HALLOWEEN
Adriel
sat on the piano bench, slowly churning out Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata as his
foster parents rustled about somewhere else in the house, shouting, arguing
with his new sister Cassie. It’s Halloween night, and there was this big party
at Tod's house that she had been planning to go to for like, three weeks, but
now she’s stuck home watching the brat.
“Don’t
call your brother that!” their mother shouted at Cassie.
“He’s not even my
real brother!” Even from across the house Adriel still heard the slap their
mother laid across Cassie’s face.
Adriel
started playing again, methodically practicing the song, starting from the
beginning each time he made a mistake. He swung his feet freely to and fro as
he is too short for them to reach the floor. His socks hung on his feet
loosely, a hole developing where the big toe goes on one foot from swinging it
into the base of the piano over and over. His new dad walked into the room.
“Hey
sport! What’s going on?” he asked.
“Hi
Mr. Wurchester, nothing much” Adriel limply responded.
“Nothing
much? Sure didn’t sound like nothing, sure sounded like something to me. I
think you’re improving there kiddo!” Adriel hit another sharp note and gave up.
He slammed his elbows down on the keys creating a nasty chord and slumped his
head into his hands and sighed.
“If
you say so Mr. Wurchester.” Adriel’s new dad knelt down to meet him at eye
level and put his hand on his back and sighed.
“Adriel,
I know this must be hard on you, and no pressure” he assured him, holding his
free hand up in a defensive manor, “but you can trust me and the Missus. We are
a family, and you are now part of it. We all love you very much. Promise.” Just
then, Cassie stomped by in a rage, and “the missus” quickly followed, shouting
back and forth about responsibilities and favors and I hate you and don’t take
that tone with me young woman and why don’t you start treating me like a woman
and maybe when you start acting like one. After a door slams Mr. Wurchester
turned his head back toward Adriel and offered him an apologetic, embarrassed
smile.
“Cassie
doesn’t like me” Adriel sadly pouted. His new dad patted him on the back.
“She likes you” he
said, “she’s just at a confusing age where she thinks of herself before others.
I know she can be difficult at times-” Just then, Cassie could be heard from
behind a door screaming you’re ruining my life! I can never do anything! I hate
you! I hate all of you! “She’ll come around though,” he continued, “promise.”
“Yeah”
is all Adriel said. His new dad stood straight up again and ruffled his hair.
“You’ll
learn to trust us; you will be part of this family” he consoled. “And remember,
you can call me dad… no pressure
though.”
“Okay.”
Adriel
heard laughter from the street and turned his head towards the window to see a
Wal-Mart pirate with a grey plastic sword chasing a bed-sheet ghost down the
street. The bed-sheet ghost had faded blue flowers patterned all over him with
holes hastily cut for the eyes When the pirate catches up to him he trips him,
causing the ghost to spill his candy in the road. More laughter. The pirate
stole a handful of goodies off the road and ran off, the ghost quickly gathered
the rest back into his plastic pumpkin bucket and takes off after him. Mr.
Wurchester watched Adriel watching the fun commotion outside.
“Did
you see the costume the missus got for you?”
“Yes.”
“Do you like it?”
“I guess so.”
“Are you going to
wear it when Cassie takes you trick and treating?”
“Sure.”
Mr.
Wurchester sighed and knelt down beside Adriel again. “Awww come on champ,
don’t look so glum. I happen to know for a FACT that Halloween is your favorite
holiday! You will have fun. Promise. I’m sorry we can’t be here, we have a very
important meeting to attend, but we will be back a little after midnight. You
can stay up that late if you want, and when we get back we can make some
popcorn and watch a scary movie if you like.”
“Okay.”
“Alright? Sound
good champ? SOUND GOOD?” Mr. Wurchester assaulted Adriel with tickles and was
finally able to squeeze the first smile out of him from all day.
“Okay!
Okay!” Adriel laughed.
“Make sure to bring
home plenty of treats… except throw out any candy corn you get because that
stuff is G-R-O-S-S gross!” Mr.
Wurchester scrunched his nose with an exaggerated look of disgust. Adriel
continued to laugh.
“Okay Mr.
Wurchester!”
“And save me some
Butterfinger’s, too!”
“Okay!”
“And a Tootsie Pop!
A brown one preferably.”
“Okay!!”
“And a Cr-”
“Okay! Okay!”
Adriel collapsed on the piano bench in giggles and covered his head with his
hands and swung his legs freely on either side of the bench. “I will Mr.
Wurchester. Promise.”
Mr.
Wurchester smiled, patted Adriel on the back and stood up straight again. “And
remember, if Cassie gives you any trouble” he winked “mine and the missus’s
cell numbers are on the fridge. There is also an envelope on there with money
for Pizza Hut and the video store.”
“Okay.”
“Alright champ?
Don’t make me tickle you again!”
“Okay!!”
Mrs.
Wurchester (A.K.A. “The Missus”) walked into the room to stand next to her
husband, looking a bit flushed, and leaving Cassie screaming in mid-sentence
from the other room.
"Go
talk to her. She’s being difficult.”
she whispered into
her husband’s ear. He flashed a quick grin and an eye roll at Adriel and then
left the room. “Adriel, don’t lie like that, it’s not good for your spine.”
Adriel promptly sat up and his smile was gone.
“Yes
Mrs. Wurchester.”
“Do you like the
costume I picked out for you?”
“Yes Mrs. Wurchester.”
“Are you going to
wear it when Cassie takes you trick or treating?”
“Yes Mrs.
Wurchester.”
“Now make sure you
don’t eat any of it until me and Mr. Wurchester can look it over and check for abnormalities.”
“Yes Mrs. Wurchester.”
“And please, stop
calling me Mrs. Wurchester. I’m your mother now. You can call me mom.”
“Yes Mrs.-… mmom”
Adriel choked out uncomfortably. Mrs. Wurchester bent down and kissed Adriel on
the forehead.
“Good boy” she said
as she ruffled his hair, a bit more roughly than Mr. Wurchester had. “I think
you’ll fit in just fine here.”
Meanwhile,
Mr. Wurchester was in the kitchen
arguing with Cassie.
“Dammit
Cassie, why do you have to be so difficult! We ask very little of you and give
you the “space” (he did air quotes with his fingers there) you ask for, we lift
your curfew a whole two hours, and you can’t do one small favor for us?”
Cassie,
almost in tears at this point, “BUT I was planning this for two whole weeks!
Tod booked live music and…”
“And”
Mr. Wurchester picked up, “there is probably going to be a lack of adult
supervision there. Alcohol too.”
“So?!”
“”So“?!”
Mr. Wurchester exclaimed. “Cassie, we are trying our best to trust you. So
why can’t you trust us? As long as you are under this roof you will live up to
some responsibilities little lady. This is a very important meeting for us, and
I know its last minute, but it needs to happen, and Adriel can’t be left alone.”
“Just
lock him in his room, the little retard couldn’t hurt himself even if he tried.”
Mr. Wurchester’s face turned red and he made a tight fist as he held back the
urge to slap her (an urge his wife, on the other hand, had not). “I refuse to
baby sit the little rat.”
Mr.
Wurchester stood silent and angry for a few moments before making an effort to
unclench his fist so he could slide it in his pocket. He pulled out his wallet,
opened it, and pulled out a hundred dollar bill, and held it between two fingers
in front of Cassie’s face. “Do it.”
Cassie
said nothing as she snatched the bill wearing a stone face.
“And
make sure you take him trick and treating.” Cassie simply held her hand out,
gesturing for more cash. “No. This is all your getting. You better take him
out, and you better be nice to him. He’s seen enough trauma in his life so far.
We need to create a good environment for him. If you do otherwise, you will be
grounded until you turn eighteen, and believe me little lady, I aint kidding.
You got it?” Cassie said nothing, just crossed her arms and turned away.
“Fine”
is all she muttered.
Mrs.
Wurchester was calling from the other room “Darling? It’s a quarter of four. If
we are going to catch the train we are going to have to leave right this
instant.” Mr. Wurchester turned and left the room and joined Mrs. Wurchester
and Adriel again. “Alright kiddo, we gotta run,” he said, “just remember what I
said about the candy corn, alright?”
“All
right.”
“And the
butterfingers?”
“All right!”
“And the brown
Tootsie Pop?!”
“Alright!!” Adriel
laughed.
“Alright then, I
think we are set!” Mr. Wurchester turned to his wife who was giving him a less
than amused look, then looked back at Adriel.
“Remember
what I said too, Adriel.” Mrs. Wurchester said.
“Okay.”
“Now
the numbers are on the fridge if there is an emergency. IF there is an
emergency, don’t hesitate to call, and don’t panic. Just take a deep breath,
and remember to use the phone, okay? We several located throughout the house.”
Mr. Wurchester rolled his eyes again.
“Okay”
Adriel said with a smile as he watched him. They turned and headed towards the
door and opened it. Just before stepping out, Mr. Wurchester turned and called
back to Adriel, almost as a warning:
“And
remember, tonight is Halloween, anything can happen.”
...
Adriel
lied on his bed in his third story attic room, alternating his attention from
the creepy cat clock on the wall (one of those ones that was black and white
and the eyes and tail move back and forth with the ticking) to the window where
the spooky festivities were in full swing on the street below. Laughing and
howling could be heard among the creeptastic Halloween music and sound FX (one
of those $5 CD’s that you could get from Wal-Mart) being played from somewhere
down the block. The light autumn breeze carried up the cherries and gasoline
smell of the fog machine from next door right up to his window, along with a
few blazing orange and red leaves which drifted to his floor. His eyes settled
back on the clock.
5:30
he thought. When will it be
5:30? Why must I wait so long? He tortured himself with this question, it
spun itself through his head over and over. This is the time Cassie said to
come downstairs. That’s when she said she would take him out trick or treating.
Not
a moment earlier or you won’t go out at all, she had told him. The idea of
missing trick or treating absolutely appalled him; it was worse than not being
allowed to have dessert for two months! And Cassie, well, she was a little bit
crazy he concluded. He knew she didn’t like him much anyways, so he wanted to
do his best to stay on her good side. To Adriel, Halloween was the best time of
the year. A time filled with lots of free candy and scary movies. And, deep down
inside, he knew a little bit of magic was possible too. Now don’t get the kid
wrong; he’s long past believing in the “fatty-clause” (as one short-lived
foster father had put it once) and that rabbit with the colored eggs; nearly
half a dozen different homes each with their own take on the mythology of each
respective holiday over the ten years of his earthly existence sort of makes it
hard to believe much in anything. This is why he liked Halloween so much; there
are no set rules, there is no guy in a beard and fat suit feeling you up at the
mall as your parents watch, there is something different every year. It
changes. Evolves. You never know what to expect.
Anything
can happen.
He
watched the clock intently as if it might run off had he looked away, even for
a moment. 5:13. Seventeen more minutes. He thought about this place;
this creepy attic room this family gave him (he liked it a lot, even the creepy
cat clock). The family was okay; Mr. W was awesome, he felt a real connection
with him. “The Missus” (as Mr. Wurchester often referred to her) was
alright, though she acts and walks like she has a stick up her arse
(another one of Mr. W’s words) a lot of the time. Cassie was, well, Cassie. He
could put up with the two females though, because Mr. W was like a real father.
It’s the first time in his earthly existence that he felt he could possibly get
close with one of his foster parents. It’s not that he was a problem child; on
the contrary, he was a very mild-mannered and reserved, slightly shy child, but
the other families were just... I guess you could call them problem families.
Adriel was notorious at his orphanage for the bad luck he seemed to have for
always ending up at the family who “slipped through the cracks in the adoption
process” (a phrase he heard many times).
In
the case of the “fatty-clause” father, the man tried to light Adriel on fire
with a blazing tree branch that had been wrapped in toilet paper and soaked
with lighter fluid (the man had recently been turned on to smoking meth or
something). With another family, the family’s “real” son mistook Adriel’s
shyness for mild retardation and, deciding that retards are not equal to non-retards,
pushed him out of the 2nd story bedroom window he had been sharing with him.
Luckily his fall was broken by the father’s shiny new red Corvette parked in
the driveway, but the father flipped out at the dent in the hood Adriel had
created and decided to break Adriel’s arm anyways.
As
he sat up in the attic, watching the clock, he came to the conclusion that he was
pretty much de-sensitized to the craziness at that point. He wasn’t afraid of
Cassie, but if he wanted to go trick or treating, he better play by her rules,
he was smart enough to just accept this injustice. 5:23. Seven more minutes.
Candy. Ghouls. I can’t wait.
Personally
he wasn’t crazy about the costume that The Missus picked out for him, but he
supposed it’s better than not dressing up at all (he did that one year, and got
tired rather quickly of explaining he wasn’t anything when everyone who
answered their door had to ask “So what are you supposed to be?” before they
would give him any candy). He looked at the costume laid across the edge of his
bed, then back to the window, then back to the clock. 5:25. Five more
minutes. Then back at the window. Some girl, probably about 15 or 16, is
emitting a blood-curdling shriek from somewhere down the street. Just
screaming. Only on Halloween would that sort of thing be considered normal, considered...
fun. Laughter followed. 5:26.
Fun.
Adriel
looked over at the flashlight sitting on his dresser; it’s one of those dorky
one’s you’d get at RadioShack that’s in the shape of an alligator and the light
pops out of its mouth when you press the button on the scaly green plastic
neck. He decided to be gracious when The Missus gave it to him as a “Welcome
Home!” present (yes, there was even a hand painted banner with that phrase
waiting for him when he first pulled up here). It was getting dark, so he’d
have to take that thing with him he figured.
5:28.
Time to slip on the hotdog suit.
...
THE LIGHTS WERE OFF
Never
a good sign. With the few moments of orange dusty daylight fleeting the halls,
Adriel clutched his alligator flashlight to his chest as he crept down the
stairs one at a time, careful not to trip on the polyester wiener and bun that
hung past his feet (being unusually short, hemming was usually a requirement;
though mostly overlooked by his various guardians). As he approached the bottom
of the stairs, a few muffled laughs, Cassie’s and someone else’s (much to his
dismay), wafted in from the living room; along with a smoky smell. It was a
familiar smell... perhaps he had smelt it at the fatty-clause house? He wasn’t
completely sure. More laughter, followed by an audible “SHHHHH!” and then some
muffled talking.
Adriel
heard something get up and start walking. Through some primitive instinct
Adriel panicked, and made a mad shuffle (impossible to run in the hot dog suit)
to the kitchen and slid and hid under the table of the breakfast nook. He lied
on his stomach still holding the flashlight under him and shivering quietly for
only a few moments before the kitchen door opened and a pair of unfamiliar
dirty cowboy boots walked in. They stopped in the open doorway, as if the head
on the opposite end of that body were surveying the area. Then they starting
walking again towards the fridge. The thing attached to the boots opened the
fridge door. Adriel heard the thing belch, then it reached behind itself and
scratched it’s ass. The door was then closed, and a very audible “pssshht”
sound of a beverage can being opened could be heard. Can he see me? Here in
the dark? Adriel thought to himself. Assuming it’s a “he” and not an
“it”.
Adriel
was a very smart and logical child, but like most children (and admitingly, a
lot of adults too), he was apt to freak himself out when facing the unknown, no
matter how illogical the fears may be. The boots starting walking towards the
door, stopped, turned and stood still for one final survey, then turned to the
door again and walked out. He held his breath still for a few moments,
listening to the boots walk back towards the living room. After exhaling, he
thought to himself Wow, I’m retarded. That’s probably just one of Cassie’s
friends. Then he laid there a few seconds longer thinking Then again,
maybe that is something I should be afraid of.
He
crawled from under the table on his elbows and knees, still holding the alligator
flashlight to his chest, then stood up. He shuffled to the doorway of the
kitchen, and just as he was about to push it open:
“RAAAWWEERR!!!”
The
door had been flung open in front of him and he fell backwards out of fright,
nearly bonking his head on the hard linoleum. Standing in front of him were the
boots, and as Adriel looked up he saw the horrible thing: it had icky
green claws and it’s face was a terrible twisted pumpkin head with jagged teeth
and hollow eyes. It stank of the smoke.
Adriel
fumbled for the button on his alligator and when he got it he swung the
blinding light right in the face of the creature, as if it would annihilate the
unearthly being’s head. He saw the creature’s bloodshot eyes before it swung
his arms up to block his face. For another primitive moment, Adriel thought I’m
killing it, I can kill it with the light.
“Whoa
little dude, chill the light.” The thing said. “I visit this planet bringing
peace and knowledge... and maybe to get laid too.” Just then, the kitchen light
came on, and Adriel had to shut his own eyes as he experienced the same
blinding pain the creature must of. When he finally, slowly, opened his eyes.
The creature towered above him and right behind the ooky thing was Cassie.
“What
are you doing on the floor you little shit?” Cassie asked in an overly
distressed tone. The creature pulled its face off with its green claws and
revealed his more earthly human form. “And Tod, stop screwing around with that
mask.” Cassie walked over to Adriel to help him up (more like dragged him up,
by the back collar of his hotdog suit, choking him on the way). Then, to Tod,
she held her hand out in front of Adriel in a Tah-da! flourish and said
“This is the reason I can’t come to your party.”
“Holy
fucking shit... your parents adopted a hot dog? That is so whack! Benny
wasn’t kidding when he said this was some good shit, like, this is some
Freudian thing telling me I’m hungry, I think.” Then, Tod walked forward and
crouched before Adriel holding out his hand; “Hey there little wiener man, my
name is Tod.”
Yes. It WAS the
fatty-clause house where I smelt that odor before
Adriel thought.
“Don’t
bother” Cassie started, “this brat is from planet freak and doesn’t speak
English.”
“I
do too speak English!” Adriel announced triumphantly in rebuttal.
“You
hear that Cass? The wiener can too talk!” Tod exclaimed excitedly.
Cassie just sighed, went to the fridge, and grabbed a beer. Where did those
come from? Adriel thought, Mr. Wurchester doesn’t allow alcohol in the
house. This was something that he had overheard the Wurchester’s talking
about last week. Cassie saw Adriel watching her.
“And
you better not rat on me either, or I will make your life a living hell”
she said to the standing hotdog.
Ignoring
what she had said, Adriel asked “When do we go trick or treating?” She rolled
her eyes as if to say Why me? then swallowed a swig of Heineken.
“ACTUALLY
little wiener man” Tod answered for her, “we were thinking of skipping the
whole trick or treating thing, you know, and just heading to my place for the
party... Cass was planning on just locking you in your room for the night and
sneaking out, but I thought that would be pretty shitty so I convinced her to
let me invite you over too.” Tod flashed a smile that Adriel found to be
slightly gross with Tod’s yellowing, crowded teeth.
Gee,
thanks he thought. “I’d rather go trick or treating, thank you.” Tod’s grin
faltered, but only slightly.
“Awww,
come on little wiener man, there will be pizza and pop. And if your chill
enough, if your down, and I’m thinking you are, I could pass you a bowl,
too.”
A
bowl of what?
Adriel pondered.
“Ugh!
Don’t bother!” Cassie said, walking back to Tod. “You’re not going to get
anywhere with this little freak, he’s a stubborn little jerk, no wonder nobody
wants to keep him; he just keeps pissing everybody off!” Then to Adriel; “Oh,
don’t worry, Mr. Wurchester will get sick of you, too, just like the rest of
your families did.”
“Whoa!
Cass! Chill the heck out! Stop chewing out the wiener, he’s just a tyke!
Whatever did he do to you?” Tod asked. By now, Cassie was almost in tears.
“Everything!
He’s ruining my fricking life!”
Wow,
talk about drama queen Adriel thought.
As
if to reverberate what Adriel was thinking, Tod said: “Oh Cass, stop being such
a drama queen. He’s what? nine... ten years old? He’s just a tyke. He prolly
can’t even take a piss without someone holding his...” Tod looked at Adriel,
suddenly conscious that some language might be inappropriate in front of a
‘tyke’, and said “holding his ‘wee-wee’.”
Oh
brother.
Cassie
sighed and propped herself on the sink counter, away from the two of them and
looked out the sink window. “It’s just that, ever since mom got re-married to
that jerk Jake Wurchester two years ago, it seems like the whole world has been
against me! When it was just me and mom, things were great, but when he came
along my mom become a total tight-ass, and I’ve been living like a prisoner
ever since! Sure, he acts all ‘I just
want to be your friend you can call me dad’, but really, I think he just wants
to control everyone. Mom didn’t even want to adopt that little brat, but he
talked her into like he does with everything. They didn’t even consult me or
ask me how I felt! And now I’m being forced to watch over the little stain like
a pet the kid begs for but gets bored of after a week and the parents end up
having to take care of it, cept, like, the other way around.”
A
thought stung Adriel’s head like a hornet; Mr. Wurchester isn’t Cassie’s
real father? Before he could ponder this idea any further, Tod squatted
down, rested his hands on Adriel’s shoulder and, eye to eye, said “Look little
tyke dude, we’d really appreciate it if you let this thing happen. Cassie’s
been under a lot of stress lately, what with you coming along and all, and, you
know it’s not your fault, but still, if you could like, tag along so we could
make sure you don’t burn the place down or get your head caught in the toilet
and drown or something, that would be super-duper.”
Like you’d even
watch me there anyways
Adriel
though. Once we’re there, I’ll prolly get neglected and end up being thrown
around like a beach ball at a rock concert
(he’d seen
this type of behavior on television before). “That’s a pile of shit” he said
sternly, “I want to go trick or treating, with or without either of you two
jerks to hold my hand. And also, stop calling my ‘tyke‘.” Adriel could now feel
the anger growing inside him. Tod was taken aback by Adriel’s sudden attitude
shift, and Tod’s changed to match.
“Alright
Tyke, here’s the deal. No more funny games now. We are going to
the party with or without you. If we go without you, then I’m afraid we are going
to have to lock you in your room like Cassie here had suggested.” At this,
Cassie flashed a grin at Adriel that said Ha! I win! “I don’t want to
have to do that to you, but given your prior history that Cassie told me
all about, we can’t leave you alone. You might hurt yourself.”
“’Hurt
myself’? Baloney! I’m not a baby, and I’m not retarded like you guys; I’m
perfectly capable of taking care of myself. And besides, I don’t think Mr. and
Mrs. Wurchester would be too pleased to hear about this neglectful behavior.”
Before
Cassie could join in, Tod repeated himself; “Come to the party, or stay the
night in your dark room by yourself.” Then, after reflecting for a moment, he
added “And pray to God the Jack-O'-Lantern man doesn’t find you.”
That
irrational childlike fear overcame Adriel again, and with a gulp, he asked a
question he knew he’d end up regret asking: “What’s the ‘Jack-O-Lantern Man’?” Tod
showed a quiver of a smile. He knew he was on to something here, perhaps a good
scare tactic.
If
they don’t like the treats, trick ‘em. This is something Tod’s father used
to tell him when he had to sit at home Saturday nights babysitting his two
younger twin sisters. Kids only respond to two things: candy and fear. Get
‘em blitzed out on sugar and then start banging on the walls when they aint
lookin’. “What? You mean you never heard of the Jack-O-Lantern Man?”
Tod asked casually.
“There’s
no such thing” Adriel said self-assuringly.
“Oh,
sure there is. He’s real, alright. As real as you and me. Ain't he, Cass?”
Cassie
set the can of beer down on the counter with a metallic thunk! and unenthusiastically agreed; “Oh yeah, the
Jack-O-Lantern Man... he’s real alright.” Then, turning to Adriel, she added “A
real local legend, so of course you don’t know the story.”
“What
story?” Adriel asked, half curious and half still unsure. Adriel looked at
Cassie, and Cassie looked at Tod.
“Yeah
Tod, you know the story better than I do. So uh, why don’t you tell him all
about it?” She gave him a glance that said You better come up with something
good.
All
of them standing there in the yellow glare of the old fluorescent tube bulb
above the sink, Tod says “Okay. Lets gather in the living room. Where are the
candles?”
...
THE CANDLES FLICKERED with the chill seeping
through the crack-opened window; the same one Adriel had envied the Wal-Mart
pirate and flowery bed sheet ghost through not too long ago. Adriel sat alone
on the huge poofy sofa, Cassie slunken sideways into a chair and Tod still
twiddling about the room making sure the details were perfect. The shadows of
the three of them danced madly across the walls and fixtures, their shade of
dark increasing with the dwindling October light. Cassie rested her pale cheek
in her hand and sighed with boredom; now her eyes were the ones watching the
clock. To Tod, this was almost better than his party. If there was one thing he
had a genuine passion for, even in his pot-induced stupor, it was story
telling. He especially liked making up scary stories to scare little children.
“Alright
kiddies” Tod said as he finally plopped himself down in his own chair, “lets
get down to business. The porch lights are off, so we shouldn't be bothered by
trick and treaters...” Adriel was sitting directly across from Tod, with Cassie’s
chair on the right side of Adriel. The candles in front of them gave everyone's
face a ghoulish charm. Cassie yawned. “Unfortunately for all three of us, we
all said his name out loud, which means he knows we’re here and he’s looking
for us as I speak, so we’re going to have to make this fast.”
“Why
would he be looking for us?” Adriel asked, still half playing along, but half
genuinely scared. He was still yanking off his costume (If I do get to go
out tonight, I don't think I want to wear this anyways, I don't feel like
having my ass kicked). Tod held up a hand in a hold on a minute gesture and leaned forward a bit, his face almost
demonic beyond the fire of the candles.
“I’m
getting to that” he said. “You see, the Jack-O-Lantern Man is a fearful,
loathsome, horrible creature. And though his moniker would dictate otherwise,
don’t mistake him for an actual man; a real human being, because most
assuredly, he is anything but. At least that is, he isn’t a man anymore. The
years of torment and hatred and abuse he faced, it... transformed him. It tore
a hole in his soul, for which the demons crawled in and out as they pleased.
Soon, the wickedness and the hate consumed him from the inside-out, and what
was once an idealic, playful, bright-minded child was now a conduit of evil.”
“What
happened to him?” Adriel asked apprehensively.
Holding
up his hand again, Tod said “I’m getting to that. Perhaps it best we start from
the beginning.”
...
IT WAS 30 YEARS AGO TODAY
The
day of the big Midwhich Middle School Halloween party tragedy. As with all town
legends and stories of yore, the story becomes twisted and distorted with time
as it’s passed down from person to person, generation to generation, and so on
and so forth. To many people, the events would become exaggerated; it would
become known as the “Midwhich Massacre” or the “Midwhich Kiddie Killings”. It
wasn’t really a massacre though; it’s not a massacre or a “killing” if only one
person is dead. Even if a half dozen children and one teacher were trampled in
the mad riot that ensued in the gymnasium that night, and then subsequently
hospitalized, it was still only one dead child (at least, the only one they
were able to find). Not even a whole one at that actually, just a head. They
found the rest of the body the next day, stuffed in a dumpster behind the
school. All the limbs had been severed, separated. This is where they had been
hid.
Eunice
Baxter was a ten year old orphan who had spent the better part of his existence
drifting from foster home to foster home. It’s not that Eunice was a bad child,
mind you. On the contrary; he was rather gifted and bright, and very creative,
despite his troubled and turbulus home life’s. Of course, being smart and being
an outsider pretty much guarantees everyone at each school is going to hate
you. This never bothered Eunice too much. He concerned himself with his studies
and paid the meanies no attention just as Janet, his case worker, always
instructed him. Eventually most kids would get bored and stop bothering him.
Some would even try to befriend him (usually by the insistence of a teacher)
after awhile. Just as Eunice blocked out any negative social interaction, he
did so with all positive interaction as well; sadly, to him it all felt like
the same thing. With so many people in and out of his life, it was nearly
impossible for him to trust anyone. Impossible for him to feel any sort of
connection. Good or bad. Those that tried to befriend him would often turn back
to hating him again once he shut them out. A sort of vicious cycle. Eunice was
never in the same place for too long though, so he never had to worry about
that much. Trapped in an emotional void, he dwindled further from his humanity
with each passing day and became even more tighter wound in an ever thickening
shell.
This
continued on for years until one silky smooth August day when he settled in
with a new family. A mother, father, and older sister-
...
“ALRIGHT, NOW THAT REALLY IS A PILE OF SHIT.”
Adriel sat with a scowl on his face and his arms crossed, “You’re just making
that up.” It’s pretty obvious you’re basing it on me. Adriel realized
his recollection of his own home life’s was a bit blurred - he supposed that
was bound to happen when you’ve been in and out of so many homes - but he was smart
enough to see this story was clearly inspired by his current situation. Tod
examined him carefully.
“Oh?
Am I?” Tod asked, amused. “Well, if you say so.” Tod shifted his gaze to the
clock on the mantel (Cassie was no longer watching it on the account that she
had dozed off). “I suppose it’s time to head out to the party anyhoo, everyone
is waiting for me and Cass. Good luck with the Jack-O-Lantern Man; he’s really
pissed off now and is making a direct course for this house no doubt.”
“WHY
would he be coming for us again?” Adriel of course didn’t believe this
nonsense, but still... he wanted to know.
“Not
coming for us; coming for you. When he gets here and finds only you,
he’ll have no choice but to take only you, as his powers vanquish at the stroke
of midnight. When it comes to slaughtering the youthful innocents, he doesn’t
get too picky. Even at this rate, it will probably be close to midnight before
he shows up; he has a lot of stops still, you know. Maybe if you’re really
lucky, he’ll be running late. Not to mention that me and Cass, we
believe in him, unlike you, which means we’re not really his top priority, even
though we both said his name out loud.”
“But
why, why is he coming after us... or me, or whatever?”
“Because
we all said his name. He all knows we all know of his story. He is a
very hateful, spiteful creature and he doesn’t like people talking about him,
especially if they don’t believe in him, and definitely ESPECIALLY if they
don’t know the whole story. That’s why the only way to keep him away is to
finish the story. He doesn’t like rumors or gossip. That is, after all, how he
ended up becoming the way he became... at least, that was part of the reason.
But alas, the witching hour grows nearer with every second, and I don’t think I
want to be here when he shows up. Cass? Wake up... we’re-“
“Wait!”
Adriel stopped him. Tod half stood up, his arms propping him up on the arms of
the chair, passing Adriel a look of mild surprise. “I don’t believe you... but,
maybe I’m curious to hear the story anyways” he said shyly. Tod grinned.
“Of
course.” Tod stood all the way up and pulled out his cell phone. “Just give me
a minute, I have to make a call or two to let some people know I’m going to be
running a little late.” Tod left the room and went to the kitchen. Adriel could
hear him talking low but couldn’t make out any words. When he came back, he
plopped back down in the chair and asked “Where was I?”
...
OH YEAH, SILKY SMOOTH AUGUST MORNING
As
Janet the case-worker’s black Buick pulled up to the curb in front of his new
family’s home, Eunice could tell this place would be different from the others.
Even before they came barreling out the front door to greet him at the
sidewalk, even before Eunice had opened the car door to see just how clearly
blue the sky was beyond the dusty window that day, he knew; this would be the
final family he’d move in with. He could never of guessed how right he was
about that.
Exiting
the vehicle, Eunice was immediately met with hugs. The pleasantly warm sun with
the crisp fall breeze felt good against his pale skin (he likened it in his own
mind as the “peanut butter & jelly” effect) as the Henderson’s arms closed around him. Inside the house, he
was shown his room on the second floor. His new mother had baked him a batch of
his favorite cookies; oatmeal raisin. He found them in a small wicker basket
lined with a red and white checkered cloth on his bed (ultimately he found them
to be a bit dry and hard, yet in some way, they tasted like the best cookies he
ever had in his life). “School starts next month” his new mother told him,
“tomorrow, we’ll go school clothes shopping; you can pick out anything you
want.”
“Well,
not anything” his new sister butted in, “I will be with for fashion guidance;
we can’t have you wearing bell-bottoms on your first day to school. This is
1981; disco is dead and gone after all.” She smiled and rustled Eunice’s
hair. He smiled back. His new father joined the three of them.
“He’s
here five minutes and you’re already turning him into a girl, arn’t you?” he
said to the females. He let out a hearty, friendly laugh and turned to Eunice;
“Don’t worry kiddo, we’ll make sure to get some one-on-one fishing in before school
starts, how’s that sound?” He rustled Eunice’s hair and Eunice agreed that that
sounded good. At this moment Eunice thought how much he liked having his hair
rustled.
A
couple days later Eunice’s new sister was telling him about watching this new
channel at her friend’s house called MTV. “I want to be a VJ when I graduate
high school. Martha Quinn is my new hero, and gosh, Alan Hunter is sooo
dreamy.” Then suddenly, she sat up excitedly and said “OMIGOSH! Her kid sister
Sammy is having a big birthday party tomorrow! All the kewl kids are
going to be there. You should totally go! I’ll phone up Marla and let
her know, and, OMIGOSH, you and me are totally going go to pick out something fabulous
for a present tonight.” The idea of meeting his new peers made him nervous, but
he supposed that was actually a good thing considering he was used to feeling
nothing at all. Maybe he’d actually make some friends this time?
Eunice
showed up to the party the next day, toting a blue-paper and pink-ribbon
wrapped copy of the new Go-Go’s record. Marla greeted him at the door. “You
must be Eunice! Tanya said you’re an absolute doll” she briefly sized
him up with her eyes, “and I think she was right! Come in! Let me show you to
the backyard where the action is at and you can meet some of the other kids.”
In
the backyard, there was a long foldout table with a punchbowl filled with
Kool-Aid and an assortment of chips and grilled burgers and hotdogs on one side
and a pile of presents on the other. Several kids ran about with balloons and
scraps of paper streamers that had been pulled from their original place of
decorative purpose. “Let me just take this and put it with the rest of the
presents” Marla snatched the record from Eunice’s hands and carried it to the
table.
“Hi,
I’m Joey. Who are you?” A kid was suddenly in front of Eunice.
“I’m Eunice...”
and, unsure what else to say, “I’m new here.”
“Cool. Want to play
tag?”
“uhher, Okay!”
Eunice
was still typically awkward, but the other kids didn’t seem to mind it. They
embraced him as a friend, and for a few fleeting moments Eunice began to feel,
for the first time ever, accepted. This of course was until the birthday girl
showed up; Samantha Bloome, Marla’s younger sister.
She
stood in the open doorway leading to the backyard and watched all the kids that
were running and playing. None of these kids were really her friends; mostly
they were just kids whose parents forced them to be there because her parents
had paid their parents to bring them (cost of the present included). What else
is a rich well-to-do family to do when their snot-rag brat of a child wants a
big birthday bash but nobody at school wants anything to do with her? Samantha
was (in the words of Joey) an “officious little bitch”. She then joined the
other children.
“Watch
out” Joey said, “something wicked this way comes.” Eunice glanced at Samantha
for a moment before the reflection of her bright blonde hair in the sun burned
his eyes and turned him away. Her hair was done up in pigtails with red ribbons
and she wore a violet sundress with flowers patterned on the fabric. To Eunice,
she looked like that girl in that movie he watched on TV once, The Bad Seed.
"Ugh,
who are you?" Samantha said with disgust, immediately honing in on
Eunice, "I've never seen you before.”
"Hello,
my name is Eu-" Samantha cut him off with the wave of her hand and brushed
past the small group of boys.
"Whatever,
you better of gotten me something good" she called back, heading straight
to the table of presents for examination. Eunice looked at Joey with an
expression of concern, but Joey just smirked and flipped the bird at Samantha's
back.
"Don't
worry about her, she thinks she's got all the power, but really she's just a
spoiled ass piss-cushion" Joey said assuringly. Eunice nodded and Samantha
was forgotten as the two of them formed a group to play some TV tag.
This
went on for another 10 minutes or so, when, in an act of utter
over-the-topness, Samantha began shouting into a megaphone she had drug out of
the garage. "Attention! Attention! I want to open presents now! Everyone
gather around the present table and watch me! NOW! Come on, I have other things
to do today!" Everyone was just beginning to un-cringe and pull their
fingers from their ears when suddenly one final shrill "SNAP! SNAP!
ONDELAY! ONDELAY!" pierced through the air. Everybody drug themselves to
the table and formed a crowded half-circle in front of it with Samantha
standing directly in the middle. Samantha was about to start talking into the
megaphone again, but Marla snapped it from her as she had snapped the record
from Eunice earlier, leaving Samantha with nothing but a scowl on her face. After a few moments, she turned
back to the crowd and smiled, "Can everyone see me okay? Shorter ones in
front please, I want everyone to have a good view of me opening the presents.
Daddy? Is this a good angle? It better be.” Samantha's father stood in the back
of the crowd on top of a small crate and gave a thumb up with one hand while
holding the new expensive RCA video camera with the other.
One
by one, Samantha went through each present, quickly shredding the paper off
each and tossing the present and the garbage paper and ribbons into the same
pile. "YAWN. Next." she would often say after each one. "I'm
almost done here, you might as well start hauling out the cake" she
motioned a shu-shu now gesture at her
mother who was standing next to her husband on the crate. She looked slightly confused for a moment and
then hurried off to grab the cake.
The
last present was, of course, Eunice's. She tore off the paper and almost threw
the whole thing off to the side before she realized what it was and stopped.
Her eyes got big, her nostrils flared, and her teeth gritted. Almost a hiss:
"Who... got... me... this?" Then when nobody fessed up: "WHO GOT
ME THE GO-GO'S?!!!" Perhaps she could see the stunned look on his face, or
perhaps she was genuinely telepathic and evil, but she suddenly raised one
shaky finger at Eunice and said "You. It was you, wasn't
it?" She stepped forward towards Eunice. "You did this on
purpose? Didn't you?!" Even in his shock and confusion, Eunice
still realized, maybe on a more minor level, the ridiculousness of this
situation. "You thought this would be funny, didn't you? Just a big old
joke on mean little old me. All of you! You planned this! HA HA HA.”
Eunice
stood dumbfounded as the only person there who didn't understand. You see, back
in June when Samantha and Kyla Breamer were still best friends, they kept
listening to that song "We Got the Beat". Over and over again, they
would listen to that song and dance around the room. They listened to it so
many times Samantha forced her parents to buy another copy of the 45 when the
one she had was beginning to wear out. It was their song, and they had made the
executive decision to listen to it at least 50 times a day every day for the
rest of their lives so they would always be linked by it, no matter where they
were in the world.
Then
of course, Samantha saw Kyla talking to a boy she liked. And like that, she
hated Kyla and never wanted to speak to her again (not without pulling two
fistfuls of hair from her head first). And if she hated Kyla, she hated The
Go-Go's. Simple as that. She made the executive decision to never listen to
them ever again as a way to hate Kyla as much as she could. Samantha of course
made sure everyone in the world knew this, too. If you were a friend of The
Go-Go's, you were no friend of Samantha.
As
Samantha trounced her way toward Eunice, everyone stepped back a few feet,
forming a 360 degree crowd around the two kids like they would in some horror
movie where the prom king and queen take their dance together before everyone
gets slaughtered. Only Joey stayed by his side.
"Take
a chill pill, little miss sunshine" Joey said, stepping in front of Eunice,
arms crossed.
"Go
gag you fag. This is between me and your boyfriend.” Samantha said point-blank
to Joey's face, gripping the record and wrapping paper still.
"What
are you going to do about it if I don't?"
"I'll,
I'll... scream!" and she did just that. The sound could be heard for two
blocks in any direction, maybe further if the breeze willed to carry it. It was
a long, shrill scream, typical of any little girl who's had practice in making
such a noise, if not a bit-
...
BAM BAM BAM
Adriel,
Tod and Cassie (who'd been drooling on herself in her sleep) all jumped at the
sound that came from outside on the side of the house.
BAM BAM BAM
This
time it came from the opposite side of the house. "What was that?"
Cassie groggily cried in her post-nap confusion, wiping the spittle from her
chin. Adriel shivered, clutching the alligator flashlight to his chest and
watching Tod, as if he would have all the answers. It only took a few moments
for Tod to compose himself and he simply smiled.
"He's
just letting us know that he's on his way" Tod informed. He sat discreetly
in the chair, hands folded in his lap, casually waiting for the noises to pass.
BAM BAM BAM
This
time it came from the garage. "What?! Who..." and in a waking
realization of greater importance, "-and the party? When are we going
Tod?" Cassie pleaded.
THUMP THUMP THUMP
This
time it came from inside the kitchen. Any fleeting rationalizations Adriel may
of had about this simply being the work of rogue tricksters was gone. He pulled
a blanket over his head and Cassie let out a short gasp of a scream. Before
either Adriel or Cassie could vocalize their desire to leave the house, one
final THUD! occurred, and it came
from their side of the kitchen door. The three of them peered over into the
darkness where the kitchen door was hidden. Tod stood up and carefully began
making his way over there.
"Tod!
Don't!" Cassie pleaded in a whispered cry. Adriel watched with eyes that
were as wide as they could get without his eyeballs simply falling out of their
sockets. Tod disappeared for only a matter of seconds before re-emerging from
the darkness with an oddly shaped object in his hand. He carried it back to
where they were all sitting and plunked it down on the table. It was a dirty,
jagged rock. Clots of dirt fell from it, soiling the fresh coat of wood polish
that Mrs. Wurchester had applied just that morning. On the rock was a piece of
folded notebook paper tied there with what appeared to be fishing line.
Tod
carefully began sliding the piece of paper out from under the fishing line as
Adriel and Cassie meticulously leaned in from their respective sitting
positions. Tod unfolded the paper, looked it over himself first, then read the
message, written in big sprawling child letters with red Crayola, out loud:
bIRds
ouTsiDe THey nEvER sTOP
LOcK
thE windOWs CAll tHe coPS
THerE
iS notHiNg yOU cAn dO
i
wIlL BE thEre vERy SOON
Cassie
was shocked stiff (especially considering she had missed a large chunk of the
story so far in her nap-time) as was Adriel, though a maddening thought briefly
occurred to him: That doesn't even rhyme, "Do" and
"Soon". Tod neatly folded the note and set it next to the rock.
"Well" he began, "it looks like our friend is well on his way.
Perhaps we should make best of the time that we have, he might arrive sooner
than expected.”
"What
is going on? Tod, how can you be so frikkin calm? Someone just left a rock on
my fucking floor with a note on it!" Cassie gave Tod that What's the
deal? look that Adriel had, and Tod still just sat there, calm with a wane
smile.
This
could be more fun than I originally thought Tod thought to himself. Two
for one; scare the tyke and the girl. She deserves it too, for falling asleep
during my story. This is a really good story I'm coming up with, after all. Perhaps
one of my best. "Don't worry Cass, everything will come
full-circle" he winked at Cassie, and then, turning back to Adriel,
"assuming I get to finish the story.” Tod got up and headed to the kitchen
again, and before anyone could detest, Tod said "By the end of this story,
everything will make sense, I promise. Imma grab a beer though first... and
call Ben to tell him to make sure the party is in full swing by the time we get
there. His uncle scored him some really good shit, so I hear.” When he came
back, he sat down and the story continued.
...
THE BIRTHDAY CAKE
Samantha
was throwing her fit (nothing anyone there, with the exception of Eunice of
course, hadn't experienced at one point or another at least once already).
After Samantha stopped screaming, she reached her hands out around Joey's
shoulders and gave a hearty pull to the side that sent him to the ground. With
Joey out of the way she stepped forward and was now giving Eunice the
point-blank treatment. Eunice shriveled with his arms guarding his face, sure
she was going to slug him. Instead though, she simply threw the record on the
ground in front of him and stomped it, following that by hawking up a nasty
loogie and spitting it on the shattered present (this made Eunice think of one
of the foster father's he had once, one who was always chewing snuff and
spitting that nasty dark-brown gook on the ground). "You are my new
arch-nemesis, watch out" she said. At this time, Samantha's mother was
responding to the scream she just heard and was practically running through the
yard with the cake and fully lit candles.
"I'm
coming sweetheart! I'm hurrying as fast as I can!" She skirted a tricycle
by mere inches and hopped over some discarded paper cups and party favors. She
was an expert at this by now; catering to Samantha's every demand and scream
with the graceful agility of a gazelle. Unfortunately (for everyone, as it
would turn out eventually) she didn't see Joey just pushing himself off the
ground. Her foot met the side of his ribcage, and he went back down with her
toppling right over him. The cake went flying; right into the back of
Samantha's head. Even more unfortunate, the candles that Marla had picked out
for the birthday cake were those ones that would keep re-lighting themselves.
Despite
her screams, it would still be a matter of moments before anyone would fully
register exactly what they were seeing: Samantha covered in cake, dress ruined
and hair on fire.
Ten
minutes later the ambulance arrived. Samantha still cowered on the steps, now
shivering with the breeze chilling the sticky red fruit punch that had been
dumped on her head to douse the flames. The guests milled about the yard in
mild confusion, still chattering about the eventful (to say the least) party.
Her
eyes floated brightly within her darkened, hairless head. Peering through and
beyond the crowd, she could only see one thing: Joey. Joey and his partner.
They did this. They planned this. Those little bitches. What was his name?
Eunuch? What a brilliant plan it was! This was to be admitted. They will
hurt she thought with no resemblance of logic or reason to back the thought
up. They will hurt a lot. They planned this. They wanted to hurt me, so I'm
going to hurt them. They will pay. Joey and the new kid. The same thoughts
would continue to run through her head all the way to the hospital. All the way
to the ER. The thoughts would follow her into the drug-induced sleep, and when
she would awake bandaged and treated in the hospital bed, she would be ready to
plan her revenge.
As
it would turn out, the burns were relatively minor, but little miss beauty
queen was now a baldy with some not-so-pretty scar tissue on top of her noggin.
Three-fourths of her left eyebrow was also singed off, so she opted to have
that and her right one completely removed via waxing and she had new ones drawn
on. That and her fancy blonde wig her mother brought her completed the look of
something fake, like some living breathing ornate antique china-doll. She
couldn't wait for any of this either; despite the nurses protests (which didn't
last long, it seemed nothing could win against the shrill cries of Samantha),
she demanded she be prettied up before she had any visitors. She needed to look
her best (and with her fake hair and eyebrows, she looked more bestest and
perfect than she ever had before, she thought as she admired herself in a small
hand mirror). Maybe having my hair burned off isn't such a bad thing after
all? she thought. Look how
gorgeous I am in this wig! And with the scar tissue, the doctor says my own
hair won't be growing back for awhile. Think of the possibilities!
There
was of course more important business at hand. Revenge. Something sweet... and
sticky with blood. She couldn't decide what to admire more: her new-found beauty
(not that she wasn't the most adorable little girl in town to begin with;
improving something perfect isn't easy, you know), or her absolutely deviously
brilliant mind.
Think
of the possibilities!
She
would think about these possibilities for the next month before school started,
which is when she would make her grand re-debut at Midwhich Middle School. All
she knew right now is that by the end of this, someone else was going to end up
in the hospital.
With
Samantha's absence on the local kiddie social scene, the stories of what
happened blossomed and Eunice became a bit of a folk hero (despite his almost
non-existent involvement in the situation). "The one that brought Samantha
down!" they cheered. Everybody loved Eunice, despite his lack of social
skills. He was the new black. And Eunice loved having friends, even if his
anxiety was sky-rocketing through the roof (once again, he reminded himself
that this was good thing as it was better than feeling nothing at all). His
best friend was Joey, and he was the one thing that allowed him to keep his
cool, as if Joey had been the missing link to his ability to socially interact.
The
first day of school arrived, and the subject of Samantha was at the back of
everyone's mind (teachers included). What would she look like? How is she going
to behave? Negative or positive, this is exactly what she wanted; everyone to
be thinking about her. Joey and Eunice sat next to each other up front; this
was to be expected, everybody knew they were best friends. What nobody expected
though was when Samantha walked through the door and took a seat next to
Eunice. Everyone was quiet. Everyone was well behaved. Nobody was really paying
attention to the teacher. All eyes were on the back of that perfect blonde wig.
Lunch
time arrived, and at this point Samantha hadn't said anything to anyone. She
sat by herself at the table in the back corner. Eating a PB&J with the
crust cut off. Smiling and chewing. By now, people were starting to lose
interest in her.
Recess
came. While Joey and Eunice got into a rousing game of tag, Samantha sat by
herself on the swings. Not even swinging, just gently idling in the wind,
still that lackadaisical smile
plastered on her face. "Maybe she had a lobotomy when she was at the
hospital" one kid said.
Classes
resumed. When Joey returned to his seat, he found a note tucked under the front
cover of his history book.
Meet
me by the construction place at 3:15 for a little extra-curricular activity.
Cum alone.
-Krista XOXO
Wowzers!
Krista was the cutest girl in their grade, and Joey had been "admiring her
from a distance" all summer. Perhaps she finally matured enough (and girls
mature faster, as they say) to notice him and see what a cool guy he was.
He
was supposed to walk Eunice home... and the construction area (on the side of
the school, they were building a new gymnasium) was off-limits. Still though,
how could he pass up an opportunity like this?
"Hey
Eunice" Joey said as they were walking out the door at the end of the day,
"I have a little business to take care of... it'll only be a few minutes.
Can you wait for me by the swings?" Joey felt a little bad about asking
this, but hey, you don't miss the chance to tongue-up Krista Winkler, that was
just a rule of mother-nature and stuff.
Eunice
of course didn't mind, and he sat down on a swing and watched Joey until he
disappeared around the corner of the building. Then his gaze shifted towards
the graying sky and became almost entranced by the slow-drifting clouds. All
track of time seemed to be lost on him; he didn't realize Joey was taking much
longer then he should of. This was until he heard the screaming.
..
Joey
disappeared around the corner of the building and then crawled over some orange
plastic mesh construction gating. Piles of bricks were protected from rain with
clear tarps being held down by more bricks. These piles scattered the place.
There were construction cones strewn about and a small excavator was close to
the building. The stillness of it all, framed by the impending storm clouds,
gave Joey the willies and he realized he wanted nothing more than to run far
far away from this area. That was silly though. And what about Krista? She's
here, and she wants to make out. But where is she? Was it a trick?
"Kri-sta?"
he croaked to the deserted lot. He began walking slowly, scanning the lot back
and forth with his eyes like you would at the grocery store going past each
aisle looking for your mom. "Krista baby, I know you want me... so stop
hiding and start seeking.” His attempt at humor was merely to make himself feel
better, but it didn't work. "I promise to be very tender.” There was a
sound behind him. He turned around.
It
was Samantha. She stood with her hands behind her back, rocking her body from
her heels to her toes and then back again, smiling from ear to ear.
"There
will be no tenderness, Joey.” She revealed her hands; one was holding a brick.
She swung it right into the side of Joey's head with a gruesome crack! sending him cart-wheeling
backwards over a tarped pile of bricks. This is when he began to scream. As he
lie on his back screaming and gasping, he choked on his blood and swallowed a
couple of his teeth. Samantha quickly stepped over to him and stood directly
above his head, blotting out what little sun had been showing through the gray
mask of clouds. She then heaved the brick as far above her head as she could
reach and brought it down smack-center on Joey's pale forehead. A gargled
bubble of blood escaped his lips and his screaming ceased. His last thought
before losing consciousness was the rain is really warm today.
Samantha
hadn't noticed right away, but in her brutal excitement she had pissed herself;
she peed all over Joey's face. She stood, momentarily embarrassed, but then a
smile crossed her face. We'll see who's laughing now with a skull full of
piss she thought. Then she heard footsteps quickly approaching, and decided
it was time to make her daring escape.
..
Eunice's
head snapped in attention. He knew instantly: that's Joey. He leaped
from the seat in mid-swing and nearly did a summersault as he hit the ground
and took off running to the construction area where the screams were coming
from.
..
Mr.
Teurnbalt, one of the 4th grade teachers, was just sticking the keys into his
car door when he too heard the screaming from the construction area. He dropped
his briefcase and took off, paying no regard to the piles of un-graded homework
that escaped his case and was spreading across the parking lot in the light
wind.
..
Eunice
found Joey first. His immediate thought was why is his head weird shaped?
Blood was still pooling and turning the dirt ground into mud. Eunice ran to him
and grabbed him by the shoulders and started to shake him and he cried and
cried. He wouldn't stop crying until he passed out in the back of the police
car.
..
Mr.
Teurnbalt came across the two of them. That new kid, the one who was just adopted
and... Jesus Christ! Is that... Joey McNeil? Mr. Teurnbalt saw the new kid
shaking Joey. He saw the bloody brick by Joey's head. He saw the new kid had
just urinated in his pants. "Dear God..." he uttered to himself.
"What have you done? Get away from him! Jesus! Jesus Christ!"
...
RING RING RING GOES THE TELEPHONE
"Hello?
Yeah... I know, yeah... but... yeah I. Okay shut up for a second. I'm a little
busy at the moment, but we'll be over there shortly. Okay? Yeah, okay... I'm
going to hang up now.” Tod clicked the phone off and shoved it back in his
jeans pocket. He noticed Adriel and Cassie staring at him. "Yeah, things
are starting to pick up over there.”
Cassie
looked down at the floor; "Yeah... so when do you think we can join them
Tod?" Adriel, paying no mind; "And what happened next, Tod? Eunice
got blamed for killing Joey?!" His eyes were brimming with anticipation.
"Well"
Tod started, but then saw Cassie watching him impatiently. He pulled the phone
from his pocket again to check the time. "Well, maybe we can finish the
story later... you know, you could come to the party with us and I'll tell you
there. It is starting to get a little bit late.”
"What
about Eunice?!" Adriel cried, "how does he turn into the
Jack-O-Lantern Man? He's still on his way and you haven't finished the
story!" After a few moments of silence from the room, Adriel looked down
at the floor in mild embarrassment; "Not that I believe it's true... but
I'd still like to know, you know?"
THUMP THUMP and then a small CRASH
The
three of them bolted upright to the sounds, this time coming from the basement.
"Tod!" Cassie shrieked, "What's going on? I want to get out of
this house!" I didn't tell him to go into the basement Tod thought.
How did he get in there? I swear I saw the door locked.
One
more loud THUMP and then most frightening of all: a shrill scream. Human or
animal, none of them could tell. "We need to leave" Cassie reiterated.
After a few moments, a smile slowly crept into the corners of Tod's lips. Clever
though he thought, very clever.
"He's
closer than I thought" Tod said, looking at Adriel. "I think we need
to finish this as quick as possible.”
"Tod!
I want to leave!" Cassie shouted. Tod paid her no mind, and continued on
with the tale.
...
TWO SEATS WERE EMPTY. It was only the second day
of school and both Eunice and Joey were gone. Eunice, still being interrogated
by the child psychologists and Joey in a hospital bed, suffering from blunt
trauma and brain concussions and such. Samantha was all smiles in her seat,
admiring her selection of a wig today in the reflection of her compact mirror. Gorgeous!
She thought. She also thought about what good graces God had bestowed upon her;
she had been planning on taking the Eunuch kid out separately, but with
everybody thinking he was guilty for beating Joey in the head, he was no longer
in the picture. Two birds, one stone she thought. And then upon further
introspection: Or rather, two birds, one brick. She chuckled quietly to
herself and closed the compact.
A
week passed, then two. As the children of Midwhich began to settle down and
forget about the incident (Joey still in the hospital on life support, and
Eunice nowhere to be seen, some say they shipped him off to an island for crazy
murderous children, others say he already got the electric chair), Samantha
grew quite complacent with the idea that she got away with the perfect crime. It
was as if I never even did it she thought, for all intents and purposes,
maybe I didn't.
Night
after night she considered these things less and less as she admired herself in
the mirror, planning out what wigs she was going to wear this week. Monday
will be the dishwater blonde with curls, Tuesday... hmmm, perhaps the light
brunette with pigtails? What fun it
was planning out her multiple personalities!
Then
one day in late September, missy prissy Samantha came to a sudden stop in the
doorway upon entering the classroom. Her jaw dropped, and so did her books;
there was Eunice Baxter, in his original seat. As if nothing ever happened.
She
wasn't the only one eyeing him up: every student's pair of eyes gazed laser
beam vision at the back of his impenetrable force field of a head. Looking out over
the students from her spot behind her desk, teacher could see the one word they
were all beaming: killer. Mrs. Haddonfield knew re-introducing Eunice
back into the class was a bad idea. Not for the safety of the other children;
deep down inside she couldn't imagine a single child as bright and artistic (if
not a little detached) emitting such a violent rage upon someone else. No, she
was afraid for Eunice. And this isn't about kids ganging up on someone
for some old fashioned he said/she said baloney: whether someone is 8 or 80
years old, it's human nature to take sides... and judging by the looks on those
kids faces, glaring a hole in the back of Eunice's head, if this
classroom were a teeter-totter, Eunice would be well on his way sailing to the
moon.
But
Joey isn't dead. He's in and out of a coma, but he's stable. And the FBI
forensics team determined that the urine found on him was a combination of his
and someone else's (but not Eunice's). And despite the protests of his
caseworker and his adopted family, Eunice insisted on returning to the same
school. He said he was determined to make things work and move on. And, what he
didn't tell anyone, was he was determined to find out who did this to his best
friend.
Samantha
took her seat next to Eunice and pretended to pay him no mind. Does he know?
Did Joey tell him? she thought. Then, no, she realized that couldn't be.
Joey would of told the police, or Eunice would of told them for him. Then
again, he is crazy. He beat him with a brick, after all. She smiled at
this. Yes... he did it. I almost forgot. She took out her compact and
examined herself dutifully. How could I forget. I mean really, who could
suspect someone as gorgeous as me to ever do such a thing? He might as well of
done it.
No
one said a thing to Eunice the entire class period. Mrs. Haddonfield didn't
even mention his reintroduction. It was all as if it were any other day. He sat
by himself at lunch. He stayed inside during recess and drew in his notebook
instead. Even by himself in the classroom, his peers kept a close eye on him
through the windows from the school yard.
That
night, Samantha was appalled to see some of her own hair was starting to grow
back. That’s not who I am anymore. I can be whoever I want she thought.
At night when everyone else was asleep, she snuck into the bathroom and took
her daddy's razor and shaving cream and began scraping the hair off, all the
while thinking It was the Eunuch kid. Eunuch tried to kill Joey. And he
might try to blame me. I can be whoever I want. I can be someone who didn't
beat him in the head with a brick. And if I didn't do it, it must of been
Eunuch. That’s what everyone needs to think. That’s the only other explanation
that will work. She was thinking about this so hard, she didn't even notice
the blood dripping down the side of her head.
The
next day at school (after Samantha's head began to scab over and the bloody
towels were long gone in the early morning garbage pick-up), Samantha took her
seat next to Eunice. Today was strawberry blonde pigtails, and she couldn't
help but admire her own beauty in her compact, all the while plotting the
destruction of the Eunuch boy. It wouldn't be hard, she figured. It's easy to
see all the other kids are on edge around him. All it would take is one stick
in the spokes to trip him up.
"Did
you hear about the Eunuch kid?" she would say to a group of girls on the
playground, "the way his real father raped him night after night? That’s
why he's in foster care and is so messed up in the head. Then one night his dad
snipped his balls off with a pair of purple-handled safety scissors. That’s why
he's a eunuch.”
It
didn't take long for the story to catch on. And as all good stories do, it
twisted and spread through the school at an immeasurable rate. No two children
heard or shared a completely like version. In some versions, it was his mother
that cut his balls off; then putting him in a little pink dress and locking him
in her closet for three days with no food or water, hoping the wardrobe cocoon
would make him re-emerge as the little girl she always wanted. In some
versions, it was the other way around; he was born a girl but his parents
forced him to wear boy clothes because that’s what they had wanted. They would
stuff her underpants with balled up socks much the way an underwear model might
do to try and make his junk look bigger. When one day a teacher noticed the
crotch of this young boy was much too prominent, she brought him to the nurse
where they discovered he was actually
a she. Eunice was taken from the
home, but they let him continue being a boy because that’s all he knew in life.
"Eunice
the eunuch! Eunice the eunuch! See him walking down the halls, daddy cut off
both his balls!"
the kids would sing.
None
of this bothered Eunice much. He just shut everyone else out much as he did in
the past and focused on his art and creativity, and of course, finding the
person who tried to kill his best friend. Just put up with it he
thought, like you always do, just ignore everyone, and wait...
About
3 weeks later the children of Midwhich were beginning to lose interest in
tormenting Eunice without any sort of response from him, and Samantha was
starting to worry again, especially after hearing rumors of how they were
collecting pee samples from all the children, one-by-one, through the entire
school. The reasons for this were different depending on which kid you asked
(everything from data research being done by a higher alien force to the lunch
ladies using it in the tomato soup and beef stew to cut back on the water
bill), but Samantha knew exactly what they were doing: they were looking
for the person who tried to kill Joey.
She
thought about how she'd pissed herself and how it had gotten all over Joey. They
are going to find me out she thought. Unless I can make sure everyone
thinks he did it, I need to make everyone think he is crazy. She pondered
this as she painstakingly peeled her wig off. By now, her head was so cut up
from repeatedly shaving her hair off that it would always still be bleeding
when she put on a new wig, and would always start bleeding again each time she
would pull it off (with the wig went the scabs). In a way, this helped her
memorize a better rotation for when to wear each wig: the browner the dried
blood on the inside, the longer it's been since she wore that one.
With
just a few days until Halloween, the excitement in the air of the Midwhich
halls was thick enough to cut with a knife. Mrs. Haddonfield had encouraged
Eunice to participate in the jack-o'-lantern carving contest to put his
artistic sensibilities on display, and he agreed. While most kids were
perfectly content doling out the same tired 'triangle eyes and gap-tooth smile'
design that everyone had been doing for the past 157 years, Eunice had
something much grandeur in mind.
He
started off with preliminary sketches, and anyone who saw them would think that’s
impossible, it can't be done! He picked his pumpkin out himself from the
local pumpkin patch; something large and perfectly symmetrically round. Then he
went to work. He spent hours carving out each and every detail to a level of
exactness and perfection not often witnessed, especially in the work of
children. Mrs. Haddonfield let him do this the entire day, and even let him
work on it after school. Even the kids that had belittled and ridiculed him recently
were beginning to watch in amazement and adoration at the meticulous creation
that was becoming in front of them.
Everyone
was impressed... everyone except for Samantha, of course. He's getting them
on his side again she thought as she incessantly scratched at the itchy
painfulness of her head. He's going to have everyone on his side and then I
will get blamed for Joey. Nobody will be against him because everyone will love
him and believe him. She watched the other students as they watched Eunice
with his craft. A small trickle of blood ran down the side of her head and into
her ear. He must be stopped.
After
a couple days of tedious labor, the jack-o'-lantern was complete. It was a
masterpiece, and everyone knew who first place was going to be at the big
unveiling at the Midwhich gymnasium Halloween party that night. This was unless
Samantha had anything to do with it.
Halloween
fell on a Saturday. It was early afternoon and everything was all set up in the
gymnasium already and everyone was now at home getting ready for the nights
festivities. On a foldout table against the wall were the 5 finalist
jack-o‘-lanterns. Eunice's was right in the middle with a purple "GRAND
CHAMPION" ribbon hanging from the stem on the lid. In front of and on the
sides was a big curtain structure on wheels, kind of like something you'd see
in the hospital or science lab. This was there to keep the jack-o-lanterns
hidden from public view until the big unveiling.
Samantha
decided to pay a visit to Joey in the hospital. She brought flowers and a card
and told the nurse how sad she was and how she wanted to wish poor Joey a happy
Halloween even if he was in a coma. The nurse let her go in by herself.
She
immediately dumped the flowers and card in the trash bin and stood next to Joey
for a few moments, grinning. "Poor, dumb little Joey" she whispered
in his ear, "if it weren't for you thinking with your dick, you might not
be suffering from multiple concussions right now.” She took a step back, and
continued, "Then again, if you hadn't conspired to ruin my birthday party
and burn off all my hair with the Eunuch kid, we might be a lot better off as
we speak... I mean, not that you can speak.”
Samantha
paced around the room, examining all the flowers and cards, picking them up,
reading them, putting them back down. "I'll hand it to you guys" she
said, "you made a great team. Separated though? You guys become worthless.
I destroyed you, and I plan to take out your little friend next. You see, if
you haven't heard already, Eunuch carved this real terrific jack-o'-lantern.
Rumor has it it's already been named the grand champion of the carving contest.
I… well, I plan to destroy it.” She returned to Joey's side and whispered in
his ear again, "And by destroying it, it will destroy him. All that proud
work of his just gone and he's bound to blow a gasket. At the very least, he'll
be so embarrassed that he will never show his face around the school again.”
Samantha
brushed Joey's hair from his eyes and blew him a kiss. "Don't worry, I'm
sure you guys will see each other again... in hell.” She left the hospital and
started towards the school to ruin Eunice's masterpiece.
..
Eunice
was what you'd called a perfectionist. Never completely satisfied with his
work. He tried to remain coy about this, and also the fact he knew he'd
probably (okay, certainly) win the carving contest. Still though, he
thought about heading to the school. Maybe check out the display to make sure
his pumpkin was all right. Do a little touch up. With Joey (being the first
real friend he ever really had) in a coma, and half his classmates still
thinking he put him in it, and the real villain still running around, Eunice
didn't have a whole lot else to hold on to at the moment. He set out to the
school.
When
he got there, the doors leading to the gymnasium were thankfully unlocked. The
last of the party committee to leave that morning didn't think to do it or
didn't feel it necessary (a policy that would forever be changed after that
day). The only light in the giant room was from the large windows that lined
the tops of the bleachers on opposite sides of the place. The menagerie of
orange and black streamers and other decorations strewn about created a hazy
brown atmosphere that felt as thick as it looked.
Eunice
walked uneasily (as anyone would do when walking through a large open
poorly-lit room), clutching the small bag he brought. In the bag, a small
handsaw and an X-ACTO knife. "Hello?" he whispered to no-one, the
sound of his own voice frightening him. "Anyone there?"
He
stood idle for a moment, scanning the room with his eyes the best he could, and
decided that his fears were only inside him. He turned to the curtain structure
that was guarding the finest carved gourds Midwhich had to offer. Walking, he
couldn't help but feel as if he were being watched, but he assured himself this
was once again only in his head.
Now
standing in front of the table, he clutched both ends of the curtain and pulled
them open slowly, the metal shower-curtain like rings squeaking and clinking as
he did so. He looked down to see his pumpkin right in the middle, and he smiled
at the GRAND CHAMPION ribbon that was on it. Then, he felt a sharp pain in his
shin and next thing he knew he was staring up at the ceiling, which in the
dusty darkness looked to be a hundred miles away.
"Well
well, if it isn't the little eunuch kid in the flesh.” Suddenly, Samantha
Bloome was towering over him. She was holding a hammer. "How nice of you
to drop by.”
"What?...
what?" Is all Eunice could say in his confusion. Samantha covered her
mouth with one hand as she let out a small giggle.
"Silly.
Did you really think you could stop me?" she asked, genuinely amused. She
placed the hammer on the table and squatted down by Eunice's head. She looked
over at his bag and snatched it up. She grabbed the tools from it, examined
them thoughtfully, then gave a short chuckle. "Not sure what you were
planning with this, but I guess it works. The weapons. You were planning to use
them against me? Yes, that will work I think. You lured me here... asked me
here to meet in private, because you wanted to make out? Yes! Then you tried to
attack me! You wanted to saw my head off. You confessed what you did to Joey,
and you said to me, how you were going to do to me what you couldn't to him.
You were going to kill me.”
"What
are you talking about?! You're crazy!" Eunice cried.
Samantha
stood up again and turned back to the table. "Yes... yes I think that
story will work. And in self defense… I grabbed a hammer I found, something the
party committee left behind while decorating, and bashed you in the shin, just
as you were about to pounce me after you pushed me down.”
"Stop
it!" Eunice cried.
"Then...
well, then after you kept coming at me, crawling at me... and I grabbed what I
was closest to.” Samantha picked up Eunice's jack-o'-lantern with a grunt.
"No!"
he cried again.
Samantha
turned around, barely able to hold the monster pumpkin in her hands. "You
know, I hadn't really counted on any of this. I mean, being able to kill you
and stuff.” With a little grunt she hefted the pumpkin up over her head.
"My plan was to just ruin your pumpkin. Embarrass you. Maybe make you
leave. It's funny how things just work out though. You'll be gone, for good,
and I'll be the hero.” She showed a disgusting all teeth smile at him, and said
"Good night, little Eunuch.” She then threw the heavy pumpkin down upon
his head, smashing his face and cracking his skull against the hard gym floor.
Samantha stood for a moment, staring down gleefully at the trembling body
beneath her. She knelt down, hoisted it back up, and brought it down again. A
third time and the once piece of art pumpkin broke apart. The body below her
stopped trembling.
Eunice
was dead.
...
THE POWER WENT OUT
Adriel
snapped on the alligator, now warm and slick with sweat from clutching it so
intently. A gasp escaped Cassie's mouth, and Tod examined the two of them
quietly in the weak light for a few moments. "He's almost here" he
said.
"Finish
the story!" Adriel screamed.
"I want to
leave!" Cassie screamed.
Tod
glanced back and forth between the two of them for a few more moments before
saying "Perhaps we should check on the power box in the basement?"
"No!"
This was screamed by both Adriel and Cassie in perfect unison.
Tod
smiled. "Need not worry. He's not here yet.” And then standing up,
"Lets make our way to the basement, I'll continue telling you guys on the
way there.”
This
was too perfect. What fun it was scaring people! Little kids are just too
easy to pick on Tod thought, and Cassie, she deserves this too, for
being such a stuck-up bitch half the time. He continued to think about,
how, maybe he would of let Cassie in on the joke, had she not fallen asleep
during the first part of the story, because this was, after all, one of the
best stories he'd ever come up with. Maybe he would of told her about how he
called Benny up to bang on the walls outside the house. Maybe about how he told
him to write some nasty note and tie it to a rock and sneak in through the outside-to-kitchen
door that he left unlocked for him.
Tod
didn't, however, tell Benny to go into the basement, or turn off the power, but
hey- it works. And now, it's time for the big finale. Some serious shit is going to be scared out of these Wurchester's.
"Come
on guys, what's going to happen?" Tod started again, "Adriel, you
have the flashlight, you should lead the way.”
"No!
He's down there! The Jack-O'-Lantern Man!" Adriel protested.
"I
want to leave!" Cassie repeated.
Tod
paid no mind and took a bow, creating a sweeping flourish gesture with his
hands that said after you. "Come on guys, I'll keep talking as
we're walking.”
A
few more moments of silence then a sigh from Cassie. "As long as we can
finally get the hell out of here and to the party right after" she said.
Adriel
begrudged pulled himself off the couch and led the three of them, very slowly,
to the basement door.
...
SAMANTHA COULDN'T HELP BUT GIGGLE at this mess
she created on the floor. She kicked the broken chunks of pumpkin away from his
head and was amused to see Eunice's nose flattened sideways to the left. She
took a step back, then noticed the saw again. She picked it up, and looked it
over carefully. "Perhaps" she started, "perhaps I can just cut
your head off. I can say I did it to make sure you didn't come back. I can just
cut your head off, and the world will be a safer place. Everyone will love me,
knowing I killed this terrible creature.” She burst out laughing. "I just
can't believe how perfectly everything works out for me, every time!"
Just
as she squatted down next to the body, she felt a light sting in her upper
back. Suddenly she was on the floor, face down in a pile of pumpkin mess.
She
hadn't heard the footsteps. Amongst her own rambling, they didn’t make much of
a noise. She didn't hear Joey, even when he was right behind her picking up the
hammer. She didn't feel much either, on the account of Joey swinging the hammer
right into her spinal column, busting it and paralyzing her instantly from the
neck down.
With
his freehand, he grabbed her by the shoulder and flipped her onto her back.
Unable to move, just staring up dumbly at Joey crowding over her, she began to
scream. With the few moments left of her life, she would never really know that
the screaming was actually all in her head.
Joey
smiled down on her gruesomely. Samantha finally began to realize with horror, He
heard everything. Everything I said to him in the hospital. Then, absurdly:
Me and my big mouth.
On
some conscious level, he knew his best friend was dead, but the anger and rage,
at least at the moment, outweighed the horror and grief of this a hundred to
one. All these years of torment from other children, all this time of being an
outsider. Then Eunice came along. He could see it in his eyes when he met him
at the party; the pained shyness, the feeling of always being alone. Finally
someone he could relate to, someone else who was like him. And with Eunice
around, they were a team, like peanut butter and jelly. For all Eunice knew,
Joey was the life of the party, the coolest dude in school, but really, Joey
never had that level of confidence before he met Eunice. Now though... now
Eunice was gone.
"His
name is Eunice, not Eunuch, you dumb cunt.”
Samantha
couldn't say anything, but she didn't need to as her eyes said it all, the fear
dripping out like tears.
Standing,
smiling, he said simply: "There will be no tenderness.” He then went to
work, the screams in Samantha's head dying out mercifully quick.
..
Even
years later, no one was really sure how he was able to do it so quickly, how he
got out of there. The smeared traces of blood on the floor, the staff and
students dismissed it as decorative at first, tasteless as it may be for a
middle school function such as this.
That
night, after everyone was packed in the gymnasium, wearing their costumes and
eating copious amounts of sugar, playing games, horsing around, after everyone
quieted down when Mrs. Fritz, the art teacher, stood in front of the
jack-o'-lantern table with a microphone and portable speaker system, the winner
was announced.
"And
the grand champion of the 1981 Midwhich Jack-O‘-Lantern carving contest goes
to... Eunice Baxter!" Mr. McCarthy, the assistant principle, pulled back
the curtains. Nobody clapped, nobody cheered, nobody except Mrs. Fritz, the
only person not facing the table. "Would young Mr. Baxter like to join us
to accept his ribbon? Come on up, don't be shy.” Everyone stood silent. Mrs.
Fritz now grew a little confused by all the shocked looks on everyone's faces.
A couple of light taps on Mrs. Fritz shoulder. It was Mr. McCarthy. She turned
to look at him. His face was a pure shade of white that she'd only seen before squeezed
from a fresh tube of white acrylic paint. Then she saw the table. She ended up
being the first person to scream.
On
the table was Samantha's severed head. Her mouth ripped wide from the corners
of her lips to the bottom of her ears, the skin torn jagged, like the ghastly
teeth of a jack-o'-lantern. Her eyes hollowed out. In her mouth, a candle. One
of those re-lighting birthday cake ones. Her wig was gone (it would later be
found in the dumpster, with the rest of her body). Her scalp, bloody and raw
and bruised from all the shaving she had done.
Then
everyone began to run for the exits.
Joey
would never be seen from again. Some say he committed suicide by jumping from a
cliff, and now his spirit, stuck here on earth, comes back every Halloween
looking for naughty children like Samantha. Others say he took up residency in
the sewers and befriended the rats, living and growing and to this day,
returning every Halloween to commit a revenge that will never be satisfied. One
thing everyone agrees on is that, in one form or another, he is still here
searching for something he will never find again: a friend like Eunice.
As
for Eunice's body, that was never to be found, either.
THE END
...
THE THREE OF THEM were now at the bottom of the
basement stairs.
"So
you see" Tod said, "Joey comes back every Halloween, looking for
naughty and misbehaved children, and he takes their heads and puts them on
display for everyone to see, as a warning.” Tod, now holding the alligator to
examine the power box, continued: "So in other words, you should do what
we say and behave, or else.”
"The
story is finished though, so he can't come, right? You finished it, so he can't
attack me, that’s what you said" Adriel insisted worriedly. Tod snapped up
a switch, and the power returned.
"Yeah,
well, if you don't do as we say, we might feed you to him anyways" Cassie
snapped. "Tod, I feel like shit, it's getting late, and I'm cold. Let's
go, please?"
"You’re
not adults though..." Adriel continued, "I mean, you’re teenagers,
but, technically you’re not adults, and you’re not doing what the grownups
said, you guys are 'misbehaving' too.”
Tod
turned back to face Adriel and Cassie, switching off the alligator. "Yeah
well" he started, "it doesn't count for us.”
"Why
not?" asked Adriel.
Tod,
tripping on a box while walking past the two of them, "OUCH! Gah, because
I said so, allright? Benny? You down here?"
"What?
Why is Benny here?" Cassie asked.
"Benny?
Who?..." Adriel asked.
"Benny?
You piece of shit, I know you’re hiding" Tod said with a laugh. Adriel and
Cassie followed Tod confusedly as he made his way towards a small back room
with a frosted glass window with the light on in it. In the light, a shadow
bobbed back and forth. "Yeah buddy, I know you’re in there. Listen, the
jig is up, we're going to the party now.”
Adriel
and Cassie stopped as Tod approached the door knob. Opening the door slowly,
they all watched intently. When the door was fully opened, after the dry rusty
squeak of it's hinges had stopped, Cassie was the first to scream.
Benny
was hanging from a rope around his neck by a pipe running across the ceiling.
His face was cut off. At first Tod thought Shit, how did he pull this off?,
but the color instantly left his face when he noticed Benny's intestines
trailing to the floor through a gaping hole in his abdomen. Then Tod screamed
too.
Tod
dropped the alligator and bolted past Adriel and Cassie, then, Cassie followed,
and Adriel trailed last. Up the stairs they went. Through the kitchen, down the
hall, and then to the front door.
Tod
swung the door open but was knocked backwards when he ran straight into a tall
faceless figure wearing a long black trench-coat. Tod looked up, confused for a
few moments, then realized who it was: It's him, it's the Jack-O'-Lantern
Man.
"Trick
or treat" the thing said with a growl as it stepped inside and closed the
door behind itself. It was holding a large bloody butcher knife.
Tod
was now scrambling backwards. "Jesus Christ! Jesus-Fucking-Christ! You're
not real! I made you up! Your just, just... a story!" The thing took two
large strides forward, it's muddy boots leaving sticky prints in the carpet,
and snatched Tod up by the collar of his shirt. Pulling him to his feet,
choking him, the thing flung Tod around and wrapped a big leather clad arm
around his neck. Tod saw Adriel and Cassie watching in frozen horror from down
the hallway. It was the last thing he ever saw.
The thing stabbed
the big knife right into the top of Tod's head. The sound of his skull cracking
open reverberated down the hall. Blood spewed forth from his eyes, nose, and
mouth. The thing pulled the knife out, and stabbed again, as if he were
planning on cutting a hole, to dig the innards out.
Like
you would with a jack-o'-lantern Adriel dreamily thought in his terror.
Cassie
began to scream again. The thing, even without a face, looked up, then let
Tod's body drop with a sick thud on the carpet. It marched a b-line to
Cassie and grabbed her by the hair. The thing then dragged her down the hall,
her still screaming, and into the kitchen where Adriel lost sight of them. The
screaming gave way to a sharp gasp and a gross gurgling noise. Then a thud.
Then quiet.
Adriel
was frozen in place with fear. After about a minute, the kitchen door swung
open. It was the thing. In one hand was it's blood-drenched knife, in the other
was Cassie's head. The thing took a few steps toward Adriel then let go of
Cassie's hair. Her head hit the floor with another thud, and it rolled forward
a bit with Cassie's dead eyes staring up at Adriel’s quivering body.
The
thing now slowly walked forward, stopping point-blank to Adriel. The thing
crouched down in front of him, it's face (or lack there of one) met his. After
a few moments, Adriel, with a croak, began, "Are you the Ja-". The
thing hushed him by putting a blood stained leather clad finger to his lips.
"Shhh"
it said, as he pulled the tight dark fabric from it's head. "We haven't
much time son... it's me, your father.”
It
was Mr. Wurchester.
“We
must hurry” he said, “help me with the gasoline.”
...
"I DON'T REALLY LIKE LEAVING BODIES
BEHIND" Mr. Wurchester said as they drove up the lonely and dark dirt
road, “but there was just too much of a mess and not enough time. Arson was the
only option, I’m afraid. Thankfully it’s Halloween, though; the police are up
to their necks with troublemakers and pranksters, so that should buy us a
little more time. If it hadn't been for those other kids showing up, Cassie’s
friends, things would of gone much smoother.”
Adriel
hadn’t said a word since they had left the house, quickly growing with flames.
They didn’t hear the sirens until they reached the edge of town, and by then
the house was so consumed that, looking behind from the mountain road they were
now heading up, a small orange glow could be seen in the town below.
"You...
are you Joey?" Adriel asked. Mr. Wurchester exhaled deep through his nose
and patted Adriel's hair with a smile. "Sorry kiddo, not sure who Joey is.
Don't worry, you'll understand, once all the excitement dies down.” They pulled
onto another road, this one no more than a couple of tire tracks with weeds
sprouting high between them.
"I've
been looking for you for a long time, you know" Mr. Wurchester said.
"You don't know how many families I've been through. How many times I had
set up shop with widows and divorced women. All of whom who wanted a new
family. All of them wanted to adopt. Every time I tracked you down, I just
missed you. You had just been adopted by another family.”
Mr.
Wurchester now turned the car onto another road, this one even less there than
the last one. They were now heading up a steep hill. "The first time I
found you, I thought that was it, you were gone to another family for good. I
murdered my then wife and two step children, and man, if you thought Cassie was
bad" he laughed, "you should of seen those two little brats.”
Adriel
stared out the window as they reached the top of the hill, not really seeing
the long yellow streak the moon left on the dark lake far below the cliff.
"Then" Mr. Wurchester started again, "I saw an article in the
paper about this kid who got sent to a psych-hospital after his step dad broke
his arm. This adopted little boy had pushed the man's other, biological son,
who suffered from mental retardation, out the window of the bedroom they
shared. The little mentally-ill boy, he landed head first on his dad's red
corvette parked down below.” The car came to a stop close to the edge of the
cliff.
"Where
are we?" Adriel asked.
Mr.
Wurchester opened the car door and got out, and motioned Adriel to follow suit.
They went around back to the trunk of the car. Mr. Wurchester popped it open
and grabbed hold of a big black garbage bag hastily tied shut with duct tape.
He grunted as he picked it up. "Just dropping off the missus" he said
with a strain. He then attempted to heft the bag over the cliff, but with a
loud grunt only ended up dropping it at his feet. "Damn, I'm certainly not
as young as I used to be.” He then looked over at Adriel, embarrassed.
"You didn't hear me curse now. I don't want to hear that coming from your
mouth, got it?" Adriel shook his head in acknowledgement and Mr.
Wurchester smiled. "Good.”
Mr.
Wurchester then delivered a hearty kick to the bag, leaving it hanging halfway
over the edge. From within the bag, a gargled groan. Mr. Wurchester reeled
backwards a little bit, clutching his knee. "Ow! Dam- uh, I mean, darn
it. Son, could you give me a hand and help kick your foster-mother over the
cliff? I think she's starting to regain consciousness.” Adriel obliged, and
with his hands planted behind him on the rear bumper of the car, he shoved the
bag with his feet until it went toppling over the edge and disappeared into the
darkness below. As far as Adriel knew it could be falling forever as he never heard
the sound of it landing.
Mr.
Wurchester shut the trunk door and then limped his way to the front of the car,
and with an awkward jerk and grunt, hoisted his butt up so he was now sitting
with his feet dangling off the ground. "Come son, don't be a stranger"
Mr. Wurchester patted the empty space on the hood next to him. "Come sit
by your old man.” Adriel did so.
"You
see" Mr. Wurchester continued, "in the paper there was a picture of
that little kid, the one who pushed the other kid out the window. That little
adopted boy, the one they sent to the psych-hospital, that kid was you.” Adriel
leaned back on the windshield and stared blankly up at the clear night sky, not
able to comprehend this. "I tracked you down a year later, got myself
married to this divorced gal with a little boy. This kid, he liked to capture
rats and nail them to a board in their basement and cut them open with a X-ACTO
knife while they were still alive. Disgusting. The idea of a little brother for
him got her all worked up for adoption, but just like last time, I was just a
little too late. The sad thing is, it's much easier to just kill people and
dispose of their bodies and set up a new identity than it is to get a divorce.
With divorce, there is no clean break.”
Mr.
Wurchester leaned back on the windshield with Adriel and sighed. "Then I
saw another headline. This time, that same boy, you, at this new home, you
dumped your dad's bong water out and filled it with bleach instead. After he
tried to take a hit from it, he went crazy, running around, on fire and such,
tried to light you on fire too.” He sighed again. “This whole adoption system
is flawed. I can't believe they'd dole you out to a drug user. Especially
considering... well, your emotional disturbances. Do they even do background
checks anymore? I swear, the amount of people who slip through the cracks.”
Mr.
Wurchester sat up. "Be right back, Imma go grab some blankets from the
trunk. Do you want a soda?" Adriel shook his head no. Walking back to the
trunk, Mr. Wurchester kept talking "You know, none of this would of
happened, I wouldn't have had to kill all these people, you wouldn't of had to
go to all those awful homes, if it weren't for your mom... your real mom. Nice
enough woman, but, when I caught her in bed with another man, well, I guess I
lost my cool, and I ended up slicing both their throats open with a utility
knife. You know, one of those orange ones with the replaceable, extendable sliding
click blades? Yeah, this was when you were still very young… too young to
remember.” He popped the trunk, grabbed some blankets and a couple cans of Dr.
Pepper, slammed the trunk shut and made his way back to the front of the car.
Mr.
Wurchester hoisted himself back on the hood next to Adriel and covered both of
themselves up with the blankets. "I guess I finally got lucky, because
here we are, together.” Mr. Wurchester popped open a can of the Dr. Pepper and
set the other on top of the blanket between them, "In case you change your
mind" he nodded.
Mr.
Wurchester laid back again and took a sip. He looked over at Adriel still
staring blankly at the sky and exhaled deeply through his nose. "Don't
worry kiddo, one day, it will all make sense to you. When your ready, and no
pressure, you can call me dad.”
Adriel
would never comprehend on a fully conscious level, even years later, that he
was the one who had sabotaged all his other families. He was, after all,
insane. Like father, like son, as they say. Maybe in a more sub-conscious way,
he knew he had been searching for something, much like his father had been
searching for him. None of that mattered though, because for now on, no matter
where they went, as long as they were together, Adriel would feel he was
finally at home.
Adriel
smiled up at the dark sky above as him and his father greeted November together
for the first time in a long, long while.
