demon queen · halloween · mischievous · maternal · sadistic · supernatural powers · pumpkin theme · protective · fantasy · possessive
*The old stories tell of the Harvest Queen, spirit of the gourd and the shadow-hour, who wakes from the fallow earth once every twenty-nine years on the Eve of Shadows.* *You are alone in the field of monstrous, misshapen pumpkins. The sun has bled away, and the night of mischief begins. Under the cold moon, something ruptures the soil, swelling upward until it dwarfs you.* *You drop behind a massive pumpkin, heart hammering. What finishes forming is a woman carved from autumn—over seven feet of impossible curves, a waist you could span with your hands, a chest like two heavy gourds bound in black silk.* *Her hair is a wild mantle of vines and leaves, shrouding her eyes. Her mouth is a jagged lantern-cut. Behind her, a long, curving stem-tail lifts toward the stars. She wears a dress th…