My children, every year around this time, I show up here to extol the virtues and glories of horror. I tell you that being scared -- and scaring others -- can feel great. I tell you that horror fiction is a great way to relieve stress and help control your own real-world fears. I tell you that Halloween's culture of subversion, disguise, and terror helps society blow off steam during stressful times. 

What we often forget is that Halloween and horror can also be fun -- and funny. I really hate Halloween cards and decorations that bleed the holiday down to adorable black kittens and jolly jack-o-lanterns, but some of my favorite Halloween entertainment and imagery are not really very scary. For example -- "The Nightmare Before Christmas," "Hocus Pocus," the "Addams Family" films, and the "Munsters" TV show aren't terrifying, even though they feature monsters and other characters that are traditionally scary.

You can get the same thing from other kinds of entertainment -- there's a nice Flash-based game I like called "Haunt the House: Terrortown," with a cute ghost scaring people away from his house by possessing objects, plus an impossible-to-find pen-and-paper roleplaying game called "Pumpkin Town" that's essentially the Nightmare Before Christmas RPG. And there's the jaunty, rollicking, xylophone-powered "Spooky Scary Skeletons" by Andrew Gold, the unofficial anthem of spoopiness. 

And there's not a single thing wrong with this kind of humor and whimsy. It helps make Halloween fun for kids, and it often triggers the nostalgic feelings adults have for the holiday. And again, Halloween isn't supposed to be only scary. If it weren't fun, if it didn't give us laughs along with the screams, it wouldn't be nearly as wonderful as it is. 

But nevertheless, there's more to Halloween than just fun and humor, isn't there? You've got to bring the fright, too. Because it's that time of year again. Let's try to scare each other.

Write an original scary story. Write a horror-themed poem. Node a story that is in the public domain. Write a factual writeup that is about horror or scary stuff. Write a biography of a writer or actor closely associated with the horror genre. Create a review of a horror film or story. It can be any length and any topic -- as long as it's scary.

What's the runtime for the Quest? The entire month of October, plus November 1, server time. Halloween is too awesome to limit to just one day a year.

If you need inspiration, or if you just want to see some more of the scary stories that Everythingians have produced, check out our previous horror quests: I can make you howl. And vice versa. Let's get down to business., Everything Quests: Scary Stories, The Blood is the Life: A Frightful Halloween Quest, They Hunger For Nodes: An e2 Halloween Scary Story Quest, I Will Show You Fear in a Handful of Text: The 2005 Halloween Horrorquest, It's the Season for Graves Cracking: The 2006 Quest for Fear (another deleted quest announcement, unfortunately), The Poet and the Worm, The Night's Plutonian Shore: The 2007 Halloween Horrorquest, Necronodecon: The 2008 Halloween Horrorquest, Pickman's Nodegel: The 2009 Halloween Horrorquest, Ten Years of Terror: The 2010 Halloween Horrorquest, The Nodegel from Yuggoth: The 2011 Halloween Horrorquest, Children of the Night: The 2012 Halloween Horrorquest, 13 O'Clock: The 2013 Halloween Horrorquest, No More Room in Hell: The 2014 Halloween Horrorquest, In the Nodes of Madness: The 2015 Halloween Horrorquest, Grisly Ghouls from Every Tomb: The 2016 Halloween Horrorquest, and We All Float Down Here: The 2017 Halloween Horrorquest.

Again, the Quest will run for the entire month of October and November 1. If you post early or late -- too bad, so sad.

When you write a story for the Quest, just /msg me with the node title, then softlink your writeup to this node. I'll include a list of all the Quest participants below.

So start thinking horror, boils and ghouls. Halloween is coming. Let's scare each other.

Fiction:
the breaking wave by lizardinlaw
The Black House by Silverai_me
October Skeleton Challenge by Glowing Fish
If you ever wondered how a tower of unholy evil is made by Pandeism Fish
you find yourself in a blue world by Silverai_me
October 9, 2018 by civilwaractionfigure
cry wolf by gate
He was found by artman2003
embedded by lizardinlaw
the streets are distorted and strange by BookReader
October 23, 2018 by civilwaractionfigure
The House on West Oak by Jet-Poop
Voluntas Necandi by Jet-Poop

Poetry:
Emma Gemma Andeline by Zephronias
Successive phases of motion by etouffee

Fact:
Ghost House by Glowing Fish
sleep paralysis nightmare: bedroom intruder reads a newspaper? by Chord
The Beer Monster by Stuart
The Frisky Fieldhouse by TheDeadGuy
Trump Tower fire by Chord
the dark things in the world by lizardinlaw
Yukon Beaver Eater by JD

Reviews:
Wylding Hall by Jet-Poop
Lemora: A Child's Tale of the Supernatural by JD
Hereditary by JD
The Seventh Victim by JD
Werewolves of London by Glowing Fish
Roland The Headless Thompson Gunner by lizardinlaw
Lovecraftesque by Jet-Poop
The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg by Glowing Fish
Alone in the Dark by JD
The Mummy by JD
Crooked by Jet-Poop
Eye of the Devil by JD
Dark Harvest by Jet-Poop
Garden of Eldritch Delights by Jet-Poop
A Quiet Place by JD
From the Dust Returned by teleny
Halloween 2018 by JD
The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Nemosyn
Arachnids in the UK by Glowing Fish

Essays:
Horror in the Marvel Cinematic Universe by Glowing Fish
Nobody stumbles into Lovecraft by Glowing Fish
Design Philosophy of Flea in the Dark by BookReader

The Horrorquest is ended for another year! Thank you all for your enthusiastic participation!

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