Flash Fiction #20 - The Legend of the Jackalope
- Jacob RD Johnson
- Oct 18, 2025
- 2 min read
Updated: Oct 23, 2025
Picture Prompt:
300-500-word Flash Fiction
Post # 20
Week Ending: 10/24/2025
Genre: Horror
Title: The Legend of the Jackalope
The legend of the Jackalope has become a humorous tale. Jokes about a furry bunny with antlers. Even the Cult-followed comedy, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, depicts a viscous rabbit derived from Jackalope lore. Their true history, however, is not so funny.
They were small and furry, and had antlers, but that's where the similarities ended. These beasts had powerful legs, which propelled them faster than cheetahs. Claws on their front feet were short, but Freddy Krueger sharp. Teeth rivaled that of alligators.
But what really got lost from stories over the centuries was the devastation caused by their antlers. Covered in fine, cactus-like needles, when gored into a victim, the needles would break off, releasing a poison five times stronger than brown recluse venom. At a minimum, it would render the affected body part useless, but was often fatal. The poison also tenderized and flavored the meat to the Jackalope’s liking.
Jackalopes did not breed. They were conjured by evil spirits whose only goal was to torment every living creature on Earth. The only way to end the torture, and the terror, was to, somehow, defeat one of these ferocious fiends and perform a ritual on Halloween night using fourteen candles, five pumpkins, and the skull of the vanquished Jackalope, with the antlers intact.
Reciting the right incantation, the link between the spirits and the conjuring of the Jackalopes was severed. The legend continued on for many years, but for the sanity of all humans, the truth had to be watered down over the years, leaving modern day people free to joke and make a mockery of them. What they don't know is that, if the ritual isn't performed again for a thousand years, the spirits will release the Jackalopes upon us again. This Halloween marks that time.
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