(Repost) Ninth Minor Spirit of October: out Out OUT!

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Ninth Minor Spirit of October
out Out OUT!
Instead of Inktober, I'm doing a spirit a day for October.

He had been told what would happen if he ever opened the door to the basement. But once it started, the scratching from behind the door would not stop. Every night, all night, ever louder and more insistent. He couldn't sleep.

At last one midnight he could not stand it any more. He threw off the bedsheets, and stumbled down the stairs to the heavy wooden door. He opened the latches, and drew back the bars, and sloooowly it swung open.

Nothing, just wooden stairs going down to a barren concrete floor.

Fifteen minutes later, after he was settled back in bed, the scratching started again.

This time on the other side of the basement door.

 

(Repost) Tenth Minor Spirit of October: First Curse

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Tenth Minor Spirit of October
First Curse
Instead of Inktober, I'm doing a spirit a day for October.

Lying together, she whispered something, and traced figures on his bare skin, sweat drying in circles and loops
"What?"
"This means you're mine." she muttered mock-fiercely into his chest. "If you ever betray me you'll be cursed."
He laughed. "No problem. We'll always be together."
"Forever?"
"Forever."
He kissed her then, and they quickly forgot about it.

You know what happens next. What always happens.

She was young and inexperienced, and really, just showing off. The spirit she summoned couldn't really hurt him. Just a tickle and maybe a smear.

But it did its best.

When she saw next saw him, standing at the bus station, he sneezed whenever a women passed near him. And his acne spelled out her name.

(Repost) Eleventh Minor Spirit of October: Junk Crawlers

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Eleventh Minor Spirit of October
Junk Crawlers
Instead of Inktober, I'm doing a spirit a day for October.

A night spirit's existence can be a tenuous one, vulnerable to sun and rain and the terrible gaze of humans.

Some, unable to find natural shelter, build themselves homes out of discarded human junk, much like a hermit crab. A cassette tape perhaps, then a toaster, a broken TV and so on...gradually they move to larger and larger bodies, assembling long fittings to make limbs. No longer dragging their homes around, at night they scuttle and stride around their junkyard home, scrounging more parts for themselves.

Inevitably, they will become too large to hide. During some awful bright daytime they will be found by the junkyard owner who, while cursing about kids making amateur art, will rip their limbs away, render their parts back to their components. The lucky ones will slink away to begin it all over again...

(Repost) Twelth Minor Spirit of October: On a Misty Trail

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Twelfth Minor Spirit of October
On a Misty Trail
Instead of Inktober, I'm doing a spirit a day for October.

Ephemeral, caught between water and air, fog spirits have always desired to court oblivion in the form of lightning. In the old days they swarmed high mountain tops and stormy seas, waiting for lighting strikes in the right location. Now though, it's easy; they simply swarm power lines, the hot iron alive with electricity.

Stand under the metal towers and listen; that fizzing sound you hear on misty nights is their ecstacy on tasting death.

Don't climb the towers yourself; death has a different meaning for them.

 

 

(Repost) Thirteenth Minor Spirit of October: The Workers' Watch

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Thirteenth Minor Spirit of October
The Workers' Watch
Instead of Inktober, I'm doing a spirit a day for October.

It is true that craftsmen invest part of their souls in the things they make. This is also true for the carpenters and bricklayers and welders who build houses and buildings.

However, builders work in groups; the fragments of their souls are diffused, spread over the whole construction site. Over time these fragmentary spirits gradually clump together, to form a communal spirit, a sort of artificial genus loci.

They are harmless having very little power other than a consciousness of what goes on in the place they made, and the flaws in their work. So when you're alone at night and it's quiet, and you feel something watching you, that may be them. They're just trying to warn you of the failure points in your home.

At least you should hope that's what's watching you.

(Repost) Fourteenth Minor Spirit of October: Stitch Stitch Stitch

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Fourteenth Minor Spirit of October
Stitch Stitch Stitch
Instead of Inktober, I'm doing a spirit a day for October.

Let's talk about the Stitcherman. You know the feeling of Deja Vu? When you find yourself remembering what you're doing right now? It's not retrorecognition, or a neural feedback loop, or anything clever like that. The Stitcherman steals a memory while you're thinking of it, and then stitches up the gap so you think you're remembering the present moment.

It's painless, and it's not like you needed that memory.

You won't miss her at all..

(Repost) Fifteenth Minor Spirit of October: The Night Song

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Fifteenth Minor Spirit of October
The Night Song
Instead of Inktober, I'm doing a spirit a day for October.

So you're bugged because you've been hearing the killdeer calling at night. Well relax. It's not an evil spirit signaling your doom. It's a perfectly normal bird.

What happens, is killdeer are sensitive to the spirits a doomed person attracts. They think their nests are in danger, so they call out a warning.

See? Perfectly harmless.

As matter of fact, I'm finding your spirits a little upsetting myself. So maybe leave now?