Troll Pumpkin Novels & Stories

Pumpkins had started showing up around the ward. Not real ones, but plastic, hollow, and too bright, but still pumpkins. Someone had taped paper bats along the hallway bulletin board, and the cafeteria offered watery orange punch they called “spooky brew.” It was almost Halloween, and Naya couldn’t stop thinking about how, this time last year, she’d been at Adrian’s office party, dressed in black silk, drinking real champagne. Now she was in paper slippers, eating Jell-O that looked like blood but tasted like cherry cough syrup.

" No, I caught her in the woods, that's another story, there was a group of Rogues who went by where my friend lives and we overheard them talking about going to meet a woman who told one of them to come to see her and bring friends so she and her friends can show them a good time, one of them was skeptical but went along with them still anyways, after a bit, they came running back and were being chased by the Jablesse and some jackolanterns " " Push pause please, Jackolanterns? As in pumpkins? " " no, uhm look there are Jablesse as you have seen " " right " " there's also Jackolanterns which are balls of fire, Rounce which you also have seen, the demon pig, Soucouyant which drinks blood, th

My mind buzzed, refusing to process any of it. The pumpkin tattoo in the photo was identical to the one on my wrist. I’d gotten it with my best friend, Lily Green. We both loved a niche gothic animation—the ever-grinning pumpkin figure in it had become our symbol of friendship. Lily had said, “Sophie, look at him. No matter how bad things get, he’s always smiling. We should be like that too.” And now, that tattoo had become evidence against me.

“You know my cousin Bevan?” “The tight-rope walker? Yeah.” “He lost his front teeth as a pup to bottle rot, so we always called him Pumpkin because he looked like a Jack-o-lantern. That was his name. Pumpkin.” “What’s bottle rot?” “When you leave a baby with his bottle all the time, and his front teeth rot, but that’s not the point.” I ignore Cadoc’s horrified look. You can’t blame Aunt Dru for it. She had five other pups she was looking out for, and Auntie Madwen besides. Everyone got fed. That’s all you can ask.