Every year on Instagram, artists of all kinds participate in #Drawtober, an art challenge consisting of six prompts spread out over the month of October. This year, the Drawtober crew has rounded up their top prompts from the last ten years for one last hurrah.
Now, I cannot draw. But my sister, Emily Pillard, can. She and I have collaborated for the past four years to create stories accompanied by beautiful illustrations. We’re at it again for the fifth year in a row with a brand new story and stunning artwork.
Read on to discover the whole story! And don’t miss out our 2025 story “Dark Fairytale,” 2024 story “Monster Mash,” our 2023 story “Haunted House,” and a series of micro-stories for the 2022 theme, “Season of the Witch!”
Drawtober 2023: Moonlit Conservatory
I pause on the threshold. Moonlight fills the room through the huge glass windows, edging the plants in silver. A fountain, water trickling out of the mouth of a stone sea serpent, sits in one corner of the room, ringed with wrought-iron furniture that glows black in the dim light. The air in here is thick with moisture and heavy with floral scents. There is only one other door from this room, leading out into the cemetery, and it is padlocked. The Keeper has the only key.
Drawtober 2023: Devious Dining
Everyone has different notions of what the dead eat. Fruits and breads, sugar skulls, the souls of the living. Fairy folk are just as enigmatic, with dishes of milk and honey favored as offerings, though many of the fae creatures I’ve met prefer flesh to any dish of warm milk.
Under different circumstances, I would be more precise in my culinary efforts. But All Hallows Eve is coming up, and I don’t know what I’m dealing with. I don’t want this thing—whatever it is—wandering the House any longer than it already has.
Drawtober 2023: Moth-Bitten library
The library stands behind an unassuming oak door in far-flung corner of the House. The brass knob is shiny and smooth from years of use—the room is a favorite among the House’s residents. Jack, the Keeper before me, tried at one point to install a television set, but something about the House’s location meant that it never worked. As a result, our primary forms of entertainment here continue to be dances and books. Books are generally easier to come by.
Drawtober 2023: Overgrown Cemetery
I’ve always quite liked the House’s cemetery. It doesn’t even seem strange to me anymore that the House has one. Of course it does. It sits on the crossroads after all. A cemetery is probably a requirement.
Drawtober 2022: The Corvid Ball
It’s late in the evening
When I hear a tapping,
A murmurous sound in my room.
The flutter and mutter
Of one of the murder
Of crows that circle the moon.
He sits at my window,
Inviting me onward
With just a slight tilt of his head
As if to say, “No one
Will know if you wander
While everyone else is abed.”
Drawtober 2022: The Bargain
In her finest black gown, Branwen stood and surveyed the place where The Game would be played. The flat stone sat at the peak of the hill that rose out of the bog, its edges worn soft by time. Two large mushrooms (grown by herself, thank-you-very-much) faced each other on opposite sides of the stone, ready seats for tonight’s encounter. Around the hillock Branwen had lit an army of candles, their flames giving a flickering, unsettling light to the darkness of the bog.
Drawtober 2022: Grimalkin
I was staring up, waiting for my Lady’s eye to become visible, when a shadow peeked over the rim of my prison. I blinked, wondering if I was seeing things, but when my eyes opened, the shadow remained, resolving itself into a head with a pair of pointed ears. A pair of eyes, green as glittering emeralds, stared down at me from high above.
Why languish you there, moon sister?
Drawtober 2022: Lost and Found
“Would you just come and look?”
Grumbling, Leah came up behind Claire’s shoulder. “What?”
The waitress tapped the page she was on. “It was in lost and found. It’s been there for, like, a week. Charlie pulled it out earlier.” She turned and grinned at Leah. “It’s a spellbook.”
Drawtober 2022: Midnight Cravings
In hindsight, Robbie should have been more nervous about going up to the old Marshway place. It was the kind of house kids would ding-dong-ditch on Halloween, daring each other to set foot on the porch. Three stories tall, with iron railings along the roof, it looked a little bit like the Addams Family mansion.
Drawtober 2022: Heart Seeds
The knock comes after the sun has set, a steady beat against the wood of her door.
Thump…thump…thump.