I thought to write a Halloween-themed flash fiction... just for kicks!
enjoy!
Eva’s party had been
great. Music pumped throughout the house, everyone showed up in costume and
there was even an obstacle course out in the backyard to go through when you
wanted – a good scary one filled with all kinds of freaky traps and fun!
I had suggested to
her to invite the neighbours… and she did so they didn’t feel left out or that
the party was too noisy.
But they politely
turned her invite down, claiming that Halloween Parties weren’t their bag.
“Oh well, their
loss.” My friend had grinned.
“Not really.” I
said, “At least they know you’re having a party; and can’t complain to the cops
now.”
Randy smiled as he
tossed another tied-up lolly-bag on the pile, “True. So, we can go all out with
the backyard tricks and games.” He glanced at the large pile of bags, “Do you
think we have enough?”
Nodding, I rose from
my seat and refilled my coffee cup, “It’s gonna take all week to get this party
on the road… let’s get another look at that list.”
Now, like I said,
the party was going well… the music was pumping and people were enjoying
themselves…
…they were until midnight
struck and everything kinda started going wrong.
Okay, not kinda…
really did start to fuck up in a major way.
Anyone in costume
became the creatures they arrived as. I dressed as a witch… and well, I have
become one for real. I suddenly can incant spells and potions and speak Latin
at a moment’s noticed – something which is really unsettling; and yet very cool
at the same time.
As for my friends?
Well, Eva dressed up as a cat and she’s turned into a Puma and hunted down
every ex-boyfriend who showed up and … um… attacked them.
Randy dressed up as
Capone… and well, became the real deal; gun and all! When he saw me, he had no
idea what I was but thought I looked hot… one little problem, Randy is gay and
even though he looked great as the gangster, my alter-ego also knew Randy’s
alter-ego was also gay… and it took one really weird kiss to have the message
come across, “Oh fuck! I’m a poofta …”
“Don’t call yourself
that.” I said, “The term is gay; and no it doesn’t mean happy anymore, as you’re
in the twenty-first century. So put away the guns and act like a gentleman
while I try to figure out what in All Hallow’s Eve is going on.”
He snorted, “And how
are you goin’ to do that, dollface?”
Eva prowled in,
licked her chops and jumped up on the lounge to have a well-earned nap. I watched
her, turned to Capone and smiled, “Well, it looks like a spell… and the only
people not here are the next door neighbours. So, I’m going to find out what
kind of bad little hexes they’ve been casting on us; then turn it around on
them.” Turning from the living room, I noticed that Eva looked up at me,
watching me leave. She wanted to know if she could come with or should guard
the house, “Eva, guard the house… it’s safer for you.”
As I walked to the
edge of the property, I found that I wasn’t the only one affected by the spell.
Every last person in the neighbourhood was also affected in the same way; but
the further people ventured from the neighbour’s house, the less the affects
were on the people.
This place was a
madhouse! There were demons, other witches, vampires, butterflies,
ax-murderers, Angels and zombies… man then there were the comicon people. I
lost count of how many ‘Supernatural’ and ‘Walking Dead’ fans there were… and
so I stopped counting. But then, I was just standing on the footpath and hadn’t
gone anywhere.
Turning right, I
knew I had to find the source of the power of the spell which was causing all
of this.
This is where things
started to become weird.
One minute I’m on
the footpath, the next I’m at the front door of the neighbour’s house.
The door was open and I smiled at them.
Then, they were screaming.
I woke up on the footpath as the dawn was breaking the sky still dressed as a witch. Looking over at the neighbour’s house, I found it was burnt to the ground, Eva was still a Puma and locked up to be taken to the zoo and Randy was back to his normal self talking to the cops.
“Listen, I have no
idea what in the hell happen to the neighourhood. But my two flatmates threw
the party, the next door neighbours acted really strange and their house turned
into a fireball as soon as one of them went next door… I followed her and all
she did was knock on the door and smiled at them.” Randy said, “I swear, Beth
didn’t say anything to them.” he glanced over his shoulder at our house, “But
the backyard has turned into a war zone… it was supposed to be fun. We now have
a black hole where the tool shed used to be, a huge sinkhole where the pool
used to be and Bran Castle has shown up at the back fence… dude, that never
used to be there.” He looked to his hands before saying the next thing, “Also,
a Bates Motel has popped up over the back fence with a creepy little guy
running it… that place wasn’t there last week. He attended the party with what looked
like a zombied body of a woman he kept talking to… can you get him out of here?”
The cop looked up
slowly from his notepad, “Are you kidding?”
“No… he kept calling
her Mother.” Randy said, “And he wore a dress with a wig.”
“What was his name?”
“Norman Bates.”
The cop shook his
head as I struggled to my feet, “Randy.”
“Beth.” He took a
step towards me then hesitated, “Your costume hasn’t … you know…”
“What?” I looked
down, “Oh god… didn’t I change back?”
The cop gave me a
wary look up and down, “From what? You’re a full-blown witch with all the
powers… didn’t you come with the David Copperfield experience shit?”
“No… I came in
costume as a witch for the fun of it.” I replied.
“Well. Whatever
happened here, the government has to lock off this section of town.” The cop
wrote down a few more notes.
“Why?” I took a step
toward him as he backed up.
“Because lady, you
have some wicked power to be able to burn down a house by just smiling at it.” He
pointed at the smouldering structure behind me.
Turning, I stared at
the house. My gut turned cold, “I couldn’t have done that. All I did was go
over there to see if they were casting a spell… I don’t even remember knocking
on the door.”
“You didn’t. You
blasted your way in.”
So much for having a
Halloween Party. All we wanted to do was have some fun; which turned into
something else entirely. I was taken away to a psychiatric hospital to be ‘kept
safe’. But a strange thing happened: the powers of the spell wore off after The
Day of the Dead – two days later. Zoo staff found Eva in the Puma enclosure at
the local zoo wondering why she was feeling unusually full, Randy was worried sick
about us both and we all thought it best to go our separate ways.
This happened when
we were in our twenty’s.
I’m now in my
sixties and still wonder exactly what happened; as I still can’t remember it
clearly. Even though I’ve revisited that part of town, I’m still not permitted
close to it… the power of the spell is still active for some reason it hasn’t
been undone.
I’ve still be pulled
in to the hospital to be tested and asked the same stupid questions by doctors
and police. We all still have no idea how all of this happened.
But every Halloween
since, whether I like it or not, I turn into a powerful witch who knows all the
potions and spells, who can incant Latin at a moment’s notice – as creepy and
weird as it may be; and yet I still find it very cool in the strangest way. So,
every Halloween, Eva, Randy and I spend three days together because we
physically change into things we can’t control… It’s only a matter of time
before the authorities figure out we’ve all lied to them – that it only
happened once.
