Here it is – my entry for the 2022 #FallWritingFrenzy contest, in 200 words or less. Thank you co-hosts, Kaitlyn Sanchez and Lydia Lukidis, and guest judge Alyssa Reynoso-Morris.

Photo credit Daniele Colucci for Unsplash

Walk Not at Night

This alley conjures all types of dread.

So much that children dare not tread.

A single step is filled with fear.

Due to the sounds that children hear.

The ghost of Mr. van der Cleft

Moans from the first door on the left.

Don’t be fooled by hanging plants,

That building booms with eerie chants.

And the white house down the street?

That’s where werewolves like to meet.

That drain up close is not for a flood,

It’s where vampires sweep human blood.

This street is terrifying at night,

But in the light there is no fright.

When the lantern’s glow is drowned by sun,

The children return to laugh and run.