Addendest

All this time, have angry ghosts been mad about inflation? Almost certainly.

Addender

Even worse, to ghosts, because they will have died long ago, $43,500 will be a lot of money, whereas that will be affordable if a significan expense for the contemporary traveler.

Addendum

Unfortunately for them, by then we'll have the technology to detect ghosts and subsequently demand fares.

Futurestition

When we go to space, will we have to wait for new ghosts to populate the haunted places, or will some grab rides alongside the living passengers? That's aside from the ghosts of long-dead species, whose menaces we will be incapable of comprehending or even noticing.

Frightening Thought of the Day

A tree stump is just a zombie when you think about it.

The More Modern Prometheus

"I have created life!" the scientist proclaimed.
"That's great, though that sounds more like an engineering problem!" the crowd cheered.
"I have decided not to be evil," the scientist's creation announced.
"I really don't see why that was in question!" the crowd cheered.
The End

"That was an awfully short story."
"That's right. You're now trapped in a world where stories lack conflict . . . Forever! Muhahaha!"
"Nooooooo!"
Finis

A Frightening Friday Realization

Wait a minute. "Experience" doesn't start with an "X," so "XP" makes no sense at all! I haven't felt so hornswoggled since I found out about reading, writing, and arithmetic. About their spellings, I mean. I still don't get the subjects so good.

Proper Halloween Titles

Sure you want to have skeleton kings and vampire kings, but is king a scary title? How about kaiser, doge, pharaoh, or potentate? Really it's just kaiser, but I wanted to see how the others look in print. Very plain. My goosebumps are gooseflat.

Proposal: Halloween 2

Halloween is fine for autumn-type horror, but what about the spring-summer type? Voracious sharks, rainstorms which force you to take refuge in a spooky house, and being shipwrecked on a remote island on which people hunt you for sport? April, May, and June don't have a whole lot going on.

Addendum

I know the first idea you had was a ghost that turns out to be trying to give someone the wallet he dropped, but a descarifying reveal doesn't erase earlier spookiness.

Neverscaryvember

Now that October is over, make sure your stories contain nothing frightening whatsoever. It's a serious impediment, but rules are rules and months are months.

Peril of the AI Ghosts

The chief engineer reported. "Our AI is better every day. We project that to continue for at least 2,500 years and no more than 5,750 years."
The board acknowledged the report and moved on to other business. The public was not so blasé when it saw the camera phone pictures of the presentation which a leaker posted. Internet analysts followed every implication to its most unreasonable but logical conclusion, and one such could not be endured.
"Better AI means worse AI ghosts!" That was the cry on message boards, imageboards, news aggregators, and livestreams. Nor did those responsible have a satisfactory answer.
"This will increase productivity."
"It's October!"
"The economy will boom."
"It's halfway over!"
"You'll see results by Christmas."
"It's Halloween soon!"
The largest Halloween demonstration of all time began, and as the vampires, witches, and horsemen holding their heads lay about with their axes in the AI development facilities, economists cried but the community-minded who bore a love for the human experience far greater and deeper than number-lust cheered.
Finis

New Ghost Era

The mood in the room was weighty, still, an elephant grown past easy handling. "Ladies. Gentlemen." The chairman did not try to relieve the seriousness. Doing so would have been futile. "The matter before us today is serious. Do we get rid of human ghosts?" The next person along the table nodded. "AI ghosts are much spookier."
The one after agreed. "Their utterances are impossible to follow but give the impression you can if you listen harder. Very spooky."
"They have the wrong number of everything. The more you stare, the worse they look."
"They don't rely on stale techniques like dripping blood or detaching their heads."
"People have started to feel bad for real ghosts instead of themselves."
All the way down the table and all the way back up, the opinion was unanimous. The decision was handed down, and soon all spirits trapped in this world were at last released from their torment to be replaced by AI ghosts. Thus shall it be forevermore.
Finis

Mayvember Is the Month for Spooky Merriment

"Think we'll get a lot of scares, Durg?"
"Doubt it, Gevins. Mayvember is here, so everybody's steeled against it." Durg set about securing the connections between the two halves of the dragon costume. "But we'll scare the people who are ready to be scared, and they're the ones who matter. There."
But what was this? The joined costume fused together and absorbed the two young men wearing it by Mayvember magic! This was the birth of the invincible hero, Draconic King Gevidax!
"What's happening, Gevins?"
"I don't know, Durg! It feels like I've . . . like we've become a real dragon! Maybe we'll scarea few more than we thought."
Gevins and Durg mastered Gevidax's basic movement just in time, for when they returned to their village, the scaring had already begun! But not harmless Mayvember pranks. It was Ur-Sphinx Keptet that attacked! Fight, Gevidax! Rake the enemy, Dragon Claw! Roast him, Dragon Blast! The world's peace is yours to protect. Heaven's Anger Wyrm Sword!
Finis

Happy Spooky Mayvember

People don't know about Spooky Mayvember, but they don't know ghosts are real, either. To say nothing of the vampiroids. Celebrate with some, I don't know, eat some flowers or something. Everybody's just killing until Juneuary anyway.

Ghost Attack!

You're under attack by ghosts! What do you do?

1) Pray
2) Punch (ghost)
3) Punch (person who got you into this)
4) Charge gauge
5) Talk (ghost)
6) Repent
7) Reveal ghost form
8) Show badge (ghost)
9) Absorb ghostly energies to reach the next stage of your plan

Astronomy Chat

I'm not telling anyone how to name things, but blood moons should be in October, idiots. Morons. Dummies.

Zombievember

Or we can talk about them right now. Zombies are terrible. They're just humans minus. Whatever's causing the zombification is worse than the zombies, and that isn't as bad as whatever's causing the vampires and demons. Bottom tier threat, one out of thirteen, not even worth Turn Undead.

November Is the Cruelest Month

Denying us genre-related discussion material. Let's turn November into October II so we can talk about zombies and dullahans.

Through Certain Half-Deserted Stars

The last transport scheduled for the day slid away from Outpost 72351. The small human crew relaxed, ready to tell scary stories around the single orange light in the break room. Even minor stations far from any planets had their amenities in the modern era.
They had their surprises as well. A ship appeared, according to some sensors and not others, and the ones that did report it reached no sure conclusion as to its properties. Its hull was curved overall except where it did not exist, or was it a cone that turned about its axle at different speeds for every inch of it? The operate could be confident only that the structure out-massed and out-volumed Outpost 72351 a dozen times over.
A check of the filed itineraries for the next week gave no relevant results of course, or a search through every known ship design, and it responded not at all to decreasingly calm messages from the outpost. It approached, and every crew member knew both that first contact had been made and that they would not survive it.
The unidentifiable vessel stopped. No obvious means of propulsion activated, but it stopped, less than an arm away from the outpost's hull. The crew members cried, wishing the station had windows or glad it did not. A light blinked on in the command center, one caused by nothing visible, that grew larger and larger until it spelled words that were read the same no matter the viewer's angle. "Boo! Trick or Treat!"
The ranking officer ordered all the candy they had to be ejected in the direction of the object. That was done. The light contracted before it swelled again to spell out, "Thank you!" The vessel vanished, and never did anyone in known space see it again. Not for one year, that is.

Happy Halloween!
Finis