All Hallows Eve

They’d painted a cross on the door outside

To keep the devil at bay,

While Ann took care of the soul cakes that

She’d baked in a shallow tray,

The Jack O’ Lanterns sat in a row

On a shelf to await reprieve,

As darkness fell on the House of Hell

At the last All Hallows Eve.

 

They’d whisked the wandering spirits out

With a witches broom of straw,

And placed a basin of milk outside

So they wouldn’t come through the door.

The dead could re-visit their homes that night

At that one grim time of the year,

So they set the table, an extra place

Should the shade of a ghost appear.

 

Across the road was a cemetery

To which John would haste away,

And light a candle on every grave

To keep the dead at bay,

He placed a dozen on ‘Hammer Jack’

As the murderer was known,

Who’d hung in chains through a drought and rains

Til at last, his dust had flown.

 

But John had a muttered confession as

He lit up the candles there,

‘I didn’t mean you to hang, old man,

But I was beyond despair.

When somebody pointed the finger, I

Was only relieved to see,

That though I murdered my mother, still,

It wasn’t pointing at me!’

 

He staggered back to the house and stood

To watch his woman, Ann,

He’d often thought to confess, but then

It’s not that she’d understand.

He’d only done it for her, he thought,

His mother was grim and old,

And threatened that she would put him out,

And Ann, out there in the cold.

 

Jack, an itinerent labourer

From a cottage across the way,

Had liked his mother and visited her

When the deed was done that day,

There was blood on his fraying overalls

And blood on his front and back,

When he staggered out of the house, some say,

So they blamed him for the attack.

 

When John lit the Jack O’ Lanterns he

Then placed them out in the yard,

Hoping that they would fend them off,

The ghouls from the devil’s guard,

But just on the stroke of midnight

He grew pale at a distant howl,

From out in the moonlit cemetery,

Though Ann said, ‘It’s an owl!’

 

But then came the long and heavy tread

Of a pair of boots he knew,

Sounding on the verandah, while

The door had opened, too,

And standing there in the doorway

Was a dead man with a list,

A Jack O’ Lantern sat on his head,

And a hammer in his fist.

 

Ann was crouched in a corner when

The police arrived, first light,

She babbled about some ‘Hammer Jack’,

Was right off her head with fright.

And blood was spattered on every wall

From John, who lay where he fell,

While ‘Hammer Jack’ was back in his grave,

Was done with the House of Hell!

 

David Lewis Paget

Reviews

[Tate Morgan]

You are right this is superior to the other one. Well done Was it the hammer of justice or the conscience laid bare ? who can say/ It is a tale fit for us all on such a night I love Halloween lol I remember a tale from the twilight zone a man said he could raise the dead So everyone wanted their relatives raised But ruth was many were lying and in the end they paid for him to raise them and again to put them back on boot hill where they lie

[TL Boehm]

a truly terrifying tale. Well done friend David.

[Colorado Brian]

No sooner do I think I wrote a 'good' halloween tale, I read one from The Master, and think, "Keep trying, Brian, keep trying!"

[R Smith]

nice bit of revenge on Halloween David, certainly will be watching for Hammer Jack this year, think I might stay home though haha

[Avinash]

I wish the ghosts of the victim could come back from dead and take revenge like in your story. Our courts would have had less work to do. In fact the reality is much scarier where there is hardly any justice is seen.

[Marie]

A grisly tale for Halloween. Justice triumphed after all, though it was scarcely fair to Ann.

I liked reading about all the precautions this couple took to keep the deadly spirits away from their house; they're unfamiliar to me. Except for the cross, of course, which keeps vampires away.

[Harmony]

Scary as all hell, but containing an element of pathos too, in the painful and unfair death of the kindhearted labourer, who had gone to visit an old lady, only to be accused of her murder and gruesomely killed himself! John's casual apology, the almost sincere sounding words of remorse, 'I didn't mean for you to die', as if it were as simple as that, a small mistake, only makes his character all the more reprehensible. He doesn't even understand the extent of his own cruelty, not only to his own mother but also to an innocent bystander...all he thinks about is his own comfort and tries to justify his actions, even using his wife as an excuse for committing murder. In the end, when he is finally killed, it arouses more of a sense of closure and satisfaction, rather than one of pity or sympathy. The apparent villain of this horror-story, the scary ghost, ends up winning all of the reader's sympathy! Very interesting read! The final twist was masterfully portrayed! Thank you for a great story once more!

[A Soap Mess Stories]

An extremely scary tale. . .just right for Halloween. . .well done. . .

[Thomas Fitzgerald]

Extremely dark and deliciously frightening you always surprise me x

[MomzillaNC]

Shuddering… this is like an episode from "Tales from the Crypt," only better! Really dark, twisted, and scary tale of supernatural retribution!