When Hallowe'en looms t'wards the end of the year
Elements arrive to play on our fear,
The dead start to walk and the darkness takes hold,
As magical mystics and horrors unfold
When the transparent veil between this life and next,
Is pushed to the side with a word and a hex.
But what of a world where there's no dead to rise?
When the mystical forms must take some other guise?
Imagine our heroes with no walkers or geeks,
But with ghosties and monsters and other strange freaks.
A Walking Dead world without a zombie in sight,
Just traditional scares to give them a fright!
Can Daryl take on a werewolf or ghost,
When his bow no longer turns them to toast?
And what about Carol, can she last the night,
When it's vampires who yearn to give her a bite?
So this Hallowe'en a challenge we give:
A world without zombies where our duo live,
But death they must face when darkness descends,
Against mystical creatures, with the help of their friends.
So this fine October don't just watch Walking Dead,
Write us some Hallowe'en fanfic instead!

• THE CHALLENGE: Write a Caryl Halloween-themed AU! Vampires, werewolves, ghosts, haunted houses, witches - the world of Halloween themed spooks is your oyster, with one exception: NO ZOMBIES! Mwahaha...
• THE DEADLINE:  Stories must be turned in by 11:59pm PST October 23. Posting day is October 24.
• THE RULES:
• Send a PM to Fairies Masquerade, Ikkleosu or subversivegrrl stating that you’re going to enter the challenge. This is very important! If we do not get a PM, you won’t be on the list.
• Write your fic!
• Caryl only this time! (Sorry, McReedus fans - we will get you on the next one!)
• You can submit multiple entries! It's actually encouraged.
  
• Each story submitted must be a minimum of 100 words
• DO NOT UPLOAD IT YET! Wait until October 23 to upload your fic – just like in challenges past, we will be suspending automatic validation for that day for all authors who enter the challenge.
• Submission Day is October 23 – post your fic. It will not appear on the archive, but will enter our validation queue. Make sure you submit it under the Nine Lives Challenge category!
• Posting Day is October 24 – We will post the master list and all of the challenges entries so everything shows up at once. That way, we’re all surprised by what we get to read! Any challenge fics posted before October 23 will be deleted.

'Tis the season for spooktacular stories and we are embracing it wholeheartedly. (FM has been waiting to do this challenge for this for months!) So go forth, tiny Caryling goblins, and write the scariest story you can muster. Just remember - NO ZOMBIES! 

As always, if you have any questions, comment here or drop a PM to FM, Ikkles or Subs. Happy Haunting, Caryl fans!