🎃 The Lantern Keeper
Every Halloween, the small town of Black Hollow lit its streets with hundreds of carved pumpkins—each glowing face said to keep the darkness at bay. But the biggest, brightest lantern always stood atop the hill beside the graveyard, tended by the Lantern Keeper.
No one knew who the Keeper was. Some said it was old Mrs. Halloway, who vanished one Halloween night years ago. Others whispered it was something older—something that didn’t like the dark.
This year, thirteen-year-old Eli decided to find out. He followed the flickering path past the town’s edge, where fog curled low and the smell of candle wax and damp leaves filled the air. The pumpkins grew stranger the farther he went—faces that moved, eyes that blinked.
When he reached the graveyard, the great lantern was already lit. A tall figure in a tattered cloak stood before it, its face hidden behind a mask carved from a pumpkin.
“You shouldn’t have come, boy,” the Keeper said in a voice that sounded like wind in dry corn.
Eli swallowed hard. “I just wanted to see who you are.”
The figure tilted its head. “Once, I was like you. Curious. Brave. Foolish.” It reached up and removed the mask—revealing a hollow void where a face should be. Inside, candlelight flickered.
Eli stumbled back. “What are you?”
“I keep the light burning,” it said. “For if it goes out—”
A sudden gust of wind swept across the hill. The lantern’s flame flickered… then died.
From the shadows between the gravestones, something began to stir. Fingers of smoke. Eyes like coals. The ground trembled with whispers.
The Keeper turned to Eli, voice urgent. “Run to the town! Light every pumpkin you see! Don’t let them go dark—not tonight!”
Eli ran until his lungs burned. Behind him, the fog swallowed the hill, and a cold howl echoed through Black Hollow.
That Halloween, no one slept. Every porch light burned until dawn.
And at sunrise, on the hill, the great lantern was burning once more—
with a new face carved into it.
One that looked a lot like Eli’s.
STAKE ID: GonzaR13
