The Halloween Divorce

By Eve Morton

Jesse Potter returns home to his parents' neighborhood to housesit for one week. He expects to get some school work done, maybe watch some movies, but nothing else too extreme. Even when the cute neighbor named Patrick catches his eye, he knows he's out of reach. Not only is Patrick married, but Jesse's not sticking around.

Then there's the clown to consider.

Patrick's lawn is filled with Halloween decorations, all of which are terrible to the Halloween-hating Jesse, but the clown with a red outfit is the worst. Especially since the clown seems to have it out for Jesse. As stranger and stranger things keep happening, Jesse falls more and more for Patrick. And when Patrick's husband divorces him one night -- it means there's nothing in the way between the two men.

Except for that clown again ...

• Language: English
• Publisher: JMS Books LLC
• Release date: Nov 7, 2022
• ISBN: 9781685500528

Book preview

The Halloween Divorce

By Eve Morton

Published by JMS Books LLC

Visit jms-books.com for more information.

Copyright 2022 Eve Morton

ISBN 9781685500528

* * * *

Cover Design: Written Ink Designs | written-ink.com

Image(s) used under a Standard Royalty-Free License.

All rights reserved.

WARNING: This book is not transferable. It is for your own personal use. If it is sold, shared, or given away, it is an infringement of the copyright of this work and violators will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

No portion of this book may be transmitted or reproduced in any form, or by any means, without permission in writing from the publisher, with the exception of brief excerpts used for the purposes of review.

This book is for ADULT AUDIENCES ONLY. It may contain sexually explicit scenes and graphic language which might be considered offensive by some readers. Please store your files where they cannot be accessed by minors.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are solely the product of the author’s imagination and/or are used fictitiously, though reference may be made to actual historical events or existing locations. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Published in the United States of America.

* * * *

There is a clown decoration in my neighbourhood that scares me. So I wrote this story to practice what Stephen King does: write out your fears so at night you sleep like a baby.

* * * *

The Halloween Divorce

By Eve Morton

Chapter 1

Jesse Potter had just turned the corner on his parents’ street when he first saw the clown.

Son of a—

He stopped in his tracks, his entire body jerking away from the sight. The clown was hung up across a pine tree, its limp arms spread out wide and a half-torn red suit hanging down by its sides like demented angel wings. The face was painted white with red and blue jagged shapes around its eyes, which were yellow. The mouth was open in a hideous grin, and its hair was bleached white and thinning up into the air. It was horrible. Jesse’s grip around his backpack tightened. The clown wasn’t touching the lawn.

It also wasn’t real.

He stepped back and surveyed the rest of the Halloween lawn display. There were skeletons playing poker at a table, along with big spiders hung on the garage roof, and lights strung up around the frame that would no doubt glow orange and black come dusk. It was only mid-afternoon now, and barely into October. Jesse had been heading home to house-sit for his parents, as they went away on a long-overdue vacation. Since his graduate studies could pretty much be done anywhere at this stage in his academic career, he was looking forward to being in a place with more than one floor, a pantry that had endless amounts of snack food, and a house that he didn’t have to worry about heating. Maybe he’d actually get some reading done in the quiet, too—but not with that…thing hanging out close by.

Jesse sighed as he realized the house that was decked out with the fiendish clown was directly across the street from his parents’ place. The entire subdivision was decked out in Halloween—or at least thematic fall—decorations. Jesse didn’t think that many people in this subdivision had kids anymore. Wasn’t this an area full of retirees? Why were they so interested in spooky things instead of a typical pumpkin and gourd display, along with maybe a rustic looking wooden panel that said Welcome Fall.

I fucking hate Halloween, Jesse murmured under his breath. He tried not to let the display bother him. He could handle skeletons—hey, we all had one—and spiders, especially since this one was a bright purple and not the scary brown or black ones in his shitty one-bedroom place.

But that clown. Damnit. Its eyes were yellow and black, and he swore it stared