Submission (#737) Approved

Meridia was starting to finish up their Halloween decorating. They had managed to decorate the entire inside of their home with spooky cobwebs and fun lights. On the outside, they had hung up some paper-cutout bats (and had only almost fallen twice!), now to get started on the pumpkin. Meridia unfolded a blanket onto the leafy ground and had all of the tools ready and laid out in front of her. The pumpkin, while very heavy, was perfectly placed as well. She also put down a bowl of candy, just as a snack. Meridia carved pumpkins every year, partially because it was so much fun and partially because her critter, her little moth, would get excited and move around a lot more.
They got started, plunging the knife into the top and carefully cutting a hole around the stem. While pumpkin carving was fun, Meridia was not a fan of this part. Using all four arms, she scooped out the guts and seeds and placed the goopy insides on some paper towels. They weren’t too sure what they would do with the guts (they never were, not at first), but they knew they would find a use eventually. They scraped around inside the pumpkin until there was no more goop and no more seeds. She wiped her hands off, shuddering at the feeling of the guts, and began getting to work on the carving.
In years past, Meridia had always used stencils. Mixed and matched some, but it was just easier for her to use them. This year, however, they would freehand it. They were nervous, but knew it would either look so good that it was scary, or so bad that it was scary. Either way, it would be scary! Which was ultimately her goal. Meridia started with the eyes, using sharp edges and lines. The moth flitted about excitedly, moving around to get a better look. Meridia moved on to the nose. Noses were hard to make look scary on a pumpkin, but they would still try. The moth flittered around some more. Finally, Meridia moved on to the mouth: jagged, big, full of teeth. All the scariest pumpkins were. Meridia was quite proud of the final product: two triangle shaped eyes, a long triangular nose, and a big, smiling, toothy mouth. Her little moth seemed to like it, too. Meridia placed the stem back on and discarded of the guts. She placed the pumpkin where all could see, perfectly placed with her other spooky decorations.