Spooktoberfest is here! (feat. flash fiction)

Woohoo!! Fun times are afoot today, because it's the start of the Spooktoberfest blogfest, hosted by Jackie Felger and Dani Bertrand. The aim of this game is to write a piece of flash fiction (300 words or less) that contains the following 5 words:

cobweb(s), cauldron(s), jack-o-latern(s), ghost(s), razor(s)

For more info, check out the link above! There is a really cool prize for the winner, too, and it's international!

Anyway, here is my entry, which according to Microsoft Word is 296 words long:

Ghosts of annoying lovers past assault me as I step out into the steamy cauldron of a spring day in Perth, head pounding with a nauseating hangover. Puffy white clouds leer at me like jack-o-lanterns from overhead and I glower to show the world just what I think. 

Why is it always me who has to do the walk of shame? Why don’t these one night stands ever happen at my place? And why must I always be the ultimate cliché and lose a shoe somewhere along the way? 

I hobble gingerly along a weedy garden path to the front gate and push through it, crying out in pain as a stray bit of wire digs its razor-blade sharpness into my right love handle. I take a moment, closing my eyes and drawing deep breaths to clear the cobwebs from my mind. And to try to unclench this damn jaw. ‘Cause this is no way to start off a day. 

Suddenly a high-pitched voice calls out from a short distance away—a horribly familiar voice: “Martha? Is that you?!” 

I open my eyes and no, I haven’t imagined it—that really is my mother across the street, squinting at me in confusion then disbelief. Frantically I look around for a street sign and find one. Dread flowers inside me as I realise why last night’s conquest looked so familiar. Mum’s best friend’s son really has grown into a hottie. But now I know he lives across the road from his mother—directly across the road—and if his bad morning breath wasn’t a deal breaker, this totally is. 

“Martha! I don’t believe it.” Mum’s completely scandalised. “Why are you— How— Where is your shoe?” 

Fitting, really, that today is October 31^st. Halloween has never been scarier.