The darkness in 'Whatever It Costs' has brought me so much feedback that it just is not possible to answer you all separately. However, I do read them all and I'll try learn from my goofs. Unfortunately you'll probably see the results only with my sixth or seventh story since the five first ones are all written.
My Halloween story is the fifth story I've even finished and the first idea was to take part of that 'Halloween 2015' contest but the I decided against it. First, it did not feel correct since I shamelessly borrowed (read: stole) an idea from Lumpy. Secondly, the story was too long! I really tried to write a short story and it became almost 26000 words - almost 1000 words too long. Okay, not too bad, just snip away a few unnecessary words and chapters... Like it would work that way.
So, I put the story out as it was, at least it shouldn't be as dark as my previous stories. Since I could not really decide if the story genre would be either Romantic, Horror or Humor I left it open. I guess Halloween can combine them all.