I was going to get him back.
I looked to the door and Mason’s final words echoed back at me. I clutched my bow. I’d seen what that creature could do. If I wanted any chance of surviving this night, I knew I’d have to honour his words…but why could he not have taken his own advice? Stupid boy…
A monster like that was all stomach and no mind; it would be back for the dessert course and I’d have to play the waiting game until then. I resigned myself to the fact that this night was far from over. With nothing else to do and tears streaming silently down my face, I lowered myself into an awkward seated position with my knees raised from the hard wooden floor. Gripping my bow, I stared down the front door. Even as the tears continued to fall, I was beset by an overwhelming sense of calm that seemed to envelope and white out every other emotion.
All I could think about was Mason. How he’d lived, how he’d…everything. I never asked anything of him, I never asked for any of this, but he took it all in stride because that’s just the sort of person he was…the stupid boy.
It was hard not to feel like I had been abandoned.
Again.
In spite of myself, the tears started to fall a lot less silently.
It was as pitch black outside as it was inside and the night was all I had for company. There wasn’t even the faintest shimmer of moonlight now. My cries were expelled from my body in short, sharp gasps and swallowed whole by the hungry dusk just as quickly.
I don’t know for how long I was sat there, a miserable, pitiful pile of useless flesh and tears. But I was broken from my self-indulgent reverie by the last thing I would’ve expected.
Three light knocks on the door, followed by an expectant pause.
I froze, desperately trying to make sense of what I’d just heard. A chuckle rattled around my ribs as the thought crossed my mind that I had finally gone mad.
But then the knock came again, the raps spread out a bit more hesitantly.
So, perhaps I wasn’t mad quite yet but I was certainly confused. The only sensible thought that occurred was perhaps it was the police. Perhaps I was going to be rescued. Perhaps this was all just a bad dream and I was going to wake up soon.
Never mind the fact that Police tend to announce themselves when they come a-knocking and believe me I would know (a few times the boys and girls in blue paid me a visit because someone had tipped them off about all of my archery equipment and they were concerned I was going to go full We Need to Talk about Kevin on my school).
Still hopeful that salvation was just beyond my front door, I discarded the bow and quiver in my bedroom. I scrabbled to my feet and, using the hall wall for support, shuffled towards the door. Fumbling, I unlocked and unbolted the door. I swung it open, clinging to the door frame.
Perhaps needless to say, I was not greeted by the police on the other side. Barely, I could make out the slight frame of a small child with long, dark hair. Through the darkness, I was able to pick out two big blue eyes as our gaze met. After that, the rest of her came into focus. Her face was round with cherubic cheeks and she wore a frilly Summer dress with no shoes. She must’ve been so cold…
Fidgeting where she stood, she asked me in a small voice, “Excuse me Miss, but please may I come in?”
She didn’t need to ask me twice, “Yes, Christ, get inside!”
After all, Monsters seldom knock and ask so politely to be let in. Without a second thought, I pulled her inside and locked the door behind her, before proceeding to collapse in a heap.
Breathless, I asked the girl, “Are you alright? Are your parents nearby?”
She shook her head, staring at me intently, “I haven’t seen them in a long time, Miss.”
I wheezed, “Alright, okay…Well, the powers gone and my phones dead so we can’t call anyone. It’s not safe out there so we can’t leave either.”
The girl, her eyes bearing into me, asked, “What’s out there? Why isn’t it safe?”
I shook my head, “Who knows. An animal…maybe? I don’t know…I don’t know what I saw,” I exhaled, “I don’t know how you’ve not got a scratch on you.”
She shrugged and smiled sweetly. She could not begin to comprehend the evening I was having.
I sighed, “Right, well, what’s your name, kid? I’m Nina and you are…?”
Dreamily, she crooned, “Oo, that’s a pretty name.”
She stared off, absently and I gestured again towards her, having finally caught my breath, “...Kid?”
Her gaze snapped back to meet mine. She told me her name and I was satisfied.
“Looks like we’re in it for the long haul, kid.” I sighed, wondering how on Earth I was going to get such a young child through the night without her devolving into a grumpy, screeching hellion.
The child padded towards the living room and threw herself onto the sofa. I felt, against my better judgement and the advice screamed by every strongly averse bone in my body, the need to join her and watch over her. I sucked in a breath and pulled myself to my feet. When I reached down the side of the sofa, I was relieved to make the re-acquaintance of my walking stick.
As I leaned gratefully on my cane, the girl asked, sickly sweet, “Is it just you here?”
I lowered my head to meet the backs of my hands resting atop the cane, “...It is now.”
My whole body shook, barely strong enough to contain but too exhausted to release the emotion entombed within.
“Oh, did everyone leave you?” She chirped.
Defeated, I answered, “Yeah, you could say that.”
“Oh dear, what a pity,” Through the darkness, I thought I caught the barest glimpse of an inappropriate smile flash across her lips. She then asked, “Has it just been you the whole of tonight, then?”
Her feet didn’t come anywhere close to touching the floor and she swung them freely. She was just so small…
I stood up straight, spreading my weight evenly between my shaking legs, “No, there was another...my best friend.”
I bit deeply into my inner lip.
“Oh, the boy!” The child exclaimed.
I looked at her and her eyes once again bore into me.
“You told me it was a boy earlier.” She said.
I nodded, the memory unfurling, “Yes...yes, I did tell you.”
“You did tell me.”
“I did tell you.”
“Good,” She smiled, the intensity in her voice before something now only half-remembered, “And what was his name?”
Dazed, I answered, “Mason.”
She giggled, “Was he your boyfriend?”
I shook my head emphatically, breaking eye contact, “Oh, no, no, no. Nothing like that. Never like that.”
Still ever perky, the girl asked, “Oh, did he have a girlfriend?”
I couldn’t help myself.
I threw my head back and let a laugh radiate out from my belly, “No, absolutely not. Girls were never really his thing.”
The girl contemplated this for a moment before leaning towards me and staring at me wide eyed, “Do you have a girlfriend?”
I all but yelled, “God, no!”
That intensity returned to her voice as she cut in, “Do you have anyone?”
My shoulders hunched themselves.
I shook my head and stated quietly, “Not any more...”
In a sing-song voice, she trilled, “Poor little Nina. Everyone either dies or leaves.”
I glared at her, clutching my cane.
She glanced back at me and smiled that shit-eating grin that so many children master early...and as I gazed into her eyes, all of my anger abandoned me.
But a voice at the edge of my perception insisted, Something is not quite right.
Anger bubbled to the surface once more, “That’s not fair!”
The little girl’s voice hardened as she peered at me, “Is it not?”
I tried, “No, that’s-!”
She stated, “You have no one left.”
“Stop it!”
Her voice filled my skull, “Your Mother ran away from you.”
“Wait...”
“Your best friend ran to meet his death rather than turn back.”
“...No.”
“And your own Father erased himself from your life.”
My entire body shook. I wanted to run, I tried to run, but the luminous embers within her skull bound me to the spot where I stood. My body went rigid. Those red eyes consumed everything. There was no escape. The cane slipped from my hand and fell to the floor with a clatter.
There was no point in hiding any more.
She extended her arm and patted the empty space beside her, “Come and sit down.”
Stiffly, my legs moved on their own. Mentally, I pleaded with them to not take another step forward, to haul my body in the opposite direction, to collapse under me and let my arms take over, to do anything but move forward. My body did not listen to me.
My body lowered me into the seat beside her. Even my lungs were beginning to cease co-operating. I couldn’t get enough air. My chest spasmed trying to suck in the barest minimum of breath into my burning lungs. Tears streamed down my cheeks. It was all I could do and not even that was voluntary.
The creature grasped my trembling hand in her tiny taloned palm. Her nails were long and uneven. They slowly began to pinch at my flesh.
“It’s okay, Nina,” She spoke her voice still childlike and rumbling through my bones, “I like you. You’re my friend. We have a lot in common. My Mum cast me aside as well. Everyone did. I know what it’s like.”
My limbs now only moved when she moved them, when she willed them to move. She pressed my limp hand into her cheek. Her face, all around her mouth, was marked by a still damp burgundy stain. It was all over her dress as well. The garment that had once looked so pristine before now revealed its full ragged aspect. Hand prints that were far too large to be the girl’s own pock-marked the cloth she wore.
“You don’t have to be alone any more.” Scabbed lips pulled back to reveal rows of pointed teeth. In particular, my eyes traced the four elongating, monstrous canine fangs that dominated her jaws and now transfigured her face into a snarl.
“It won’t hurt,” She began. She then corrected herself, “No, it will hurt. It always hurts. They always lie about that but there’s no point lying to you. It’ll be worth it though, because you’ll have me and neither of us will ever have to be alone again.”
I swallowed, still struggling to catch my breath. At least I still had control over my Oesophagus. At least I still had control over my own brain, even if everything hooked up to it wasn’t taking orders from the grey matter any more.
But then what does it matter? I thought, desperation returning, I am going to die.
But the small voice then came roaring back, No, that’s not what’s going to happen tonight. You’ve lost your body but you’ve still got your mind. You are coming out of this one. Start thinking.
As always, he was right.
As the child prattled on, spewing her life story and monologuing about how that made it okay she was going to kill me, I found myself thinking about how this evening had started. About all of our horror movie marathons before it. About the first horror movie we ever watched together: Pet Semetary. Funnily enough, that film also involved a murderous child. Sadly, last I checked I didn’t have any spare syringes filled with a lethal overdose of morphine just lying around. So that was out.
Nobody listened to Rosemary about her baby, the Grady twins were already dead, and Damien became the President’s son; I definitely wasn’t going to fight this thing and come out of it alive or even in one piece. But maybe there was a chance of escape. Just maybe.
I needed a distraction, something that would send her running and give me a chance to make a break for it.
What, in all of the nine circles of Hell, would distract a child like this? I very much doubted that a shiny rattle or a kaleidoscope would do the trick. No, this child would probably only tear her gaze away from me for nothing less than the bloodiest, rarest slab of meat. Sadly, in that precise moment, that was me.
The girl put a stained hand to my cheek, “It’s okay. I’ve done this a few times before…they all left me as well but I’ll make sure you won’t do that to me. I wouldn’t do it to you.”
Dimly, I saw that underneath her nails, the flesh was black. I soon saw why. Slowly, the skin of her finger grew taught and the nail elongated into a sharp point.
“It’ll only hurt a little bit at first,” She whispered, “And after that, that’s all you’ll feel.”
Whatever I was going to do, I had to do it now.
I blurted, “How long have you been watching me?”
She paused. She had to think.
“A few years of nights,” She said, “Judging by the phases of the moon.”
I asked, “What have you seen?”
“It’s like I said before: I see that you are alone. I see that you’re like me, living through lonely night after lonely night.”
And then she smiled as though she’d just told me about a new friend she’d made at school. It made my stomach turn.
Just when I thought I’d grasped the full horror of the situation, I asked, “Do you watch me every night?”
Curtly, she replied, “No,” And then, becoming huffy, she gripped my chin, her nails scraping against my skin, “The boy wasn’t this chatty.”
I’d hit a nerve, obviously, even if I wasn’t sure which one yet.
I stammered, “I just have a lot of questions! You can understand that, can’t you?”
“It’s just so annoying!” She groaned.
My body started pitching towards her, gently lowering itself down and placing my head in her lap.
She continued, “We’ve got our whole lives together just waiting for us but all you want to do is talk,” One by one, she placed her talons across my throat, “I should just paralyse your vocal chords now and-“
A scream tore out of me, “You do that and you really will be alone!”
I felt her hand tense. Her silence was deafening.
Quietly, she muttered, “…You wouldn’t dare.”
I rolled with it, “Do you really want to find out?”
After another pause, she removed her hand from my throat and placed it upon my head, whispering, “Okay. What else?”
I was gaining ground. My skin felt like it was a field of a thousand blazing needles.
The voice from before said, Keep going.
Swallowing my fear, I asked, “You can see in this light?”
The very seed of a plan was forming in my mind. I didn’t quite have all the pieces yet but I told myself I was going to. Mercifully, the child withdrew her hand from my face.
“Well, yes, I can see everything,” She began, adding, “I was born into this and it’s all I’ve ever known. Soon, your unhappy life under the tyranny of the sun will be nothing more than a memory and you’ll see everything I see.”
She was leaning towards me, expectantly, completely unknowing of the precious morsels of information she’d just offered up to me.
“Are you done now?” She chirped.
“No,” My voice was calm and measured. Inside, I was every antonym, “Do you know why I wear my hair this way?”
She shrugged, “I just thought you were shy.”
In spite of everything, I laughed.
I asked her, “Do you want to see why?”
She tossed her head back, “Ugh, can’t it wait?”
“No, we must not have secrets from one another,” I snapped, pointedly adding, “May I please use my arm to show you?”
She blew a raspberry and scoffed, “No, I can do it myself.”
And with no further fanfare, she reached over and pushed my fringe aside.
Her eyes flared, a bright, bright red in the dark.
My own eyes fixated on a speck of dust floating through the scarcest shaft of moon light in the centre of the room. The speck froze in mid-air a
nd everything followed in slow motion. The girl’s scream rang out as though it was forcing its way through water. She pushed me off of her lap and I fell to the floor, my limbs limp as though filled with nothing more than liquid. The sudden hardness of the floor rippling through me, like a splash of cold water, returning control of each part of my body. My arm shot out and gripped my cane. The girl had tucked her legs underneath herself, too terrified to even let her toes touch the floor. I thought of Rowan and Winney.
I pounced on the child, bearing my fists down into the sofa cushions either side of her.
Pulling the sound from deep within my throat, I growled at her, “Take a good look. This is my face. This is me. This is the face you’d see every night,” I leaned forward, my face drawing closer to hers, “Funny, you don’t seem so keen on the idea of being eternally alone together.”
She swatted at me, her talons drawing three neat lines of blood across my forehead and skimming across my eyelid, starting from the otherwise unmarked side of my face and ending in the burn scar tissue on my cheek. I felt nothing. It was only later that I realised how close I’d come to being blinded in that eye.
The girl clambered onto the arched back of the seat.
“How dare you run from me!” I screeched, using my cane to raise myself to full height.
She fell backwards from the chair and away from me. Swiftly, I rounded the sofa and peered down at her as she scrabbled to right herself. In her haste, she rolled directly into the barest sliver of moonlight streaming through the glass that framed the front door. It was only for the briefest moment but there was a wisp of smoke and she yelped. She had finally revealed her mortal secret.
Her eyes bore into me. I averted my gaze and briskly strode past her to the bathroom. I felt those red embers burning into my back, demanding to regain control. I took in the view of the moon dappled towel covering the bathroom mirror. Mason had been the last to touch it.
The child spoke in a voice definitely not of a child, “Okay, you got me. Very cute. You’ve had your fun but now I’m going to have mine.”
I only allowed myself a moment’s hesitation in placing my hand where Mason’s had been.
I Hate Halloween Page 6