The Pumpkin Queen (Welcome to Mistland)

The Great Winter Bonfire is one of the stories in Welcome to Mistland written by Julie Morley.

Welcome to Mistland: The Great Winter Bonfire
Kiki Grimoire was an exceptional witch. Her name was known all throughout Mistland and people cowered in her presence, fearful of her cranky and quirky outbursts. Kiki’s power earned her a unique reputation among the witch community and even an invitation to the Shaggy Mountain flying Coven. Unfortunately, her fear of heights prevented her from accepting and she threw all of her energy into learning about witches and demonology.

Kiki has grown into one of the most notable wielders of black magic in Mistland but one thing stands above her history and reputation, her love of pumpkin carving and scaring the living daylights out of whoever she can. She was spellbound by her creativity and immersed in her world of black magic and the nonliving. Kiki has grown into a mischievous and bizarre young witch and nothing brings out her insanity like a pumpkin carving competition.

Every year at the Summer’s End Festival, a pumpkin competition was held. Not just any but a Most Terrifying Pumpkin Competition. Naturally, any opportunity to scare the socks off of someone would intrigue Kiki but there was something about this challenge that was incredibly interesting to her. It was an opportunity to be insane. It was a challenge of her insanity.

Silvians are difficult individuals to terrify, let me tell you. They are used to the usual bloodthirsty grins and sinister eyeholes typically carved into pumpkins year after year. But Kiki’s carving is something different. Her carving is a performance – an absolutely petrifying performance that steals the entire competition away.

Kiki doesn’t just carve pumpkins, she annihilates them – molds them into figures of terror and fright. It doesn’t matter what she carves, the part that truly spooked the crowd was how she did it. And she showed not an ounce of mercy.

Every cut was incredibly slow, tediously timed yet merciless. Over and over, she sank the blade into the flesh of the pumpkin, repeatedly stabbing and ripping into it and creating a horrible squelch – as if digging into an actual body. The crowd around her were frozen in fear, watching Kiki’s every move, every cut, every moment of maniacal laughter.

Kiki’s grin stretched across her face in an unnatural manner, almost carnivorous and murderous. Her eyes slowly became sharp and full of cruelty as she fell into a pumpkin carving frenzy, digging into the flesh while shouting incomprehensible words and phrase as if from a foreign language. Her eyes were wide and soulless, excited about her kill.

A ring of darkness started to form around Kiki, hiding the audience from her work. With every stab, the darkness grew stronger, spreading farther out into the crowd. Cries escaped the crowd, now blinded by darkness and terrified of Kiki’s pumpkin carving. She let out a maniacal, high-pitched laugh and growled, stabbing the pumpkin over and over.

She halted all carving and gazed down at her pumpkin in amazement. Kiki called out an unintelligible phrase and the darkness dispersed, leaving the crowd vulnerable before Kiki’s masterpiece. The crowd stared at the pumpkin with amazement, whispering between one another in shock.

Kiki smirked, proud of her terrifying pumpkin and certainty of winning the competition. This is how Kiki became the Pumpkin Queen.