Halloween is still a few weeks away, but things are definitely getting a bit spooky around my neighborhood. Of course, Finn McSpool thinks himself a fearless explorer so he was eager to tag along with me for a walk one morning. A walk that soon had him fleeing for the safety of his usual spot on my desk.

Things started out well when we found this perfectly photogenic trio of pumpkins….

We then came across this fellow. I don’t think Finn realized it was meant to be scary and instead went over to ask him for some diet tips since apparently this guy knew a thing or two about slimming…

We soon approached a very creepy graveyard. Wait, this isn’t creepy. These tombstones are full of puns. And who doesn’t love a deathly pun?

Finn scoffed at the supposedly scary graveyard (actually the lawn of City Hall) that’s also decorated with dolled up scarecrows. This one reminded Finn of his time with the Molly Malone statue in Dublin and to prove how absolutely not-scary this whole set up was he climbed up for a photo on her “perch.”

But Finn, look! This place is full of celebrities, including Jack Skelington from The Nightmare Before Christmas!!! Isn’t he dreamy….get his number for me, will you?

And another famous resident rests just underneath the surface.

–Finn, maybe you better not climb on that. You might wake him up…

–Nah, this place is for wimps. It’s totally not scar—–eeeeeeeee!!!!

–Finn!!

Phew, that was a close one. After I hurriedly untangled the wee Beastie from the Chains of Doom, he was a bit rattled (rattled. chains. get it? stop groaning), but he tried to play it off by stepping away from the graveyard to explore some plant life….

–Look, a mini-pumpkin bush!

–Finn, those are rose hips.

I could see the argument debate starting about who had better plant identification skills when Finn stubbornly turned his back on me.

Then, all pretense of bravery fell away and the high-pitched scream of a terrified Beastie began. As he scrambled into my pocket, I peered over the shrub…and then we began running. Seriously, this was the scariest thing I’ve ever seen…considered yourself warned if you scroll any farther.

Once we had high-tailed it home, slammed the door behind us, threw all the bolts, and even nailed a few boards up against the windows just to be on the safe side, it took a little bit to coax Finn out of my pocket. Once I did, he quickly put on a brave face in front of the other Beasties and helped them with something far less spooky…a Halloween coloring page from Crawcrafts Beasties….

But this too soon became scary as the tale behind the picture unfolded.

See, Fall Beastie there near the tree thought he was strolling into a nice little autumnal scene. Attracted by the sweet scent of candy-coated fruit, he stopped off at the stand to buy a snack. As he waited, he took a look around and quickly realized this place wasn’t all that peaceful. Frankenstein’s Beastie was lurking behind a pumpkin and a bloodshot-eyed Zombie Beastie was playing with fire (possibly to ward off Frankenstein’s Beastie).

Run, Fall Beastie! Run while you still can!!

Fall Beastie wanted to leave, but boy do those toffee apples smell good. He tried to steel his nerves against the little Mummy Beastie ahead of him, but when he caught a glimpse of the apple vendor, his wool began to wobble.

Fangs, pale skin… Is that a–? He then noticed that red coating on the apples wasn’t toffee….

Hope this didn’t scare you too much. If you need to calm your nerves, be sure to pick up your own free coloring page (and a couple other months’ calendar pages) over at Crawcrafts Beasties.

I’ll be back next Wednesday with Chapter Two of Domna, Part One: The Sun God’s Daughter (be sure to read Chapter One if you missed it), and next Saturday Finn will be getting up to trouble in the skies and beyond. See you then!!

***

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15 thoughts on “Things Get Spooky for Finn McSpool”

    1. Thanks Tierney. The frightful look he had in that trapped-in-chains one was completely accidental, but I’m not going to argue with results. I just wonder how many people think I’m nuts when they see me posing him.

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  2. Ha! The Beasties and I are chilled to our very marrow/stuffing by all this Hallowe’en horror! Especially the clown. Why would anyone buy, keep and display this monstrosity?! But I love that your City Hall goes all-out with seasonal decoration. Pun gravestones – genius! And then a bit of Beastie colouring to wrap it all up. That’s a pretty perfect day in my book! Extra bonus points for the cautionary tale of checking out the credentials of your candy apple vendor before committing to a purchase, too 😂😂😂

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    1. Yeah, if your candy apple vendor (really any food vendor) has fangs dripping with blood, it’s time to back away very slowly and then run to the nearest sun lamp. There’s a little secret…due to the magic of the Internet, the scary devil clown is NOT at City Hall (there’d probably be complaints and people too afraid to go into to pay their water bills), but is in fact part of the ever-growing display at a house in my neighborhood. Every time I walk by, they’ve added something new, which is both entertaining and disturbing.

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      1. Ha! It’s like “The Twelve Days of Christmas” but with random scary stuff! And even if they can’t lay claim to bthe clown, City Hall’s display is quite something… That said, they probably could use a befanged Beastie toffee apple vendor to complete the scene!

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      2. Well… the display does also include a scarecrow competition (as seen in the Molly Malone scarecrow Finn was perched on). I’m sure you’d win hands down if you enter Fang Beastie next year.

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  3. 😦 😦 😦 THANKS A LOT! I guess you’re just determined that I NEVER SLEEP AGAIN. Jeeeez louise, well done on the colouring! Boy do you put my calendar to shame with your artistry! Hahaha I love it – looks amazing. I’d say Zombie Beastie is more accurately possibly Crack Addict Beastie though…

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    1. Yes, I do feel I went a bit Overachiever on that coloring page. Some might say I was procrastinating from doing my work, but since I had planned to use the page in a blog post, it was 100% good use of work time! And you win the prize! Crack Addict Beastie was indeed wearing his Zombie costume for this drawing. Wait, no, that’s no costume, is it? Ah well, he’ll have a good time in the Crack Shack (aka “Haunted House”) in the background.

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      3. Oooohhh another show?? I thought you weren’t doing anymore? Ah well, you needed to add a little more work into your super lax and flexible schedule 😉

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