HALLOWEEN HUNT

by Richard Laymon

  HALLOWEEN HUNT

  Richard Laymon

  “Did you get the invitation?”

  “I got it,” Linda said into the telephone. “Well, you’re going, aren’t you?”

  “I don’t think so.”

  “You have to,” Erin told her. “It’ll be the greatest party ever. I mean, Walt is crazy about Halloween. You heard about last year’s party, didn’t you?”

  “No.”

  “He had a real live stiff there.”

  “What?”

  “You know, a body. He paid some guy at the morgue to let him borrow it. He had it sitting in a chair by the punch bowl.”

  “You’re kidding,” Linda muttered. “Well, that settles it. I’m not going for sure.”

  “Oh, come on. It’ll be all right. He promised not to have a corpse this year. Too many people were upset last time.”

  “Even so…”

  “Dave’s going to be there,” Erin added in a teasing voice.

  The sound of Dave’s name gave Linda a sick, hollow feeling. “I figured he would be,” she said, trying to keep her voice steady. “He’s Walt’s best friend. That’s exactly why I don’t plan on going to the party.”

  “You’re being too hard on him, Linda.”

  “Hey, he’s the one who took Tanya Raines to the Springsteen concert.”

  “You had the flu.”

  “So, he could have taken a guy—or his sister. He could’ve gone alone, for that matter. He didn’t have to take Tanya Raines.”

  “That was kind of a stupid thing for him to do,” Erin admitted.

  “It wasn’t stupid; it was mean.”

  “You still like him, though, don’t you?”

  “We broke up,” Linda said. “What does that tell you?”

  “Only that he hurt your feelings. But look, he’ll be at the party and I happen to know for a fact that Tanya wasn’t invited. I think you ought to go. Who knows, maybe you and Dave could patch things up.”

  “I don’t want to patch things up. He’s a jerk.”

  “Well, then go to the party and pretend he doesn’t exist. Rub it in a little. That’ll teach him.”

  “Yeah, sure.”

  “Because I know he wants to get back with you,” Erin said.

  “I’ll think about it.”

  Linda thought about it a lot. She had been lonely since she broke up with Dave. She was still angry about his date with Tanya, but she missed him. She thought maybe she should give him one more chance.

  Or, she could go to the party, as Erin suggested, and ignore him.

  The idea of seeing Dave again was painful. Over and over, she made up her mind to stay away from the party. Time and again, she decided to go.

  Even on the day of the party, her mind went back and forth. By the time she got home from her job at the law office, she had decided. She would stay away and go to a movie instead.

  Alone in her apartment, she looked through the newspaper and picked a movie. Then she made dinner for herself.

  Even if she wanted to go to the party, she realized while she ate, she didn’t have a costume to wear.

  When she was a kid, that had never been a problem. Even without a fancy costume, it had always been easy to throw something together. All you really needed were old clothes and a little imagination.

  “I could wear my old prom gown,” she thought, “and go as Cinderella. Or Carrie.

  “I’m not going,” she reminded herself.

  “I’ll be just fine if I never see Dave again.

  “I wonder what he’ll be going as.

  “A turkey.”

  When she finished eating, she went into her bedroom. In the closet, she found an old shirt and a ragged pair of jeans. She knew she could use them to fix herself up as a pirate or a hobo.

  “Except I’m not going,” she thought. “And if I were going, it wouldn’t be as a pirate or a hobo. I’d want to look good.”

  Maybe the prom dress wasn’t such a bad idea. “Then I’d look like the turkey. Nobody goes to a Halloween party in a formal gown.”

  Then Linda remembered her cheerleader outfit. She found it in the bottom drawer of her dresser, and spread it on her bed. She stared at the blue pleated skirt and the gold sweater with its big M for Monroe High School. As she did, memories rushed through her mind. She remembered all the tryouts and her excitement when she made the squad. The football games, with the team rushing by in their gleaming golden helmets, and the roar of pep rallies in the gym. Those were great times. In her cheerleader outfit, she had always felt special.

  She put it on.

  She sat on the bed and slipped into her white socks and tennis shoes. She almost believed she was getting ready for a Friday night football game. Her heart began to beat fast.

  She stepped in front of the mirror. Six years had gone by since she last wore this sweater and skirt, but she looked no different.

  Watching her reflection, Linda danced and clapped and flung her arms as she chanted, “V-A-R-S-I-T-Y! Varsity! Monroe High!” She leaped, throwing her arms high and kicking her feet up behind her.

  “Dave should see me looking like this,” she thought.

  At that moment, she knew she would be going to the party.

  “Velcome to Castle Valt,” Walt said through his plastic fangs as he opened the apartment door. He was dressed as Count Dracula. His slicked-down hair was parted in the middle, and he wore makeup that made his face look dead white.

  “Just don’t bite my neck,” Linda told him as she stepped inside.

  The apartment was lighted with candles. Guests who had arrived earlier were gathered around a punch bowl. Stepping toward them, Linda rubbed her moist hands on her skirt. She spotted Erin in a tutu. George Palmer was in an ape suit. He had a cup of punch in one hand and the ape head cradled under his other arm. Meg Whitman was dressed as a clown. Bill Stevens was a hobo. The only other guest was draped from head to foot in a white sheet with holes cut out for his eyes and mouth. He had a chain around his neck, and he was about Dave’s size.

  “It must be him,” Linda thought.

  “Hey,” Erin said, “glad you came.”

  Linda forced herself to smile. “I wouldn’t miss it,” she said, and then greeted the others. The one in the ghost costume didn’t speak. “Do I know you?” she asked.

  He answered, “Woooooo.”

  “Is that you, Dave?”

  “Woooooo.”

  “That’s Casper,” George said. “He’s the shy type.”

  “Nice to meet you, Casper.”

  “Uhhhhh.”

  “If he’s going to act that way,” Linda thought, “maybe I will just pretend he isn’t here.”

  She got herself a glass of punch, and joined in the conversation. The ghost, standing across the table from her, said nothing. When she glanced at him, he seemed to be watching her. His eyes, behind the sheet holes, glinted with the candlelight.

  “Maybe he’s giving me the silent treatment,” she thought. “Well, that’s just fine. I always knew Dave was a jerk.”

  “What have you cooked up for tonight?” Meg the clown asked Walt.

  “Vait and see,” Walt said in his Dracula voice. “Ve’re still vaiting for vun more guest.”

  “I hope it’s not a dead one,” Erin said.

  “If he doesn’t get here soon, he vill be.”

  Just then, the doorbell rang. Walt rushed across the room, his black cape fluttering behind him like a shadow. He opened the door. “Velcome to Castle Valt.”

  “You gotta be kidding.” It was Dave’s voice. “A fat vampire?”

  “The blood is filled with calories, my friend,” Walt said.

  Dave laughed and came in. As he stepped into the candle glow, Linda saw that he was dressed as
an Indian. He wore a buckskin jacket with swaying fringe. It covered the top of his jeans and was belted in at the waist. A big hunting knife hung at his side. Around his head was a band with a single feather at the back. His moccasins were silent on the rug.

  “How,” said Erin.

  “Not bad,” Dave said. “Yourself?”

  He stopped in front of Linda and stared at her. “You look great,” he said.

  She felt a blush warm her face. Her heart pounded. “Thanks,” she said. “You, too.”

  “A cheerleader.”

  “Yay, team.”

  “Wow.” Grinning, he shook his head. “I knew you’d be here.”

  “Then you knew more than I did,” Linda answered.

  “Injun very thirsty,” he said and stepped up to the table. At Linda’s side, he reached out to fill a cup with punch. His after-shave had a good, familiar smell.

  “You broke up with him,” Linda reminded herself. “Don’t forget about that. He took Tanya Raines to the concert. You can’t just pretend it never happened.”

  “Refill?” he asked.

  As he filled her cup, Linda noticed that the sheeted ghost was standing still on the other side of the table. His eyes seemed once more to be gazing at her through the holes. Looking at him made Linda nervous. And now she knew it wasn’t Dave.

  “Who are you?” she asked.

  “Woooooo!”

  Some of the others laughed.

  Then Erin said, “Who is he, anyway?”

  “Casper,” George repeated. “You know, the friendly ghost.”

  “Yeah, sure. But who is he?”

  “Dunsmore, I bet,” said Bill the hobo.

  “Dunsmore’s out of town,” Erin explained.

  “Attention everyvun,” Walt said, raising his arms. “It is time for the fun to begin.”

  “Uh-oh,” Meg said.

  “For tonight, I have prepared a little game—a scavenger hunt. You vill find it amusing.”

  “What’s a scavenger hunt?” Erin asked.

  “You know, a hunt where you go out looking to collect things that are hard to find,” George said. “Since it’s Halloween, we’ll probably have to get weird things that are hard to find. Right, Walt?”

  “If we’re supposed to go grave robbing,” Meg said, “count me out.”

  “Ve vill split up into two teams, three on each side,” Walt said.

  “But there are eight of us,” Erin said.

  “Bill and I vill be referees. Ve don’t vant cheating.”

  “Why would anyone want to cheat?” Meg asked.

  “Because the winning team will get a little prize,” Walt said seriously.

  “How little?” Dave asked.

  “Three hundred dollars.”

  George whistled.

  “That’s some kind of prize,” Dave said.

  Linda shook her head. “This must be some kind of heavy-duty scavenger hunt.”

  “It will be easy,” Walt said. “But it will take nerve.”

  “Grave robbing,” Meg muttered. “I knew it.”

  “I wouldn’t ask you to do that,” Walt told her.

  “Well, it must be something pretty hairy.”

  “I think you will all find it hairy. And why not? This is Halloween!” He took two envelopes from a pocket. He handed one to Dave and the other to Erin. “On Erin’s team are you and you.” He pointed to Meg and George. “Bill will be your referee. I will be the referee for Dave’s team. On Dave’s team are you and you.” He pointed to Linda and the ghost.

  “Oh, great,” Linda thought. “The ghost.”

  “Let us begin.”

  “Come on!” Erin shouted. She raced from the apartment, followed by her teammates and Bill.

  Dave tore open the envelope.

  “We can read it along the way,” Linda said.

  “Hang on.” He quickly read the paper. “You’ve got to be kidding,” he told Walt.

  “No.”

  “Okay, let’s go. We’ll take my car.”

  “Where to?” Linda asked.

  “The cemetery,” Dave answered.

  Linda groaned as she followed him to the door. “What do we need at the cemetery?” she asked.

  “Dirt from the grave of Lyle Borden.”

  Linda felt a cold knot in her stomach. She knew about Lyle Borden. He had gone crazy last year. He’d run down Center Street with an axe, screaming and chasing everyone until Deputy Clayborn had stopped him with a bullet.

  Leaving the apartment, they saw Erin’s car speed away from the curb. Moments later, Linda was sitting in the front seat of Dave’s car. Walt and the ghost climbed into the back. Dave pulled away and made a U-turn.

  “Why isn’t Erin’s bunch heading for the cemetery?” Linda asked.

  “They have a different list,” Walt explained. “I didn’t want the teams tripping over each other.”

  “I hope their list is as hard as ours,” Dave said.

  “Never fear,” said Walt.

  A few minutes later, they reached Woodlawn Cemetery. Dave drove past the closed iron gates.

  “Do you think they’re locked?” Linda asked.

  “I’m sure of it,” Dave said.

  “Good. I guess we’ll have to call it quits.”

  “For three hundred bucks, I’ll find a way in.” Dave drove alongside the high stone wall, and then steered over the curb. His car rocked and bounced on the grass. He stopped close to the wall. “All out that’s getting out.”

  Linda couldn’t open her door because of the wall, so she scooted across the seat and got out the driver’s side. The chilly wind whipped against her.

  “Pretty smart, huh?” Dave asked. Without waiting for an answer, he hopped from the bumper to the hood. Then he stepped over the windshield and stood on the roof. From there, the top of the cemetery wall was waist-high. He stared over it. “Coast is clear,” he called back. “Come on.” He climbed onto the wall and dropped out of sight on the other side.

  Linda looked around at the ghost. It shrugged. She took a deep, shaky breath, and then climbed to the roof of the car. Leaning against the wall, she peered down. Dave was waiting in the shadows. “A little problem,” she said. “Once we’re in, how do we get out? The car is on this side of the wall.”

  “We’ll worry about that later,” Dave told her.

  “Great,” she muttered.

  “Come on,” Dave urged her. “You’re not scared, are you?”

  “Of course I’m scared,” she said. Then she climbed onto the wall. She sat on its rough stone top, pushed off, and dropped. Her feet struck the ground. She stumbled forward, but Dave caught her. She was about to thank him, but he hugged her and kissed her. She struggled free. “Hey, cut it out,” she whispered. “We’re in a graveyard, for Pete’s sake. Besides…”

  “Besides what?”

  “We broke up, remember?”

  “Well, we can always get back together.”

  Linda heard a thud. Turning around, she saw the ghost stumble and fall to his knees. As the ghost got up, Walt dropped from the wall, his black cape flapping.

  “Now we’ve got to find Borden’s grave,” Dave said.

  “We?” Walt asked. “I am just here to watch.”

  Frowning, Dave gazed across the cemetery. Linda looked, too. She saw dark trees, shadows, rolling fields, and grave markers. There were tombstones, crosses, statues of angels. So many of them. And each one stood over the place where a body was buried. Her knees felt weak. She wished she were someplace else—anyplace else.

  “It could take us all night to find Borden’s grave,” Dave said.

  “Let’s just forget about it,” Linda suggested.

  “I know where it is,” said the ghost.

  When he finally spoke, Linda didn’t recognize his voice.

  He started forward, the October wind flinging his sheet around as he jogged toward the middle of the graveyard.

  Linda followed. Dave stayed close to her side, and she heard Walt’s quie
t footfalls behind her.

  There were graves on every side. Linda tried not to think about them.

  “I wonder,” Walt said. “Do they know we’re here?”

  “Cut it out,” Linda muttered.

  Walt laughed.

  Running between the tombstones, she hoped she wasn’t stepping on any graves.

  She remembered horror movies where the dead reached up through crumbling dirt. She could almost feel a cold hand grabbing her ankle. Her skin crawled with goose bumps. She had a strange tight feeling in her throat as if a scream were about to burst out.

  “You okay?” Dave asked.

  “No.”

  “There’s nothing to worry about.”

  It helped, knowing that Dave was right beside her. But it didn’t help much.

  “I shouldn’t be here,” she told herself.

  At the top of a small hill, the ghost stopped. Linda hurried up to him. He lifted an arm out from under his sheet, and pointed at a headstone. A bunch of flowers, their stems wrapped in paper, lay in the grass in front of the stone.

  Dave crouched down. “This is it. Lyle Borden.” He pulled the knife from his belt. Using its blade, he dug up a small heap of dirt. He picked up the dirt and looked over his shoulder at Linda. “Do you want it?”

  “Just put it in your pocket,” she whispered.

  Suddenly the flowers skidded toward her feet. She leapt away from them. Where the flowers had been, there was a dim, pale shape—a face!

  Linda shrieked.

  “It’s him!” Walt yelled. “Run for it!”

  Dave caught Linda’s arm as she whirled away. He pulled her against him. “It’s all right,” he said. “It’s all right.”

  She heard Walt laughing.

  “That was a rotten trick,” Linda said.

  “I just wanted to keep things exciting,” Walt said through his laughter. “I came out here earlier and set it up. See?”

  Linda turned and looked. Walt held a rubber mask in one hand. The bunch of flowers swayed at his knees, dangling by string. “Pretty neat, huh?”

  “You creep,” she muttered.

  “Come on,” Dave said. “We’d better get out of here. Someone might’ve heard all the noise.”

  They ran. As they neared the cemetery wall, Dave said, “Uh-oh.” Linda looked back. She saw distant headlights. Someone—probably a night watchman—must have heard her scream. She groaned and ran faster.