The moon, like a queen with her court, presided over the Halloween festivities.

The roller coaster, known as the Hurricane, fared badly against the real thing.

"There's a special place in Hell for you, preacher," the shaggy-haired hobo shouted at the man who stood behind the pulpit, a man whose life of depravity was well known, but never mentioned in public.

The villagers considered the murder in the graveyard on the eve of the Day of the Dead a very sick joke indeed. 

Even at 93 the old firebrand still managed to piss off the authorities and split his time between jail and the retirement home.

The wind shook the shutters, the rain pelted the roof.

He was terrified by the power of language, having seen murder trials and marriages turn on just one or two ill-placed words.

Seth took the job as a dishwasher to force himself to make a go of his music career, but instead found himself rising through the ranks of the restaurant business.

His ego driven project hemorrhaged money, but garnered the sense of self-worth he required.

Phil was a lazy old crow who preferred weaving in and out of traffic to flying.

The new constitution was so full of contradictory clauses that it resembled a snake eating its own tail.

They watched the Monet burn, the unfortunate end game of a perfect heist, but bad business acumen.

The new grass springing through the melting snow seemed a harbinger of the season of renewal, but for Jake all that was cancelled out by the body thrusting through the slush.

T. loved the inevitability of the hallucinogen, knowing that once he had swallowed it there was no going back.

The mist cleared and they could see the enemy approaching, a solid mass of bodies that appeared unstoppable.

The politician and his family smiled broadly at the homeless people, but kept their distance, refused to shake their hands and washed thoroughly after the photo op.

Stumbling through the Hollywood Hills, Velda shouted drunkenly at the city below that she would have her day.

The puzzle master was unable to tease out the answer to his relationship problems.

The clock was ticking, his hands began to shake and his palms were slick with sweat.

Mule ornery and bitter as chicory, old man Cheever had a soft spot for snakes and not much else.

She had a face like a rotten apple core that seemed to hold within it all the pain, bad luck and misery of the world.

It was the hour when the bats went to bed and the birds awoke.

His brain was the enemy.

Harry "The Hun" Harris, now retired from pro wrestling, had a deep seated hatred for reality television, believing it was all faked.

"Lord have mercy on my poor soul," sputtered Poe before dying.

Outgunned and outmaneuvered they waited to die.

Tainted love and drugs brought Tate to his knees.

I saw my face reflected in the eyes of the dead man, but did not recognize myself.

Terence called his ulcer Olga and would often find himself speaking to her softly when she acted up.

As he lay in the foyer of the hotel, he struggled to make it outside, feeling that if he was going to die he wouldn't be doing it in the Chelsea, as that had already been done to death.

They took the stage to a wheeze of cheering and weak applause from their geriatric fans.