Samhain - Spirit of Halloween

by Will Sketch Harris

  “BOO BITCH!” Ace shocks Robbie from behind making him fall off the couch.

  We’re all rolling on the floor with laughter.

  “Damn kid,” Ace says to Robbie. “You’re as white as a sheet. I gotcha ha ha ha.”

  “Yup, real funny Ace. You got me.” Robbie dusts himself off.

  “Ah man, calm down. Now that rat earlier today, that’s when I really got you.”

  The crowd breaks out into a unified “OOOOOHHHHH” chant, followed by various levels of laughter and mumbles, much to Robbie’s chagrin.

  Ace walks around the couch with a ratty old box and sits between Gina and me. “Let’s see what we got here guys.” He starts pulling out random junk from the storage box and hands it all out. Then, he drags an amulet out of the box. Attached to a long heavy necklace, this piece is incredible in design. All I really knew about it is that it is an artifact that the museum had entrusted my dad with for safekeeping and the thing had always given me the creeps every time I saw it.

  Ace jokingly waves it in front of Gina’s face, swaying it back and forth like a hypnotist’s watch and in a goofy voice, he tells her, “You’re getting sleepy! Very Sleepy! You just want to go lie down in your bed!”

  He then looks around the room with a goofy grin and added, “With Ace!”

  Everyone in earshot erupts in laughter except for me, but I then force out a humorless little chuckle. Bradlee and I look over at Robbie who is apparently pissed off now.

  “You’re a funny guy,” I say. “Now give me that thing before my dad throws a fit!”

  Ace just shrugs and responds, “Well, if it’s so valuable...why did he leave it sitting in the basement in a box of old junk?”

  Veronica’s big shot boyfriend Tony then walks over to invite himself into the conversation.“Yeah, we were just down there to get some beers when Ace spotted this thing in a box of junk on the floor!”

  “It’s not... junk,” I try to say convincingly. “It’s not junk, it’s just old artifacts that the museum asked my dad to watch over. Supposedly they are doing some maintenance in the wing of the museum where it was previously housed, and they just wanted him to safeguard it for a few weeks. Those weeks turned into months,” I give Ace a dead eye.

  “So, put it back....” I then smile sarcastically, “Please!”

  Ace takes a second to think it over. “Ok, I didn’t mean any harm. Chill out, Darryl.”

  “Derrick.”

  “Whatever, dude.”

  He then starts to hand over the amulet but then mischievously looks Gina’s costume up and down adding, “You know for a witch, you’re a real princess... and every princess deserves a necklace.”

  I found myself slowly lifting the hockey mask from his face. My mouth opening to say something while my eyes cut back and forth between Gina and Ace.

  Believe me when I tell you I really wish I said something, but I don’t.

  And that’s when it happens. Girl crazy, haphazard, go lucky Ace leans over and puts the necklace around her neck. I don’t know much about what happened at the moment, but as I gaze into Gina’s direction, she has this really far away look in her eyes. If I were a betting man, I’d say that look isn’t flattery or surprise. No, this is the moment that Gina Romero has a take over of the supernatural kind.

  Coming Unglued

  Chapter Four

  I was starting to actually have a good time until I saw the lights go out entirely in Gina’s mind. I stare at her for a second. I wonder if I’m just paranoid about this. After donning that necklace something came alive inside Gina, or perhaps more accurately something died. Gina gets up. She’s walking away quietly into the middle of the party, and I almost lose sight of her, so I follow quickly to see where she’s going. Then, I kind of notice there’s a larger crowd of people converging into my house, but something had come unglued inside of my new friend, so I don’t care anymore. Instead of waiting in the corner to see what happens next, I shift into party host supreme and make sure I let everyone know I’m the boss. The house is packed, I’m elbowing strangers to get through. With all the new arrivals, the whole place is shaking off the foundation with energy and excitement, and this is something that I see Gina begin to feed off of more and more. Absorbing the enthusiasm of the crowd and then reflecting it back on them, she became the center of attention, and by the time I caught up, Gina is dancing on the coffee table like she’s hungry for dollars. I don’t recognize her anymore. Where did that giggling, bright-eyed girl from AP Lit run off to? This is someone else.

  “Gina, get down from there,” Veronica yells from behind me. “What are you doing?” Gina glares at her furiously for the interrupting, and even though it’s drowned out by the music, I’m pretty sure she just even growled at her. I know she did. A few creeps just laughed.

  I turn to Veronica deeply concerned. “What’s up with your girl? Does she always turn into Zuul the Gate Keeper at your parties?” I joke, but I don’t.

  “I think she’s had too much to drink or something….” Veronica says nervously. “Get her down before she gets hurt!”

  Ace, who is happily encouraging the behavior from the foot of the table, then shouts back at Veronica “Hey! You’re ruining the party V! Don’t be such a prude! The girl is on fire! Leave her be!” Veronica is deeply troubled for Gina though, and in the middle of the bizarre routine, I catch her storming out, cell phone in hand, to the other room. Ace yells after her, “Yes! The party killer is gone!” He then turns back to me and shouts obnoxiously, “Oh yeah! Hell of a party Eric! You’re now on my cool list.”

  “Thanks, but my name’s Derrick, man… DERRICK!”

  “Whatever, dude!” He screams as he throws back another swig of beer to his head.

  “Dick.” Shaking my head.

  I turn and swiftly head towards the kitchen where Robbie and Bradlee are stuffing their faces with a snack. “Guys are you aware of what’s going on right now? Gina is out there doing some freaky dance in the middle of my living room.” Robbie stops mid-chew and mumbles, “Really? Why didn’t you call me earlier?”

  “Robbie, I’m not kidding, she’s acting weird," I say.

  “I think you’re exaggerating,” Robbie answers. “Maybe it’s all an act for the party guests.”

  A scream comes from the living room, followed by a strange mix of laughter and booing. I climb my kitchen chair to see from a distance, but before I know it, Gina is lunging across the table at Ace. Scaring the complete crap out of him she pounces while screaming out, “Free him!”

  It’s true, whatever it is that has possessed Gina tonight is entirely in control. I’m amazed at myself for running over and grappling with the crowd to get through. I’m no hero by a long shot. But Gina has Ace in her teeth in a matter of seconds. She rips deep into his neck, taking out flesh and causing blood to gush out of the wound. The other party goers are a mixed bag of entertained and terrified. One moron next to me even yells in my ear, “YO! Did you see those effects?!”

  Ace is screaming, “Crazy bitch! Get the F*** off me!” After that, I’m not sure what to do because another two wrestling team members attempt to pry Gina off of Ace and she is screaming like a maniac the whole time. Ace is scared so bad he just slumps back on the couch in an unresponsive and terrified shock. Robbie runs up next to me with Bradlee and at first glance of the carnage, throws up on the floor. I run over to the scene to help the wrestlers are struggling to restrain Gina, who starts chanting in a bizarre language. That’s when the lights begin to flicker, and to everyone’s shock, doors began to open and slam shut by themselves. People are screaming and cheering. Do these fools really think I would go this far to impress them? Guess again. To everyone’s complete disbelief the necklace rises in the air, and from the amulet, an eerie purple light shot out like a laser and blasted right through the front door and into the darkness outside.

  Everyone is paralyzed in a horrified kind of shock until Veronica comes stumbling back downstairs demanding, “What the hell is happen
ing?! I thought the whole house was going to tip over! Are we having an earthquake?” Veronica then caught sight of us holding her best friend down and yells, “What happened to her?! Gina?!” She then quickly sprints downstairs and comes to Gina’s side. Robbie jumps in between them to keep her back, just because there is no telling when Gina will suddenly go 28 Days Later on her ass.

  “Is she alright?” Veronica asked. “What’s wrong with my friend guys...? Somebody tell me why there’s blood everywhere! What the hell is going on?”

  “We don’t know yet,” I mumbled. “But Gina got Ace in the neck. It looks nasty.”

  Veronica looks back to the couch in shock.

  Suddenly, Gina begins another creepy chant.

  “Um guys, she’s doing that crazy talk again.” One kid warns the others. We could hear the muffled tone of Gina’s voice through her trance, but it isn’t helping that we all can make out at least 3 more voices in unison. I would undoubtedly guarantee now, someone or something else is sharing Gina’s body, and it is pissed.

  I don’t know how but one word echoes through the house and brings everything to a sudden stop... ... ‘Samhain.'

  Suddenly, Gina faints from it all.

  “Gina!” I yell. “Come on guys, while she’s knocked out, let’s put her over there.”

  We lay Gina on the couch to take a break from holding her.

  Robbie then quickly comes over and sits down next to our Emily Rose wannabe. Ace awakens to yell, “Hell no! Don’t sit her next to me” He then leaps to his feet and says, “Don’t put that freak anywhere near me! I’m serious man, somebody call the cops!”

  Robbie calls to Ace who is heading for the door, “Ace come back! I’m not sure what happened, but it’s not Gina’s fault!” At this Ace swerves to point at the spot where the flesh was torn out of his neck and yells, “Not her fault?! Tell that to my lawyer!” He then turns back around and marches to the front door adding, “I’m getting out of this freak show!” As soon as he flings the front door open, however, it seems like another earthquake hit. The house is shaking, and the ground is rumbling violently beneath our feet. And then to everyone’s horror, with an eruption that sounds like a bomb going off, a section of my front yard gives way completely; revealing a vast gaping hole in the ground.

  Ace, who is steadying himself from the tremors, mutters, “Now what?”

  Return of the demon

  Chapter Four

  All of the anger in the room is subsiding as another slight tremor ripples through the ground and to everyone’s disbelief, the house is shaking, and the ground rumbles violently beneath our feet. Next is an eruption that sounds like something huge is coming to the surface. A burst of purple and white lights swirls our of the sinkhole in my lawn, straight up into the sky. And excuse me if this sounds too corny, but the energy cuts through the clouds above like it’s aiming for Heaven. They’re screaming. The lights are– wait, those aren’t lights.

  “Derek is that–“ Bradlee whispers as we stare from the window.

  “Tortured souls.” I don’t even believe what I just said.

  The center of the sinkhole widens, then crumbles away completely. Then two bizarre withered arms that look like long skinny tree limbs appear out of the hole.

  Staring ahead in horror Veronica stammers. “What... the hell... is that?”

  The tree-like arms then stretch out with a sickening creak and clawed hands with five long and narrow fingers slam down into the ground outside of the hole. Before any of us could fully process what we were seeing, a head resembling a partially rotten pumpkin emerges.

  The creature is floating out of the hole, launching itself into the air and landing on the ground like nothing I’ve ever seen. Heaving a deep breath as feet with split hooves dig into the soil. Then, as the creature surveys its surroundings, sickening laughter comes from the glowing pumpkin head. We all watch on in a transfixed state of horror as it waves one of those long arms over the ground and begins to speak. “Arise, my little ones.”

  Immediately after the creature utters these words, hands begin digging out of the ground. Just like some ridiculous horror movie, actual freaking zombies are clawing their way from under my front yard! Flickers of light appear in and out of sight like static in the air from every direction, until they formed into...

  “Ghosts.” I murmur to myself.

  “What?” Robbie looks at me in fear.

  “The veil has been lifted children, but I require my staff. The eye of Dagda will make sure you all obey, and those that do not will fall to my feet.” The creature motions to the biggest tree in the yard. The branches reach out to meet his fingertips, in his hand, they form a single large staff. At the top, a dark purple orb materializes from his command.

  “Guys, we gotta go,” I continue. “Don’t you all get it yet? The dead are rising. It’s Halloween night, and we’re standing in the middle of a burial ground. We got to get out of here, like right now!” I’m pushing passed the crew behind me to check the other windows. “Hopefully there’s an opening around the house, guys. Maybe we can leave through the back.”

  “Come on, I don’t believe in ghosts," Robbie smirks.

  “That’s great Rob,” I reply in irritation. “Go out to there and explain that to the 8-foot demon that just rose from the depths of God knows where!”

  The people in my house are panicking at this point. Several kids are running upstairs, and others are looking around for a place to escape. We all realize we’re stuck inside because zombies are rising on every side of the house, ghosts are flickering in and out of sight in various areas and a thick fog rolling in from the hills in the distance tells me we won’t see much if we do make it out. “If any of us go out there, we’re history for sure.“

  The creature raises his arms in a manner of greeting the undead followers who began to surround him like some sort of evil messiah. His hands, stretch out to welcome them to the world, and then, through the jumbled voices inside my house, even I can hear his words, and it brought chills to us all.

  “My little ones, I welcome you all to join me on this magical night. It pleases me to be free from that accursed prison. I’ve been locked away for far too long, and now we must retake this world. Yes, my little ones we are the children of the night, and we shall walk the Earth forever. Because on this night, more than any other is our night.

  My night. I am Halloween. I am Samhain. And from here on, Halloween shall never end.”

  Bradlee is freaking out over here, and I don’t blame him. He stumbles against the wall and window, bringing attention to us when we were all being as a mouse. Samhain shifts his gaze to the right, towards the house and with a wicked smile, he growls. “Ahhhh, I knew I recognized that pungent aroma. It is no surprise that it still manages to sicken me after two millennia. That wretched stench of mortals”.

  “Samhain," I whisper to myself.

  At this point Ace, who has been kneeling in terror by the door finally regains the use of his legs and stands up, making a mad dash through the door. In his desperation to escape, he runs right past a couple of walking corpses jumping and leaping as new hands reach through the Earth as Ace does some heroic tuck and roll to his car. “We’re getting out of here right now!“ He screams and flings the door open to get in. But that’s as far as he gets. Without warning a large zombie reaches out his long gnarled arms then proceeds to clutch Ace’s head in his brute grip.

  He then picks Ace up off the ground by his head and turns the terrified wrestling captain to face him. Samhain, from a distance, speaks in a voice that is a pure mockery of humans saying, “Going somewhere?“ Ace only has a split second to let out a few terrified whines before the creature holding him in the air flips him around slams Ace’s face through the driver side window with lightning speed.

  “He just killed Ace!” Tony screams.

  “Oh my god!” Veronica follows.

  Honestly, I can’t tell if Ace is dead or just knocked out, we only see him fall to the ground from
a distance with his head badly cut and disfigured. Add the neck wound Gina left him with earlier, there's no way Ace is getting up.

  “I'm pretty sure we’re next,” says Robbie.

  “No look,” I answer. "It looks like the dead are leaving us alone. They’re not even paying attention to us. Check it out, guys!”

  They’re walking away. The pumpkin-headed demon and his army of nasties reach the end of the driveway. There, with his back to the terrified kids in my house, he points straight ahead to the city in the far distance and gives his orders, “Go my children. We will take back this world, one town at a time if we have to! Take the what you want, feed, bring me tribute.” At this command, a legion of zombies creep out of my front yard and march into the bog. Samhain slowly follows them from the rear, leaving the rest of us to stare in disbelief.

  Robbie’s runs to the door, watching as the army of zombies departs and shouts, “They’re heading for the city!”

  "It’s going to be a massacre," I add.

  The Plan

  Chapter Six

  At this point, most of the party guests had fled in terror, whether on foot or by car, however, they could manage. The core of us that remain leave Gina on the couch when I get this crazy idea for a scavenger hunt through the basement. “Keep searching everyone,” I direct my friends while searching through my dad’s boxes of artifacts. “We're looking for something that would somehow counteract the nightmare that’s was unleashed on us. I feel like my dad has a relic that we can use in one of these boxes.”

  “Dude,” Bradlee starts. "We’re like seriously in the midst of some kind of dream or late night horror movie. I don’t think I can name a single movie scarier than this.” I just go along with him as he’s rambling off because he’s right. Even I'm starting to think this whole search is pointless when suddenly I come across a large wooden crate. “Pass me that hammer, Rob.” I smash into the crate with everything I got and Tony, being the biggest and strongest of us all, tears into it like a madman. Then I let out a victorious shout, “Over here! We found it!”