The whole of October passed, and to my horror, I didn't write the Halloween story I intended. I took a stab at a bunch of ideas, but none manifested more than partially.

The best, I think, was a nascent concept about an extracted bone demon summoned from the essence of its own designated victim (by accident, or by an enemy of the victim -- this requires a sample of the victim's bone marrow, so most likely will have come about intentionally). If you're the victim, the most effective way to stave off the demon is to injure yourself, which will translate to an injury to it (which not much else will do). If for example it is chasing you, by thwacking yourself on the shin with a crowbar, you could break its leg and impede its speed. Because of its relative insubstantiality, the injury you experience is experienced by the demon as a much-multiplied injury to itself. But (short of killing yourself) you can't kill it; whatever injuries you cause it by injuring yourself, it will heal from (at a slightly slower rate than you yourself heal). If you desire to keep the demon away (which you will, given the horrific things it'll do if it catches you), you will probably have to injure yourself repeatedly -- a kind of psychological torture in itself.

And you may be asking, what horrors would the demon inflict on you (given that any injury it did would be experienced multifold on itself)? Well, it would likely grasp you in its bony grip, and hold you, immobilized, until you starved to death, all the while enduring the stench of its demonness. No harm; still foul.

I dreamt something like this once. At least, I hope it was a dream.

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