"Give Me Back My Guts!" by Richard and Judy Dockrey Young

Give Me Back My Guts!

By Richard and Judy Dockrey Young

From Spooky Campfire Stories (2000)

Edited by Amy Kelley

Tagline: Spooky outdoor tales for all ages.

A swindled widow wants to get revenge on the man who left her with nothing.  When he dies she joins the women paid to mourn him and sneaks into his vault.  She uses a knife to open him up and cut out his guts. The widow brings his guts home and begins to cooks them up into a stew called menudo. 

As she is cooking she hears the cows on the ranch calling out “Ah-oooo-ah.”  The atmosphere darkens and a storms rolls in.  Typical scary story noises are heard like the fence gate opening and a knocking at the door.  She suspects the noises are more than just the storm and the cattle now sound like they are saying asadura, which is the Spanish word for guts.  Then a voice outside says, “Give me back my asadura!”

"Honeysuckle Cottage" by P.G. Wodehouse

"Honeysuckle Cottage"
by P.G. Wodehouse
From the collection The Mammoth Book of 20th Century Ghost Stories (1998)
Edited by Peter Haining

Honeysuckle Cottage is about a confirmed bachelor, James Rodman, who lives in his late Aunt’s home. Leila J. Pinckney stated in her will that her nephew could make five thousand pounds if he stays in her home, Honeysuckle Cottage, for six months. She had been concerned that his profession as a gritty mystery author was making him bitter. She was famous for writing saccharine love novels that truly made him ill.  Despite their differences, Rodman liked the idea of living in this country home and writing in peace.

There isn’t a ghost in this story but there is a haunting presence that causes everyone who comes near the cottage to turn lovey dovey sops like a character from one of Leila Pinkney’s novels.  The cottage possesses all who come near it into playing out romance novel scenarios.  Rodman grows upset over the man he’s becoming.  He is powerless to the charms of a young woman whom he fears he may marry if he stays in the house any longer.  Rodman asks others to try and break this enchantment but they each fall into this mushy, sickly sweet fantasy.