and now a ghost town lost in the secrets of time for the last 55 years.
Ghosts of the Disappeared stalk the streets of Death
Screams of silence fill the graveyard of the Abandoned
Gates creak open with unearthly screams
Come down to the Graveyard
Coffins spill their bone chilling secrets
~ The Abandoned and the Disappeared ~
Tell me what happened to these Ghost Towns…
Twist a tale of terror,
Send shivers of horror down my spine with a story,
Flay the flesh from my skin as you open my veins and bleed me out with our poetry…
Rules
Submit your daily entry (1 per person per day) in the comments.
Submit either a Flash Fiction Piece/Prose
or
Short Story
or
Poetry
Prizes
There can be only 1 ultimate winner for this contest.
You will win
1 * Ebook – Death by Drivein (CoffinHop Anthology)
1 * Mystery Trick or Treat
Contest runs 24th – 31st October 2013
Winner to be announced – 5th November 2013
xxxxx
The Ghost Island
Gunkanjima, Japan (translated “Battleship” Island)
Images courtesy of weburbanist.com
Once one of the most populated places in the world, at 1.4 people per square metre, it is now completely deserted. Entry is forbidden. This island’s secrets have been trapped in the crumbling walls of eery buildings. Lying off the Western coast of Japan, this island is truly sealed off from the world as it lies behind forbidding, impenetrable concrete sea walls.
In 1810 coal was discovered on the island leading to mines being built and a bustling densely populated metropolis rose from the waves.
In the 70s as the world became more reliant on petroleum to fuel it, there was no need for coal mines. In 1974 with the mines shut and thousands left jobless, the people were forced to leave. Within days the Battleship Island was completely deserted and Gunkanjima became known as Ghost Island.
The eery feature about this abandonment is that the Island’s inhabitants literally left everything they had. They took nothing. Everything remains frozen in this Island of Ghosts & Forbidden secrets. Everything has been left waiting for their owners to return and reclaim them.
From 1974 until 2009, everyone was forbidden entry to this place. Now only carefully supervised tours are allowed onto some parts of the island. But areas known as the “Stairway to Hell” and “Block 65” are still forbidden from any access.
An island that was bustling with energy. Now a forbidden fortress hidden behind giant concrete sea walls. Trapped in time. Trapped in a concrete wall of secrets. Forbidden. Condemned. Waiting…
Ghosts of the Disappeared stalk the streets of Death
Screams of silence fill the graveyard of the Abandoned
Gates creak open with unearthly screams
Come down to the Graveyard
Coffins spill their bone chilling secrets
~ The Abandoned and the Disappeared ~
Tell me what happened to these Ghost Towns…
Twist a tale of terror,
Send shivers of horror down my spine with a story,
Flay the flesh from my skin as you open my veins and bleed me out with your poetry…
Rules
Submit your daily entry (1 per person per day) in the comments.
Submit either a Flash Fiction Piece/Prose
or
Short Story
or
Poetry
Prizes
There can be only 1 ultimate winner for this contest.
You will win
1 * Ebook – Death by Drivein (CoffinHop Anthology)
1 * Mystery Trick or Treat
Contest runs 24th – 31st October 2013
Winner to be announced – 5th November 2013
xxxxx
Kolmanskop / Kolmanskuppe, Namibia, Africa
Image Courtesy of Damien du Toit from Cape Town, South Africa
Where: Namib Desert, Namibia, Africa
Facts: Founded by a transport driver called Johnny Coleman. Trapped by a sand storm, he abandoned his ox wagon in the desert which became the settlement of Kolmanskop / Kolmanskuppe.
In 1908 a diamond was found here by an employee of the German railway inspector. Germany declared the area a Sperrgebiet (translated – Prohibited Area) and started exploiting the desert as a diamond field.
Driven by the wealth of diamonds and adventure, a town was formed that included modern amenities like a hospital, ballroom, power station, school, bowling alley, theatre, casino, ice factory as well as the first x-ray station in the southern hemisphere and the first tram in Africa.
World War 1 put the town into a sharp decline.
In 1954 the once diamond-rich town was suddenly abandoned and became a ghost town.
Ghosts of the Disappeared stalk the streets of Death
Screams of silence fill the graveyard of the Abandoned
Gates creak open with unearthly screams
Come down to the Graveyard
Coffins spill their bone chilling secrets
~ The Abandoned and the Disappeared ~
Welcome to Coffin Hop 2013
x
This year I am hosting
a CoffinHop Contest of
Terror, Tricks & Treats
in the Ghost Towns
of
The Abandoned & The Disappeared
My task ~ Each day I will be posting images and known histories
of infamous ghost towns
Your task ~ Tell me a terrible tale of what happened to
turn these ghost towns into empty and deserted graveyards
of
The Abandoned & The Disappeared
Your entry can be in the form of a tale told, flash fiction or a poem.
Enter your submission into the comments of the daily CoffinHop “The Abandoned & The Disappeared” posts here on this site for your entry to be counted.
The Contest is from 24th – 31st October.
Contest Winners will be judged by me on creativity & horror.
You are playing for
The Prizes
The One Ultimate Winner will receive
1 * Copy of Death by Drive-In (The CoffinHop Anthology)
+
1 x Mystery “Terror Trick or Treat” Prize
Return later today for the first Ghost Town…
Take the 13th floor to Coffin Hop 2013
Get those coffinhoppin’ boots on,
Dance a dervish in the boneyard…
Grab yourself a copy of Death by Drive-In
COFFIN HOP: DEATH BY DRIVE-IN is a collection of some of the best and brightest of the Coffin Hop crew, with 21 amazing B-movie inspired stories from some of the best Indie authors around
100% of All Proceeds of the Anthology sales + CoffinHop Swag go to LitWorld.org, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization supporting child literacy and social improvement the world over.
Help COFFINHOP support Child Literacy and BUY a Copy and Grab some Swag.
Unhinge the coffins to reveal terrors, tricks & treats
There are only 3 weeks left until the annual Horror BlogHop that is CoffinHop launches.
Clock (Photo credit: Images_of_Money)
This is my favourite blogging time of the year because not only is it dripping in chills, terror and horror but it is the time of year when I get to hang out in the blogosphere with my favourite people: the Bone-Chilling CoffinHop Crew. The best thing is because it is a hop – You my readers get to hang out with these Masters and Mistresses of the Horror genre too.
So people, mark your calendars and kill off the next 21 days as we wait with baited breath and chills running up and down our spine for the Annual CoffinHop.
24th – 31st October
7 days of bone-paralysing terror
7 days of spine-tingling fear
7 days of blood-chilling horror
+100 Masters and Mistresses of Horror
Tick, tock, tick, tock…the time is almost near. Don’t close your eyes. You don’t know who is waiting around the dark corners…
Kim Koning 