’Tis the season for another volume of Halloween Horrors, the perfect yuletide balm for fruit cake, tangled Christmas lights, airport delays and Mariah Carey. 

Both Halloween and Christmas share a disreputable past. Did you know, for example, that English Puritans thought Christmas was a time of carnal and sensual delights? Massachusetts even outlawed the holiday for a short period of time. 

Halloween, however, continues to be the top banana of disreputable holidays. Its celebration of pre-Christian traditions still irks many people to this day. Seeing kids roaming the neighborhood in Art the Clown costumes doesn’t help matters either. 

But some people think Halloween has gotten too soft—Jennie Quinn, for one. She’s tired of all the candy corn, Hallmark gewgaws and Great Pumpkin ornaments. She wants to bring back the ancient Celtic ways filled with fairies, spirits, magic and divination. 

“I’m a girl on a mission,” she states. “I want the Old Ways to return, and I’m gonna be the queen bitch to do it.” 

She continues: “The world will once again be filled with magic and wonder and enchantment and terror and all that shit. It’ll be the exact opposite of this stupid pathetic world we live in now. These days, it’s all boring as fuck.”

In Halloween Horrors, Vol. 1, Jennie almost accomplished her mission. Unfortunately, she found herself on the wrong side of Lord Samhain. Her considerable Celtic magic was no match for the mighty Dark Lord of All Hallows—sometimes referred to as the demonic pumpkin patch kid, squash-head and bulb-headed cunt. 

This year, Jennie is in Rutland, Vermont, for the town’s annual Halloween parade. She’s got insider information that Lord Samhain will be the celebration’s guest of honor, and like all disgruntled 22-year-olds, she’s looking for some revenge. 

Little did she know that Samhain was waiting for her in Vermont with a cadre of monsters at his side—a cyclopean centaur, a minotaur, a white buffalo, a gargoyle and a huge crab called Crancer. Also making an appearance would be Black Annis, the blood-drinking hag; Lingus, the Killer Klown; Genzel, the fearsome sasquatch; and Kire, the demon of music. 

Complicating matters even further, a legendary monster-hunting organization called the Boogey Knights (monsters themselves) was also on duty. In my opinion, Halloween Horrors, Vol. 2, represents the greatest confluence of monsters ever assembled in one place. 

Beyond all the monsters and supernatural shenanigans, the story “Boogey Knights: A Halloween Horror in Rutland,” features a surprising (or maybe shocking?) development between two major characters. Congratulations to writer (and editor) Christofer Nigro for finding ways to twist his multiverse into tighter and tighter knots. 

[ Halloween Horrors, Vol. 2 / Edited by Christofer Nigro / First Printing: October 2025 / ISBN: 9798993398006 ]