FOURTH PROMPT
Username: BadgerBuddies
Writing/Art: Despite her spooky name, Phantom has never really been a huge fan of the Halloween season. She heard the humans and even some of the other horses refer to it as spooky season, which although she disliked, she did agree with, just not in the correct sense. For her, it truly was spooky season, and she would spook at things left and right until the first of November finally came around to save her.
Phantom had been rescued from Fallen Oaks Farms, the horrible farm featured earlier this year all over the news for the awful conditions and abuse the animals on the property had to suffer through for who knows how long. This trauma, paired with her slowly declining eyesight, Phantom could not help herself but to feel so fearful. The humans at Badger Buddies Ranch had been working hard to gain her trust, which they have successfully done, but some things still scare her. There was nothing she could really do about it, and the people of Badge Buddies Ranch just hoped that she would soon become accustomed to the festive decorations they had hung up around the property.
Paper ghosts billowing in the wind, scary witches riding their broomsticks, wooden black cats with their fur standing straight up in fright, and pumpkins with unfriendly faces carved into them. Phantom knew they weren’t real, but kept on spoiling at the decorations if she caught them out of the corner of her eye the wrong way. She would always laugh nervously once she remembered what she was seeing, but it didn’t ease her tension. She didn’t think it could get any worse, that is until the night of Halloween rolled around.
After being confined to one wretched stall for years, she had never experienced the holiday in its full glory, with many young trick-or-treaters traipsing from door to door in their elaborate costumes and makeup in order to obtain prized morsels of candy. If she thought the non-living decorations were scary, some of the costumes of the kids passing by was sure to terrify her. Once the first wave of kids came back with their clunky orange pumpkin shaped buckets and frightening costumes, Phantom booked it as fast as she could to the back corner of her paddock in fear. Her eyes were wide, ears on alert, her body stiff with head straight in the air; she was unable to focus on grazing or anything else with all the commotion.
A couple hours had already passed and Phantom was still having trouble calming herself down, since there was a constant flow of little ones in and out, each wave coming with new costumes to be spooked over. She remained huddled in the back corner of her paddock until she heard a commotion amongst the trick-or-treaters.
Against her instincts, she trotted back over to the section of fence line near where the children were walking up to get their candy. She had heard a terrified scream of a little girl, and that was all she needed to rush in and be brave. A little boy in a creepy clown mask was bothering her, scaring her on purpose, and would not leave her alone. The little girl was in a pink dress and wore a sparkly tiara atop her head, a glittery wand in her hand no longer waving with magic. She had tears rolling down her cheeks as she ran to escape the boy dressed as a scary clown.
Phantom put her head down through the fencing, and reached her nose out towards the girl. The girl paused, and instead of continuing to run, she approached the mare, gently patting her soft nose. Phantom could see the tears had stopped, and now the girl was smiling at her. She looked back over at the boy in the clown mask, trying her best to hide her nerves in hopes of protecting the little girl. To her surprise, the little boy was now cowering behind his mother’s leg, crying as the little girl he had been antagonizing had been. Phantom chuckled to herself for a moment. I guess he was as afraid of her as she was of him!
Tolter/ERRP: Phantom
