* The Book of Hallowe’en by Ruth Edna Kelley
* The Abbot's Ghost by Louisa May Alcott
* Zastrozzi, A Romance by Percy Bysshe Shelley
* I don't know what it is about broken headstones, but they seem particularly eerie and evocative to me. I recently took these pictures (and some more here) at a nearby cemetery.
Spooky Text of the Day: Today's chilling tale is the classic "Clarimonde" (a.k.a. "The Vampire") by Théophile Gautier (1811–1872).
Excerpt:
The physicians who were summoned could not comprehend the nature of her malady and knew not how to treat it. They all prescribed some insignificant remedies, and never called a second time. Her paleness, nevertheless, visibly increased, and she became colder and colder, until she seemed almost as white and dead as upon that memorable night in the unknown castle. I grieved with anguish unspeakable to behold her thus slowly perishing; and she, touched by my agony, smiled upon me sweetly and sadly with the fateful smile of those who feel that they must die.
One morning I was seated at her bedside, and breakfasting from a little table placed close at hand, so that I might not be obliged to leave her for a single instant. In the act of cutting some fruit I accidentally inflicted rather a deep gash on my finger. The blood immediately gushed forth in a little purple jet, and a few drops spurted upon Clarimonde. Her eyes flashed, her face suddenly assumed an expression of savage and ferocious joy such as I had never before observed in her.
Read the complete story here.
