Inktober 2025: Day 31 – Award

The Afterlife Awards (as told by a very unwilling participant)

I was brushing my teeth when the mirror applauded with ghostly clapping.

I froze, toothbrush halfway to my mouth. “Please don’t,” I said to the reflection, which was currently smiling without me.

From behind me came a raspy voice. “Don’t what? Celebrate your haunting? Tonight’s the big night!” Standing in my bathroom was a translucent man wearing what looked like a Victorian tuxedo and holding a clipboard. “I’m Leonard,” he continued. “Coordinator for the Afterlife Awards. You’ve been selected as the host location.”

“Host?” I asked hesitantly, toothbrush falling from my hand.

“Indeed! You’re this year’s ‘Most Consistently Haunted Human.'” Leonard reached out to pat my shoulder, but his hand passed through, leaving a cold sensation in it’s wake. “Congratulations! We couldn’t have done it without you staying here despite all the blood walls and spectral whispers.”

“You’re giving me an award?”

He laughed. “Oh heavens, no. The award’s for your ghost. You’re just the venue.” Before I could argue, my bathroom filled with mist, organ music, and about two dozen spirits in various stages of decomposition. Leonard tapped the side of a floating microphone that had appeared as well. “Ladies, ghouls, and incorporeal entities – welcome to the 143rd Annual Afterlife Awards! Tonight, we honour excellence in haunting!”

A gruesome cheer arose – mostly wails, clanking chains, and one very enthusiastic banshee scream that cracked my ceiling.

I stood in the corner, covering my ears until Leonard began reading the categories.

“Best Cold Spot!” he announced. A chunk of air froze solid and dropped to the floor.

Applause.

“Outstanding Poltergeist Performance in a Domestic Setting!” My lamp exploded.

More applause.

Several more categories were revealed. Then came the big one.

“Best Haunting of a Living Human! Leonard’s voice echoed. “And the winner is…” He ripped open the envelope with dramatic flair. “… Agatha Bonesworth!”

A shimmering figure drifted forward – my ghost. The one who’d been flickering lights and whispering my name like a creepy lullaby for months.

Agatha floated past me, winked, and said, “I told you I’d make something of myself.”

Leonard placed a golden urn in her hands. “For exceptional commitment to consistent terror, long-term dedication, and creative use of plumping noises.”

She curtsied, her lower half dissolving through the floor. “Oh my goodness, I didn’t perpare a speech. I’d like to thank my haunted human – Ted – for never moving out, no matter how many times I wrote Get Out in steam on his mirror.”

The audience moaned approvingly. Someone threw a bone bouquet.

I raised a hand. “I tried to move, but Zillow flagged my address as ‘non-mortally occupied.”

Agatha continued, ignoring me. “And, of course, my mentor Gregory, who taught me that subtle dread beats jump scares every time.”

Gregory waved from inside my refrigerator.

The ghosts toasted her with ectoplasm champagne. I stood there in despair, wondering if renters insurance covered supernatural award ceremonies.

Then Leonard turned to me. “As host, you get a small token of appreciation.” He handed me a certificate that read:

Certificate of Survival
Awarded to Ted for remaining technically alive
Despite continuous exposure to paranormal nonsense.

“Do I get anything else?” I asked.

Leonard smiled, teeth faintly glowing. “Oh, absolutely.” He looked a little too enthusiastic. “You get an encore haunting. Same time next year. She’ll need to defend her title.”

The ghosts applauded a final time, fading into the mist until only Agatha remained. She floated up beside me, smirking. “Better start practicing your screams, Ted.”

I sighed. “Can I least get a co-host credit next year?”

She considered it. “Only if you die first.”

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HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

I’m so happy to have completed Inktober 2025 this year! It’s been so good getting back into writing after all this time. Thanks for following along and reading!

Inktober 2025: Day 30 – Vacant

Astrid hadn’t left her room since they had escaped the explosion. She’d fractured herself shortly after they had reached the safe house and had gone through the files that she had retrieved from the lab, just as she had done with data-stics they’d obtained on a previous mission. This time, however, she hadn’t share what she had discovered with Luke. It wasn’t like she was actively avoiding him, but it was obvious she didn’t want his company at all.

It wasn’t entirely unusual for her to isolate herself. She had spent most of her early missions with the Org working solo. Luke had been the one to actively pursue a partnership with her. Once he finally wore her down, they had worked out an arrangement where she could still take the occasional solo job, but recently she hadn’t taken the opportunities when they presented themselves. However, staying in her room and refusing to come out for meals while not taking commissioned work was out of the ordinary, which is why Luke found himself standing in front of her closed door, arguing with her.

“I’m going to come in whether you invite me or not,” he started, holding a tray of food. “It’s been a week and you haven’t come to any meals.”

Astrid’s sigh was audible. “Fine.” There was some brief rustling before she continued. “I’m only agreeing because I don’t have the energy to argue.” The door opened to reveal Astrid in bed, expression vacant, as her fractured selves disappeared.

Luke set the tray on the table. “Here.” He offered her some juice. The spark that she normally possessed was gone and she stared into the nothingness as if she wasn’t physically present. “You okay?” The lack of response was worrisome. “You know I’m always willing to listen if you need me.”

Astrid still didn’t respond, but took the proffered juice and picked at the food he had brought. When she was finished, she turned away and closed her eyes, fracturing once before her original self fell asleep. She picked up a thick file and after a brief moment of hesitation, handed it to him. “The memories are sometimes too much.” She sat down next to her original self, reaching out to stroke her hair. “Read that and when your done, come find me. I think by then, I’ll be ready to talk.”

Inktober 2025: Day 29 – Lesson

When she reminisces about her uni days, she remembers her time as a teaching assistant with great fondness. Teaching Evolutionary Biology and Ecology as well as Organic Chemistry labs 1 and 2 were some of the highlights of that time of her life. She learned so much about herself and her ability to organise information systematically. With an ease she had not thought possible, she found lesson prep to be something that flowed naturally. The difficult part was standing up in front of the class, so much attention all focused on her.

Even after leaving the academic arena, she found teaching to be something that she still loves, but in rather unconventional ways. It’s not the content of the lesson that she struggles with, but rather her audience. She would rather tutor, working one-to-one with an individual than stand up in front of a group of people, even if she knows all of those people well. It’s been a while since she’s taught anything, but she wonders if perhaps she’ll have an opportunity to do so again in the future.

Inktober 2025: Day 28 – Skeletal

“Are you nearly ready?” Marco called from the living room.

“Yeah, just need a couple more minutes.” Kelly continued to work on her make up, adding the final colors before she started to glue on the jewels she had set aside for her costume.

For Halloween this year, she was La Catrina, the iconic Lady of the Day of the Dead. The inspiration for her costume was from La Muerta in the animated movie, The Book of Life. She had thrifted a red evening dress with a small train and bought several boxes of yellow flowers. For the hat, she had found the largest brimmed hat she could find and coloured it red before decorating it with painted sugar skulls and battery operated candles. The level of detail that she had put into this costume was a little more than she had for previous costumes. It had taken a few months of preparation in her spare time, but it had given her an outlet of creativity that she hadn’t previously known she could tap into.

Once finished with the jewels, she put on the dress and hat, coming to stand in front of the floor length mirror that was hanging on the door of their walk in closet. The costume had come together beautifully.

“Ready to go? If we don’t head out soon, we’re gonna be late for the party.” Marco peaked around the door briefly to check on her. “Wow!” He exclaimed, opening the door all the way and stepping inside, all the while trying his best not to lose his crown or damage the wings of his Xibalba costume.

“I’m ready… now.” Kelly said, placing the last flower in her hair. After taking a brief moment to admire how she looked, she did a little spin for Marco. “How do I look?”

“Positively skeletal, my love,” Marco replied, before sweeping her up in a kiss.

Inktober 2025: Day 27 – Onion

The kitchen smelled of garlic and onion sautéing on the stove. It was a staple to every dish she remembers her mother making when she was a little girl. All these years later, she finds herself copying her mom, starting her own dishes with garlic and onion, even though she doesn’t often cook. Together, they make for a flavorful base for whichever dish she decides to make. Tonight, she is making soondooboo jjigae, a Korean soft tofu stew that she taught herself to make when living overseas and was missing a little bit of home. It’s comfort food that feeds both her body and soul, nourishing her spirits. On such a cool night, it warms her and she thinks of how grateful she is to have roots within Korean culture. As she continues to cook the jjigae, the flavors build upon one another, until the kitchen smells of rich spicy broth and memories of Saturdays spent at Lotte and H-Mart. And for the first time, she finds herself hoping that one day her little one will associate such wonderful food and smell with nostalgia of home, with memories of her.

Inktober 2025: Day 26 – Puzzling

The evidence was laid out in front of them.

“This is rather puzzling,” Marco said, turning to Kelly. “I think this is the hardest case that we’ve taken on so far.”

Kelly rearranged some of the information, which they had written out on note cards, hoping that it would give her a new perspective. “Yeah, but it’s not like any of the other ones we’ve done were super easy.” Marco nodded, as he studied the new order.

Silence reigned as the minutes passed. Marco and Kelly rearranged the clues again and would talk through who they thought was the murderer based on how they interpreted the evidence. There always seemed to be one thing that just didn’t quite match up with everything else in their reasoning.

“Let’s review the case one last time and see if we missed anything,” Kelly said with a sigh. She reopened the case file, reading aloud the report on the incident of one Mr. Edward Moore’s death. Marco confirmed each piece of evidence as it was mentioned.

“We have it all here. There’s nothing that’s missing from one I can see.” Marco laid out all the clues, this time arranging them in categories like potential weapons, autopsy results, and bystander statements.

He had just finished laying out his different categories when Kelly suddenly gasped. “I think I know who did it!” She grabbed one of the cards with a name on it. “It has to be her because she was the one with access to both the kitchen and gardening shed.” She grabbed another card with what she thought was the murder weapon.

“I’m not entirely sure,” Marco hedged.

“Oh, come on, let’s check the box! I’m positive I’m right!”

“Fine.” He opened the case files game box and pulled out the answer booklet, carefully turning to the correct page, so as not to see the answers to the cases they still had yet to do. He started to read aloud the solution to the case and sure enough, Kelly was right. He congratulated her while putting the Moore case file away.

As he went to close the box, Kelly reach out to hold his hand. “Can we do one more tonight?”

Marco smiled. They both loved their game board date nights immensely. “Sure, why not?”

Inktober 2025: Day 25 – Inferno

Fire is a thing of beauty,
but also of pain and sorrow.
It burns away impurities,
Leaving behind ash
And purest silver.

I find myself at times
Staring into the flames.
I can’t help but wonder
What it would be like
To hold fire without burning.

Yet I am like impure silver,
Ever in need of refining.
The infernos of my life
Have purified my heart
And cleansed my soul.

The trials of life
Are just like fire.
Without the burning,
How would there ever be
Beauty from out of the ashes?

Inktober 2025: Day 24 – Rowdy

She’s never been to a college football game in her life. The university she went to didn’t have a football team and even if there had been one, she was never into watching sports. Yet, here she finds herself sitting in a stadium full of college kids at her husband’s alma mater. It is an experience unlike anything she has ever been a part of. There are sections of the stadium that seem to be full of rowdy students, but there is so much yelling, cheering, and chanting that the chaos blends all together. The energy of the crowd ebbs and flows, swelling to a crescendo when there is a touchdown. For a first time, it is a memorable one. Now she understands why her husband has always talked about going to games when in college with nostalgia. She hopes they’ll go to another game again soon.

Inktober 2025: Day 23 – Firefly

She remembers the late summer nights when she used to go out with a jar to collect fireflies and watch as they glowed softly in the dark. The faint glow of the jar was beautiful, creating a small bright point in the darkness. The memory brings the feeling of nostalgia, a desire for simpler times. Oh, to be a child again, playing outside without worry and letting her imagination run wild. Magic sparkles in her mind as she remembers when playing outside with the other neighborhood kids as dusk turned to dark. Laughter filling the air, their voices sometimes in harmony and other times swallowed up by the song of crickets and frogs. Eventually, parents would call for her friends to come home. As they said their goodbyes, she would release the fireflies, watching as they flew away, becoming like twinkling fairy lights in the tall grass. The world would become quiet once more, the darkness muting the colours of the world and beckoning her to sleep. There was a simple joy in the anticipation of collecting fireflies and playing with friends again the next day.

Inktober 2025: Day 22 – Button

“I’m surprised you wore that thing all day,” Marco said as they entered their hotel room.

Kelly looked confused. “What thing?”

“The pin.” Marco pointed to the birthday button pin she had attached to her shirt. “It’s not like you to go around advertising that it’s your birthday.”

Kelly unclipped the pin from her shirt and set it down on the table as she got ready for bed. “Yeah. I don’t know. I put it on this morning and then kind of forgot about it.”

She had received the pin when they had checked in to the hotel for their stay at the resort. Marco had planned this trip to Universal Studios for her birthday and Kelly had decided that she was going to make the most of it. And since today was her birthday, she had decided to wear the pin, despite the fact that she felt it was a bit attention grabbing and would usually avoid these types of things.

Throughout the day, as they wandered through the parks, she had received birthday wishes from park staff and guests. At first, she had felt a bit self-conscious, but as the day progressed, she found herself secretly enjoying the attention. So, despite having told herself that she would take the pin off after an hour or so, she decided to intentionally keep it on the whole day.

Marco just nodded before going to the bathroom to brush his teeth.

Later, as Kelly was falling asleep, she privately admitted to herself that she went out of the way to downplay any attention, even though she secretly wanted it. Now that she was another year older, she would stop been so self-conscious and allow herself to experience being the center of attention from time to time in ways she hadn’t in the past.