The CoffinHop is coming for you in 7 days…
Wander down to 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
Get ready to Kick those heels up and dance a dervish across the graves…Get ready to do some CoffinHopping…
Who was this woman?
Who chose her inscription?
Was it a last act of revenge from a spurned lover/spouse?
Were they the last words she wanted to be remembered by?
What comes to your mind when you look at it?
What would you like to be put on your gravestone when you die?
This gravestone had me contemplating what I would want inscribed to mark my place in this world.
Death is inevitable for every one of us but something that few of us like to contemplate. We are mortal beings but we fear our mortality. We focus on living in the here and now. But I wonder sometimes if we focused on how people would remember us after we die, if that would impact our choices and decisions.
How would you like to be remembered?
If I could choose one mantra to be remembered by it would be:
She lived and loved fearlessly.
The poem I would have as my last words would be:
~ the uncaged bird is set free ~
I can no more cage this poeme`
to trap my soul in earthly realms hollows my flesh
Poeme` is life fleshed into my Bones
A place where the intangible is material
A window through which the tears of God
break open the unseen cracks in a heart
A Love divine and Light surreal
is my heart free, my soul uncaged
the Bird of Poeme` soaring into the heavenly realms.
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.
There is something about this post that resonates with me…sometimes the thing we should fear lies within…madness would scare me and make me run more than any other monster…what about you?
Many fear that Madness’ presence breaks things we take for granted. Things like the meaning of ‘Up’.
Broken Seams
Can the walls crawl on the floor
and the ceiling ride their backs?
Can the peeling paint
slowly taint
the food you lovingly bring back?
Can the world turn topsy-turvy
and drip bile from your mouth?
The swirling sickness,
flowing thickness,
that threatens to climb back out.
Would you fear a doorway
that hadn’t any door?
Would you fear that doorway
if it hadn’t any floor?
Would you fear that doorway
if it opened on the sky?
And if you stepped through,
let’s just hope
that you had said ‘good bye’.
Can you smell the fear, now?
The sights and sounds around?
The confusing illusions
dripping up
when Madness touches down.
Fear the smell with no scent
and the sight that blinds the mole
the longer you remain near the deeper…
I am completely up for this idea… Love it! More book giving holidays please! Nothing like a scary book to read under the duvet, where you are hiding from your own imagination, holding a torchlight and barely daring to breathe in case whatever you are hiding from hears just that one too-loud exhale…
Leave it to Neil Gaiman to try and make Halloween an even cooler holiday than it already is.
All Hallows’ Read is a new tradition of horror/scary book giving that Mr. Gaiman is hoping catches on.
“I propose that, on Hallowe’en or during the week of Hallowe’en, we give each other scary books. Give children scary books they’ll like and can handle. Give adults scary books they’ll enjoy. I propose that stories by authors like John Bellairs and Stephen King and Arthur Machen and Ramsey Campbell and M R James and Lisa Tuttle and Peter Straub and Daphne Du Maurier and Clive Barker and a hundred hundred others change hands — new books or old or second-hand, beloved books or unknown. Give someone a scary book for Hallowe’en. Make their flesh creep…” Neil Gaiman
In my humble opinion, it’s a great idea. In this age of ipads and electronic media it’s important not…
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.
Our bloggers cover the spooky spectrum, from horror film reviewers to Wiccans to Halloween crafters to bioarchaeologists (they study bones!). This weekend we’re bringing you a double dose of the heebie-jeebies, with Halloween and witchcraft bloggers today, and other offbeat spooky topics tomorrow.
If you’re a fan of fright or just want to explore something new, get ready for the creepiest holiday season with these eerie entries:
Halloween Howlers
Are costumes and crafts more your speed than monsters and mayhem? There’s no shortage of inspiration on WordPress.com, with tons of bloggers dedicated to getting you and your little ones ready for an epic night of trick or treating.
The bloggers behind D.I.Y. Halloween take October 31st very seriously:
We started getting into the Halloween spirit yesterday, with Halloween craft and costume blogs and a look at some of the real-life witches on WordPress.com.
Today we continue the Halloween Spooktacular with some less Halloween-y but no less creepy content: horror film buffs, zombie aficionados, and cemetery guides, oh my!
Frightening film and fiction
If you prefer that ghouls stay safely in movies and books, there are plenty of WordPress.com authors ready to guide you to the scariest of scary movies, like the team of eleven bloggers behind Mutant Reviewers.
Led by Head Mutant Justin, the Mutant Reviewers team is dedicated to cult classics, watching the worst so you don’t have to. Visitors looking for recommendations can check out their movie of the week, helpfully highlighted with an image widget in the left sidebar. This week’s offering is 1979’s The Prophecy. (Conclusion: “Simply, if you are looking…
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.
Kim Koning 