Cheapest (in a true sense) Halloween Costume Ever

Jake found himself standing at a corner yet again in the party.

An attractive woman, by media standards, happened to stumble by with a tray of drinks, and went “Ooh!” when she caught sight of Jake’s nose, which had been sticking out of the shadow of the corner.

“Oh shit…” said Jake, but it was too late. The drinks crashed to the floor, causing a small mess around his sneakers and the polished tips of her high-heels, but a larger general discrepancy in terms of the *sound* that was going on in the whole apartment.

People began to look at them, and he pulled her into the corner with him. “It’s better this way,” he said, “I promise.”

“Idiot!” she said, as quietly and irritatedly as she could. “You’ve ruined Halloween!”

He hadn’t expected that. “What?” he said. “I just accidentally tripped you over, miss, it was just a sort of small joke, shenanigan. If it’s that bad, I can go back there and refill your tray.”

She just laughed. “No point now,” she said. “See that guy there? That’s who I was bringing the tray to. He asked me to bring it, and I went, filled up the drinks, and was going to be perfectly on time. He times us, you know? We call him the ‘Time Lord’ at the office.” She shook her head. “Now I’ve ruined his Halloween.”

“You wot?”

“Guy with a sad life like that, the one thing he enjoys is Halloween,” she said. “Christmas party is too sedate for him. Halloween is the only time he gets to enjoy really seeing all the other people be totally crazy and different. And they all put the masks on, and they all have funny interactions with each other, and he watches and participates! And if he wants a bloody tray of drinks for him and his chums, bloody hell, he’s going to have it!”

He looked down at the smashed pieces of glass at their feet. “Wow,” was all he could say. “That is pretty creepy.” He tried to smile.

This was when she noticed him. “Hey!” she said. “Where’s your costume?”

“I’m wearing it,” he replied.

“You’re wearing a t-shirt and khakis.” She gazed at him distastefully. “I suppose you could be a mugger at the piers.”

“A mugger?” he said.

“Yeah,” she said, “Some guy that hangs near the docks, ready to just jump out and mug a dating couple.”

“This coming from Chewbacca’s poontang,” he replied.

She took one step back from him, rubbing faux fur against her left shin. “Whatever. You suck. You come in here, no costume, and you ruin the flow of the music.”

This made him a little angry. “What the hell,” he said, loudly, “how do I ruin the music?”

She covered his face with her furry palms. “Shuttup, shuttup,” she said. Then she pointed out, her arm drawing an arc across the entire living room, “Don’t you see?” she said. “Don’t you see that everything is going according to a rhythm?

Do you not see the mermaid over there, gently supported by her hubby?”

“Lol, that pregnant woman is supposed to be a mermaid?”

“Shuttup,” she said. “She is carrying the illusion.”

“Illoo-oo-shion?” he said.

“And around them, there’s the spider?”, she pointed, “do you see that. See how that sea-spider guy is protecting the couple from anyone who may want to come in and break the mermaid’s bond between her and her Sea God?”

“You see over there,” he said, taking her hand and pointing it to the left, “how that Ice-Cream Cone is totally getting roofied by that CEO type fella with, for some reason, sheep pants?”

She let out a sharp laugh. “Oh you fool, that’s just Sam and Jason. They’re a couple too!”

“Sheesh,” he said, slinking even deeper into his corner. “You think they over-did it?”
She looked at him again. His t-shirt and pants. “You really don’t get it, do you? You’re supposed to come to parties like this wearing a costume. It’s part of the fun. You mix with people. You be somebody you would never be in real life.”

“But what if what you are…in real life…was spooky enough?” he said.

“Stupid,” she gasped. “Ok, look. Wearing a t-shirt and standing in a dark corner like some thug is not exactly a costume, ok?”

“I’m not coming as a thug,” he said, slowly stepping out.

“Oh yeah? Then what? Freaking Potsie from Happy Days? What’s your costume?”

“I’m coming as Paranormal Activity 5,” he said.

She burst out laughing, but just as she did, the music in the apartment stopped. Behind all the confusion and anger of the people, she heard this guy standing next to her sort of laugh, but very quietly, and walk closer to her.

Then suddenly all the lights in the apartment went out, and as she turned her head, the last thing she saw was what looked like the chandelier breaking from the ceiling and falling on the mermaid.

(From the people who came dressed as a molotov cocktail in ’04)

The Creature

The Creature

By Luke Tarzan

The creature writes in blackened blood

With hollow sticks of yew.

Its pestilence came like a flood

To desecrate the pews.

The tarnished walls of antique hands

Stand broken and defiled;

The twisted work of Satan’s hands—

The thing that spreads sheer bile.

The thing was once a gentle man,

A figure born of silver eyes

And held in loving hands.

But darkness crept up through the house;

The silver one’s demise.

The shadows rushed in and took hold

And gouged out his white eyes;

A pure spirit no more—

Naught but a thin shell that was cold.

The thing fed on the lies

And sinful lives of all;

It stalked the town all through the night

And slithered slowly down the black halls.

An ominous being, a blight,

The fetid shade within the trees;

A horrid portent of madness—

The spectral stealer of sleep.

The sinful know naught but sadness

And forever in sickness they cry.

They throw themselves from the towers

And in sheer madness they fly;

For in the sky they see roses—

The most lovely of flowers.

They grab and they stretch

For the majestic thing is their light.

But they’ve been fooled by a wretch—

This shining rose is a blight.

And so they fall to their deaths

Screaming screams of black fear.

And they let out their last breaths

For they know the end is quite near.

They were fooled by a creature,

A pretty rose, and a light.

They let sin be their preacher

And they gave in with no fight.

Now in the dead church,

The bloody, sick theatre of gore

The fallen creature sits perched

Looking down at the floor.

He slides from his high seat

And slithers down through the pews.

He takes in the fresh meat

And draws their black blood with his yew.

The floor is a mess

And the air is deceased;

The creature laps up the blood

And howls loud like a beast.

The old temple is dead

And the night is still young;

And so the creature stalks off

To spread his terror and dread.

He is one with the darkness,

The sin, and the wrong.

So keep your motives quite pure

Or you’ll surely be gone.

©Luke Tarzian 2011

All Hallow’s Tales Conclusion: The Midnight Hour Cometh

Standing on the porch, puffing as he held the lit match to the tobacco packed into his pipe, Samuel got the pipe going, and upon extinguishing the match with the shake of his wrist, tossed it and examined his pocket watch. Sixteen minutes to midnight.

*

Tommy awoke slowly, his eyes heavy, but the boy was able to open them, his first sight the wall opposite the window with the shadows of all his toys casted upon it. Yawning, rolling over, Tommy smiled as he looked to the window. Moonlight spilling through open shades, the boys eyes closed as sleep attempted to overtake him again, but the boy had a spurt of curiosity.

Looking to the windowsill, there was something sitting there. Sitting up slowly, letting out another yawn, Tommy made his tired way to the window, to a piece of candy sitting there, one that he didn’t remember placing on the wooden windowsill, assuming that his Grandpa Sammy had done the deed for him.

Picking up the piece of chocolate, examining it, Tommy almost unwrapped it and ate it, but then he remembered rule number three. Holding it, looking around the room, in the shadowed corner, a faint glimmer caught his curious eye. Squinting, looking closer, Tommy smiled, unafraid and held his hand out with the piece of candy in his palm as an offering. Just as it was meant to be.

“Here you go Mr. Twix,” Tommy said, pronouncing the Others name incorrectly, but the child was unafraid. He adhered to the rules of All Hallows Night, he had nothing to be afraid of. “Well, it’s your piece of candy. Take it.”

Reaching out from the shadow, a black sleeved arm, to which a faded yellow hand attached with black razor nails pinched the candy between forefinger and thumb, taking it from the boy’s hand. Pulling back into the shadow, the face of the Other peeked from the dark into the moonlight, just enough for Mr. Twisp to give the boy a head nod.

“Your welcome. And happy Halloween.” Waving, the boy climbed back into bed, shutting his eyes for just a second, his eyelids growing heavy again with sleep. Upon opening them for the last time for the night, the glimmer was gone from the shadowy corner, “Mr. Twix” having made his exit of the boy’s room. “Nighty night Mr. Twix.” And with that, Tommy was back to sleep to dream what little boys dream about.

*

Checking his pocket watch again, puffing on his pipe, there was only eleven minutes left till the end of another Halloween. Looking up and down the street, some houses still lit up with decorations, some with television set lights spilling from their insides, Samuel’s sight was drawn to the silver corvette that was pulling up in front of the house.

Watching as the devilishly handsome man got out of the car, Samuel taking note of the man’s top unbuttoned oxford with the sleeves rolled up, he watched as the man took Ellen, Samuel’s daughter from the passenger seat of the car, asleep, and carried her up the steps to the porch swing, setting the woman down without saying a word to the waiting, older gentleman.

“Evening Dante,” Samuel said after his daughter was laying on the swing and the man was walking back past him to the still running car.

“It’s Richard now Sam,” Richard said, stopping in his tracks to pull out a cigarette, light it and talk to the old man over his shoulder. “Has been for a long time.”

“Don’t you think it’s time you, well. Don’t you think it’s time you pass the mantle on to someone else?” Samuel asked taking a long puff of the pipe, letting the smoke roll out past his lips.

“I’ll make that decision when I’m ready. You have a goodnight Sam. Tell Ellen I had a good time. And…”

“You have a good night now Dante,” Samuel said, eyes glaring as the man cut off the vampire standing below him. “And Happy Halloween.” Richard, flicking his half smoked cigarette, hurriedly, angrily got into his car, slamming the door, peeling off down the street to quickly be gone from sight.

Samuel, looking to daughter, saw she was waking up, slowly, most likely due to her date’s hurried, noisy leave.

*

Waking to an annoying tapping, Samantha pulled the blanket up over her head, pretending that she couldn’t hear it, but the sound was persistent, refusing to stop just because she merely wanted it too.

“Stop it Tommy,” she said, half asleep, the girl assuming her pestilent little brother had made his way into her room, only to sit there and tap, tap, tap to bug her. And while the tapping didn’t stop with her first demand, she said it again, angrier, this time sitting up to catch her little brother in the act. “Stop it Tom…!” Frozen in her speech, jaw wide; it wasn’t Tommy at all in her room. Not Tommy at all.

Tapping his blackened nails on the window sill, sitting in her desk chair, legs crossed, Mr. Twisp’s head was lowered, his face that wasn’t a face hidden under the brim of his moonless, midnight fedora.

“You…You…You…” Samantha stammered, in shock that the monster from the picture from her grandfather’s journal was sitting in her room, still tapping his nails on her window sill. “You…” Annoyed with the girl’s stammering, lifting his head so his face was visible, Mr. Twisp lifted his other non-tapping hand to his non-lips, pressing a long finger to where his mouth should have been, telling the girl without words to be silent, to which she adhered, shushing up quickly.

Pinching the piece of candy sitting on the windowsill between the now stopped tapping fingers, he lifted it, replacing its spot with a black, leather medical bag, the bag itself dusty and covered in cobwebs. Undoing the clasp keeping the bag closed, Mr. Twisp stood, opening the bag, dropping the piece of candy in, then reaching in, pulled out something in a closed fist.

Creeping over to the bed, standing over the girl, Samantha having pulled the cover up to the brim of her nose, her wide eyes following the suited man’s every move. Leaning down close, his eyes reflecting her, Samantha looked closely, and like her grandfather had said, there was something off, and upon looking closer, she was screaming in his eyes, screaming madly.

Running a single finger down the blanket starting at the girl’s covered shoulder, Mr. Twisp grabbed the blanket, pulling it down to expose the sitting girl. Poking her closed hand, she understood, opening it, afraid to not do as the monster wanted.

Setting something in her hand, Samantha couldn’t look down at what it was, her eyes entranced by his black orbs, with her screaming reflection. Mr. Twisp, lifting a hand in view of her, in between their stares, pointed down at her palm, she holding what he had left in her hand.

Looking down, it was hard to see, but lifting it to some moonlight that was spilling into her room, it was a button, just like the one her grandfather had given her. Wondering if it was the same one, remembering going to bed with the one her Grandpa Sammy had given her, Samantha looked around, seeing the one given to her by Samuel on the bedside stand. But the one in her palm had the initials S.S. as well.

Tears forming in her eyes, fear finally boiled over in her, not sure what was happening, or whom the new button had belonged to, Samantha looked up at the Other who stood by his bag, closing it up. Turning towards the girl, taking off his hat, revealing his bald, vein laden head, setting the hat down upon the seat he been sitting in, the monster stretched out its fingers, the nails at the end of each elongating.

Scratching the window with elongated nails, the screeching hurting the girl’s ears, Samantha’s breath quickened, but not as quick as her hammering heart beat. Gripping the button in her hand with a white knuckle grip, taking a deep, deep breath, Samantha slammed her eyes shut, and prepared to let out the greatest scream of her life…

*

“Ugh,” Ellen said, sitting up, feeling like she hadn’t slept in weeks, her body weak and frail, stiff and sore. “How’d I get home?” She asked, realizing she was waking up on her porch swing, her father standing in front of her emptying out his pipe, having smoked the tobacco up that had been packed into it.

“That gentleman of a date of yours brought you home,” Samuel said, trying to cover up his obvious distaste for the vampire. “Quite the catch he was.”

“The kid’s in bed?” Ellen asked, rubbing her throbbing head, ignoring her father’s comments about Richard.

“Have been for a while. Almost midnight kid.” Samuel, impatiently checking his pocket watch, only had six minutes left till midnight. Seeing a Delta 88, a cigar boat of a car, with the bottom rusting out, the paint fading roll up in front of the house, Samuel smiled as his granddaughter Carrie-Anne, also smiling, exited the car.

The girl, leaning in over the passenger seat after she’d gotten out, gave the driver a kiss, and made her exit, closing the door, allowing the car to drive off into the night. Walking up to the porch, her closes stained a dark red, a black rose in her hands, she stopped next to grandfather to look confused at her exhausted mother.

“You okay mom?” Carrie-Anne asked her mother, her grandfather looking her up and down with a humorous, puzzled look upon his face.

“Yeah babe,” Ellen said, really wishing that she didn’t have to talk, each word a challenge to get out, but she didn’t want to be rude to her daughter. “How the show go?”

“Fantastic. Unforgettable. Yeah, unforgettable.” Looking down at her rose with admiration, a single tear left her eye, just one, lonesome tear.

“And who was that that dropped you off kiddo?” Samuel asked, his smile widening.

“Goodnight Grandpa,” was all the girl said as she entered the house, whistling the Angel’s song that was stuck in her head.

“Why don’t you head in Ellen?” Samuel said to his daughter, looking to his pocket watch. Two minutes. Walking over to her, helping her up, Ellen had to take a moment, her head spinning, grasping her father’s arm trying not to fall down.

“I think I’m going to do….” And while she was going to say “just that”, she was cut off by the blood curdling scream made by her youngest daughter from the girl’s room. Eyes widening, looking from her father to the front door, Ellen made her way as quickly as she could to Samantha’s room, never before hearing such a horrific, terrified scream come from one of her children, the sound making her forget about her exhaustion in an instance.

Looking past the porch swing to the driveway, a figure stepped out around Ellen’s parked minivan. Watching the suited man walk down the driveway, leather doctor’s bag in hand, Samuel whistled to the Other, Mr. Twisp not stopping, just giving a wave and a tip of the hat.

“Happy Halloween to you too Slender man.” Checking his pocket watch for the final time, looking up to see the Other vanished, Samuel clicked the pocket watch closed, returned it to his pocket, and walked to the front door, grasping the handle of the door left open by his daughter that had been in a hurry to get inside. With only seconds left, the man watched as the candle in the Jack O’ Lantern on their porch was blown out by a sudden gust of wind, and Samuel Shelley entered the house, closing the door behind him.

 

*

 

“Halloween, All Hallows Day, The Day of Samhein. It’s more than a day. It’s a doorway, a second chance, a romance, a terror, a dream, a nightmare, a dance, a blood curdling scream, all in the October Night. Until the midnight hour comes to be, keep your Jack O’ Lanterns lit. Set a piece of candy on the windowsill, and tell the passing dead Happy Halloween. And remember kids, there is always next year.”

Ha, ha, ha….

 

 

 

****Halloween Writing Contest Entry****

All Hallow’s Tales 4: Too Ghoul for School

“Mortals usually don’t adhere to the dead, the rules of the dead, the rites, of the dead. But the unusual, those who have their beliefs, those who believe that there are those on the other side, that the dead do indeed return on All Hallow’s Eve. Those who believe, are indeed for a shock kiddo, cause I’ll tell you…. The dead are real, and they believe in you. So remember the rules at all times.”

Never Disrespect the dead. Never.

*

Playing her bass guitar, or rather just strumming the strings to kill time, letting her mind wander, Carrie-Anne still couldn’t believe she was going to playing for her school at the Halloween Dance that night. The disbelief wasn’t from sheer overwhelming joy, but rather self-confusion, Carrie-Anne having more than enough hatred for her peers that she would rather beat them to death with her guitar than play it for them. But for some reason, she felt compelled to do the show.

Though it had all been at the guidance counselor, Mr. Burton’s, suggestion to play the show, like it was going to be some form of helping therapy to help her get over losing Georgie. Just strumming away, her thoughts drifted to the boy who was gone, had been for two weeks to the day.

“Damn bastard,” she said to herself, fighting the tears that dared streak her cheeks, something she had furiously grown accustomed to since her late boyfriends passing, if it could be called that. Georgie’s mother upon returning home had found her only son hanging from the tree in the backyard, death by the noose he tied around his own neck. And he didn’t even tell Carrie-Anne goodbye. That was what hurt her the most.

“I hope that’s not your opinion of me,” the girl’s grandfather, Samuel said from her open doorway, having snuck up and been standing there for several minutes, Carrie-Anne never noticing. Startled, she gripped her guitar tightly, almost dropping it from a small jump she made in her seat, her head quickly snapping to look at the smiling, elderly man looking into the room at the girl.

“No grandpa, it’s not,” Carrie-Anne said, looking back to the guitar as she played a quick note then another. “I was just talking to myself. Shouldn’t sneak up on people anyways, nearly scared me half to death.” Samuel, walking into the room, sat on the bed, examining the many band posters that littered the teen girl’s walls.

“Tonight’s the big show huh?” the man asked, just making idle conversation.

“Sure is,” Carrie-Anne responded, halting the idle conversation.

“Listen,” Samuel’s voice grew serious and hushed, almost as though he only wanted his teen granddaughter to hear him. “I know you miss Georgie something terrible. I know you do. And, well, it being Halloween and all, I got reminded of a story. One from when I was damn near your age kiddo.”

“I’m not in the mood for any stories Grandpa.” Strumming the bass strings loudly, she wanted to be alone with her thoughts and teenage angst.

“I was out walking on Halloween night,” Samuel began, not caring whether or not the girl was in the mood to hear. She didn’t stop him, just kept strumming, but she was listening. She loved her Grandpa Sammy’s stories. “Passing down Mill’s Creek Road, you know, the ol’ country road leading into the woods there right outside the city limits,” his granddaughter nodded her head. Their family had been rooted in Poet, Washington for almost six generations, with Samuel’s great-grandfather being the founding patriarch of the family’s place in the town’s history.

“Anyhoo,” Samuel continued. “I was walking down, minding my own, taking in the air, when out of the corner of my eye, a faint light grasped my attention, and on the night wind, I could hear the faint whispering of a woman. Halting in my very steps, I listened carefully, even stopped my breathing to listen better. Coming from the woods, the voice being carried by the wind, I knew it. I knew I did. So I snuck up, crept as quietly as I could, hiding behind trees. Hell, those trees are still here today, I could point ‘em out too you, but that’s beyond the point.”

“I crept up, and peeking, it was Elizabeth King, a girl I went to school with. Standing there, with candles lit all around her, dressed in a gorgeous white dress, her chestnut hair held up with a white ribbon, she was chanting something into the All Hallows Night. Listening, making sure I wasn’t found, not sure what Elizabeth was up too, I picked up one thing that she said that night, and it’s stuck with me ever since. Well, and I wrote it down that night.”

Pulling out a leather book, undoing the leather strap that held it shut, the man set it on the desk that Carrie-Anne was resting her feet on. Kicking her feet off, leaning the bass guitar against the wall, she looked closely, reading from the page that her grandfather had left the journal open too, all while he said the words aloud.

With All Hallows candle lit

The blood of thy fingers pricked

May your bonds be shattered from the Othersides

So revenge may be ours on this night.”

 

“Wow,” Carrie-Anne whispered, such a shudder running through her which was all too obvious to Samuel, who smiled and reached over to rest a hand on the girl’s shoulder.

“I had the same feeling when Elizabeth had spoken those words. Such a shudder, a tingling in the air, like the night itself had come to life. But, I’ll tell you now, I know what was happening. I know kiddo.”

“What was that Grandpa?” Carrie-Anne was smiling, her grandfather being such a good story teller, getting into the tales, spinning the words with emotion, facial expressions. And Halloween was his favorite holiday, favorite time of the year, when he told his best stories.

“The Othersides were letting go of one of the Other’s. Releasing them into our world for exactly what those words said. Revenge. And that night, I saw someone who I thought I would never see again. Matthew Reed.” Upon speaking the name, Samuel paused, taking a moment to remember the face of Matthew Reed, a face that was burned into his memory that Halloween night. “And that night kiddo, what they would call the worst crime in Poet’s history occurred, and I’ll tell you I know it was by Matthew’s hands. I know it for a fact.”

“Are you talking about the Halloween murders of the Sterling family?” Carrie-Anne said, sitting up in excitement, fully drawn into her grandfather’s story at that moment. The murder’s that she was asking about had taken place in the fifties, with an entire family, the aforementioned Sterling’s, slaughtered in their home, found two days later by a neighbor. The grisly remains were almost beyond recognition. Samuel just gave a subtle nod. “If you knew it was Matthew Reed Grandpa, why didn’t you ever tell anybody?”

“Cause no one would have ever believed me,” Samuel said, grabbing the journal off the desk, standing and making his way to the doorway. Stopping, he let his granddaughter ask the obvious question.

“Why not?” Carrie-Anne asked, watching her grandfather prepare to exit the room.

“Matthew Reed died two weeks prior to that Halloween. Who would believe a dead man murdered an entire family?” And with that question posed, Samuel made his exit, leaving a teenage granddaughter to question the validity of the story, and to think about the poem she had just read to a grandfather’s narration.

 

*

 

Elizabeth stood in the woods, the candles lit, prepared to say the chant that her Aunt Rosaline had told her. Part of her was still in disbelief, but she had nothing to lose by trying. She was far enough out from the town she should be left alone, but even if anyone saw, they would pass it off as Halloween games.

Dressed in her best white dress, her hair up with the very ribbon given to her by Matthew, she prayed that the chant would bring him back. But how could it? She had asked her aunt, Rosaline merely telling her niece to believe in the magic’s of Samhein, and leaving it at that. So, Elizabeth was putting her faith in her aunt, and in Samhein.

Elizabeth knew the truth. And she was the only one who did. Matthew had told her everything. He had told her that Mrs. Sterling’s had been trying her hardest to get the boy to sleep with her, to relieve her of “her pent up sexual aggression, something her worthless husband couldn’t provide.” And by rare chance, Elizabeth had been walking by when she saw the accident. The wrecked car, Mrs. Sterling’s moving of Matthew’s body from the passenger seat to the driver’s seat. She would go on to tell her husband, everyone in Poet that the teen had forced her into the car, forced her to drive with him until he crashed. She swore the teen had been making advances on her for weeks, when her husband was at work, when Matthew would be tending to the family’s lawn.

Elizabeth had run to the car, tears streaking her face, and upon looking at the bloodied remains of her boyfriend, the girl was speechless, with nothing to say to Mrs. Sterling, though the woman had plenty to say.

“You tell no one what you saw,” the woman had sneered, inches away from Elizabeth, spitting blood and sweat in the teen’s face. “You hear me! You didn’t see anything!” And Elizabeth listened and didn’t tell anyone, knowing no one would believe her, not with Mr. Sterling believing his wife, and the man being the town’s judge, and the first choice for governor of the state in the next year’s election. So Elizabeth told no one, yet Aunty Rosaline still came to her with the chant and instructions, telling her that Matthew would be back.

“He’ll come back for what’s rightfully his,” Rosaline had said with a wicked tongue through a sinister grin, somewhat frightening her niece. But there Elizabeth was in the woods, preparing to follow her aunt’s instructions and say the chant.

With all the candles but the final one lit around her, taking a deep breath, Elizabeth was finally ready, having practiced the chant over and over in her head, under her breath in class, on the way home, at home while doing homework and chores. She had every word memorized. Taking the knife that she had taken from her father’s work table in the basement, she pricked two tiny dots on the first two fingers of her left hand, the stinging just bearable, small droplets of blood forming, Elizabeth squeezing them till they fell to the foliage floor at her uncovered, bare feet.

Lighting the final candle, taking the top off the carved Jack O’ Lantern in front of her, lowering the candle down inside, Elizabeth began the chant.

“With All Hallows candle lit.”

Replacing the top of the Jack O’ Lantern, the light from the candle that spilled forth gave the carved face an eerie life.

“The Blood of thy finger’s pricked.”

With the knife pricks still giving small droplets of blood, streaks were left on the pumpkin from setting the top back over the hole, the streaks making the Jack O’ Lantern appear ever more menacing.

“May your bonds be shattered from the Othersides.”

While the Elizabeth knew nothing of the “Othersides”, not sure of the meaning of the word, what or where it was, it didn’t matter to her. When asking her Aunt what the Othersides were, Aunty Rosaline merely left it at, “no need to know of the Othersides, leave it at that child.”

“So revenge may be ours on this night.”

Though the revenge was more so for Matthew, Elizabeth felt that whatever happened that night, if anything happened to the Sterlings, she wouldn’t give or feel any remorse for the family. They had it coming, the girl thought to herself, feeling an otherworldly chill pass over her, all the flames on the candles snuffed out, all but the Jack O’ Lantern’s light.

*

 

On November 3rd, 1956, the newspaper headlines in Poet, Washington read of the deaths of the running up governor’s death, along with that of his wife and three daughters, all gruesomely slaughtered in their homes, the walls of their individual rooms painted in blood, and body parts found all over the home. Most noted and remembered by any who saw the scene, the one thing that escaped the headlines and newspapers articles…

“Lies, lies lies, see you on the Othersides…” written in the blood of Mary Sterling, with her severed head resting below the message that to this day still leaves the Poet police detectives confused, and sick to their stomachs.

 

*

 

Checking herself out in the mirror as she tied her black hair back in her pony tail, letting the pink streaks she had dyed in her hair hang down either side of her face, Carrie-Anne gave herself a smile, closed up the case of her bass guitar and headed out of her room and down the hall.

Stopping outside her mother’s bedroom, looking in on her mother in a moment of vainness, Carrie-Anne’s mother, Ellen, was looking good in her best little black dress. Though Ellen had always wanted her oldest daughter to be more of a girly girl, cheerleader and such, Carrie-Anne had gone for a darker path, taking on the punk look much to her mother’s dismay.

“I’m heading to the dance mom. Got a date tonight?” Since losing her father, Carrie-Anne hadn’t been the biggest fan of any candidates her mother had brought home for the possible “step father” role, and this newest man, Richard, was a mysterious character, though Carrie-Anne had to agree with her mother that the man was devilishly handsome.

“I do,” Ellen said, actually quite anxious as time just seemed to creep on as she waited for Richard to arrive. “And is that how you are going to the dance? You’re going to be on stage, why don’t you dress up some babe?” Ellen wasn’t a fan at all of her daughter’s attire choices for the evening, the girl going for the obvious “Punk Rock Queen” look.

“Whatcha talking about, I am dressed up,” Carrie-Anne said, setting down her bass guitar, taking a pose like an over-exaggerated model, blowing her mother a smart-ass kiss with a smile. Ellen didn’t have anything to say, just giving a smile right back, walking across the room to her daughter and planting a kiss on Carrie-Anne’s forehead.

“Have fun babe,” Ellen said, running her fingers through one of Carrie-Anne’s pink streaks. “Love you.”

“Love you too,” Carrie-Anne said, picking the bass guitar back up. “And nice spider clip thingy. I dig it.” Giving one last half smile, Carrie-Anne made her way down the hall to the stairs without a second glance at her mother, rather surprised her mother would even wear the Halloween styled hair clip, her mother not being the biggest fan of the holiday, most likely burned out from all the years of Carrie-Anne’s grandfathers stories.

Down the stairs, Carrie-Anne was about to walk out the front door right as her grandfather and two younger siblings were walking in from trick ‘r treating. The younger sister, Samantha, was dressed up as Wonder Woman, much to Carrie-Anne and their grandfather’s disappointment, but Tommy made up for it with his simple sheet-ghost costume.

“TRICK OR TREAT!” Tommy shouted from under his sheet, jumping at Carrie-Anne who played being scared, then quickly dipping into Tommy’s candy bucket, pulling a few pieces out for herself, much to the boy’s disdain though he knew better than to speak up to his oldest sister.

“You guys have fun out there tonight with all the ghosts and goblins?” Carrie-Anne asked, opening up a bite size candy bar and munching on it while the kids gave quick accounts of their nights.

“It was okay,” Samantha said, looking up at Carrie-Anne, “but ol’ Miss Weikart gave us apples again this year.”

“Yeah, who gives out apples on Halloween!?” Tommy shouted.

“Yeah, really,” Carrie-Anne added, laughing as she finished the candy bar she had been chewing.

“Alright kids,” Grandpa Sammy interrupted the children’s conversation. “Head in the living room for some of Grandpa Sammy’s famous All Hallows Tales. No need to hold up your sister any longer.” The younger children, excited for the stories, hurriedly ran into the living room finding their spots by the unlit fireplace, leaving their grandfather and Carrie-Anne who was preparing to make her exit of the house.

“Have a good time tonight kiddo,” Samuel said to the girl, who was halfway through the front door. “And hey…” He said, getting her stop and look back at him.

“Yeah,” Carrie-Anne said, in a hurry but willing to hear what her grandfather had to say.

“Play a classic for me tonight, will ya.” And with that, he turned, and walked to the living room to join the youngsters, all the while whistling a tune that Carrie-Anne just couldn’t put her finger on right at that moment.

Getting out to the street, looking up and down it, she was waiting for her band mates, Nate and Ashley to pick her up. Finally seeing Nate’s van rolling down the street, Carrie-Anne smiled, nodded, and hopped in through the side door, resting her bass case on her lap.

“You sure to want to play for our ‘awesome’ peers tonight?” Ashley said the second Carrie-Anne was in the van and they were moving down the street towards the school, her voice so thick with sarcasm it was almost obnoxious.

“Absolutely,” Carrie-Anne said, looking at the case on her lap, staring at every one of the stickers that adorned the case. Every single one of them given to her by Georgie. “Let’s give these bastards one helluva show guys. For Georgie.”

“For Georgie,” the two in the front said in unison as Nate turned up his tune’s to deafening levels. Just the way the teen’s liked it.

*

“Tonight,” Mr. Ferguson, the principal of Poet High, said into the microphone to the mass of costume wearing teen’s waiting for the band to play. Some wanting to actually hear the music and dance, to enjoy the Halloween Dance. Some just waiting to laugh and mock. “We have a special treat for all you monster’s waiting to mash!” The man’s joke received maybe one or two laughs.

“Tonight,” Mr. Ferguson continued, “Our very own will be playing for us tonight, treating us with their musical talent. So, without any further delay, here is Prison Riot Soundtrack!” Upon saying the band’s name, the cheers were almost believable, though some were, but most were just mocking.

*

Making their final preparations, Carrie-Anne and Ashley tuning their guitars, Nate checking his drum set and making sure everything drum wise was secure, they were ready to play. Well, almost.

“I got it!” Carrie-Anne shouted, figuring out what song her grandfather had been whistling, wondering if it was a cryptic message that he was trying to tell her. Thinking about the story he had shared before she had left, and the poem she had read from the book, Carrie-Anne thought, why the hell not.

“You got what? You tuned?” Ashley asked, thinking that Carrie-Anne’s outburst was about her guitar.

“What, yeah. Nate, let me see your knife and lighter.” Carrie-Anne asked, and though the drummer of the band was confused, he adhered and handed over his pocket knife and Zippo lighter.

“Why do you need…?” And Nate would have finished his question of why Carrie-Anne needed his items, but her suddenly pricking her fingers stopped his words before he could finish his sentence. “What the hell C.A.?” Nate asked, not sure why the hell the girl had just committed self mutilation on herself.

“Yeah, what the hell Carrie?” Ashley asked, a bit disturbed by the act, small droplets of blood forming on her friends fingers, Carrie-Anne just looking at her wounds.

“Ashley, light that candle inside that Jack O’ Lantern,” Carrie-Anne said, handing the lighter to the guitarist, pointing to one of the many carved pumpkins that were decorating the schools stage, ignoring the questions her friends were asking. She wasn’t going to explain herself, I don’t need to.

Carrie-Anne had been told since she could remember the rules of Halloween. Every year her grandfather made her recite them like prayers. She knew the importance of the Jack O’ Lantern’s candle. Her grandfather had told her, how the light guided the Others, the ones from the Othersides, the monsters, ghosts, ghouls, all the creepy’s that wait for Halloween to come to our world for one day of tricks and treats.

Ashley, lighting the candle, placing inside the pumpkin, handed Nate back his lighter just as Carrie-Anne handed him back his knife. From the other side of the curtain, Mr. Ferguson was getting ready to introduce the band.

“Again C.A.,” Nate said. “Why the cutting of the fingers?” Spinning his drumsticks, the act had been overly strange, even for his tastes.

“It’s All Hallows Night guys. Why not get a lil blood on the bass strings.” As she said this, Mr. Ferguson presented the name of the band to the crowd, the band knowing the cheers were fake, the curtains opening, and the three waiting to play a bit nervous, but excited none the less. “Let’s rock the hell out of these bastards.”

*

After a pretty decent set of covers, the band not having any of their own song’s they were comfortable enough with to play in public, there had actually been a very good number of students dancing and singing along with the Prison Riot Soundtrack.

Preparing to play their final song of the evening before turning it over to the d.j. for good, the man having played a few songs while the band tuned between songs, Carrie-Anne recited the poem from the journal under her breath, all the while looking from the still lit pumpkin candle and the blood red bass strings on her guitar.

“Alright folks,” Carrie-Anne said into the microphone as the d.j. ended his slow song, finally getting the nods from Ashley and Nate that they were ready, the poem having been silently spoken by her, all but the final verse.

She had made the decision to play their final song at the last moment, with Ashley and Nate both surprisingly knowing the beat and chords, and neither asking for any reason why the song was added last minute. They just went along with it, Carrie-Anne the band leader and lead singer anyways.

“This last song is dedicated to my late boyfriend Georgie.” With her sentence, an uncomfortable silence, and nasty sneers from the preps, the jocks, the ones who made fun of his suicide in the hallways, as Carrie-Anne walked by them, heard their insults in class. Insulting the dead, as her grandfather would tell her, “is the worse damn thing you can do. And on Halloween, it’s even worse.”

“So revenge may be ours on this night,” Carrie-Anne whispered the final verse, and strangely, the lights in the auditorium flickered, and like a wind blew through, every candle that was lit around went out, all but the Jack O’ Lantern candle that Ashley had lit at Carrie-Anne’s request. Beginning a heavy bass riff, Ashley came in on guitar, and Nate with a soft drumming, all to Carrie-Anne’s opening dialogue of their final song for the night.

“He left, and you hung around, and bothered me….every night. And when I wouldn’t go out with you… You said things, that weren’t very nice…” The song that Carrie-Anne chose to be the band’s closing song, the song Samuel had whistled as he had left her to her exit from the house, “My Boyfriends Back” by The Angels.

And just like it was an invitation that travelled beyond reality itself, through the back doors of the auditorium that swung open violently on their own accord, with a heavy, heavy fog rolling in, a group, at first silhouetted by a beaming crimson light, seven figures made their entrance into the dance to the music being played on stage.

The seven figures, all getting stares from onlookers in the crowd, many stopping when they realized who was standing at the lead of the group, looked like they had walked out of a demented remake of Happy Days or Grease. With four males, three of them looking like greasers with their leather jackets, black shades and each with a cigarette in their mouths, they stood there with teeth bearing grins, the cigarettes held between clenched teeth.

The females, three of them, with their black hair all held in pigtails, their tight leather pants showing off unnaturally amazing curves, their shoulder-less pink shirts just as revealing of cleavage. But most odd of the three males and females, the tints of their flesh, the male’s grey and the girl’s crimson red, all of them having green, glowing eyes.

And the final male, standing out from the group with his Letterman jacket, red and white in color, black shades like the other males, only his were resting on top of his head, Georgie stood with his hands in his pockets, smiling as his peers wondered just what the hell he was doing standing in the auditorium with them.

Still playing her bass, singing the words to the song, Carrie-Anne wasn’t in as much of disbelief as everyone else, but she still couldn’t believe her eyes. Her band mates halting in their playing, they were quickly relieved of their duties when a grey male and crimson female made their way from behind the stage to scare Ashley and Nate away from their instruments, Carrie-Anne still playing along with her new otherworldly band members.

My boyfriends back and he’s coming after you…” Carrie-Anne sang, the crimson female on back up guitar singing backups.

“Hey now, hey now, her boyfriends back!” she sang, her voice like a succubus harmony.

“It’s time to boogie gang,” Georgie said, the males snapping their fingers behind him, then leaping into the air to land in the crowd on top of screaming students. The females, all blowing kisses to other students, grabbed those closest to them, digging fangs that were hidden behind crimson lips into the throats of squirming, costumed teens.

Georgie, pushing through the panicking crowd, the doors of the auditorium refusing to open to anyone, he made his way to the front  of the stage, where he stood with a black rose in his hand, looking up at his performing girlfriend. Looking down at him, singing, Carrie-Anne could see the lynch marks on her undead boyfriends neck, and though he looked the same, his eyes were the same glowing green as the massacring Others.

“…My boyfriends back!” Carrie-Anne finished the song, but no cheering was heard, instead the screams of her classmates. Screams made by those whose throats were getting ripped out, screams from one student dressed as Zorro who was having his heart torn from his chest. Screams from trapped students watching their peers get torn to bloody shreds, all the while they waited to be the prey of these unknown ghouls.

“Get down here doll,” Georgie said, his girl obliging, setting her bass on the stage, leaping down into his waiting arms, her lips finding his, his kiss full of electricity, but so cold her body covered in goosebumps in seconds. “I heard your call all the way from the Othersides. Got here as soon as I could.”

“See you brought company,” Carrie-Anne asked, not at all phased by the gruesome carnage taking place around her, instead just happy to see Georgie.

“Just a few friends. I know, I know. They know how to crash one hell of a party don’t they?” Looking around, the reunited couple smiled as they watched their peers die at the hands of the Others. The ones that had been on stage playing with Carrie-Anne leapt, the female finding her prey to be Ashley, and though the girl had been both Carrie-Anne and Georgie’s friend, she had said things about Georgie and his suicide that had hurt the mourning Carrie-Anne. So seeing Ashley’s grisly demise, which would involve her throat being torn open with razor sharp claws, and gargling to death on her own blood, didn’t affect Carrie-Anne near as much as she might have thought it would have.

“Die zombie!” Nate screamed, running up behind Georgie, stabbing his pocket knife into the undead boys back. Though it didn’t cause any pain, more annoyance than anything, Georgie spun quickly, grabbing Nate by the throat, lifting the boy from the ground with little effort. Gripping one arm, tearing it free from the body, a spray of blood like a fountain, Georgie dropped the twitching limb and the screaming boy to the ground.

“Could you get that for me doll?” Georgie asked, in reference to the knife jutting out of his back. Carrie-Anne, gripping it, pulled it free, all the while examining the back of the Letterman jacket Georgie was wearing. Smiling, she couldn’t help it, reading what it said:

 

THE OTHERSIDES

#00

GEORGIE

 

“Here kid,” Georgie said turning back to his girl, but having to look back over his shoulder to the screaming, writhing Nate. “Shut up cry baby! You’ll be dead soon enough. Where was I?” he said turned back to Carrie-Anne. “Oh yeah, and so is this.” Handing her the black rose.

“How romantic,” Carrie-Anne said, actually flattered by the gesture. “It is good….” Pausing, Nate was still screaming, literally on her last nerve. Turning the blade point down in her hand, she bent down, stabbing the wide eyed boy multiple times till he was finally silenced and dead, his last thoughts why the hell his two friends, one undead, would torture, yell at and kill him. “Shut up Nate! I am trying to talk to Georgie!” Carrie-Anne shouted as she dug the knife in a few more times after his heart had already stopped beating, her clothes, face covered in the boy’s blood. “Now, where was I…” She said, standing up.

“You got something on your face,” Georgie said, wiping a few drops merely streaking them on her cheeks. “And you were saying it was good.”

“Right, it was good for you to show up. I almost thought I was going to have to actually find a date for this damn thing.” Kissing him on the cheek, the two were in their own little world. The screams of the teens, while still taking place all around, were somewhat covered up by the music blasting from the d.j. booth, which was being manned by one of the grey skinned Others, one who had grown bored of the slaughtering after ripping the heads off of three screaming cheerleaders, who hadn’t even put any effort into their costumes, just wearing damn cat ear head bands.

“What do you say we blow this pop joint babe?” Georgie asked, taking Carrie-Anne’s hand, his glowing green eyes looking into hers.

“Yeah. Let’s do that,” she said, letting him lead her to the doors that had allowed his entrance, the same doors opening up, allowing for only his and hers exit, leaving what was left of the high school student body with the corpses and Others that were having a gruesome, bloody blast.

At the front of the school, the sounds of the music and screaming long since not audible, Georgie led Carrie-Anne to a running, faded-yellow painted car, which Carrie-Anne noticed had the personalized license plate that read SWTDRMS.

“Your ride?” she asked, Georgie being a gentleman, walking her to the passenger side of the car, opening the door, the radio playing a cover of “Sweet Dreams” by the Eurhythmics, the vocals that of a haunting female vocalist.

“Borrowed it. By the way, Love ya doll.” Kissing her, Carrie-Anne wanted to more than anything to ask him why he had hung himself, but she told herself it she was better off not knowing. Here he was in front of her, holding her, kissing her. And inside the school were the bastards who had mocked his death getting what they deserved. Yeah, some of them didn’t do anything to deserve such a wicked death, Carrie-Anne thought as her tongue wrestled with Georgie’s. Maybe they’ll make it out. Who cares?

Getting in the car, Georgie shut her door, and made his way to the driver side, getting in, revving the engine, and looking at his girl with a grin. Throwing the cigar boat of a car into drive, he narrowed those glowing green orbs, and placed his hand on his girl’s thigh.

“Happy Halloween doll.” Georgie said, finally tearing out of the parking lot of the high school.

“All Hallow’s Night baby. All Hallow’s night!” Carrie-Anne shouted into the October night as she drove on with her undead boyfriend.

 

 

****Halloween Writing Contest Entry****

 

All Hallow’s Tales 3: Rule # 3

“The traditions, values and rules of Halloween, the day of Samhein, are sacred, not be broken. Never, to be broken. To break them, incites the wrath of those who are not meant in the living world, those who will deliver a punishment fit for disobeying, forgetting, breaking the rules.” So remember. On Halloween, respect the dead.

Never blow out the candle in your Jack-o’-lantern till the midnight hour.

And always leave a piece of candy on the windowsill for Mr. Twisp.

 

*

 

Placing another log on the dying fire, the wood crackled as Samuel poked it, Samantha and Tommy watching and waiting in anticipation. Tommy, having finished all the chocolate in his pumpkin bucket, didn’t want any more candy, his stomach already beginning to ache. Climbing out from under his ghost costume, throwing the sheet behind him, he wanted Grandpa Sammy to tell them the story of “Mr. Twix”, as Tommy had heard it said.

“Mr. Twix grandpa?” Tommy asked, Samuel unable to sustain a smile. Still poking the fire, the old man, looked at his grandson, then to his granddaughter. He wished his oldest granddaughter Carrie-Anne could be there, the girl having loved his stories, but Samuel knew she had a very important night ahead of her.

“No, Mr. Twisp,” Samantha corrected her brother. The girl had a habit of doing so. “And that’s not a scary name grandpa,” the girl said, having barely touched her candy, finally reaching in and grabbing a piece of chocolate.

“It’s not?” Samuel asked, acting shocked. “When I hear that name I get scared. Especially if I know that Mr. Twisp is around. Oh boy do I get scared.” Trying to hide his smile, it was no good, Tommy and Samantha smiling as well, both knowing that nothing scared their Grandpa Sammy.

“Yeah right Grandpa! If that Mr. Twix ever messed with you you’d send him packing all the way back to his mommy!” Jumping up, Tommy punched the air, pretending to be his Grandpa beating up an ol, mean, “Mr. Twix”, as the boy continued to pronounce wrong.

“Glad you think so,” Samuel said laughing. “But, first, I wouldn’t be able to send Mr. TWISP to his mommy cause he never had one. And two, I wouldn’t stick around long enough to even wave a fist at him. I would high tail it out of there, let me tell you.”

“He never had a mommy?” Samantha asked, the question making her think what it would be like if she didn’t have a mommy. She had already lost her daddy, but that was when she was little, littler than Tommy. Losing her mother as well would shatter the girl’s world, but she didn’t want to think about that.

“Never ever,” Grandpa Sammy said, shaking his head for emphasis. “No one really knows where Mr. Twisp came from. But he is a bad, bad man, no. Monster. That man is more of a monster.”

“What’s so bad about him?” Tommy asked, still throwing fists as his imaginary opponent.

“Well, he’d snatch you up if he’d thought you’d make a nice treat. See, Mr. Twisp loves the taste of children, because of their fear. And to him, nothing is more delicious than fear. Children’s fear.”

“I ain’t scared of him,” Tommy said, flexing his muscles just in case Mr. Twisp was watching from the shadows.

“I ain’t either,” Samantha spouted out, not letting Tommy be the only brave one.

“Good, good,” Samuel said. “But even if you ain’t scared, that Mr. Twisp has ways to just make the fear boil right up inside you. That he does. His black eyes, like orbs from outer space, will grip your reflection, like polished mirrors, but if you look close enough, just close enough, your reflection won’t be right. It will be off, showing you scared, quivering, frightened.

And his flesh, his skin, is like a melted candle, just molded to look like a man, with a face that isn’t a face. No mouth, or nostrils. No ears.”

“No mouth? Then how’s he gonna eat up the kids he takes?” Tommy asked. He returned to sitting down, tired of beating up the imaginary Mr. Twix.

“Oh, he has ways. But if you ever cross him, you’ll know who he is by the suit he wears. Blacker than a moonless night, where even the stars above are hidden. With a black hat to match his suit. And his nails, sharper than any razor, just as black as his blackened suit.”

Pulling out a leather bound book, no bigger than your average journal, Samuel untied the leather strap that held it shut, licked his thumb, then flipped through the pages till he found just what he was looking for. Turning the book towards his grandchildren, the picture before them showcased perfectly who Grandpa Sammy had just described. And Samantha, looking to the drawn orbs that were the eyes, could swear that they were reflecting the light from the crackling fire, but that was impossible she thought, the picture being hand drawn.

“Did you draw that Grandpa?” Samantha asked, hypnotized by the eyes, unable to look away from them till Samuel turned the pages back towards him, taking his own turn at looking at the drawn Mr. Twisp, his eyes narrowing, the man taking a deep sigh.

“I did, when I just a child, just about your age Samantha,” closing the book quickly, the snap of the pages made the two children jump, which in turn made Samuel smile. “I saw Mr. Twisp with my own eyes, on Halloween have you. And you know what saved me?”

“What?” Tommy was the first to ask. “What saved you? Why didn’t he eat you? Was it ‘cause you weren’t scared?”

“No, I was scared alright. It was because I remembered the rules of Halloween, the sacred rules which must never be broken. The same one’s I’ve told to you since you could listen to me. The same rules my grandfather told to me, and that his grandfather told to him. What are they now? Samantha.” The man knew his grandchildren knew them by heart, but it was always nice to have them recite those sacred rules. Have them remember to adhere to them.

“Always respect the dead,” the girl said.

“Or else…” Samuel added.

“Or else they dead will get angry, and then they could hurt those who disrespected them.” The girl finished her sentence, and proud of herself, nodded and smiled, crossing her arms, knowing she was correct.

“That’s correct. And Tommy, rule number two.”

“Never, ever, blow out the candle in the Jack o’ Lantern till midnight.” Sticking his tongue out at his sister, he hated how she was so smart and right all the time. He was smart too, just not as smart.

“Or else…” Samuel asked Tommy this time.

“Or else the Others will get lost going back to the Othersides, and that’s a sad, sad time for them. Cause then they will cry forever, and no one will be able to hear them.” Samuel leaning back in his rocking chair, closing the book, rocked for a moment before posing his last question.

“And rule number three…” he asked, looking from grandchild to grandchild to see which answered first, and it was Tommy in his excitement to beat Samantha.

“Always leave a piece of candy on the windowsill.” Sticking his tongue out again at his sister, too proud for beating her in answering the question, she did her best to ignore him and see what else Grandpa Sammy had to say.

“Always leave a piece of candy on the windowsill,” Samuel repeated out loud, acknowledging the truth. “For Mr. Twisp, so he’ll spare you, and not snatch you up, and take you away to be a snack!” And upon finishing his sentence, Samuel leaped from his chair, arms high, scaring the children for his own amusement. Samantha, screaming, fell backwards, kicking over her bucket of candies. Tommy, wide eyed, found the sheet that had been his ghost costume, climbing underneath it for safety. In short time, both children were laughing, right along with their grandfather whose hearty laugh outdid theirs.

“GRANDPA!” the children said in unison. Tommy, lying on the floor, peaked his head out, the sheet now his blanket, Samantha sitting up, picking up her candy and putting it back into her bucket. “Did you really see Mr. Twisp?” she asked, not sure to believe her grandfather or not, a sign that the girl was growing up. But even so, part of her believed, and wanted to hear more.

“Would I lie to you?” Samuel asked, a smile still on is wrinkled face, even as he settled back down again, returning to a steady rocking.

“Nope,” Tommy answered, Samantha just shaking her head.

“I saw him alright. And I’ll never forget that night…”

*

 

He should have been asleep. Sammy knew it, in his heart that he should have been asleep, had been told to go to sleep, but for some unknown reason, maybe fate, he stayed awake, merely shutting his eyes, pretending like he wasn’t awake.

Halloween was coming to its close, having passed by beautifully, just like every other Halloween. Sammy, having gotten his full of goodies, scares and stories from his own Grandfather Samuel, had been told to go to sleep before watching the candle in the family Jack O’ Lantern get blown out, something which he thought he was finally old enough to stay up and be a part of. Lying in bed, the minutes just dragged by as Sammy just knew that at any moment the candle on their porch was going to get blown out, signifying the end to Halloween for the family for that year. But Sammy knew it meant more than just that.

His grandfather had told him stories, made his remember the rules of All Hallows Day. Sammy remembered them. And the candle, which was never, ever, ever to be blown out till the midnight hour, was for the Other’s, all the one’s from the Othersides, all the monsters, ghosts, ghouls, oogy boogie’s; The candles lit their way home.

Fed up, tired of trying to even fool himself, Sammy sat up, preparing to try and sneak downstairs, maybe catch a peek of his father, mother, brother and grandfather blowing out the candle. How come Robert is old enough? Sammy thought, finally sitting up in his bed, the boy definitely not expecting to have company in his room.

Breath stolen from his very lungs, heart pounding in his ears, Sammy didn’t know the man that wasn’t standing in his room, if he could be called that, a man. Wide eyed, Sammy watched as the man, or black suited what-ever he was turned to return the gaze, only his black orbs that were eyes reflected the moonlight spilling in through Sammy’s window.

Never looking away from the child in the bed, the man monster reached down, and pinching the mint between its fingers, picked it up, and dropping it into his pocket, tilted its head to the side, setting a bag, a doctors bag on the windowsill where the candy had just been sitting. Unclasping the metal clasp holding the bag shut, opening the bag up, reaching inside, the monster pulled out something held in its clenched fist.

Walking towards the still silent boy, Sammy too frightened to even scream, the monster pushed up the brim of its black hat with a black nail, leaning in close to be within inches of the boy, holding out the clenched fist, waiting for Sammy to do something. Sammy, not moving his face, just his wide eyes, looked down at the fist, reached a quivering hand out, opened, waiting for whatever the monster was holding.

Opening its yellow finger’s, dropping into the palm something that Sammy couldn’t see, mainly because his frightened gaze had returned to the dark orbs, the monster pulled away, returning to its bag, closing it, and just grabbing the handle. Standing still, back turned to Sammy, the man rotated its head, and with the tilt of its head, the monster was gone, like a shadow turned into a wisp of smoke, carried off by a quick, strong wind blowing through the room, and though Sammy wouldn’t know it, the midnight hour had arrived, and Mr. Twisp was satisfied for the night.

Screaming, finally able to, Sammy wanted someone to come to his room, someone to hear what had just happened, someone to hear who had just been in the room. His parents, brother and grandfather, all running, thundering up the wooden stairs of the home, burst into the room, Sammy’s mother running to him, holding her screaming baby.

“What is it Samuel?” she asked, hugging her crying son, the older men just looking into the room, seeing nothing that could have scared the boy. “What is it?”

“There was a man mama! A monster! In a suit, and hat! He had black eyes, like a spider. And his skin, it was yellow, like a candle stick.” Crying heavily, Sammy had never been so scared in his life.

“Samuel, there was no one in here,” the boy’s father said, convinced it was probably a nightmare that had frightened the child, one brought on by his father-in-law’s stories. “Now, go back to sleep, you have lessons in the morning.” Stepping out, Robert followed his father, leaving the whimpering boy with his mother and grandfather.

“He was here mama, I swear it! He gave me this!” Finally opening the fist that had been clenching whatever the monster had dropped, on the boys palm rested a button, one that the mother didn’t recognize from any of the boys clothing.

“Where did you get that Samuel?” his mother asked him, obviously not believing his story on the origin of the button.

“Mr. Twisp,” Sammy’s grandfather answered, getting a look from his daughter.

“None of your stories father,” the man’s daughter said angrily, having long since grown tired of the childish scares that came from the stories. “Samuel is scared enough. I think you did your job, giving the poor child nightmares.”

“No mama,” Sammy was quick to object, “really. The man was standing right there,” Sammy pointed at the windowsill. “He took the candy that I had left there!”His mother, getting up, walked to the window, and looking, saw that the candy was in fact gone, but she believed it to have been taken by another culprit, her son.

“Go to bed Samuel,” the woman kissed her son on the forehead. “You ate too much candy and you shouldn’t take your grandfather’s stories to heart. They will just make you see things in the dark. Now, goodnight.” Kissing him again, she made her exit, but not without shooting her father a warning glance. Waiting for his daughter to walk down the stairs, Sammy’s grandfather walked over and sat on the bed, looking at Sammy’s outstretched hand, and the button he was holding.

“That right there I haven’t seen since I was your age,” Sammy’s grandfather said, taking the button from the child’s palm. “And it was the last time I ever saw my brother, your great uncle.” Examining the button, Sammy’s grandfather put it back into the boys palm, and the man’s eyes filled with serious sternness. “Be glad you remember the rules of All Hallows Day Samuel. They saved you. Mr. Twisp is not an Other to be trusted, but you did well, leaving a candy for the man on the windowsill.

“See, my poor brother didn’t believe in the rules, the sacred rules. No he didn’t, and what happened to him. Mr. Twisp came and took him on Halloween, and looks what’s left of him after all this time, nothing but a button. And how do I know that’s his button? Look closely.” Sammy, doing as he was told, looked at the button, using the moonlight through the window as his light. And on the button, were the initials, S.S.

“Those are my initials grandpa,” Sammy said, still looking at the button.

“And those were your Great Uncle Samson’s as well. Our mother had these buttons made for our church coats, and on that Halloween, on that Sunday, Samson had gone to sleep in his coat, and had forgotten to follow the rules. Samson was a rotten child, my poor brother rest his soul,” Sammy’s grandfather said, shame in his voice, shaking his head. “Having gone out for a night of tricks, smashing Jack O’ Lanterns, he found his way to a graveyard, and disrespecting the dead, he taunted those who were buried by dancing over their graves while whistling a tune. I knew better, watching him from the gates, telling him to come back and stop. I swear to this day I could feel the cold presence of Mr. Twisp with us that night. The next day, Samson was gone forever.”

Standing up, leaving it at that, Sammy’s grandfather stopped right in the doorway, hand on the knob of his grandson’s door. Sammy, sitting up still, heart rate gone down, clenched the button of his Great Uncle Samson.

“So, Mr. Twisp is real grandfather?” Sammy asked, just before his grandfather exited for the night.

“You saw him with your own two eyes. I’d have to say he is Samuel. Goodnight. Don’t let the vampires bite.”

 

*

 

“The next day,” Samuel said, rocking in the chair, Tommy having fallen asleep on the floor, Samantha still awake, but just barely, intently listened to the story, “I drew the picture I showed you the moment I woke up. And when I asked my mother about my Great Uncle Samson, she said that he just disappeared when my grandfather was young. She never did believe me about Mr. Twisp. But he had been there, that I promise you.”

“And what about the button that Mr. Twisp had given you Grandpa Sammy?” Samantha asked, following her question with a long yawn. Reaching into the pocket of his pants, Samuel pulled out the very button from the story, handing it to his granddaughter. Looking at it, Samantha read the two initials.

“I have carried it with me every day, and now, it’s yours.” Elisa, astonished that her grandfather would give her something like that, didn’t know what to say, so instead, she just yawned again. “And that child, is a sign that it’s time for bed.”

“But grandpa,” Samantha whined, making Tommy stir in his sleep. “I want to blow out the candle!” Whining, the girl was in fact tired, it already being past her bedtime, but still a few hours from midnight.

“That is still too long for you to stay up child, now, time to go to bed. Your mother will hang me from the ceiling if she found out I let you stay up this late.” Picking Tommy off the floor, Samuel led the way, a pouting Samantha following behind. Once up the stairs, the girl went straight for her room, Samuel taking Tommy to his. Setting the boy down on his bed, Samuel told the sleeping child goodnight, then made his way to his granddaughter’s room.

Crying under her blankets, still in her Wonder Woman costume, Samuel sat down on the edge of the bed, knowing just how Samantha was feeling. Sighing deeply, it got the girls attention, Samantha peeking a head out from under the cover.

“Next year, you will be old enough,” Samuel said, looking at her with a smile, but it was no use. Samantha wanted to blow out the candle in the Jack O’ Lantern. “Oh, what did we forget?” Samuel asked, remembering the rules of Halloween. The girl still crying, thought for a moment, then realizing what they had forgotten, jumped out of bed to stand on the floor next to her grandfather.

“We forgot to put candy on the windowsills,” Samantha said, forgetting about the candle for a moment. Samuel, telling her to hurry, smiled wide as his granddaughter rushed down the stairs to her bowl of candy, grabbing only one piece. For herself. Tommy fell asleep, she thought to herself, running back up the stairs. This will teach him.

Placing the candy on the windowsill, she climbed back into her bed, climbed under the covers, and waited for a goodnight from her grandfather, the sudden excitement from remembering the third rule having passed, leaving her more tired than before.

“And where is your brother’s piece?” Samuel asked, the smile gone from his face.

“I,” the girl thought for a second, making up a lie, but too tired to get too creative. “I forgot about his.” Shaking his head, Samuel didn’t have time to say anything before the girl was fast asleep. Tucking her in, he opened her palm and took the button from her sleeping grip, laying it on the stand next to her bed. Walking out of her room, flipping off the lights, he left the door cracked, allowing the hallway light to sneak into the room.

Walking downstairs, picking out two pieces of chocolate from his granddaughters bucket, he walked back upstairs, leaving one on the windowsill in Tommy’s room, and opening the other to eat. Leaving the door slightly ajar for his grandson like he had for his granddaughter, Samuel checked his watch, with only an hour till midnight.

Back downstairs, back in his rocker, Samuel stared into the fire, being alone in the house with the children asleep. He had told them stories, told them legends, the rules of All Hallows Night. Even showed them a picture from his book, something he had only ever done once before. Earlier that night, with his eldest granddaughter. Smiling, rocking away in his chair, the old man just waited till it was time to blow out the All Hallows Day candle. Smiled and waited…

 

 

 

 

 

****Halloween Writing Contest Entry****

All Hallow’s Tales 2: Intercourse with a Vamp

“Halloween isn’t merely a holiday on the calendars. It’s every gateway, doorway, archway between here and the Othersides opening at once, for a brief day. But, there are some Others who are here always, who are cursed to walk the earth, staying hidden in the shadows while humanity grows around them. And just like humanity, they have needs, wants. Passions. Lust.”

Just like humanity. They have lust.

-Samuel Shelley, to his daughter Ellen at age 13

 

*

 

Checking herself out in the mirror, working the spider hair clip into her shoulder cut blond hair, Ellen was quite pleased with herself. Looking good for her age, a woman in her mid thirties, Ellen couldn’t help but shoot her reflection a smile, the woman looking back at her looking damn fine, in her opinion, wearing her little slim dress and all dolled up.

“I’m heading to the dance mom,” Carrie-Anne said, standing in the doorway, watching her mother in her moment of narcissism, but even Carrie-Anne had to agree her mother looked good. “Got a date tonight?”

“I do,” Ellen said, taking a glance at her daughter, the girl holding her overly stickered guitar case, which inside held the girl’s bass. Her daughter, which Ellen called her “Punk Rock Queen”, was in her usual hoodie, cut up jeans and chuck’s, but with the addition of a black dress vest, and her black hair tied back in a ponytail, leaving the two strips died pink to hang down either side of her head. “And is that how you are going to the dance? You’re going to be on stage, why don’t you dress up some babe?” Ellen almost knew it was futile to try, but she was going to give it an attempt. Maybe I just might get through to this girl.

“Whatcha talking about, I am dressed up,” setting the guitar case down, doing a small pose and blowing her mother a kiss, Carrie-Anne was showcasing her normal attitude, which basically was that she didn’t give a shit about what other’s thought about her. Ellen just smiled, walking over, kissing her daughter on the forehead.

“Have fun babe,” Ellen said, her daughter’s band playing a live show for the school’s Halloween dance. Ellen was surprised when Carrie-Anne had told her she was going to do the gig. Very surprised indeed. “Love you.”

“Love you too,” Carrie-Anne said, picking her case back up and making her way down the hall to the stairs. “And very nice spider clip thingy. I dig it.” Without looking back, the girl was down the stairs, leaving her mother alone only to smirk and shake her head. At least Samantha will be my girly girl.

Walking back to the mirror, checking herself out one last time, Ellen turned to the bedside alarm clock, checking the time. 8:27. Her younger children, Samantha and Tommy would return form trick r’ treating soon with their grandfather, Samuel, Ellen’s dad. But more importantly, not that her children weren’t the most important things to her, but in the next twenty minutes, her date, Richard would be pulling up to take her on a date, which she had no clue what he had planned for their night together.

Excitement and anticipation brewing inside her, she had only been on a few dates before with Richard, but he was a stunning man, handsome, sophisticated and mysterious. And, he was the first man since the children’s father that Ellen had really found herself attracted to.

Looking at the clock again, five minutes somehow flying be while Ellen had been admiring herself, she hurriedly made her way downstairs, seeing her children sitting on the floor in front of the living room fire, her father in his rocking chair preparing to tell one of his Halloween stories.

Heading into the kitchen, searching for her house keys and cell phone, Ellen could find neither, the prime reason being they were in her purse and that was nowhere to be found either. Frustrated, strapped for time, knowing that just any second Richard would roll up and be waiting for her, she focused on where in the Sam Hill she put that purse.

“Where is it?” she whispered to herself, checking every surface of the kitchen, thinking it was the last place she had left the thing, even going as far as to check the fridge, though she knew all too well that it wasn’t in there, but just have to be sure, she thought.

Sneaking into the living room, the tapping of her heels giving her away, it was no matter, no children paid no heed to her, their attention on their grandfather, and on their trick r’ treating treats. Samantha, dressed as Wonder Woman, was Ellen’s little brain, the girl being very, very smart for her age, making her mother proud, but at times aggravated, her daughter’s intelligence proving to lack common sense at the most inappropriate of times. And Tommy, her little sweetheart, was still under his simple white sheet, ghost costume, munching away at his candy. Ellen knew he would have a stomach ache.

“….Revenge.” Ellen had walked in just to hear her father end his sentence with that word, revenge. Such a strong word, Ellen thought, seeing the smile on her father’s lips, knowing all too well that it had something to do with the story he was about to tell.

“Revenge, dad,” Ellen said, glancing around the room, still in search of her lost purse. “Do you think they are old enough to hear about revenge? Why not just tell them a ghost story?” When Ellen was a child, nothing was more exciting than her dad’s stories on Halloween, but over time, she grew bored with them, instead finding more excitement with hanging out with friends, then seeing what mischief she could find with boyfriends. She did have to admit to herself it was nostalgic seeing her own children hear the same stories that her father had told her. But I don’t remember any that involved revenge…

“But this is a ghost story dear”, Samuel said, stopping in his rocking to watch his frantic daughter, Ellen still not finding her purse, but having a feeling that it was somewhere in that living room. “One you haven’t even heard before. Why don’t you sit and listen?”

“Yeah mommy,” Tommy said through a mouth full of candies. “Sit and listen to Grandpa Sammy’s ghost story with us.” Tommy, with that sweet little voice of his just pulled at the strings of Ellen’s heart, but she still had her date with Richard, and she was about to give up on the damn purse, but eyeballing behind the couch she made a beeline for it.

“I can’t baby,” Ellen said, bending down, picking her purse up, wondering just how it had found its way behind the sofa. Adjusting her dress, worried about her make-up and hair, she finally had her purse, but had to find the closest mirror to check herself out again. “Mommy’s got her date tonight with Richard.” Walking out of the living room, heels clicking against the hardwood floor the whole way, Ellen stopped in front of the hallway mirror, having a perfect view out the front door, where she would see just when Richard was pulling up. “And please don’t sit under that sheet and eat all your candy. You’ll get a tummy ache baby.”

“Okay mommy,” her baby boy said. Ellen, smiling, could hear him feeding another mouthful of candy into his lips. It’s Halloween, she thought, and he’ll learn, Ellen knowing of the stomach ache that was too follow later that night. Her makeup fine, her hair still perfect, the time was ticking by and still no Richard. What is taking him?

And just like that, she saw his silver corvette pull up in front of the house, making her heart pound like crazy, just something about Richard did that to her. Heading down the hall, glancing into the living room, one last look at her kids sitting crossed legged on the rug in front of the fire, Samantha begging her grandfather to tell the story, Ellen smiled, knowing it was going to be a good night. Telling herself, it was going to be a good night.

“It’s going to be a good night. A very goodnight,” she said under her breath, making her way out to the door to her waving, waiting date.

 

*

 

Ellen couldn’t stop smiling, and her leg, bouncing in anxious anticipation, was rocking the car at every stop, making Richard smile just as much as his date. Having gotten into his car hurriedly, not wanting to keep him waiting, Ellen kissed Richard, but then, she was surprised when he pulled out a blindfold and without saying anything, placed it over the woman’s eyes.

“At least give me a hint,” Ellen said, Richard having only told her to not take the blindfold off, not giving any hints as to where their destination was or what the plan for their Halloween evening was going to be.

“No, no hints love. You just have to wait, and no peeking now,” Richard said, the smoothness in his voice giving Ellen chills. The man carried himself well, his voice proud, almost egotistic, but not too much. Richard, a very successful writer, had met Ellen when they had bumped into each other in the only book store in Poet, Washington, then before she knew it, she was head over heels for the man who was just as mysterious as the people he wrote about.

Turning up the car radio, possibly as a notion for Ellen to stop attempting to get hints, Richard just continued to smile as he bobbed his head to Nick Cave’s “Up jumped the Devil”, a very fitting song for the evening, he thought to himself. Reaching over, placing a hand on Ellen’s exposed thigh, she couldn’t help but jump, not expecting the move from the man, but more so a shiver ran up her spine and goosebumps formed from the sheer touch of him, the ice coldness that was in his fingertips.

“My lord you’re cold,” Ellen said, not able to stop herself from a light shake as it seemed the man’s hand just wasn’t getting any warmer on her thigh.

“Terrible circulation,” he said, his smile growing a bit wider.

 

*

 

Getting help out of the car from Richard, Ellen, still blindfolded, felt a small burst of the night wind blow through her blond hair, and she could almost swear she could hear whispers carried with it. The wind, felt good though, a contrast to the very uncommonly warm October night that they were experiencing, the first warm Halloween that Ellen could ever remember.

Having lived in Poet her entire life, it was much like most other Washington cities. Rainy, chill and the very occasional beautiful sunny day. Taking a deep breath of the open night air, she was getting impatient, waiting for whatever Richard had planned for the two of them.

“I can’t take it,” Ellen said, her hand grasping his, a light sweat built on her palm from her anxiousness, his hand still so unnaturally cold. “Let me take this off, please!” Reaching up with her free hand, going to take the blindfold off, and though she knew it could ruin the surprise, I don’t care. I want to see!

Stopped just as her fingertips found the cloth of the blindfold, she felt Richard’s free hand grab hers, stopping her, but he wasn’t aggressive in the act, gentle, just wrapping his finger’s around hers and pulling her hand away, while at the same time leaning in to whisper into her ear.

“We’re almost there Ellen,” his whisper again sent a shiver up her spine, but at the same time, a feeling in her stomach and chest of pure erotica, Ellen not able to find her breath for a moment. His breath on her ear, was just as cold as his touch, but still, so arousing.

Pulling her just a few more yards, he stopped, and releasing her hands from his, found a hold on the small of Ellen’s back, pulling her in tight for a heavy kiss, his tongue pushing itself through her lips to find her tongue. While they had kissed before, the first being on their first date after he had walked her to the door like a gentleman, that kiss was something all in its own, a kiss that was more than a kiss. It was passion incarnate in that man’s lips.

“My lord,” Ellen whispered, finally able to catch her breath, pulling a few inches away from Richard’s lips. Legs shaking, not from the cold but from the adrenaline passing through her whole, Ellen had never found herself so aroused from just a kiss. My lord, that was amazing.

“Not tonight,” Richard whispered back through a grin. Leaning her back slowly, Ellen at first was startled, not expecting him to make the motion, but she trusted him, and allowed him to continue till she was lying upon what felt like a slab of stone, cold and rough to her skin. Running his hands through his eyebrow length black hair, the moonlight reflecting off his cobalt eyes, Richard examined his date, looked over every inch of the woman utterly attracted to him.

And for a mother of three, Ellen was gorgeous, stunning in fact. Having kept in great shape, a self-conscious woman, she made sure she took care of herself. And lying on the stone slab, one knee up, the other leg dangling over the edge of the stone, Richard just looked from her heels up her legs, over the end of that black dress, and all the way to the smile, listening to her fingernails tap impatiently on the stone.

“Well?” She asked, wondering what was going to follow that amazing kiss. Feeling his hand run down the lower leg of the leg bent on the stone, he began kissing just below her knee as he pulled one heel from her foot, then the other. Kissing up around her knee, just inside it, slowly up her thigh, he only made it a few inches before he stopped, and when he stopped Ellen realized she was holding her breath. “Why’d you stop?” Her fingernails had stopped tapping, and instead her hands were spread flat on the stone, the woman unbelievably aroused.

“Trick or treat,” Richard said in an almost sing song fashion. The words confused Ellen, wondering why the hell he would say a child’s phrase at a time like that. And then, off to her side, she heard music begin, wondering who had started it, but figuring it was Richard waiting for him to return his attention to her. Still blindfolded, she was now refusing to take it off herself, actually enjoying not being able to see what Richard was going to do, the surprise adding to the erotica of the acts.

Still nothing from Richard, Ellen just listened to the song, recognizing it from somewhere, and after a few seconds, knew it from the film Queen of the Damned, one of her favorite films. And though she didn’t know it, the song “Excess,” by Tricky was just the right song to put Richard fully in the mood.

Rolling up the sleeves of his black oxford, unbuttoning the top button, he leaned in, kissing again right where he had left off on her inner thigh, the other just running up and down her dangling leg, the backs of his fingers just grazing her flesh.

“Give me something good to eat,” Richard whispered just loud enough for Ellen to hear over the music. Blowing lightly, the man had kissed his way to her panties where she was so moist that his breath made her moan. Ellen tilted her head back on the stone, not caring where she was, or if anyone but Richard was around to hear her.

Kissing through her panties, pushing his lips hard against the wet, black lace, he could taste her, and licking his lips, she was sweet on the tongue. Grabbing both her legs, lifting them on his shoulders while at the same time pulling her closer to the edge, Richard just sat there, waiting for her to give another impatient response.

“Why’d you stop!?” she said again, her hands in fists now, Ellen knowing it had been a very, very long time since a man had gone down on her, giving her all the attention for once, and dammit, I want you to keep going!

“If you don’t,” Richard whispered again through a grin, making sure each and every breath was on those moist panties, each syllable making Ellen moan. “I’ll pull down your underwear.” Running his hands up her legs, hooking his fingers through the edge of her panties, he slid them down slowly, pulling them off and dropping them to the ground to join her discarded heels.

Kissing up her leg quicker than before, Richard got straight to business, taking only a moment to admire Ellen, seeing the moonlight glisten from how wet she was. Kissing her just above her clitoris, he worked his tongue out and began with that, focusing on spinning and rotating, Ellen’s eyes rolling back into her head, her breath literally robbed from her lungs. She had never felt a man so good with his tongue, and Richard was just getting started.

Moving down, using only his mouth, using his hands to keep Ellen laying down, the woman arching her back in pleasure, he rolled his tongue in unison with the music, the motion making Ellen orgasm almost immediately, another thing that she had absolutely never experienced before, no matter how long it had been since the last time she’d been with a man.

His mouth soon becoming not enough, sexual urges taking over, Ellen needed more of him, wanted more of him. Reaching, blind, she felt his hair, and running her fingers through, she let him continue for a few more minutes, but finally wanted him inside her. Grabbing the shoulders of his shirt, she yanked him up while at the same time lifted herself to a sitting position, managing to find her lips to his, rivaling his kiss earlier.

Her tongue assaulting his, she could taste herself on his lips, tongue, and to be honest with herself, it turned her on even more. Running her fingers through his hair, grabbing, pulling, she moved his head to her neck, Richard taking the cue and kissing aggressively, even going so far as to bite a little, his teeth stinging, but even that just turned Ellen on more and more.

Moving from her neck to her collar bone, he worked the straps of her dress free from her shoulders, leaving them to dangle on her arms. Biting her collar bone like he had her neck, he bit a little too hard, drawing a droplet of blood. Wincing at the pain, Ellen instantly forgot about it, Richard occupying her thoughts with his fingers, the tips of his left middle and ring finger entering her, hooking and pulling out, the motion making her pull his hair and scream in satisfaction.

“My god, don’t you dare stop,” moaning, Ellen felt like a teenager again. She couldn’t see, wasn’t sure where she was, but I don’t give an unholy damn! Richard, licking the blood droplet from her collar bone, pushed his fingers into her as far as they would go, then pulled them free, a look of disappointment and maybe fury painted on Ellen’s face. “Dammit Richard!” But before she could complain anymore, the man had his pants undone and his member out, the tip grazing her lips, his full erection quivering as it touched her.

Leaning in close, she licked his ear lobe, and running a hand down his chest found a grip on his erection, squeezing tightly, Ellen more than impressed with the man’s size and girth. He literally has it all, she thought, lightly stroking him, the tip still pressed up against her now soaking wet vagina.

“Do you want it in me?” Ellen asked, teasing the man, seduction so thick in her voice it was hard to believe it was even her talking. Even Ellen surprised herself, never feeling like she was ever before, never wanting a man more than she wanted Richard right there at that instance. And she was in control for that one brief moment, holding him so tightly, feeling the quivers, the stiffness between her fingers and palm, and just the thoughts of it running through her brain made her want him more, and made her even wetter, which was good, considering she’d never been with a man as with as large a member.

“Don’t you?” he asked, Ellen in shock that though she believed she was in control, the dominant one for a brief moment, he had taken it away from her with just two words, and both smiling, Ellen didn’t say another word, just pushed the tip of him inside her and let him do what he wanted. Take control.

Pushing her back against the stone, Ellen was at the perfect height, Richard not needing to bend down or anything, just the right height for him to just thrust. Putting Ellen’s legs back on his shoulders, he began slowly, but in no time his thrusts were hard, fast, and Ellen was screaming, her second and third orgasm rocking her body. Grabbing her own hair, she was in such a pleasure she couldn’t even scream, the woman biting her lips, having to stop herself before she bit clean through.

Wanting to see Richard, tired of the blindfold, she ripped it off, throwing it, looking at the man still thrusting into her, his entire member too big for her to take all of him, a few inches left outside, but still, Ellen had never felt a man like him before. Ever.

But then the realization of where she was hit. A graveyard. All around, gravestones littered the landscape, with only a tree here or there to break the rows of stones. Knowing that she herself was atop a stone monument, the corpse of someone just below her, she felt the need to stop and ask just why Richard had decided to take her to a graveyard to have sex. But it is Halloween, and it is naughty. So naughty. Convincing herself, the thought of having sex in a graveyard where she could get caught made it even more arousing.

“Should have left that on love,” Richard said, not stopping in his thrusts. Ellen, admiring him, noticed he wasn’t out of breath, or sweating a single drop. She on the other hand was having a terrible trouble trying to keep air in her lungs, everything Richard did taking it right away from her, and her body was lightly covered in a sex sweat.

“Why, why?” she repeated the word through moans, her brain just full of him, Richard, and the fact that he felt so good inside her. So, damn good inside her. But, then like his words had taken away a veil she couldn’t see, an invisible blindfold that had been hiding another world, she began to see things in the graveyard.

Blurry at first, she thought it was the pleasure, the sexual gratification, the adrenaline even playing tricks on her. But the blurs became more and more visible, and in time, there were others in the graveyard where that hadn’t been other’s before. Shocked, she shut her eyes, kept them clenched shut, trying to pretend that those out there hadn’t just appeared, tried to focus on Richard still pounding away at her, his thrusts just getting harder and harder, faster.

But upon reopening her eyes, they were all still there. Naked, the people weren’t normal. There were men and women, all involved in acts of sexual intercourse, orgies taking place all over, the music playing drowning out their moans, but in time Ellen could hear them, just like she was able to see them.

The men, their skin a tint of grey, like covered in whole by ash, they were all bald and like Richard were giving into their sexual dominance, delivering powerful thrusts to the receiving females. And the woman, all moaning, screaming in ecstasy, had a blood red tint to their flesh, all their hair black, long, wild.

“What is going on?” Ellen stammered out, a moan or two still sneaking out, she in shock that Richard was continuing. “Richard, stop!” Trying to push him off, he did stop in his thrusts, but he stayed inside her, and this time the look of disappointment and aggravation were on his face.

“You should have kept the blindfold on Ellen,” he sneered at her, angry that she had made him stop. It would still be a while till he climaxed, but he had been enjoying himself.

“Keep the blindfold on? For what? So you could sneak me into a weird, graveyard orgy? Who are they?” The “they” she spoke of, the grey men and red women, were acting like she wasn’t there, oblivious to her questions, just continuing in their acts of fornication.

“They are Others. And it’s Halloween. Bask in the lust babe.” Attempting to begin thrusting again, Richard pulled out a bit, but did not expect Ellen to push back on the stone, forcing him to pull out all the way. “Come on Ellen, ignore them.”

“Ignore them Richard, what the hell is going on?” Ellen was frightened. At first the thought of sex in a graveyard was exciting, but this was something else, this was too much for her to handle.

“Alright, fine. You want the truth?” He asked, hanging his head, sighing, putting his already softening member away, fixing his pants and belt.

“Please.” Looking past him, the acts of everything happening around her was mind boggling, shocking, leaving Ellen in awe. No one paid any attention to her at all, all the couples, and some threesomes just focusing on their partners.

“The truth, and here it is,” Richard said, rolling his sleeves down as he walked around to sit next to her on the stone. Ellen, not scared, inched away as to not touch him, but was afraid to leave his side, not sure of the people, or whatever they were, in the graveyard. “I am a vampire, and the only one of my kind actually.” Right there Ellen stopped him.

“A vampire Richard, come on. I have seen you in the daytime.” The day they had met at the bookstore it had been close to noon.

“Why do you think I live in Poet Ellen,” Richard smiled at her. “The sun very rarely peeks it way through the clouds.”

“Like in Twilight? Are you crazy? What the hell is really going on here Richard?” Ellen couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Was this some sick, sexual joke he was playing on her, or did the man she had so fallen for really believe himself to be like the vampires from the popular book series, one that like many women out there, Ellen was in love with.

“Who do you think inspired Stephanie Meyer to base her vampires here in Washington?” Smug, he was proud of that fact. “I am a vampire doll. And they are Other’s, those who can only come to the living world on the day of Samhein, Halloween. And they are so into their acts of sex, because on the Othersides, you can’t feel anything. At all. Poor bastards.”

Ellen, trying to take it all in, was left with nothing to say, not sure to believe him, or what. He sounded serious, sounded truthful, and the way the fornicators had just appeared did make them seem otherworldly, but even so, it was too difficult to believe Richard a vampire.

“Do you sparkle in the sunlight?” Ellen had to ask the question, such a fan of the novels.

“That is the dumbest damn thing she could have written down. No, I do not sparkle in the damn sunlight,” Richard was clearly annoyed by the question. “If I step into direct sunlight I will burn up instantaneously and be left nothing more than a pile of ash.”

“Why am I here Richard?” Ellen, still watching the Other’s, the Other’s still going at it, Ellen felt exposed, her panties laying at the ground, the wind nipping at her, the night air seeming to chill all around as fear really began to settle in.

“These are my people. I am a creature of lust Ellen. Sexual desire. I have lived so long, and nothing is more satisfying that to be in the company of them,” motioning with a wave of his hand to the Other’s in the graveyard. “It’s pure erotica. I have to pretend to be a human, a mortal. But tonight, I can be truthful to myself. And be what I am.”

“A vampire.” Ellen whispered, actually starting to believe him. “Prove it to me. Prove to me you are what you say you are.” Looking into his eyes as he turned to face her, he smiled wide, exposing his teeth, and as her eyes shifted down, she watched as his canines elongated, then back to his cobalt eyes as they turned a shade of blood red, matching the flesh of the woman in the cemetery. “My lord,” she said, finally convinced, the slight transformation something he couldn’t have pulled off for merely a joke.

“Not tonight,” Richard again said to Ellen’s response. Pulling her in, kissing her harder than his first kiss, biting her bottom lip just enough to pierce, he licked the blood clean, leaving it to bleed, leaving Ellen to taste her own wound.

“Are you going to kill me?” She had to ask. She just had to.

“I have to now. You’ve seen too much, know too much.” Tilting her head to the side, he brushed her hair away, and kissed her neck, planting soft, gentle kisses. “I didn’t want it to come to this.” Ellen had nothing to say. Her only thoughts were of her children. Carrie-Ann, Samantha and Tommy. But somehow, a thought of him inside her formed, but quickly she forgot it, knowing that the same man, or vampire, was about to feed upon her, stealing her life away in an ironic place; the graveyard.

Exposing his teeth, there was nothing else for him to say either, and just as he dug his fangs into her flesh, used the weapons of his bane, the tools of his curse, the Others in the graveyard in unison sang out in a climax, a sexual song. But, Richard didn’t plan on killing Ellen, not at all.

He had been with countless mortal woman before. And never once had he killed a single one. For his first kill with his fangs would be his last, with their final drop of blood, his curse would be passed to them, and he just wasn’t ready to move to the Othersides yet. Draining just enough to leave her weak, Ellen fell into unconsciousness, and upon waking, she would remember all of it just as a bad dream. Richard would call her, check on her, then end their relationship.

Drinking down her sweet life nectar, her blood, he stopped before doing too much damage, laying the woman back on the stone slab. Licking his lips, tasting the copper, his body warming, his belly on fire, he felt alive for one brief moment.

Looking to the Others who joined him and his sleeping date in the graveyard, they were all smiling, all satisfied. But there he stood, unsatisfied. Looking at his sleeping date, her dress up just enough to expose her, she was still wet. And having been alive, or unalive, long enough, Richard forgot what guilt was. Undoing his pants, the man had made her climax multiple times. It was his turn. Climbing on top, he slid inside her, all to the sinister approval of his otherworldly audience.

“Not tonight,” he said as he made the first, full mighty thrust.

 

 

****Halloween Writing Contest Entry****

Premise for Murder Mystery

When they picked Little Jo up at the Sears department store, in the home appliances department, the main thing sergeant Vega wanted to establish was whether or not Little Jo was connected somehow to the crime scene at the ice-cream factory.

Back in the office, Little Jo had woken up a little, now showing signs that he was cognizant of his surroundings in fairly precise detail, i.e. he knew whose body it was that his consciousness was now inhabiting.

Sgt. Vega reviewed her (long) list of questions she had to ask Little Jo. “Hey there Little Jo. My name is Sergeant Vega, and I’m with the NYPD, ok? I’m gonna have to ask you a loada questions. Do you understand that?”

Little Jo nodded. “Yes,” he mumbled, “yes I got it.”

Ok. First question was “Do you have any ID?”

There was a pause, and then Little Jo shook his head. “No,” he said, “I don’t have any.”

“Do you know why is that?” said Sgt. Vega.

This is what always happens. For some reason, the suspects never have any ID. This one, Little Jo, acted all confused, like he had no idea why he didn’t have any ID. He just shrugged. “I–uh–I honestly don’t know.”

Sgt. Vega moved expertly onto the next question. “So you have no idea why a store clerk finds your ID just lying around in the home appliances section of a nearby Sears, the morning *after* an as yet unidentified corpse is found frozen in a shell of chocolate dip, an internal layer of vanilla ice-cream surrounding it, within an industrial freezing appliance at an ice-cream factory?”

It was too much exposition for Little Joe, and he just shook his head once, then stared blankly at the sergeant.

“And after finding your ID, police soon also find you sitting inside a display fridge unit nearby.”

No response.

“You’re shiverin’, except it’s just a display unit. The electricity was not even turned on, it was probably hotter in there rather than cold.” She put her notebook on the table, now in stride, and said “What we want to know is why in the world you were shivering, Little Jo?”

A look of realization slid onto Little Jo’s face. The identification, the refrigerator, the body in the freezer; all of this had to have something to do with a small taste he’d taken a few weeks ago from a strip of paper that had been left fluttering in wind near a local Taco Bell.

“Magic paper,” said Little Jo, suddenly.

Sgt. Vega took her notebook back, and pulled a pen from her breast pocket. This was going to be good.

“I was strolling,” began Little Jo.

“Strolling? You’re just strolling? Just randomly like that?”

“Yes,” continued Little Jo, “just very randomly strolling. Looking for avenues, and streets–traffic signals, that kinda thang. And I was on my cellphone.”

Sgt. Vega prepared her pen. “Who were you on the cellphone with, Little Jo? Who were you talking to?”

“Well–”

“But wait,” said the sergeant, expertly, “before you answer that, can you tell me if you remember if there was a name on your cellphone. Cos a lot of people put their names into the phone–that way they can remember their name, in case they forgot or something.”

“Yeah,” said Little Jo. It was all clearing up now, and he was getting more interested in the conversation. “I remember the name now. It was Sagat, Bison.”

Vega dropped her notepad and looked at the criminal. “Oh. Sagat Bison,” she said. “Kind of an unusual name, don’t you think? Weird arrangement. Sagat is not a very good first name.”

Little Jo smiled a fresh smile back at her. “It’s actually Bison Sagat. I just like to put the last name first, with a comma–it makes it sound more official.”

At least, she really, really wanted this guy to be the criminal. “Ha. Now you’re name-calling a homicide detective. You don’t think I’ve heard that before? Little kids who think they’re gods at Street Fighter making fun of my last name?”

“Okay, it was just a joke,” said Bison Sagat, “Don’t take it that seriously.”

“So who were you talking on the cellphone with, Bison?” asked Sgt. Vega.

“Two people,” said Sagat. “My momz, and my ex-girlfriend. Both at the same time.”

This was getting really weird. “Oh, so you’re on the phone at the same time with your mom and gf. Was it a conference call, Bison?”

“No,” said Sagat. “I was using the ‘hold call’ trick that they have, speaking to my mother in one moment, and then speaking to my ex-girlfriend the other. They both called me up out of the blue, trying to find out what I was up to at that particular moment.”

“Where are your mother and ex-girlfriend right now, Roger?” asked Sgt. Vega, then. “Can we give them a call, maybe? See how they’re doing? Maybe they’re feeling a little…left out in the cold, you know?”

Bison looked up. “Who’s Roger?” he asked.

“You’re Roger,” said Sgt. Vega. “Remember, we found your ID just a few feet away from the display refrigerator you were sitting inside.”

“Oh. But–”

“Yes?”

“How would you know that that is my real ID?”

Sometimes it pays to try the longshot. “Well,” said Sgt. Vega, “we know it’s yours because the barcode imprinted in it corresponds to the chip that was embedded in your neck when you were born.”

“Oh…” said Roger. “But they could have just transplanted the chip,” he said.

“Why would anyone do that?”

Roger looked down at the small desk. He kept looking for a good twenty-thirty seconds. Only when Sgt. Vega shook her head, ready to pursue a new tree of investigation, did he look up again. “Maybe…” he said, and he seemed very uncertain of this. “Well…they always sometimes dim the lights on me.”

“What?”

“Like sometimes, I’m fine as a feather,” said Roger, “and all of a sudden it’s like someone ‘dimmed’ the lights in the room for just one second or so.”

Sgt. Vega stabbed repeatedly at her notepad with her pen. “They just dim the lights?” she asked. “And what do they do after they dim the lights in the room?”

“I don’t…know,” said Roger. “It’s too fast. It only happens for, like, one second. And then it’s over.”

“Over? Just like that?”

“Yeah,” nodded Roger. “And even more, it happens even regardless of whether there is a room or not. Sometimes it even happens in the streets to me.”

“Streets?”

“Yeah, I’m just walking around, in the streets, all of a sudden I experience this feeling like…like as though my battery life just dipped for one moment. Except it’s not a battery for my phone, or if I’m driving, a battery for my car, but more like…more like my own battery. My own personal human battery.”

Our First Time With A Knife (Part Four)

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All Hallow’s Tales 1: Adhere to the Rules…

“All Hallow’s Eve, the eve just before Halloween, the eve where impatience runs thick in every, single Other; the ghouls, ghosts, and monsters, all the creatures that we tell our stories about. They are real, but they are only allowed to come to the living world on Halloween, when the Church Bell’s toll at midnight on All Hallow’s Eve, and with the final bell chime, the doorway’s open, the graveyards come to life, and from the Othersides, all those creatures that go bump in the night return and frolic for tricks and treats, for one day; the one day that they wait for every, single year.”

 

*

 

“But Grandpa,” Samantha asked, the little girl still dressed as Wonder Woman, a costume her grandfather had shown open distaste for, saying the costume didn’t “have any Halloween spirit in it at all,” which had hurt his granddaughter’s feelings, but he hadn’t cared. “Aren’t all those monsters bad? Why would they come back for trick’s and treats?” Sitting in the living room in front of the fire, Samantha and her younger brother Tommy, who was dressed as a ghost, with just an old white bed sheet with the eyeholes cut out, they listened as their Grandpa Sammy was preparing to tell them ghost stories.

“Yeah,” Tommy said, his mouth full of candy that he was shoveling in from beneath his bed sheet costume. “Monster’s don’t eat candy Grandpa. Do they?”

“Oh, they do Tommy. And of course not all of the Others come back for treats. Some come back to play kind hearted tricks on us. Nothing harmful, just good humored. But then, there are those who come back for more nefarious reasons.” Rocking in his old, wooden rocking chair, Halloween was Samuel Shelley’s favorite holiday. Always had been.

“Nefarious?” Tommy asked, the boy oblivious to the definition of such a big word, his six year old vocabulary not that extensive yet.

“Its mean’s bad, stupid,” Samantha quickly told him, the girl very smart for her age, which was nine.

“Always picking on your brother Samantha,” Samuel said. “He isn’t stupid, that was my mistake for using such a grown up word. But, back on subject, your sister is correct. Some of the Others merely come back to do bad, bad things.”

“Like what?” Samantha asked, heavily intrigued, always loving to hear Grandpa Sammy’s stories. Especially on Halloween.

“Like revenge for instance. And I have one such story that has to do with just that. Revenge.” Smiling, Samuel had never told the children this story, but they were old enough, and it was one of his favorites.

“Revenge, dad,” Ellen said, the mother of the two listening children entering the room, looking for her purse as she waited for her date to arrive. “Do you think they are old enough to hear about revenge. Why not just tell them a ghost story?” Ellen, having listened to her father’s stories for as long as she could remember, had grown tired of them, their scares having no effect on her any longer. Now, it was her children that were her father’s audience, and sometimes she felt he forget that they were just that, her children.

“But this is a ghost story dear. One you haven’t even heard before. Why don’t you sit and listen?” Samuel knew his daughter would refuse to listen to his story, having not done so since she was a teenager, but he still felt it didn’t hurt to ask, just in case she would have a sudden change of heart.

“Yeah, mommy,” Tommy said, his mouth again full of candies, “sit and listen to Grandpa Sammy’s ghost story with us.”

“I can’t baby,” Ellen said, finally finding her purse which had somehow found its way behind the couch. “Mommy’s got her date tonight with Richard. And please don’t sit under that sheet and eat all your candy. You’ll get a tummy ache baby.” Returning to check on her makeup, the clock was tick tocking away and still no sign of Richard.

“Okay mommy,” Tommy said, ignoring his mother’s wish, shoving another handful of M&M’s into his open, chocolate covered lips.

“Tell us the story Grandpa! Please,” Samantha begged.

“Alright kids,” Samuel began, rocking a bit harder in his chair, the creaking of the old wood in perfect, spooky harmony with the crackling of the living room fire. “It was All Hallow’s Eve…”

*

 

John had to get out of the house. He had felt like it was closing in on him, an unfamiliar sense of claustrophobia setting in, the feeling of eyes from behind the walls staring at him. He had lived in his house for years, and for the first time, the feeling like it wasn’t his home forced him out, but merely for a few minutes, just long enough to go for a run.

Figuring it was just exhaustion from work mixed with the atmosphere built around him by the season, Halloween being the next day, John reasoned a good jog would work the stress from his body, and upon returning to his home it would again feel like his home, instead of just a house that had chased him out.

Rounding the corner off his street, Chestnut, onto Rogers Lane, John saw a couple teenagers walking on the opposite side of the street, the kids most likely up to no good, smashing pumpkins or other tricks that kids found themselves in on All Hallows Eve.

Passing by all the decorated homes,  the sounds of the fallen, dead leaves crunching beneath his feet mixed with the sound of his shoes slapping the concrete of the sidewalk numbed his mind, relaxing him as he focused on his breathing.

Running down Rogers Lane till the sidewalk ended, making his way onto the side of the street, John felt eerily alone, though he knew how late of an hour he was out at. Slowing his pace, looking behind him, the teenagers gone, John was startled to see how dark it had gotten from the way he had just come, the road behind him pitch black, nothing visible.

Stopping, focusing, looking back down the road, it was completely dark, as though something had swallowed every ounce of light from the area, leaving it hidden in black. Confused, having just run through there, with streetlights that had been casting down from above, porch lights from the homes he had run past, and now, all of it was gone. Extinguished and hidden in the night.

Peering at the houses that were around him and still visible, they were all dark inside, no light spilling through window blinds or window decorations. Shaking his head, thinking that maybe the same stress that had chased him from his home was playing more tricks on him, making him just think there was darkness everywhere, upon opening his eyes, John was blinded, two painfully bright lights tearing towards him down the street.

Jumping to avoid the lights, John was clipped, tossed to the side of the road as the screeching of breaks brought the car that had just hit him to a sudden halt. With the smell of hot rubber and exhaust fumes in the air, John let loose a string of obscenities as he made sure nothing was broken, his arm and leg just sore, but he was still able to stand and bend his arm.

On his feet, looking at the car, the red lights from the breaks bright in contrast to the darkness that was strangling the ends of the street, John was able to make out the license plate, reading it to himself under his breath. SWTDRMS. The car, a 1978 Oldsmobile Delta 88, was a cigar boat of a car, the yellow paint chipped and rust adorning the bottom the vehicle.

“Hey, are you out of your mind or just blind!?” John yelled to whoever was driving the car, wondering why they hadn’t gotten out yet to check on him. If it was going to be just a hit and run, they wouldn’t have slammed the breaks; so cautious, John stood behind the car to see just what the driver was going to do.

Having to react again quickly, jumping out of the way before clipped for a second time by the vehicle, the Delta 88 quickly and surprisingly drove in reverse, running over the blacktop where John had just been standing and yelling. The brakes slammed again, the sound of the tires squealing, John was shocked and frightened, but more so angry that they had tried to hit him for a second damn time. On his feet, heading for the stopped vehicle, John tried to the see the driver, but the light given off by the car’s high beams were blinding, John having to shield his eyes with his hand as he approached.

“What the hell are you doing?” John began to yell, making his way around the cigar boats hood. “Are you trying to kill me?” Able to see, the headlights behind him, John was shocked to see no one in the car, the driver side door shut, the car running, but no one behind the wheel. Leaning against the glass of the driver side window, looking in, no one was in the car, yet it had been running, and had nearly killed him. Twice.

Opening the door, peering in for a closer look, there was no one. The radio was on, just barely audible, and after listening for a moment, a chillingly haunting cover of the Eurhythmics “Sweet Dreams” played through the car, only seeming ironic as John thought about the license plate. Looking at the clock inside the car, it read 12:09. It was finally Halloween, or nine minutes into the holiday.

Pulling back out of the car, looking around, John had not seen nor heard anyone get out of the car, making him wonder where the driver was, or if there had been one to begin with, why had the car itself attempted to kill him.

“I really hope you’re name isn’t Christine,” John said jokingly to the car, patting the roof, almost expecting it to rev it’s engine or honk it’s horn in response, but, the car just stayed running, the girl’s voice whispering through the speakers. “…some of them want to use you…”

With both ends of the street shrouded in unholy darkness, it would be impossible for John to see if anyone had just left the car and ran off into the night, evading the whole scene and possible police involvement, though John hated the police and the “idiot driver” of the car had left the car itself there at the scene, running.

Thinking the driver’s information would be in the car, and seeing that the car was there anyways, John climbed in, thumbing through the glove-box and center console, with no papers what-so-ever. Sighing, rubbing his eyes, the whole situation was strange and he wanted to wash his hands of it, his injuries not being too serious and there being no real need to involve the law. Going to climb from the car, he was stopped, the door slamming shut, nearly catching his leg as he was preparing to step out.

“SHIT!” he shouted, jumping back into the driver seat, trying to catch his breath after being startled by the sudden slam of the door. Attempting to open it, the door wouldn’t budge, the window wouldn’t roll down. And no matter how hard John slammed his shoulder into the door, attempting to use all his weight to get the door open, pulling on the handle, punching the glass, he was stuck in the Delta 88. Exhausted, attempting to catch his breath, he rested his forehead against the steering wheel, damning the car under his breath, all the while listening to the radio, the song still “Sweet Dreams”.

..some of them want to be abused…”

“Shut up!” John yelled at the radio, like it was going to listen to him. Attempting to turn it down himself, it was just as futile as his attempts to exit the vehicle. “YOU GOD DAMN DEMON CAR! JUST LET ME GO!!”

And as though the car had heard his yells and feeling a moment of compassion, the door, just as it had slammed on its own, opened up on its own, John moving quickly to get out before the Delta 88 had a change of heart.

Stepping away from the car, the music from inside the vehicle seemed to increase in volume a little bit with each step John took, as though the music itself was trying to stay just barely audible to his ears. Stopping, John just listened, trying to get a grasp on what was happening.

…Are made of these… Who am I?” Listening closely, John thought just below the music he heard something else. Stepping closer to the vehicle, though he thought twice about it, the car already having attempted to kill him and trap him, he knew he had heard something else just underneath the music. After several long seconds, with only the female singing away at the song, he heard it again, and telling himself it wasn’t what he was hearing, there was no denying what the sound was.

“Impossible,” John said, shaking his head, telling himself he was just hearing things, the noise not really there, his father’s laugh not really coming through the speakers of that car’s stereo. Slowly making his way back to the car, seeming in a trance from the music and the subliminal laugh, John was quickly leaning in, staring at the clock inside the car, the clock no longer reading a time, the soft green symbols of the clock changing to unrecognizable jibberish. “Impossible. Stop,” John pleaded with the car. “Stop!,” he told it again, “STOP!” he finally had had enough, snapping, punching the console with all his fury, trying to smash the radio and kill the song and that laugh, his father’s laugh. His dead father’s laugh.

“STOP IT DAMMIT!” His knuckles bleeding from punching the console, the music jumped to deafening levels, forcing John to cover his ears and retreat out of the vehicle. Ears still covered, the music didn’t seem to soften when the car door slammed shut again, the vehicle putting itself into drive and roaring off down the street into the darkness like a bat out of hell.

Left alone, John looked around him, not sure what was happening, wanting to just go home, back to the place which hadn’t felt like home, but at that moment, he thought it was the safest place for him to be. Shaking, the cold October night air nipped at him, John asked himself why he had gone running so late, why he had just up and had the urge to get out.

Was it stress?

Am I that stressed out? What’s going on? Work? Life? What?

John felt like he was going to have a meltdown, like everything that was filling his mind was going to overflow and spew through every orifice of his head, leaving him dead on the street till he was found in the morning. Shaking his head, as though that would shake those thoughts away, John couldn’t quite remember what street he had ended up on, the houses around him not looking familiar, though he hadn’t run far from his home, and he had run on every street in his neighborhood plenty of times, enough times to certainly not have the feeling of loss and confusion that hung over him like the dark shrouds that clung to the ends of the streets.

“Where am I?” John managed to get past his lips, a sudden feeling of tired hitting him, the man finding it difficult to keep his eyes open, but John pushed to walk down the street, aiming to find a street sign with the name of the street on it. Slogging down the street, stumbling more than walking, John couldn’t explain what was happening, his whole body feeling as though it was fighting to walk through a pool of jell-o rather than the cold Halloween night air that was all around him

Poking out from the darkness, the green and white that was the street sign was just barely readable. Elm Street, which John knew he hadn’t run down, not even knowing of any Elm Street’s in his neighborhood. Ignoring the blasphemous sign, John looked into the darkness, squinting, as though that would allow him to see through it.

And like he was standing on a beach and the point where the ocean meets the sand was where he stood, the darkness in front of John just ended mere inches from him, closer than an arm’s reach. Not daring to reach into the dark, not sure what could be lurking within the shroud, John decided to maybe try one of the homes, see if there was maybe a living soul that could assist him.

Stretching as he walked, trying to shake the feeling from his body, the feeling like he had just finished off two fifths of vodka, and then some more alcohol, John couldn’t get his body to feel right. Stumbling, falling to his knees, catching himself before his face met the concrete, he gave up on his mission to make it to a house, deciding to just lay there on the street and yell till someone came to him. Or the car came back to finish him off.

“HELP! For the love of all things holy somebody help!!!” Screaming, doing so till his lungs ached, John broke down and found himself caught with a bout of uncontrollable laughter, the man coming to the conclusion that he was losing his mind, or that he was lost in his own mind, his subconscious placing him on a metaphorical Elm Street with no obvious escape.

Clenching his face, covering his eyes, praying that when he opened them he was in his bed, safe and sound, all this having been one lucid dream, upon opening them, John was surprised to see children trick or treating around him, some kid’s even stepping over him, none paying any heed to the man laying out on the concrete convinced he was losing his mind.

Sitting up, looking to both ends of the street, the dark shrouds were still thick, but the children were coming and going through like it was nothing to them, while John had been afraid to even stick his hand into it.

“Hey kid,” John said, speaking to a child dressed as a prisoner, with black and white striped clothes on. “Hey, kid, I’m talking to you.” Ignored, John attempted to get the attention of another child, noticing that all the kids were dressed the same. Black and white striped prisoner costumes. Getting to his feet, watching as the kid’s approached the homes, stood with their goody bags out, the door’s to the home’s opening, but no one there to hand out candy. After a few seconds, the children would step back, giving room for the next child to step up to receive nothing, only to walk away and to the next house, till all that was left was the darkness to walk into.

Grabbing one child, looking into its face, the little boys eyes were sunken, deep bags hanging from his sockets, the child looking up at John as though in a trance. Letting the child go, John ran up to a home, trying not to stumble and fall again, making it to the porch, pushing his way past the children waiting to get nothing, walking into the home, no furniture inside, instead thousands of carved Jack O’ Lanterns.

Taking one last quick glance at the little prison costumed child waiting on the porch, the boy put his finger to its lips as if trying to tell John to stay quiet, then the child was gone with the slamming of the front door of the home, leaving John alone in the home with the pumpkins.

“Hello?” John whispered, and then like his word had been a command to awaken, every Jack O’ Lantern came to life with light, candle glows spilling from carved eyes and mouths, the shadows played on the walls menacing. “Hello? Anyone there?”

And from the upstairs of the home, John heard the laughing that he had denied hearing earlier from the car’s speakers. His dead father’s laughing. Coming closer, the laughing getting louder, John’s eyes were glued to the stairs, waiting to see his father walk down, waiting to see his DEAD father make an appearance.

“Boo!” the voice said from behind John, John jumping clean off the ground, the heart trying to do the same from his chest. Laughing followed, but not his father’s. No, this laughing was higher pitched, like thousands of children laughing at a school yard prank. John, still startled, having trouble catching his breath, realized it was the pumpkins laughing at him. The god damn pumpkins.

Turning around, looking his father right in the man’s eyes, John was at an utter loss for words. His father, dressed in the police dress uniform that he had been buried in, stood smiling, the same smile that found its way onto the man’s lips when he had been alive. And heavily intoxicated.

“Good to see you Jonny boy,” John’s father said, John not believing, not being able to believe, that it was his father in front of him, the two surrounded by laughing Jack O’ Lanterns.

“You’re dead.” It was all John could think to say.

“Yep. That’s the obvious thing to say. Seeing as you killed me,” hearing his father make the accusation, John felt old memories begin to stir inside his head. Memories he had buried away, forgotten about.

“It had been an accident.” Sitting at the kitchen table, a thirteen year old John watched as his mother and father argued, a sight that was common in their household, but the drunken tirade that John’s father decided to take on that night was harsher than before, more frightening.

“Had it been Jonny?” his father asked, the dead man’s voice beginning to sound hollow, as though he was trying to talk through a wall. John, his mind still taking him through those memories, remembered watching his father hit his mother, smacking the woman to the ground, but not stopping there, proceeding to kick the woman, in front of their child, something that John’s mother had pleaded with her husband to not do. Acting on instinct, the gun having been sat on the table after John’s father had gotten off work, John picked it up and without a second thought or warning, pulled the trigger, painting the kitchen cabinets with his father’s brain and skull matter.

“It had been. The gun had gone off. That’s what everyone said. It had been an accident.” John, knowing the truth, knowing he had pulled the trigger to save his mother, had convinced himself every single day since the incident that it had been what everyone had thought it had been, nothing more than a drunk officer’s son handling a gun, accidently blowing a hole through his father’s head.

“How is shooting your father in the head an accident, Jonny? How is killing your daddy an accident? You can convince everyone else, but you can’t convince yourself, or me, boy.” Tilting his head to the side, John’s father, smiled, cracking his neck as a hole began to form on the side, just below his temple, black liquid oozing out over the shoulder and chest of the uniform. Sticking one hand under the dripping liquid, the dead man licked it clean from his fingers. “Wanna taste?”

John disgusted, backed away, horrified by the sight taking place before him. Running to the door, pulling the knob, twisting it, the door wouldn’t open, the pumpkins laughing at him, knowing it was no use. Feeling his father’s presence behind him, John stopped, closed his eyes, leaned his head against the door and sang the only song that he could think of, trying to not think of what was behind him, waiting for him to just turn around.

“Some of them want to use you,” he sang. “Some of them, want to be used by you.” Clutching the knob of the door with a death grip, his already bleeding knuckles turning white, covered with blood from his attack on the stereo earlier, John just kept on singing, hoping it would make it all go away.

“I was a good cop Jonny.”

“But a terrible father,” John got out, stopping his singing, but returning quickly shaking his head, feeling a fear that he hadn’t felt since a child and hearing the screams of his parents fighting from down the hall of his childhood home.

“I was a damn good cop. Took down the worst killer in our city’s history. Remember that, boy?” John remembered. The Chainsaw Kiddie Killer. That was what the media had dubbed the psycho that had butchered twenty something kids. Kids that John had gone to school with. Kid’s he had played with.  Kids that he had just seen outside trick or treating.

“I remember dad,” John said.

“You know. There is no heaven. Only this hell, where every single dead person just sits and waits, sits and waits. Sits and waits. Charlie, or the Chainsaw Kiddie Killer, he was here, waiting for me. Wasn’t much he could do to me. Me being dead, thanks to you, and well, him, being dead, thanks to me. So we had plenty of time to talk, get to know each other. Let me introduce you to him.”

John refused to turn around, instead singing louder and banging his head on the door, keeping his eyes shut, both hands finding the door knob, twisting it with all his strength, pulling it, adrenaline from fear not even enough to get him out. Singing loudly, it wasn’t enough to be heard over the roar of the chainsaw started up behind him, the scream of the power tool bringing John to tears of fear, the grown man crying, sobbing his song out, trying to wake up from the nightmare he had jogged into.

“…Seven seas, and everybody’s looking for…” Trying not to hear the chainsaw, the laughing of the pumpkins, John felt the nasty bite of the tool as the ripping teeth, the tearing spinning metal, tore into his back, tearing through his shirt, flesh and bone with ease. Screaming, his eyes opening wide, he saw the chainsaw exit his belly, the gore splattered on the door in front of him made up of his blood, guts and insides.

Pulling up on the chainsaw, cutting up the man’s chest, finishing the job with the woodsman’s tool turned weapon slicing through John’s shoulder and neck, the man falling over dead on the floor, a pool of blood spreading out quickly, the dead man’s dead father couldn’t help but look down and smile, watching as his son twitched, coming back to life in this life-after-death world.

“Welcome to hell Jonny Boy.” John’s father spoke, John not being able to speak, his vocal chords no longer attached to his throat.

 

*

 

“Grandpa Sammy,” Samantha said, a look of disgust on her face. “That was gross.”

“That was cool,” Tommy said, picturing the man getting torn up with the chainsaw in his imagination. The thought didn’t frighten Tommy, video games having desensitized the boy much like most of the youth of the nation, another shame Samuel thought.

“Where was the revenge Grandpa?” Samantha asked, having been listening to the story, trying to piece it all together. Samantha knew that the story had been a grown up story, and it had been the first like that that her grandfather had shared with her and her brother, though she knew Tommy had been oblivious to most of the details, just listening for the gore, or cheap scares.

“John’s father got his revenge with John’s death. Do you know why his father wanted revenge?” Samuel had left out many details from the story, wanting to only give the children the bare minimum, enough to make them think, maybe enough to give them chills.

“Ummm,” Samantha thought. Looking up at the ceiling, as she did whenever she was thinking, the lil Wonder Woman eventually thinking she had it figured out. “He was angry that his own son had murdered him?” It was more of a question than an answer.

“Close,” Samuel wasn’t even going to ask Tommy, the boy already having lost interest, feasting on more candy from goody bucket. “The father wanted revenge because John had forgotten. John had convinced himself that it had been an accident, not murder. And that kids, is disrespect to the dead. And never, ever, disrespect the dead.” The lesson Samuel wanted to teach the children. The most important lesson to be learned, especially on Halloween.

“And why again shouldn’t we disrespect the dead grandpa?” Tommy asked, chewed up bits of licorice flying out of his mouth.

“Then the Chainsaw Kiddie Killer with get you with his chainsaw!” Samantha yelled, jumping at her brother, knocking him down, making a chainsaw noise with her mouth as she stood over him, preparing for her imaginary kill.

“Now, now,” Samuel said laughing, watching his grandchildren find fun from his story. But, there was a lesson for them to heed, to take to heart. “The Chainsaw Kiddie Killer won’t get you. But, someone else will come for you. Someone worse. That’s why we have Halloween. To pay our respect to the dead, to make sure that this someone won’t ever, ever come for you.”

“Who will come?” Tommy asked, sitting back up, as Samantha was sitting back down, hoping that another story was about to be told.

“His name is Mr. Twisp…”

 

 

****Halloween Writing Contest Entry****

Our First Time With A Knife (Part Three)

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Dear Alexandra

Dear Alexandra

by Luke Tarzian

Life passes by quicker than the eye can blink, quicker than the snap of one’s fingers, quicker than the speed of light, even.  With life comes the gift of family, friendship, and, most important in this story, love.  Love; the one thing that brought me back from the depths of eternal nightmare, back from the very brink…only to thrust me back in again as it took Alexandra deep into the shadowy abyss.  She was everything to me, but just as life passes by, so too does love.  This, however, is not a love I intend to let slip away without a fight.  The realm I intend to enter and the things I shall see are not meant for the human eye.  If you think my tale is of the typical romantic mold, then you are sorely mistaken.  I do not know if I shall see my home of Bordeaux ever again, or the surface for that matter.  If this is my last moment among the living, I shall leave it knowing I lived a life of fulfillment, accompanied by the most angelic creature I ever had the privilege of laying my eyes on.  Dear Alexandra, my darling, my belle…you set my heart on fire.

 

‘Dear Alexandra….’

 

They were my last words amongst the living as I edged my way towards the gaping chasm before me.  I sighed and stepped forward, feeling the cold winter wind rush through my hair as I plummeted into the abyss.  I watched the surface dissipate, becoming naught but a tiny dot of light.  I shut my eyes and waited for the descent to end.  It seemed that even the darkest corners of the world couldn’t black out the memories of Alexandra.  Her lovely face illuminated my thoughts: soft brown hair and bright blue eyes, as blue and deep as the sea.  Her skin was pale but not in a deathly way; it was fair.  Her laugh was serene, like the harp of an Angel.  I heard her voice as I fell beneath the world—soft whispers calling out to me, pleading for me to come closer.  I reached my hands towards her, only to grab smoke.  I watched helplessly as the pleasantness of her figure vanished from my thoughts, taken by things of despair and sorrow; I was wrong—even the darkness could take from my mind the thoughts of her loveliness.

 

After infinitely falling through emptiness for what seemed like hours, I landed with a thud.  For a moment, I sat and thought about how this had all come to pass, why I was now in the deepest trench of the earth…and why I suddenly felt so…so bestial and inhuman.  Something didn’t feel right but with the nothingness about, I couldn’t tell what.  My thoughts slid into obscurity as I struggled to focus.  And as I sat frustrated, a voice called out to me.  It was neither inviting nor hostile, a drone in the shadows, a guide perhaps.  I walked forward blindly as the voice beckoned me forth.  It led me deeper and deeper and I soon found myself gazing upon a light.  As I stepped further into the strange underworld, the light grew brighter:  I was in a tunnel.  I hastened my steps; I was anxious to leave the hole and the passage.

 

I came to the end and stepped out into the luminosity.  I looked around in wonder at the room I had entered.  It was still rather dim.  In the center was a silver mirror, the source of the light.

 

“The mirror.  Look into it, Faro.”

 

I obeyed the voice and stared into the mirror, my reflection staring back at me.  I looked hard, watching in utter horror as my reflection morphed and contorted into some fearsome beast.  I turned from the mirror, frightened.  I stared down at my hands and feet,  met by the paws of the creature I’d seen.

 

“What is this?”  I asked.  “What have I done to deserve this?”

 

“Betrayal; lies; deceit,” replied the mysterious voice.  “You failed her; gave into the sinful hands of conformity.  Now, as we speak, the city of Bordeaux is burning; burning as the rancid spectres you conjured and followed lay siege to the city you once called home.”

 

“It can’t be true,” I howled.  “It just can’t.  I never meant to…”

 

“And Alexandra…she is prisoner to things and demons of your own creation,” continued the voice.  “She trusted you and you let her down, Faro.  Do you remember that night?  Do you remember that man?  That morose, pitiful man that you let consume you…”

 

I listened, filled with the guilt of an infinite sinner as the pictures danced in my head, the words becoming bitter reality.  I had let them turn me…twist my personality.  Because of them, I had failed her.  Because of myself, I had let her down.

 

“Why…why turn me into… this?”  I asked.

 

“A creature of nightmares and legend, conceived in the flame-wreathed darkness of the pit; born from the sorrow of this very realm; feared by all throughout Europe.  Should you succeed in saving your dear Alexandra, you won’t be allowed within a mile of Bordeaux.”

 

I fell to my knees and wept as the truth bled through my veins and stabbed at my heart.  If I could save her…would Alexandra still love me?  Would she forgive me for what I had done?  Would she dare look upon me as the man she so loved or the wretched beast I’d become?  I had no answers to these questions.  I whimpered like a cowardly pup as I gathered myself from the dank floor.

 

“Where now, phantom?” I begged.  “How do I find my beloved?”

 

“Across the broken pass; across the remains of a soul corrupt,” said the voice.  “At the very end is a tower.  Enter the overlook and vanquish the thing within and you shall have your Alexandra once more.”

 

“Very well,” I growled, wiping the tears from my eyes as I collected myself.  I looked ahead as the silver mirror became a portal to the land of nightmare.  I put a quivering paw forward and pushed through the silver liquid.

 

The pass was a great bridge, suspended above an infinite hole of darkness.  Spirits of the forgotten and moaning visages called out from the depths as I made my way across.  At the other end of the bridge was a great tower, the very one in which I would find my Alexandra.  I gave an unnatural growl and ran forward like the dirty, deceitful beast I was, fleeing from the torment of guilt; rushing to save a love slowly slipping away.

 

The thought of holding Alexandra in my arms once more fueled me as I bolted across the ancient bridge.  Hands of spirit and flesh grabbed at me as I ran, tripping me and holding me down.  With every ounce of unholy strength in my body, I escaped their grasp; they would not stop me from reaching the one I loved.  I ran the end of the pass, the spetres and other phantom things of nightmare screeching all around.

 

“Dear Alexandra…you set my heart on fire,” I murmured, taking those words as a prayer of my own.  “I won’t let that flame die.  I won’t let you die.”

 

I leapt towards the overlook, feeling a sense of unparalleled fear as I pressed my paws to the decayed door.  I pushed it open and entered the tower, the smell of fester and death invading my wet nose immediately.  From the highest point in the tower, I heard screams, the anguished cries of my belle.  I dashed up the old winding staircase as fast as my four, furry feet would carry me.  I ran for eternity, it seemed; I never tired.  Alexandra was just floors above me and I wasn’t about to give up; not when I was so close.

 

At long last, I reached the top of the black tower.  In the middle of the room, Alexandra lay in a heap on the rotting floor, the eager hands of death grabbing at her, trying to pull her under.  Above her stood the creature—a body of smoke and shadow, two hollow, lifeless orbs for eyes.  It was me: the darkness that dwelled within me, the failure—there was no denying it. I leapt towards Alexandra as the hands pulled at her.  I longed so badly to hold her again.  I tumbled through my wispy self like a ghost and dropped to my knees before Alexandra, trying to pull her away from the grasp of the departed.  To my utter horror and dismay, my paws slipped right through her just as I had slipped through my nightmare twin.  I turned to him as he taunted me with a deranged laughter.  I looked back at Alexandra as she vanished into the tower, pulled in by the hands, her soul now part of nightmare for eternity.

 

“No!”  I howled in agony.  “She can’t be gone!”  I cried as I fell to my knees.

 

The demonic laugher persisted all around me.  I stood and turned to him, my anger and sorrow reaching their pinnacle as I gazed upon my own face; looked upon the true master of nightmare.  The sorrow, fear, and demise of sweet Alexandra beat down on me like a hammer to an anvil.  I curled up like the pathetic thing I was and cried, wanting so much for everything to end, wanting so much to see Alexandra once more.

 

As I whimpered, something called to me, whispering my name and beckoning me closer.  I found myself passing back over the bridge, through the mirror, and into the dark tunnel once more, wallowing in shame and disgust as I sat where my journey to nightmare had started.  The darkness descended upon me, like the horrid gray clouds of a storm, growing closer and closer, baring down on me until I could no longer breathe.  I fell into nothing….

 

My eyes opened with a snap.  I looked about in panic.  The sky was black, filled with stars.  I looked below me, met with the grass and the earth.  I leaned back, coming to rest on the trunk of a tree.  I looked to my side, my eyes meeting the magnificent blues of Alexandra.  She whispered to me, kissing my check softly as she did so.

 

It was in this precise moment I realized that everything I had been through, every terrible image had been only a dream: my own personal nightmare.  By falling into the belief that I had let Alexandra slip away from me, I unknowingly forced myself into believing that cataclysm had claimed Bordeaux; coerced myself into thinking the collateral damage of the city’s demise led to the fall of Alexandra, led to her descent into nightmare.

 

I sighed contently, glad that everything was as it should be.  I looked at Alexandra’s lovely face, pushing her long, caramel hair out of her eyes, framing her beautiful face perfectly.  I stared at her longingly, finally kissing her softly.  She smiled and returned my gesture; it made me smile, too.  I lay back against the tree and snuggled up to Alexandra, the two of us basking in each other’s soothing presence.  The torment was gone, the nightmare was over; all was well.

 

©Luke Tarzian, 2011

 

 

Our First Time With A Knife (Part Two)

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