by Cia Leah
“He didn’t.”
“How do you know that?”
“I just know and I take it you refused to give him the book?”
“Yes I refused. I don’t know him, do you?”
“Only that my Grandmother and Mother warned me to stay away from him and not to speak to him if I saw him. They did describe him as being tall, skinny, with long hair, and looked like a walking skeleton.”
“Exactly!” Jenna cried.
“I guess you are in deeper than you thought. I warned you about the book but I feel partly responsible since I wasn’t here to keep the house from being sold and for not being able to get rid of the damn book before this happened.”
“Before what happened?” Jenna cried, walking into the kitchen. She peeked through the door to the living room but no one was there.
“Before the skeleton of Halloween visited you.”
Jenna put the laundry basket down and Chica and walked to the fridge. She opened the door with a yank, took out two cans of pop and handed one to Blade. Why don’t you sit down and we can talk about this. I have no idea what is happening and tomorrow night is Halloween’s Eve.”
“Okay. I guess it won’t hurt to tell you now anyway since you already saw him. He’s not real, you know. Not really. Only people who have opened that book ever saw him.”
Jenna frowned. “What the heck does that mean? He’s not real? I saw him standing there with my very own eyes!”
“And what beautiful eyes they are too,” Blade grinned. “You know they remind me of a summer’s deep blue sky and they mirror whatever you look at?”
“Stop that,” Jenna said, feeling heat flush her cheeks. I want to know about this man.”
Blade shook his head. “I must be loosing my touch.”
“Blade,” she cautioned.
He grinned. “Well that book holds a Halloween Myth. My Great-Grandmother believed in it and she even made that Halloween blanket and scarves for the stands after she read the book. No one could get that book off her and believe me, many tried, especially the skeleton.
“Myths aren’t real, Blade. They are just made up stories.”
“Do you believe that some things cannot be explained and some of those things are myths?”
“I suppose, but tell me already. I want to know what I’m dealing with.”
“Well, according to what little I do know, anyone who opens that book is visited by the skeleton of Halloween, which I’ve already told you. After the first time they see him, things begin happening.”
“What kind of things?” Jenna interrupted.
“Well my Mother told me that after Great-Grandma read that book, she began to decorate in earnest on Halloween. She made a lot of Halloween things and even crocheted blankets and bed spreads with witches on them and pumpkins and you know, all the stuff that makes Halloween what it is.”
“So anyone can do that. It didn’t have to relate to the book.”
“But it does,” Blade said, leaning forward and resting his arms on the table. “Great-Grandma was an unbeliever of Halloween and everything it stood for until she found that book hidden in the basement of this house.”
Jenna felt a chill slither up her spine and goose bumps popped out on her arms. She rubbed them away. “That still doesn’t prove anything. Maybe she just had a change of heart after reading it.”
“No, because she knew that the skeleton of Halloween had found her. Found her through the book. He only comes to those who open it.”
“Then how did your Grandmother make him go away and why didn’t she just turn over the book to him?”
“She kept the book from him and by doing that, she kept her life. Every Halloween he came to her and maybe this past Halloween he took her life cause she was too old to stop him.”
“Oh come on now, Blade. You expect me to believe this? When did your Grandmother pass away anyhow?”
“On Halloween’s Eve.”
Jenna shivered. “Ok, now that doesn’t make sense. If that would have happened, then why didn’t the skeleton have the book? The book was still here, not gone.”
“And just maybe your buying the house changed the circumstances so that you became the new owner of the book and now he is after you.”
“Yeah right! I don’t believe a word of this!”
“But you saw him.”
“Maybe it was just a man who knew about the book and wanted it.”
“I doubt it.”
“But you knew about it and so did your Mother and Grandmother and Great Grandmother, so maybe they told someone else about it.”
“Jenna, there’s a secret to this myth that I don’t know. I remember my Mother telling me that the one who found out what it was before midnight on Halloween’s Eve was the one that would vanish the skeleton for all times. He’d be gone forever, never to return.”
“Then help me figure it out.”
“No. I can’t. You have to do that on your own, but I will bring my camper closer to the house so that if you need me, I will be close.”
Jenna stood. “You want a sandwich and soup? I’m getting hungry and I know Chica wants her food too, don’t you Chica?” She smiled, when Chica barked and wagged her tail.
“Yeah, I am kind of hungry too.”
“Good cause I don’t want you to leave. I want you to stay in the house with me until Halloween is done and over with. Will you?”
Blade grinned mischievously. “I’d never refuse a beautiful lady anything.”
Jenna laughed too and as Blade talked to Chica who now decided he was trustworthy and sat on his lap, she made sandwiches and soup. All the while her mind drifted back to the skeleton and the book. One way or another the skeleton wasn’t going to get her.
***
Jenna leaned against the headboard of her bed, propped up by pillows and looked at the book, Halloween Myth. Chica was asleep, pressed tightly against her side curled up in a little ball. She petted her head and thought of the things that Blade had told her and the part about how if she found the secret then the skeleton would be forever gone from her life and this house.
She felt safer knowing that Blade slept in the next room and if she needed him, all she’d have to do was yell and he’d come running. Still she felt her skin prickle in fear as she looked up at the mirror above her dresser and saw the faint image of the skeleton in there. The vision was gone within a blink of an eye and she wondered if she really did see him there or if he was just a figment of her overactive imagination. It was well past three a.m. and Halloween’s Eve was tonight and she had to come to terms with what was happening. Even if she didn’t believe in myths, she had to concede the fact that something definitely wasn’t right about this whole thing and she was bound and determined to find out exactly what was going on and the only way to do that .she thought was to read the book.
Jenna picked the book up and started reading and she kept her eyes glued to the pages, even though she had the strongest urge to look at the mirror. For some unexplained reason, she knew that if she quit reading for one second, she wouldn’t be able to start it again or maybe not be here to start reading it again.
The first rays of the morning sun seeped in through the windows, but she kept reading. The book was like a scary Halloween story about a skeleton that somehow became entrapped in a world where he couldn’t escape and the only time he could appear in person was three days before Halloween and during Halloween’s Eve. As soon as a minute past midnight on Halloween’s Eve was over, he couldn’t appear again until next year and if he didn’t get the book in his possession for those three days and keep it in his possession, it was lost again to him until the next year when he could try again.
By the time Jenna had read the last page, it was going on noon. There was only twelve hours left until midnight, Halloween’s Eve and the most important and scariest Halloween she’d ever had. Things were about to happen and she had lots to do to get ready for tonight.
***
Jenna ran down t
o the kitchen after she showered and dressed. She gave Chica her breakfast, then made herself a bowl of cereal and poured herself a cup of coffee just as Blade came in from outside.
“I was just going to come upstairs to your room if you weren’t down here by now. I was getting worried but I didn’t hear you call out last night, so I knew you had to be fine.”
“Yes, I was fine and I didn’t even get to sleep yet and this is going to be one long day. I sure can use your help too.”
“Anything. What do you need me to do?”
Jenna sat down and took a sip of coffee. “I want to help me decorate this house for Halloween, using all of your Great-Grandmother’s decorations. Bring down the old trunk in the attic and I need to run into town and get candles and a few other items.”
“So, you are going to celebrate Halloween no matter what huh?”
“Yes, but in a whole different way and I want you with me all the way too. I need your support and if this doesn’t work and I have it all figured wrong, then we both may need all the help we can get.”
“Well if you are game, then so am I. I know darn well that we are in for the Halloween of our lives, aren’t we?”
“Jenna nodded. “Yes we are.”
***
Jenna looked around the living room. The transformation to the room was almost mind boggling to say the least. It no longer resembled a little old lady’s living room. The stands were covered with Halloween scarves and the trunk sat in the middle of the room with the blanket that had Halloween Myth embroidered on it and on top of it sat the book, but in actuality it was a lot more than that and her first instinct of it.
It was dark outside, but the flicker of the candles that lit up the room, lent shadows to every corner, and was placed at strategic points throughout the room. Every corner had a candle and one skeleton candle sat beside the book on the chest. She turned as Blade walked in the room. “Are you ready?”
“About as ready as I ever will be.”
“Good. Now come and sit down on the sofa. You can hold Chica while I do what needs to be done.”
“Are you sure you know what you are doing?”
“I know what the diary says.”
“Diary? That’s a myth book.”
Jenna watched as Blade sat down on the couch and Chica jumped into his lap. “It’s the skeleton’s diary,” she said, walking over to the living room windows and opening the curtains wide. A flash of bright light lit up the window and she saw the skeleton man. “Here we go,” she said, turning and walking to the trunk. She knelt down and lit the skeleton candle and picked up the diary.
Opening it to the last page, she started reading aloud. “Skeleton comes on Halloween. Lost in a space of time that is three days long. He searches for his book of deadly scares. Where once he roamed in skeletal form, he now roams in man’s form. Appearing here in windows and mirrors and for brief instances to the one who holds his life in her hands,” she said, as a flash of light appeared once again in the living room window. She looked at the sight that met her eyes, never flinching in fear, as she so wanted to. Her heart rate sped and she faintly heard Blade utter a curse, but continued.
“Skeleton come and share the fear. After all you have put it here. In this house you once lived. Long ago you scared the kids that visited here. Dressed in a skeleton costume of flesh and bones. Now you don’t need that costume that hides the truth. You are dead and only a skeleton in truth.”
Jenna waited. Deathly quiet filled the interior of the house and the blinding flash of light appeared on the other side of the trunk. “Close your eyes Blade. Don’t look and hide Chica’s eyes too,” she said, standing up to face the essence of fear that haunted this old house.
She inhaled deeply as she stared into the skeleton’s eyes. Now they were not as before but bright red orbs flashing in a face that the skin seemed to be deteriorating before her very eyes. Piece by piece the skin peeled off and fell onto the floor. It was almost like the skeleton candle melting from the heat of its flame as it burned away.
Jenna picked up the diary and opened it to the last page once again. “Now comes the time to ban forever the world you roam and this house you once lived. Ghost of skeleton past come and grasp this skeleton who defies his death…” she chanted, and lowered the book towards the skeleton candle just as an inhumane cry filled the house.
She didn’t shrink before the deadly cry, but turned over the diary so that the pages were above the flame. She held onto the cover only and watched the flame touch the pages and catch fire. Flashes of light so blinding bright lit the interior of the room and a heat that was hard to bear singed her skin. She lifted her eyes and almost shrank back in fear as the skin on the skeleton caught fire and burned away, leaving only the skeletal bone.
“Skeleton myths and diaries of fright are dead this night! No longer will you be held in fear but be gone from eyes that live this night. This house you once called home decades ago, will no longer be yours to roam in skin and bone. Halloween and graveyards of bone is where you will reside forever day and night!”
Jenna dropped the diary as the flames licked at the cover. A flash of light swirled before her and she felt the slam of some invisible force that knocked her to the floor. Blinding light swirled and danced and moans of death filled her ears.
With all her strength, she pushed up from the floor and saw the diary burned to ashes on the trunk. The skeleton candle was melted, the ashes of the diary swirled throughout the air, and just as suddenly as it had all begun, it ended.
Jenna turned to Blade and Chica. “Are you two all right?” She asked, walking over to them.
Blade opened his eyes. “I know what I heard, but I don’t want to know one thing about what happened here this night. I just want to make sure you are all right.”
Jena nodded. “Let’s hurry and snuff out all the candles and remove all traces of Halloween from this room before midnight.”
“You mean it isn’t over yet?”
“It will be at the stroke of midnight.”
“We have ten minutes,” Blade said, glancing at his watch. “Why do we have to remove all the Halloween stuff?”
“Because I want to make sure there is no way that skeleton can ever return. “Stuff everything in the trunk and carry it outside. I’ll blow out the candles.” She hurried to get the candles blown out and by the time she was done, Blade was carrying the trunk outside.
Jenna joined him and pulled out a box of matches out of her shirt pocket. “Set it on fire, Blade. Now,” she said, as Blade took the matches, opened the lid with all the Halloween Myth items inside, and dropped the match inside.”
Flames licked at the scarves inside and she took hold of Blades’s hand and pulled him back towards the house. “You don’t want to be near that when midnight is here.”
“What’s going to happen?”
“Your Great-Grandmother wrote in that diary. The last page held all of what she had learned over the years on how to get rid of the skeleton forever, but she died before she could get the last and final step written. I figured it out from all she had written or at least I hope I did and at the stroke of midnight we will know if it worked or not. If not, then we will have to do the same thing next year because the diary will be back if my guess isn’t right.”
“You mean I have to live in that camper for a whole year while we wait for next Halloween to come?”
Jenna slipped her arm around his waist. “How much longer until midnight?”
“One minute and counting and you didn’t answer my question.”
“You can live in the house. Maybe we can live in it together. After all, it’s your family home, but I love it and don’t want to move.”
“I kind of like the idea. After all, I think Great-Grandma would approve.”
Jenna smiled as he kissed her lightly on the lips. “How much longer?”
“Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, midnight!”
Jenna turned into his embrace.
“Close your eyes!” She said, as a rumbling sound like old bones creaking filled the air followed by moans from the grave beyond. The moans grew louder and louder as did the creaking until a chilly wind whispered over them. All became quiet.
She pushed out of Blade’s embrace and stared where the trunk had been burning. It was gone. “Happy Halloween, Blade,” she smiled as Chica began barking for them to let her out too.
“It’s over isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“The skeleton is finally gone.”
“Yes.”
“So, do we get to celebrate Halloween now?”
“Next year, Blade. Next year.”
“No treats?”
Jenna laughed as she moved to open the door to let Chica out. “I didn’t say no treats. Just that there will be no more decorations for Halloween this year.”
“I know one treat I’d like to have right this minute,” he said, walking over to take her in his arms.
“And what’s that?”
“A sweet Halloween kiss.”
“Happy Halloween Blade, and welcome home.”
The End
DEADLY HALLOWEEN
By Cia Leah
The town of Deadly celebrated Halloween with an eye for the deadliest scare that anyone could phantom, only this year they were in for one of the most lethal of frights that anyone had ever thought of in all the years that Halloween had been celebrated there.
Krista walked through the town park and smiled at all the pumpkins sitting around that would be lit this evening for the town Halloween Song Fest. The stage was decorated with a big plastic pumpkin that smiled sinisterly down upon the park. Ghosts, goblins, witches, and skeletons decorated the back of the stage. It was going to be a fun night. Already pranks were being played upon the town’s people and many a yard and tree had toilet paper strewn about.
People didn’t get mad at the kid’s pranks and went around talking about all the fun they were having. No one ever done anything to harm anyone’s property or damage anyone’s houses. Everything Deadly residents did was all in the name of fun.
Krista walked over to the stage and up the steps. Gene Atkers was hooking up the sound system and getting it ready for the kids who would sing little Halloween songs they made up and there would be a prize for the winner as well as for the ones who didn’t win. All kids won for their effort in Deadly. “How’s things going, Gene?”