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13th Floor Paradigm Power Shorts, Bastet, Ghost, ghost story, humor, Runes, Short story, writing
Several years ago, my friend Bastet posted a Power Short request on her blog, THE 13TH FLOOR PARADIGM. The prompt? A ghost story in 150 words or less prompted by this picture: The Castle (c) GSK 2013
The Castle Ghost-by Barb Taub.
The Releaser’s chalk scraped the stone floors as she etched the complex runes. While mist solidified into a ghostly man clutching a sheaf of papers, she poured salt to complete the binding circle and intoned the formal Release.
“No, I couldn’t possibly leave until I’m done with my Book,” the ghost moaned. “I’m rewriting Chapter Four, Sixteen needs a complete replacement, and I’m just not at all sure about Thirty-One…”
Ghost Writers. They were the worst. The Releaser sighed and pricked her finger. Reaching for his ghostly manuscript, she wrote two words in blood. “The End.”
The ghost sighed, “Thannnnnkkkk…”
“Is he gone?” The castle’s new owner stood to the side, open laptop ready. “Because I’m on a deadline here and I have to get another twenty-thousand words to my editor.”
The Releaser paused as she was about to wipe off the runes and shrugged. She’d be back.
Barb Taub 
Guising. It doesn’t happen on the scale it did when I was a child, though. I remember visiting every house on our road. We dressed up, sometimes wearing masks and went guising in groups of varying sizes. We each had to do a proper party piece – none of this telling a joke or yelling ‘trick or treat’ – it had to be song or a poem or a dance. For our efforts we received nuts, fruit, sweets – homemade tablet, toffee and toffee apples – and occasionally money. I received my first ever pomegranate one Halloween from Lockhart. We had enough goodies by the end of the evening to provide our school play pieces for weeks.
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I was away last Halloween so I couldn’t tell if we got any little guisers. But fingers crossed for this year!
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Love it.
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From you? That’s high praise indeed!
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I give praise fairly regularly. I’ve just not been around as much as normal. After i finish this promotional month, I might get back in the swing of things.
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The Castle Ghost is hilarious! I loved it!
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Thanks so much!
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snort Love it!!
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What a clever story.
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Awesome story.
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