Hallowe’en Masquerade in New Orleans by LindaAnn LoSchiavo
"Legend has it, this beast now stalks the narrow alleyways of this very French Quarter."
—"Werewolf in New Orleans (Monsters Are Real)" by Jesse Byrd, 2018
Invited to a monster ball, I balked.
My suitcase, crammed with tourist clothes, yawned wide.
Yes, I wore caution like a uniform.
The concierge suggested Rue Dauphine
For costume rentals—but this shop looked bare
One day before the 31st. "Don’t leave!"
Who’s there? I heard a voice: "Quick! Come downstairs!"
Reality was ripped to shreds by what
Appeared: a werewolf get-up, fur so soft
I dared to try it on. A perfect fit.
"How much?" No one replied. What sort of game
Is this? No matter how I tried, the pelt
Adhered to me—became my second skin.
Complaints were useless. Speech turned into howls.
Bio
Native New Yorker and award-winner, LindaAnn LoSchiavo is a member of British Fantasy Society, HWA, SFPA, and The Dramatists Guild.
Released in November 2025: "Cancer Courts My Mother" (Prolific Pulse Press) and "Vampire Verses" (Twisted Dreams Press).
Forthcoming: "Past Tense: Portraits and Poems of Suicides" (Prolific Pulse Press) and "Dracula Before Stoker: The Prequel" (Virefire Publishing).
Find out more about her on Substack @GreenwichVillagePoet
Author's note
Every costume horror story has the same rule: the mask you borrow keeps you.
I wanted to put a tourist, a polite person who “wore caution like a uniform,” in that old trap, with a bare shop, a disembodied voice, the good fortune of a “perfect fit”—and let the transformation arrive before the visitor can negotiate.
Then I let the old French Quarter of New Orleans, with its mystique and associations with misrule and pageantry, do the rest.
