31 Short Horror Stories for Halloween

Candy

Petty crime is meaningless. It's rarely cruel. This was both. Someone was leaving candy out where kids were able to find them. The candy was filled with blades and glass. Three kids had already ingested the candy and were in the ICU. A lot of them had been seriously hurt.

The whole community was in an uproar and trick or treating that year would probably be out of the question since no one knew where the death-laced candy was coming from. The school taught kids never to eat a piece of candy that they hadn't received from a parent. To make up for no trick or treating that year, parents decided to just buy candy and gradually let their children have it.

They stocked chocolate bars, toffees, éclairs, peppermints, lollipops, gum, and just about everything that looked good. It didn't stop. The lethal candy somehow still found its way to kids. More kids got hurt.

...

The man pulled off the brightly colored wig. He hurried to wash the make-up off his face and change out of his silly brightly colored clothes. Just before he left for his second job at the auto shop, he opened a little register and ticked a name off; Jerry.

He had been hired to entertain at Jerry's birthday party earlier that year. The kids had decided to treat him like a piñata and their parents hadn't intervened when they got rough. They did complain that the clown they had hired wasn't very happy or friendly.

Well, Jerry wasn't going to be very happy for a long time now, he thought. He quickly put the candy stash away. He'd have to make more soon. He got up and put overalls on, and then left for the auto shop, humming a tune to himself. Clowns don't cry. They get revenge.