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As the days get shorter and the weather turns colder it's time to snuggle up with our cats and sit by the virtual fire to share some stories... Spooky ones, of course! 

The TCS Spooky Story Contest Rules

Before you start hitting the keyboard, we do have a few rules -

1. Up to two submissions per member.

2. As a general guideline, each story should be 100-600 words long. We may accept stories that are slightly longer or shorter but try to keep it within reason.

3. Stories must adhere to our community guidelines and spirit. This contest is for fun, so please, keep it spooky but avoid gore and violence. 

4. Story must be original. It should not be published elsewhere on the web. 

5. The story doesn't have to be about a cat or cats. If there's a cat in there, great, but if not, that's fine also.

Last submission date: Thursday, October 22nd 2015. The thread will be closed for further submissions on that date.

Posts will be judged by a committee made of TCS team members. What we're looking for is an interesting story and good storytelling. Decent grammar, punctuation and spelling are required.

Submit the best and spookiest story to win an awesome TCS mug!

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The mugs are available for purchase from the TCS store on CafePress, so in case you don't win, you can always just get yourself one  anyway. 

The setting sun lit trees on fire all around us and the crisp air stirred as we struggled up the steep slope. 

"Come on! We're almost there"!, my friend, Jackie, cheered. She was more anxious to reach our destination than I was. Terrified of heights, I didn't want to cross the one-hundred and fifty foot trestle with her. 

"Jackie, I don't want to do this", I reasoned. "It's not safe"!

"You're a wimp! Just follow me and don't looked down. I've done this a hundred times", she chuckled. "Let's go. It'll be dark soon".

How could I not look down?  "No! I'm going back. I'll meet you at the car". Turning away, I saw a man standing at the foot of the path. He was watching us while starting to climb upwards. Who was he and why was he following us? He looked ominous in his ragged jeans and worn boots; a battered leather hat and slicker shadowed his rugged face and added to his grim appearance . I stood still; unable to cross the trestle and certain I couldn't backtrack, I was frozen between two terrifying options.

Suddenly, I felt Jackie's hand on my arm and she hissed through her teeth, "Let's go! Now! That guy is creeping me out"! She made my choice for me and before I could think, I felt the old wood of railroad ties underfoot and I kept thinking, Don't look down! But I had to look down if I didn't want to fall through to the rocks under me. Glancing over my shoulder, I watched in horror as our predator shortened the distance between us. The timber planks creaked with each step. I couldn't breathe and I stared ahead at nothing. 

Jackie jerked my arm and snapped,"We're halfway across! He's getting closer"!

The gaps between the stringers began to widen and when I took my next step my foot slipped. My leg dangled between the timbers and I heard my shoe bouncing off the crag below. Scrambling up, I carefully moved forward, clutching Jackie's shoulder. My knee throbbed and blood seeped from my leg. He was gaining on us!

"Jackie, I can't do it! I'm not gonna make it"!, I sobbed.

"We're gonna make it"!, she shouted. "Just shut up and keep walking"! .

At last, I felt earth under my feet and I hobbled behind my friend toward the road. We were a mile away from our car and I was losing hope. An old truck came around the bend and we frantically waved at the driver. Noticing the blood soaking my pant leg, he pulled over and asked if he could help. "There is a man following us"!, we both babbled. He pushed open the door and we jumped in. Driving away, the sun sank and we watched the man pursuing us step back into the darkness of the trees.

At our car, we thanked him and drove to the hospital.  Back at my apartment, we decided Jackie would stay over and we ordered a pizza and turned the T.V. on.

"Breaking News! There was the body of a man found near the edge of Devils Backbone Road near the old train trestle about an hour ago. He was wearing jeans and old boots with a worn leather hat and blacker slicker. It seems he was stabbed to death. If you have any information, please call the police at 555-321-9876. His murderer is still at large"!

We didn't sleep all night, and the next morning we learned that the man was a vagrant who lived under the trestle. He was a deaf mute and couldn't call out to warn us that there was a strange man following us.

(617 words)

Before I start, I'd like to say this is an actual true story, lol.

I was home with my mom, probably around 11 PM. Our dining room is connected to our kitchen, where the door to our foyer is located. We leave it ajar because my cat, Minnow, is too fat to get through our cat door. Though his food is always out, he usually comes around for food at 6 AM, 11 AM, 6 PM, and 11 PM. When Minnow slides out of the door crack, it creaks open and you can't see anything but his tail because the stove is in the way.

As we're sitting there, the door creaks open. I glance over, expecting to see Minnow, but I can't see his tail. I point it out to my mom, and she is stumped. We wait but during a 5 minute inspection, we don't see Minnow.

That is, until he came down from upstairs to get food.

We have no other pets, and it was only us in the house. There's also no draft. It has never done that before, and hasn't done it since.

We still don't know what opened the door, since it couldn't have been Minnow.

Great submissions so far! Keep 'em coming!

Have a cool ghost story to share? Bring it on!

"Does anyone know what happened here?", bellowed the Lieutenant.
Frustrated, the detective replied, "Sorry, Sir, we are waiting for the coroner. I've never seen anything like this before. It's gonna be a long night".  The rain and the graveyard shift had just begun.

"What do we have so far"?
"White male, approximately 50 years old. He doesn't have any I.D. on him and there was $2.17 in his pocket. I was the first to respond Lieutenant, and I detected a faint aroma of alcohol. I don't think he's from around here. He's pretty torn up; almost like something shredded him. No witnesses, but a Mrs. Livingston called in to report what she thought was some kind of wild animal outside. Other than that, nothing, Sir".

"What apartment is she in? I need to talk to her first. And where the hell is that Coroner? We need to get this cleaned up"!

The Lieutenant climbed the stoop and pressed the bell to apartment 3-D. An elderly woman cracked the door open and peered out.

"Mrs. Livingston?"
"Yes, officer. How can I help you?"
"I'm Lieutenant Mullins, Mrs. Livingston. I was told you heard some noise and called in a report."
"Yes, I did! Oh, my word, please come in." Walking into the foyer, she continued on. "I was sitting in my chair here reading my book - please, sit down - when I was startled out of my skin by such a commotion! Such shrill and frightening screams! By the time I got up and drew the curtain back, it had stopped and I saw that poor man laying on the walk."
"You didn't see anyone else?"
"No, Sir. Just a few of the neighbors porch lights coming on."
"Well, thank you Ma'am. If you remember anything else, please call me right way." Lt. Mullins handed her a card with his name and number and left himself out.

Moments later, a black station wagon pulled to the curb and a man with a leather medical bag slid out into the rain and approached the body. After an quick initial exam and several photographs, the Coroner took a sullen breath and said, "Get him down to my office so I can do an autopsy. Looks like some kind of animal attack".

The misty rain falling on the hot asphalt added an eerie gloom to the scene; the swirling red lights atop the police cars casting a haunting glow on the white sheet being draped over the body. As the crowd gathered along the boundaries of the yellow Caution Tape was dispersed, the doors of the ambulance were closed and the scream of the siren sent chills through the dismal streets as it pulled away.

It was getting late and the rain had stopped. No one driving down the darkened street would have known there had been a murder just hours ago. Well, almost no one. At the corner of Mrs. Livingston's building, there stood a young girl, and she watched as the last police car left the gruesome scene. Holding her little black kitten, Salem purred in her arms with a foreboding, yet satisfied sneer on his now innocent little face.

As she walked away, she whispered into Salem's ear, "That mean old man should have never kicked you!" 
"Meow!"

I share my home with three cats.  One of them eats and uses the litter box, the other two do not.  Hekitty, my living kitty, has been with me for seven years.  She is a torty, and as is true with most torties, she rules my house with an iron paw.

The other kitties are...a little different...shall we say?  The first to enter my life was Spooky, a little white or very pale kitty.  I had moved into a friend's garage due to several rather nasty circumstances, including a gentleman who both stalked and threatened me.  I quit my job with the state, and moved two states over to camp in said garage. 

Not a remodeled garage...this one had bare studs and no window or insulation, and a cement floor.  However, I set about turning it into something like a home. Sheets stapled to studs with crumpled newspaper behind them became walls and insulation.  More sheets hung from the garage door track formed a little bedroom which I referred to as "the nest."  A kerosene heater made things tolerable during the winter, and I found out that with lots of ventilation, dry ice in front of a fan will keep things reasonably cool in a small area.  I had lamps and a television with cable, and an adorable torty kitten...I was set to go. 

Finally bought my bed, and looked around for a comfy chair for television watching.  I ran across said chair at the Salvation Army thrift store.  When I first saw it, I thought, "who in their right mind would buy such an ugly chair?"  Big old overstuffed wing back thing with granny upholstery, it was just not a pretty bit of furniture.  But it was next to the used books, so I sat down in it to look at them, and thought, "why, I will!"  So I plunked down the whopping 25 bucks for the chair, plus another 2 dollars for the 4 books I found, loaded the chair into the trunk of my car by dint of lots of squishing and ropes, and cautiously eased on down the road towards home sweet garage.  

Later that evening, after supper and watching some television with my friend with whom I was living, I retired to my own little bit of odd heaven, kitten in tow.  As I came down the three steps into the garage, I looked over at the chair, and a small white cat was curled on the top, where the back meets the wing.  It saw me, and slipped down, disappearing from sight.  Hekitty went nuts, chasing an invisible something around the floor, hissing and spitting.  After a couple of hours, things settled down, and I had time to reflect on the fact that I now had "the cat that wasn't.
 

The three of us rubbed along in purrrrrfect harmony for over a year, when the owner of the rental house advised us that he had sold the property, and that we had ninety days to vacate.  I got very lucky and found a beautiful little one bedroom apartment in the neighborhood.  Moving day came, and we managed to get everything in and organized.  That night, Hekitty and I were dozing in the chair (you do remember the chair?) when down the hall slipped a dark kittyshape.  OMG!  Now I don't have one ghost kitty, I HAVE TWO OF THEM!  Dark kitty is now named Shadow.

Happy to say, everyone gets along well.  And sometimes, late at night, I have Hekitty curled against my chest, but I can feel the warm, gentle weight of two more cat bodies, one in the crook of my knees, and one tucked in by my ankles.

Lynxx was the only cat in my house at the time. I was sitting on my bed studying for an exam the next day. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Lynxx’s tail disappear onto my desk. I jumped up and went to get him down. He knows he’s not allowed on my desk. Only he wasn’t on my desk, or anywhere else in my room.

That is how it began. I’d catch a glimpse of some part of Lynxx, a tail, or his back, or his head, usually in a place where he knows he’s not allowed. Only when I’d go after him, he wouldn’t be there. In fact, he was never even in the same room at the time.

My parents never thought anything of it, when I told them. Until one night we were going away for the Thanksgiving holiday. Lynxx had already been boarded at his vet. My father and I were packing up the last things to put in the car. My mother was resting in her room. The lights were off. She felt “Lynxx” jump onto the bed next to her. She even saw his shadow along the wall moving towards her. She started talking to him until she realized he was at the vet. The shadow then vanished. Now, she believed me.

One morning I woke up and saw Lynxx curled up on my desk. This was Lynxx, I know what Lynxx looks like. I got up to get him down and as I reached for him, he began to fade until he completely vanished in front of me. I ran out of my room. I found Lynxx sound asleep under the Christmas tree. I never saw that cat again. But I always wondered, since he looked exactly like Lynxx, was he perhaps Lynxx’s relative who has passed on, just checking in on him?  Was it his cat mommy or his cat daddy?

Another time I woke up and found my room full of all kinds of cats. They were all around my room, everywhere. Then one by one they vanished. Soon after that,  Lynxx died.  I realized then they were there looking for him, since my room was where he usually slept. They were the cats that were going to be with him so he wouldn’t cross the rainbow bridge alone. I felt better knowing he wasn’t alone on that journey.

It wasn’t until Luna and Midnight arrived, that I began seeing ghost cats darting here and there around the house. When I took pictures of the cats, there were always orbs around Midnight, especially when he was a kitten.  He would actually make a howling sound and looked up.  I would zoom in very close with the camera on each orb and I could see cat faces or entire cats and even kittens. One night Midnight was sitting at the table with me. A black streak jumped on the chair at him. He took off chasing it. I only saw it for a second, and I realized what I had seen was a blurry streak of a little black kitten.

As Midnight aged, there were less and less orbs in the pictures. I also saw less and less cats. But now that kitten Stella is here, our pictures are full of orbs again.  When I zoom in on them, they usually show a kitten.  I looked up ghost cats once.  I think, maybe these are kittens that roam with other cats like Midnight and Stella who acknowledge them.  I never saw anything like that until we got cats. 

OH GOODY!  I'm not the only one living with spirit kitties!  And your babies are beautiful.

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Birthday Jewel

The kittens were all so cute! Jenny pressed her nose against the glass and looked longingly at a tabby. But before she could say "that one!" a solid black kitten stood up and placed his tiny paws on the glass and looked right at her. Jenny put her face close to the black kitten's face. The black kitten winked at her. Before Jenny could even think, she blurted out "the black one!"  Jenny's mom laughed, "all week you said you wanted a tabby kitten, are you sure?" Jenny's nose never left the glass as she replied "Yes!"  Her mom smiled, "happy 9^th Birthday Jenny!"

Jenny's mom filled out the adoption forms and apologized to Abigail, the director of the rescue, "sorry about the nose prints all over your glass, Jenny was so excited she forgot her manners." Abigail laughed, "no trouble, glad we rehomed another one. You can bring him back in a week if he doesn't work out." Abigail then asked, "Jenny, what are you going to name him?" Without a thought, Jenny replied, "his name is Jewel."

Neither Jenny, nor her mother suspected what the day ahead held for them.

Jenny cradled Jewel carefully on the car ride home. A large truck passed their car, startling Jenny. Jenny whispered "I wish that mean truck would go away!" Jewel hissed and the truck veered into the median and slid to a stop. Jenny's mom breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the driver scramble out unharmed

.

When they got home, the neighbor's dog ran over and barked at Jenny and Jewel. Frightened, Jenny yelled "go away!" Jewel hissed. The dog ran past his home and kept going.

As Jenny settled in to do her math homework, she whispered, "I wish I didn't have to do this stupid homework." Jewel hissed and the phone rang. After Jenny's mom hung up the phone, she said "Jenn honey, no school tomorrow, your teacher has amnesia."

The broccoli casserole (that Jenny hated) inexplicably burned in the oven. To Jenny's delight, they went out for pizza.

Jenny's mom fell asleep on the couch (surprising, since the neighbor kept yelling the missing dogs name out the back door in hopes that the dog would return.) Jenny took advantage and stayed up late to watch television.

Early the next morning, Abigail was accommodating as Jenny's mom told her all of the things that had happened, blaming it all on "that darn bad luck black kitten." Abigail placed the black kitten back in the enclosure and asked "which one?" Jenny's mom leaned close to the glass and the tabby kitten stood up, placed his paws on the glass and winked at her "the tabby here in front of me." She tucked the kitten into her purse and raced home before Jenny awoke

.

Jenny held the new Jewel, puzzled by his different colors, but Jewel winked at her and she knew it was the same kitten. Jenny talked to Jewel about all the things that happened, then she whispered "I wish you could talk." Jewel blinked and said "I thought you would never say it. We have to be more careful, I can't keep covering for you." Jenny stared at Jewel, and Jewel laughed "witches get their powers when they turn nine, I am here to help you." Jenny looked horrified, Jewel continued "relax, you are a good witch." Jenny thought for a moment, "then does that mean I have to…" Jewel interrupted her with an emphatic "YES." Jenny sighed "well okay then."

The phone rang and Jenny's mother yelled up the stairs, "Jenn honey, your teacher is okay, I have to bring you to school." The neighbor's dog barked at them as they drove past. Jenny whispered, "I wish my homework was done." Her book bag shifted as the all the math problems were answered.

Last day for submissions! Some great ones so far - I know the judges are going to have a very hard time deciding on a winner!

Contest is now officially closed to submissions! We'll announce the winner as soon as the judges convene in their virtual chamber to discuss the entries and vote. 

Our esteemed judges have reviewed all submissions! It was a tough call and all stories got votes but the one that got the most was...

Birthday Jewel by @Bengalcatman

Congratulations!!! 

I hope you enjoy lots of nice hot drinks in your new TCS mug!

I'd like to thank all participants for helping making this month just a little bit spookier for all of us here!   

Congratulations bengalcatman A great story

Congrats!!!  

Music Cat said:

Nice story anyways!

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Thanks for the kind comments! I enjoyed all the stories written and I was surprised to win. 

And just for the record, I don't think black cats are bad luck - I had one that lived to age 24. She was a wonderful cat and I still miss her every day.

Eric

Music Cat said:

Congratulations!

I know you don't think black cats aren't bad luck, I just wanted a reason to share that pic!

Click to expand...

same here. ALL cats are the best cats!!