Hide and Go Shriek - A Halloweensie Story

This story is my entry to Susanna Lenard Hill's Halloweensie Contest.

The challenge is to write a story in 100 words or fewer including a few key words. If you want to enter too, check out the information here.

Hide and Go Shriek (Word count = 99)

Rune crept,

masked by shadows,

into dusk-lit woods.

The gong sounded.

Halloween Hide-and-go-Seek

had begun.

She slipped into

a musky cave

under a gnarled maple tree.

Something snapped.

She looked down.

A skeleton,

all jumbled bones,

shone,

ghost-like.

Empty eyes

of a long dead creature

glared

above pointy teeth.

Rune shrank back,

shivered,

then grinned,

mischievously.

She placed the skull

onto a stick

and spiked it

outside her hiding place.

She waited.

Footsteps came

closer…

closer…

closer…

She tensed.

She made the skull quiver,

then growled.

The seeker shrieked

and fled!

Rune,

skull stick in hand

set off seeking...

---

If you have explored in the Pacific Northwest, you might know that we have enormous Bigleaf Maple trees. When these trees are about 75 years old, their middles can start to rot, creating these spooky and exciting spaces.

Would you hide in there?

You can tell a lot about an animal from its skull. Can you guess what kind of skull Rune found in the story?

There aren't a lot of clues. We don't know how big it is or what shape it is, but we do know it has pointy teeth and the eyes looked straight at Rune, meaning they were most likely in the front of its skull - perfect for hunting. That means that it is probably a carnivore (meat eater).

Some possibilities are:

Fox

Coyote

Raccoon

Bobcat

Bear

Skunk

Weasel

Opossum

Which do you think is the spookiest? (If you want to check out some skull photos, click here.)

You can read more about carnivores in Washington here.