Halloween Horrors: 11 Urban Legends & Scary Tales for Spooky Season

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
On Weekly Spooky. Halloween never ends, but October is basically here.
The air is sharp and the pumpkins are plotting, and
our vault of Halloween horror stories is just itching to
be opened. I'm your host and narrator, Enrique Kuto. Grab

(00:21):
a cozy seat, maybe a candle or three, and follow
me down into the stacks, past the dusty masks as
we find something spooky on the shelf reel. We're kicking
off these eleven terrifying Halloween tales with the one that

(00:41):
started it all, Mischief Night, the first story ever read
here on Weekly Spooky, six years ago. It's a monster
compilation ready to help you through a late night drive
or a long shift at your job. So get cozy,
get creepy. Remember, some pranks are more than pranks, and

(01:04):
some knocks on the door aren't looking for candy. So
let's kick off October right, settle in, and every Tuesday
in October we'll bring you another collection to enjoy. Mischief
Night by Shane migliovaka Ray had a bad feeling in

(01:27):
his gut. Bud had a sinister look in his eye.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
Tonight.

Speaker 1 (01:30):
It was Bud's idea they go out. There was an
unreasonably cold chill to this October night, most likely the
reason the tricker treaters were starting to thin out. Bud
wanted to do some trick or treating of his own.
Ray knew Bud long enough to know that meant some
kind of crime would be perpetrated by them. Tonight, Bud

(01:52):
swung a beat up paper sack back and forth as
they walked. When Ray had asked, Bud told him only
that it was a surprime. Ray didn't like his friend's
surprises all that much, but without him, Ray would never
have made it this far in life. His mother was
an out of work nurse, his dad a foreman at
a chemical plant. Stuck home with a kid and a

(02:15):
husband that was never around. She took her frustrations out
on Ray, smacking him around. His dad, too busy and
too tired from long shifts, failed to notice or care.
When he was fifteen, Ray ran away from home. Those
first few years had been harder than hell. He'd resorted

(02:35):
to things he'd never thought he was capable of. Then
he met Bud, a former runaway himself. They were kindred spirits.
Bud knew his way around the streets. Ray owed him
no matter what the man did, he wouldn't desert him,
not to mention he was more than a little afraid

(02:56):
of him. A kid in a skeleton costume bounded down
the side I'd walked towards them, happily clutching a full
bag of candy in his arms. As he passed by,
Bud stuck out a leg, sending the kid crashing to
the sidewalk, his bag of candy landing next to him,
some of the candy spilling onto the sidewalk in lawn.
The kid started blubbering as he rubbed his knee. Bud

(03:19):
knelt down and looked at the kid. Did you have
a nice trip?

Speaker 2 (03:23):
Kid?

Speaker 1 (03:24):
The kid shook his head back and forth.

Speaker 2 (03:26):
You tripped me?

Speaker 1 (03:28):
Maybe you're just clumsy, kid, Bud laughed. He snatched up
the kid's bag of candy. Hey, that's mine, the kid hollered,
give it back. There was a flash of steel. Bud
held out a switchblade he carried sh He whispered. Ray
felt his heart quicken. What was Bud gonna do to

(03:49):
this kid? He'd never seen him hurt a kid. Could
he go that far? Kill a kid?

Speaker 2 (03:57):
Listen?

Speaker 3 (03:57):
Kid?

Speaker 1 (03:58):
Bud said, this is my eye candy, now mine. You
tell anybody about it, your parents, a cop, anybody, and
I'll make you watch as I kill him because I'm
the Boogeyman and I know where you live.

Speaker 2 (04:13):
Got it?

Speaker 1 (04:14):
The kid near tears, more than likely pissing his pants,
nodded good. Now run the fuck along and don't talk
to fucking strangers. The kid high tailed that his Bud laughed,
sniffing the air as he looked at Ray. I think
that kid shit his pants?

Speaker 2 (04:32):
Or was it you?

Speaker 4 (04:34):
Fuck? Ray?

Speaker 2 (04:35):
Managed? Fuck man.

Speaker 1 (04:37):
This made Bud laugh louder, handing the bag of ill
gotten candy to Ray have some. Shaking his head, Ray
reached into the bag, grabbing a small bag of sour patch.

Speaker 2 (04:47):
Kids. What are we doing out here tonight?

Speaker 4 (04:50):
Man?

Speaker 1 (04:50):
He popped a red sour patch into his mouth. Besides
mugging little kids, Well, my man, I want to do
something more adult than tricker treating. Bud motioned to the
houses up and down the street. Pick one, pick a
good one, and we'll have ourselves some fun. Ray let
his eyes wander over the houses, nice upper middle class homes,

(05:14):
some decorated to the hilt for Halloween. Others bore nothing
at all. One house in particular, A large grim reaper
stood on the lawn, his eyes glowing. A witch stood
next to him, cackling at a passer by. Purple, orange
and green lights decorated the house's exterior. A large glowing

(05:35):
ghost hung on the front door, loudly wailing at little
kids as they walked up to the front door. That
one ray pointed. Bud nodded in approval. A pretty brunette
answered the door, handing out candy to the little kids
waiting there. Good choice, Amanda followed the outline on the

(05:57):
construction paper, a detailed drawing of a skeleton, grinning at her.
She'd always been pretty good at drawing. Cutting things with
scissors was another thing. Next to her. Amanda's little brother, Kyle,
coughed as he colored in a pumpkin she'd drawn earlier.
They sat at the kitchen table, surrounded by snacks in
colored paper. What a drag Stuck at home on Halloween night,

(06:20):
looking after her sick kid brother. Her parents were off
to have dinner and then a movie. She was missing
Stevie Lee's big Halloween party at the Mill Creek Farms.
She'd just got her driver's license and barely got to
use it. Why couldn't her parents cancel? Why did it
have to be her? She looked at her brother. It
sucked for him too. He'd really been looking forward to

(06:42):
trick her treating tonight. Instead, they were stuck home together.
Both of them had gotten bored watching horror movies on TV.
She decided maybe making something would lift their spirits. The
horror thon will be back with Night of the Killer
Lobsters after reward from our ghoulish sponsors. The television played
in an empty living room. The ghost hanging on the

(07:03):
front door wailed, breaking Amanda's thoughts. The scissors slipped, causing
her to poke her thumb. Oh shit, she hollered, you okay?
Kyle asked, yeah, you didn't hear me?

Speaker 2 (07:15):
Swear right?

Speaker 1 (07:15):
He gave her a thumbs up. There was a loud
knock at the door. Want me to get it, her
brother asked. Amanda stood, holding the scissors in one hand.
I'll get it. There was another loud knock coming coming.
Amanda shouted over the ghost's howl. Hold your fucking horses,
she said under her breath. Look a man warned on television,

(07:38):
that is one of them now as a lobster superimposed
over the side of a car, menacing some kids in
lover's lane, walking past an upright piano set against one wall.
Setting the scissors on the coffee table, Amanda picked up
her mom's large ceramic bowl. According to her, it was
some family heirloom. A red drop hit the beige carpet. Shit,

(08:00):
Amanda growled, looking at the trail of blood drops on
the carpet behind her. She hadn't thought the scissors had
broken the skin of her thumb. Now she'd have to
get bloodstains out of the carpet before mom and Dad
get home.

Speaker 2 (08:12):
What next?

Speaker 1 (08:14):
There was another furious knock. Yeah, yeah, she said, this time,
not even trying to hide her annoyance. The pile up
of the night's events getting to her so much so
Amanda forgot to look through the window to see who
was out there first, something she always did. Unlocking the door,
she yanked it open. Two men in plastic clown masks

(08:36):
stood waiting. Amanda stood, hesitating tricker. The rest of it
was cut off as the closer of the two men
drove a fist into her stomach, knocking the air out
of her lungs and doubling her over Mom's precious heirloom,
hitting the floor, shattering, sending candy spilling over the floor.
Before she could recover, strong hands shoved her back into

(08:58):
the living room, the two men rushing in after her.
The second man closes the door, locking it and turning
off the lights. Amanda tries to stand, earning another punch
to the stomach from the first man. We good, he asks.
The second peeks out through the curtains, golden, he answered,
keeping watch through the drawn curtains. Amanda staggered, hunched over,

(09:19):
barely able to gasp her air, much less form words.
She wanted to warn her brother, scream out for help, anything.
The first man grabbed her by the hair, yanking her
head up so they were face to face. His gloved
hand touched her cheek. In his other he held a switchblade.
You alone, girly, yeah, she gasped.

Speaker 2 (09:41):
What's a looker like.

Speaker 1 (09:42):
You doing all alone on Halloween night? I was grounded,
she managed, tears burning her eyes. That's so, wouldn't be lying?
Would you don't have a boyfriend stashed somewhere? Maybe a girlfriend?
You know what they say when the cat's away the
micel play you play in Pretty Mouse? Amanda coughed. No,

(10:07):
too bad, he lamented, gonna behave Yes, Please take whatever
and go, she pleaded. The first man picked up the
family portrait sitting on the mantel.

Speaker 4 (10:19):
God.

Speaker 1 (10:20):
She hoped Kyle had heard everything and run and hid,
or maybe he'd run out the kitchen door, heading to
one of the neighbors for help. He was a smart kid.
It was possible. Who says we want to take anything?
He answered? Where's Junior?

Speaker 3 (10:35):
Here?

Speaker 1 (10:36):
He said, tapping on the picture. He went with my
parents tricker treating. Amanda answered, did he now? Her watery
eyes wandered the room. Not too far away sat the
scissors on the coffee table. So far, all she'd seen
was the guy's knife. No guns. If she could reach
the scissors, the man chuckled loudly. She met his eyes.

(10:59):
He'd I've seen her looking at the scissors. Amanda lunge,
leaping towards the scissors. Don't think so, first man said,
cutting her off with another punch. Amanda staggered and fell
to her knees, the world fading in and out of
blackness as the carpet came, rushing up to meet her.
As she fell, Ray saw the girl go down in

(11:20):
a flash, turning away from the window. When he heard
the commotion, she hit the carpeted floor and went limp.
She Bud knelt down, checking the girl out like a light.
He stood, motioning Ray over, I'll stay here with the princess.
I want you to check the place out. They got
to have something valuable stashed here. Mommy might have some jewelry,

(11:40):
or Daddy might have some cash squirreled away. Check the
bedrooms first, okay, man, then we can get out of here,
Ray said. Her parents could be back any time. Go
find something good, Bud said, and if you see somebody,
a boyfriend or the brat. He drew a finger across
his throat. I'll entertain myself while I wait, he smiled.

(12:03):
Ray nodded before leaving. God he'd be happy when they
were out of there, when he could take off the
crummy mask. He was sweating like crazy. Besides the mask,
Ray was scared Bud was really on a rip tonight.
He knew what Bud was gonna do with the girl,
and he wanted no part of it. The fear in
his bones of what Bud might do to even him

(12:25):
stopped Ray from helping the girl best. He could do
was find some shit so they could get the hell
out of there. Heading upstairs, Ray searched as quick as
he could a bathroom, the boy's bedroom, then the girl's.

Speaker 4 (12:39):
Nothing.

Speaker 1 (12:40):
At least there was no boyfriend waiting up here, no
little brother playing in his room either. That left the
parents bedroom.

Speaker 2 (12:48):
Fuck.

Speaker 1 (12:48):
He hoped there was something valuable there. He feared what
Bud's reaction would be if he came back empty handed.
He dumped the dresser drawers, clothes, adildo, and some papers
Bill's mostly zip for anything worth a shit looked like
the closet was it? Come on, Fox, He said to himself,
you're killing me here, opening the sliding closet door, lots

(13:12):
of clothes, mostly the mothers. The shelf was crammed full
of stuff, but there was one thing that stood out,
a metal box bingo. He reached up, pulling it down.
A box of pictures fell, spilling on the floor. Holding
the heavy box in his arms, Ray saw something that
made his heart stop. A little kid hiding in the

(13:34):
corner of the closet, huddled behind some of the clothes.
The kid's eyes widened when he met Ray's gaze. Ray
put a finger to his lips. Not a word, kid,
he whispered. He knelt, setting the box on the floor,
staring at the kid. What the fuck was he gonna do?

(13:54):
If he brought the kid downstairs, Bud would kill him,
for sure. Ray had a really good idea of what
Bud was probably up to now with the girl. Even
if Bud let the brat live, there was no reason
to subject him to seeing that. Reaching into his back pocket,
Ray pulled out his own knife. Looking into the kid's
terrified eyes, Ray recognized what he saw there. How many

(14:18):
times he had looked up with those same eyes at
his mom as she beat the piss out of him. No,
he couldn't kill the kid. I want you to stay here,
he whispered. Me and my buddy are going soon. Don't
come out of here till somebody comes and gets you. Okay.
The kid nodded good, Ray said. He clapped a hand

(14:42):
over the kid's mouth. One more thing. Don't worry, I
ain't gonna hurt you. It'll just sting a little. Ray
drew the blade out down the kid's cheek, opening up
a small cut. The kid squirmed, wanting to holler in pain.
Ray's hand suppressing the cry. Done Ray dabbed some of
the blood from the cut on his blade. He wasn't

(15:04):
taking any chances. If Bud thought he'd killed the kid,
that should keep him from wanting to look for the kid.
Picking up one of the father's t shirts from the floor,
Ray wadded it up and handed it to the kid,
telling him to press it to his cheek. Closing the
closet again, Ray picked up the metal box, setting it
on the bed. Using a solid metal ash tray, he

(15:26):
smashed off the flimsy padlock inside the box. It was
like Christmas morning had come, early jewelry and a couple
of envelopes of cash.

Speaker 2 (15:37):
Score.

Speaker 1 (15:38):
Picking up his prize, Ray headed downstairs. Amanda heard gentle
music playing over the screams of terror coming from the television.
She felt the softness of the rug against her back.
Her body ached, and she wasn't sure why. Her eyes
focused on the man playing the piano. Amanda saw the

(15:58):
clown mask and Rehac came crashing back. The last things
she remembered was trying to grab the scissors, and then
nothing save for scattershot images the man over her, the
sounds of fabric tearing. Oh god. She rolled over onto
her belly. The other man came rushing in, excited and

(16:20):
holding the metal box from her parents closet. The first
man opened it, letting out a jubilant hoot. She couldn't
hear their words over the frenzy on the TV. Words
are no words. A man knew what the blood on
the other man's knife meant as he showed it to
the first Ray bounded down the stairs, eager to show
Bud the lute. Somebody was playing music, a piano or

(16:42):
something in the living room. Bud sat at the small
piano playing without a care in the world. The girl
lay on the carpet, her clothes shredded. He knew what
Bud had in mind for the girl. He could have
no no, best not to dwell on it. There was
nothing he could have done. They were almost out of
there anyway. He showed him the contents of the box

(17:05):
and then the knife. Good work, Bud said, looking at
Ray's bloody knife. You're a man now. He motioned towards
the girl. Want some Can we just get out of here?
Ray asked, fine, fine, I'm getting restless anyway. Bud stood,
tickling the piano keys. A wail of anguish and rage

(17:27):
rose up over the piano. Over the screams on the television,
the men turned to see a bloodied, beaten ban She's
standing before them, the scissors in her hands. The girl's
expression was filled with so much hate. Ray felt shivers
run up and down his spine. She lunged. Ray felt
the hot spray hid his face, blood not his, though.

(17:48):
He looked over to see the scissors pulling away from
Bud's neck, a large bloody hole left in their wake.
Bud tumbled over the piano bench, gurgling up blood as
he desperately tried to stop it from jetting out of
his neck, fastening his hands over the wound, blood flowing
between his fingers. Standing there, petrified, Ray couldn't help but
watch his friends squirm about on the carpet floor, the

(18:10):
girl jamming Bud repeatedly in the groin with the scissors.
The knife slipped from his fingers. The girl turned from
the now dead Bud, her eyes bloodshot, she howled with anger. Please,
Ray begged his body. Finally responding, he ran towards the door,
slipping on the spilled candy. Inches from his goal, He
grabbed a large jagged shard of the broken candy bowl,

(18:33):
slicing his gloved hand, swinging at the crazed girl, cutting
her arm. The pain didn't FaZe her as she plunged
the scissors into Ray's right eye socket with a sickening crunch. Frenzied,
Ray pushed her away, fumbling for the door lock. The
only thought in his dying brain was to get away,
but his fingers couldn't seem to manage the lock. Ray
heard the girl breathing behind him. Pulling the scissors from

(18:55):
his eye socket, he blindly sliced the air with them.
The crazed girl crouch watching him till finally his body
gave out and he collapsed against the door. It was
hard to believe the girl, her face covered with a
blank white mask, was his sister. Kyle visited her from
time to time at the sanitarium. He was sixteen, now,

(19:19):
the same age she'd been when it happened. He touched
the scar on his cheek, a constant reminder of that night.
Amanda sat there in the day room, staring out the window,
never moving her head, never turning. Doctor Chandler said she
was near catatonic. The mask, he said she'd started wearing

(19:42):
to hide her shame. After that man found him in
the closet, Kyle had stayed hidden, staying there till his
parents had found him. Amanda had believed the man killed him.
Perhaps she still did. The doctors were afraid to let
him talk to her. The first time had been a disaster.

(20:03):
He blamed himself for what happened to her, even though
his parents, the copse, and his shrink told him there
was nothing he could have done. He'd only been a
scared little boy. Sometimes he dreamed about her, Not of
that night. No, he dreamed of her escaping here, finding
her way over his bed, a pair of bloody scissors

(20:26):
in her hand. He watched her for a while.

Speaker 3 (20:30):
She was.

Speaker 1 (20:32):
So unnaturally patient, gazing out that window, staring into the distance,
waiting The Halloween heist by Rob Fields. I don't mind

(20:56):
telling you how great it is to wake up to
a nice, warm female body most every morning, especially during
the fall and winter months. Take this morning for example.
I'm kinda in between sleep and being awake, but I
can feel the soft, warm, naked body I'm spooned up with.

(21:17):
Then I hear her moaning softly and feel her moved
to lay on her back. Okay, now, I'm fully awake.
I start feeling her up and then we kiss. Soon
we're having some really awesome mourning sex. I usually only
do mourning sex when the night before was just as incredible.
We end up going a couple of rounds before we

(21:38):
finally decide we're satisfied. Now, I remember the girl I
brought to my loft. Her name is Kitty. Oh yeah,
I remember the names of all the girls I've ever
slept with, and for good reason, I'll get to that.
I met Kitty at Shakers, a bar that Strickfield University
students tend to hang out at. I usually frequent a

(22:01):
few of the local bars and even a few outside
a Strickfield to find that perfect girl, or the occasional
woman to take to bed at least for a night.
Kitty really stood out for me last night. I mean,
this girl is perfectly stacked, great body, great face, awesome rack,

(22:21):
hot ass. Normally I only have to turn on the
charm to get a girl to come to bed with me,
but once in a while, the girls just come right
to you.

Speaker 2 (22:32):
That was Kitty.

Speaker 1 (22:34):
I bought Kitty a few drinks and just talked with
her about whatever she wanted to talk about. See, that's
one of the ways you're guaranteed to get girls into
your bed. They need to know you're genuinely interested in them.
They just want to know you care. And of course
you need to make sure you keep your body finally toned,
which means watching your diet and making sure you work

(22:56):
out most every day. Getting back to kit, the girl
was practically begging me to take her to bed. She
wore a very form fitting dress that basically told me
she wasn't wearing any underwear. I was right when I
got her back to the loft and got her dress off.
Kitty and I pounded each other many times last night.
We just couldn't get enough. Normally, after I've had a

(23:20):
girl for a night, we part ways. Sometimes I'll get
a girl that wants more than just one night. Sometimes
I make an exception or two, depending on the girl
and how good the sex really was. But most of
the time I just tell them I'll call them just
to get them the hell out of my loft and
out of my life once and for all. But I'll
let you in on a little secret. These girls aren't

(23:43):
all together out of my life. No, they end up
being a part of my collection. See, I've got cameras
set up all over the loft that record and store
the content onto servers and hard drives that are rigged up.
When it's time, I'll go and edit the footage and
make some quality homemade adult movies that you just can't

(24:05):
find anywhere else. Oh, and I can only imagine what
kind of quality porno I'll make from Kitty's footage while
I'm thinking about it. Getting girls into my bed has
been so much better for me since my roommate, Jacob
Levine and his stupid girlfriend Genevieve van Sandt both ended
up getting murdered in this loft months ago. Yeah, it

(24:27):
freaked me the fuck out. I was staying at Raylen
Jones's dorm that night. One I forgot a term paper
that was there. Two, I'd already had sex with Raylen
before I left. As I was about to come into
the loft, she called me back and offered to let
me spend the night. Guess we both wanted more of
each other and I needed that term paper, So there
you go. The funny thing was I came back here

(24:50):
the next day and found this message written in blood
that told me I was glad I didn't actually come in.
Knowing I had the loft all to myself, I quickly
got that blood off the walls and got the room repainted.
Since Jacob wasn't here anymore, that meant I could keep
whatever he had. I mean, nobody in his family ever
came to claim anything that included all the cameras he'd

(25:14):
set up. See, Jacob and Genevieve were making homemade porn together. Yeah,
she knew about it because she knowingly looked at the cameras.
As for me, I managed to cleverly hide the cameras
well enough. After I took over the loft. Not a
single girl I brought here ever discovered them. But you

(25:34):
know what the beauty of being able to make homemade
porn is. There are actually a few websites I won't
say which ones that'll pay some damn good money for
these movies. Being a mirror, I've got more money than
I'll ever know what to do with. But enough is
never enough. Right every now and then, I'll just sell

(25:55):
a video to one of those sites and make some
damn good money. As for the girl in the video,
who really cares? She ought to be happy that she's
getting a lot of attention. Talk about getting to the
height of your popularity, and if one of them ends
up catching a lot of shit for it, oh well,
come to think of it, Kitty has about the same
build as a girl I remember sleeping with that I

(26:16):
sold a video of Catherine Pierce. Not only did Catherine
get expelled by the Dean of Strickfield University himself, her
parents disowned her. Now I do know the thing about
the dean is true, but the thing with her parents
might just be rumors. Still, not a single girl ever
came back to find me.

Speaker 2 (26:36):
Why would they.

Speaker 1 (26:37):
They can't prove that I was in the video. I
am very careful to keep my face out of them.
All they see is my body, all of her face
and body, and all the compromising positions that we did.
What are they going to do? Take me to court
and sue me? Let them try. What people fail to
understand is that I'm Calvin Miron. That's right. I belong

(27:01):
to the rich and powerful mirror In family. We've got
so much money that we actually own a whole section
of Strickfield Commons, a housing community made up of mostly
rich people on the east side of Strickfield. We even
have our own section walled off to separate ourselves from
everybody else. It's been said that we're the top one
percent of the top one percent. That's the kind of

(27:23):
money I'm talking about. Just being a mirror means that
I can get away with pretty much whatever I want.
But okay, I'm getting too much into myself here, which
isn't really a bad thing. Kitty and I finish our
mourning sex. I roll off her and onto my back.
Then Kitty turns over and gets on top of me.

(27:43):
Happy Halloween, she cheers. Then she kisses me. I go
ahead and kiss her some more. No, I can't let
this girl become a part of my life. But she's
so fucking hot. Okay, maybe I can keep her around
a little while longer. I've made a few exceptions like
this in the past. You're in a pretty good mood today,

(28:04):
I say, She packs my lips. Well, we just had
fucking incredible sex. And it's Halloween. I love Halloween. That
means trick or treating and all kinds of other fun
things like parties. Ooh, in costumes. I roll my eyes. Oh,
come on, you're telling me you go trick or treating?

(28:26):
She groans, don't you dare roll your eyes at me, Calvin,
Strickfield has their yearly tradition of trick or treating. It's
not just for kids here. Anybody can do it, no
questions asked, no judgments. She's telling the truth. Many years ago,
Strickfield got to be this big Halloween town in addition

(28:46):
to being a big college town. Normally, in most other
parts of the country, trick or treating is basically limited
to just kids. But in Strickfield it doesn't matter how
old you are. Anybody's welcome to do it. People of
all ages drive in from up towns just to trick
or treat right here. Just don't ever think about coming
to our part of town to do it. The gates

(29:06):
of our part of Strickfield Commons are never open unless
we want them open. Okay, you're going trick or treating?
I reply, well, not just me. Kitty reveals I've got
my two roommates coming too, Jamie and Lena. We're gonna
go trick or treating and then to a Halloween party afterwards.

(29:27):
Sounds like fun, I say, just to make conversation. Then
Kitty's face brightens up. Oh my god, you should totally
come with us.

Speaker 4 (29:36):
Tonight.

Speaker 1 (29:36):
Come on, it'll be fun. I raise my hand a
little and shake my head. No, I don't think so.
I'm not much into Halloween. Kitty moves and sits on me.
I have to admit I love Kitty's naked body from
this angle. Then she caresses her tits just a little.
I know my girls would just love to meet you.

(29:57):
They're going to ask why I never came home last night.
Come on, baby, they're both hot like me. It'll be
so much fun. Fine, Kitty's just guaranteed another night with
me tonight. To be honest, I won't mind taking this
fully stacked babe to bed again. Kitty squeals with the
light and finally gets off me. I actually let her

(30:19):
take a shower here, which I usually never let girls.
I don't want to see you again, do. I get
in the shower with her and we make out some more.
When we finish, we both get dressed. Then we make
arrangements on where to meet. Then we go our separate
ways for the time being. That night, I'm waiting for
Kitty at Wilder Hall. I'm wearing my costume, which is

(30:40):
a pirate. I just finish with an energy drink and
toss the can away when I see Kitty coming in
through the doors. On the other side, she has two
other girls with her. Kitty points to me, and then
the three of them come.

Speaker 2 (30:51):
To see me.

Speaker 1 (30:52):
Glad you decided to come, Kitty says excitedly. Of course,
she would be dressed up as a sexy kitty cat,
a full form fitting bodysuit that tells me she's still
not wearing underwear and shows a lot of her ample cleavage,
a long tail, stiletto boots, and caddiers on her head.
Seeing all three of these babes in my sight at once,

(31:15):
imagine if I could get all three of them together
in my loft. I'll bet one of the sites would
pay big money for a video of me and the
three of them. Kitty motions to the girl on her right.
This is Jamie. She's dressed up like a sexy nurse,
seemingly plastic uniform that shapes to her voluptuous body, nicely
white knee high boots, a pink wig, and more cleavage.

(31:38):
Then Kitty motions to her left, and this is Lena.
She's dressed up like a sexy version of Little Red
riding hood revealing outfit with more cleavage face, nicely made up,
red pantyhose with garter belts, red shoes, and red hair dyed.
Maybe Kitty and Jamie have those plastic pumpkin baskets. Lena

(31:59):
has a small picnic it that matches her costume. All
I brought was a pillowcase. Ready to go, babe, Kitty asks, Oh,
I'm definitely ready, I assured her. The four of us
leave Wilder Hall and go trick or treating. We go
up and down one block and then several others. These
girls want to get as much candy as they possibly can.

(32:21):
We all end up getting some good hauls along the way.
I learned some things about Jamie and Lena. Turns out
Jamie's into having a good time more than anything. I'm
definitely looking to hook up at our little party tonight,
she says in her sexy voice. I'm always looking to
play the nurse and let a good doctor take my temperature.

(32:43):
Then she winks at me. Now I feel Lena move
up right next to me. Oh but Jamie, why should
he limit himself to your bubble butt when he could
have these. Lena make sure nobody's around before she pulls
down her top and shows me what she's passed in
her upper basket. She covers them back up. Shortly after, you,

(33:04):
total slut. Jamie cries and unzips her top a little
to show me her perfect tits, then she covers them
back up. I'm more put together than you are anyways,
Kitty groans, Come on, you two. The cops are out
here patrolling tonight. We don't need to be getting arrested
before we can go to our party. Oh shit, you're right,

(33:26):
Lena agrees. Then she wraps her arm around mine. You
are coming to our party when we're done trick or
treating right, well, some deliberate wishy washiness. Remember you have
to make it about the girls if you want to
get laid. Jamie wraps up my other arm. Of course
he is, especially since I'm going to be the one

(33:48):
fucking him tonight. But Kitty has something to say about that. Bitches,
If anybody in our little Motley trio here is taking
him to bed again, it's going to be yours, truly,
so back the fuck off. Now I get to hear
these three fight and argue about who's going to be
the lucky one. Yeah, I definitely want all three of them.

(34:11):
I just have to work my charms on them. But
I'm sure I can easily pull this off. Besides, three
girls at once isn't necessarily a bad thing, right, I'm
already imagining the kind of money i'll get for this
for some video. It's time to make this about them
if I want to make this about me.

Speaker 2 (34:30):
So what do you lovely ladies do? I mean?

Speaker 1 (34:34):
I know your students. Kitty told me you all were
What are you all majoring in? Turns out they're all
former med students who came to Strickfield University on scholarships
because of the excellent medical program there. Now they've moved
on to bigger and better things, applying what they've learned.
I've definitely slept with plenty of med students. I even

(34:54):
took a class in medical terminology just to be able
to keep up with their conversations. Tell me about the
medical fields they're in. None of them say anything about
being nurses. But the only one who says she's a
surgeon is Kitty. At Strickfield, I clocked in some decent
class hours just doing surgeries. What have you operated on recently?

(35:15):
I asked Kitty. I actually had to do kidney removals.
A couple of days ago, she says, the patient I
was working on had non functioning kidneys. I had to
remove them both. The patient is on machines now waiting
for new donor kidneys. Once they come, I'll be putting
them in My eyes widened a little. Is doing surgery scary?

(35:36):
Kitty shrugs a little, But then it's always scary when
you're doing different surgeries for the first time. I mean,
you're always afraid you're going to fuck something up. At
least when I was at Strickfield University, doctor Pratt was
there to supervise me for every surgery I performed. Jamie giggles,
probably letting him take her temperature afterwards. Oh fuck you,

(35:57):
Kitty groans. It was never like that. It was strictly
a mentor student relationship between us. So we keep talking
it up until it's eleven o'clock and trigger treating is
officially over. Now it's time to get to the Halloween party.
Jamie cheers, where are we going again? Lena asks to
Shakers where else? Kitty answers, Remember we're having a private

(36:19):
party there. In fact, we're not far from Shakers now.
Kitty's right, Shakers is only a block walk away from here.
As soon as we get there, there's just one van
in the parking lot. Usually this place is hopping on
every holiday or any reason to celebrate something. I remember
picking up chicks from here every Halloween and it's always packed.

(36:40):
When we get to the door, there's a sign that
says closed for a private event. As soon as we
get to the door, it opens and the owner comes out.
The owner and Kitty exchanged some pleasantries. Then the owner
hands are the keys and tells her to make sure
to clean up and lock up before leaving. Kitty promises
she'll bring the keys by first thing. The four of
us go inside. Kitty locks the door behind us. Then

(37:03):
we put their hauls of candy down on a table.
I turned to face them. Wait a minute, there isn't
anybody else coming. Nope, Kitty chirps, it's just the four
of us. Lina moves to the jukebox. Whoa, there's nothing
but Halloween songs in here. Go ahead and play whatever
you want, no quarters needed. Kitty tells her this place

(37:27):
is paid for and is all ours for the night,
including the jukebox, pool tables, video games, and all the food.
And alcohol we want. As soon as Lena gets some
Halloween tunes going, Jamie steps behind the bar. What do
you all want? You're a bartender, I ask her. Not here,
but it's great spending cash when I'm working, she says.

(37:48):
We give Jamie our drink orders, which she makes up
quite professionally. So now we're dancing to Halloween music and
drinking and having an awesome time. After a while, we're
all starting to feel a little drunk. Lena starts laughing
and climbs up onto the bar When a Halloween song
with a really fast beat starts playing. She's dancing it
up as she's taking more SIPs of her drink. Jamie

(38:09):
looks up at her and grins. Then she and Kitty
both start squealing loudly. When Lena exposes her tits, Kitty
hops up onto the bar with her and dances, exposing
her ample assets too. I feel Jamie's hand on my forearm.
I look to her and see she's got her tits out.

Speaker 2 (38:26):
Also.

Speaker 1 (38:27):
How about another drink, honey, I quickly down the rest
of my glass and hand it to her. Top me off,
pretty lady. Jamie gives me a very sexy smile and
turns around to make my drink. I keep my eyes
on the show above me. Then my eyes grow wide
as Kitty and Lena come together and lock lips. They
kiss hungrily for a little bit before Jamie returns with

(38:49):
my drink. Then Jamie also gets on top of the
bar and starts dancing. All three of them take turns
kissing each other in front of me as I take
SIPs of my refill. Ma, man, what I am going
to have tonight? I say to myself. I down my
drink and keep watching the show. After a little bit,
I start to wonder if maybe I should have slowed

(39:10):
down on my drinks. I try to keep my composure
and keep watching the show. It's when I see Lena
wrapping her arms around Kitty from behind that I'm really
starting to lose my grip on things more. If I
didn't know any better, i'd swear I was feeling really tired.
It's becoming harder and harder to focus on these three
sex kittens. Then I can't help myself. I just lower

(39:33):
my head on the bar and feel myself fade away.
As I'm starting to wake up, I'm feeling really really cold.
I have to force myself to wake up completely. I
have to see where those three lovelies are, but they're
not here. What the fuck? I groan. I see that

(39:55):
I'm in a bathroom that looks like it's in some
cheap motel somewhere, and I look down to see the
tub is completely filled with ice. What the fuck?

Speaker 2 (40:06):
I yell.

Speaker 1 (40:07):
I'm ready to pull myself out, But then I see
a little table next to the tub. My smartphone's on
it and has a message taped to it. Do not
leave the tub. Call nine one one for an ambulance. Now,
I don't fuck around and quickly call nine one one.

Speaker 2 (40:28):
I tell the.

Speaker 1 (40:28):
Operator what's going on and I don't know where I am.
She's able to trace the call and says she's sending
an ambulance.

Speaker 4 (40:34):
Now.

Speaker 1 (40:35):
When I finish the call, I just sit here and wait.
It's only a matter of minutes before I hear the
door to the motel room opening up. Then two paramedics
come in. They both gasp in surprised when they see
my situation. They quickly come to me and look me over.
Then one of them points behind me, look at this.

(40:55):
The other paramedic comes over and sees what his partner
sees what I demanded, what is it? Then they both
looked me in the face. We need to get you
to the hospital, stat one of them says, we'll go
get a stretcher and come right back. So now I'm
stuck here at Strickfield General Hospital. I just can't believe

(41:18):
this shit. I'm stuck here in this fucking hospital bed
with all this shit hooked.

Speaker 4 (41:22):
Up to me.

Speaker 1 (41:23):
The paramedics brought me here. The doctor looked at my
back and quickly examined me, told me that I had
fresh stitches in my lower back that looked professionally done
after an X ray. I practically shit myself when the
doctor told me told me my fucking kidneys are gone. Yeah,

(41:44):
that's right. I'm fucking stuck here until i can get
at least one new kidney, which I'm told could take
quite a long time since I'm on a fucking waiting
list and they have to wait for a kidney donor
match for me. I keep telling these fuckers, I'm Calvin Miern.
I don't belieng on a fucking waiting list. A lot
of good my name does me now. Just then the

(42:05):
nurse brings me what looks like a tablet and says
it was sent here with specific instructions to give it
to me. I snatched the tablet from her and glare
at her for a minute before she leaves. I turn
on the tablet and see only a few apps. I
tap the one that says play me first and immediately

(42:26):
recognize one of the porn videos I made. I see
the familiar face and now know who Kitty is. She
was definitely Catherine Pierce. Not long after her video posted,
she got in some serious shit with the dean at
Strickfield University and ended up being expelled. I tap the

(42:48):
app that says play me second and see a second
porn video that I made, and then I recognize Jamie,
or rather Belinda James. She ended up in the same
boat as Catherine went before the dean, ended up getting expelled,

(43:09):
became disgraced, parents threw her out. Not my problem. The
play me third app just brought up a PDF of.

Speaker 2 (43:18):
A term paper.

Speaker 1 (43:20):
I saw the big red words copied from another student
written all over the paper and discovered that Lena was
really Raylene Jones. The night Jacob and Genevieve were both murdered.
I went back to her dorm and spent the night
with her. We were both in the same world history
class and had a term paper due I stole her

(43:43):
term paper, retyped it in my own words, and submitted
it as my own. When she reprinted and submitted her paper,
the professor later sent it to the Dean. Raylen pled
her case, but she got expelled anyway. Ye play me
fourth and get a video of the three of them.

(44:05):
No Halloween costumes. Catherine had grown her hair longer than
I remembered and dyed it black. I remember Catherine was
a blonde. Rayleen and Belinda had been wearing wigs. They
both have shorter brown hair. Catherine speaks up first, surprise, asshole,
Now you know what this is about. You took from us,

(44:28):
disgraced us, so we took from you. Belinda speaks up next.
You have all the money in the world, yet you
just kept right on taking it. Wasn't enough for you
to exploit us for your sexual gain. You had to
keep exploiting us for even more. Well, like Catherine said,
now we exploited you. Do you have any idea how

(44:49):
much a pair of perfectly good kidneys like yours, Celf
wor on the black market? Ray Len speaks now. Must
have been nice to have slept with me and then
get away with stealing my term paper and submitting it
as your own, all while pinning what you did on me.
You took from us and didn't give a shit. But
guess what, You're going to be stuck in that hospital
bed for probably a very long time, and then there's

(45:12):
going to be another place you're going to be stuck
in for a very long time. If you ever get
another kidney. Tap the last app and you'll see I
tap the finish Me app and see a video of
the police going through my loft and finding all the cameras.
Another angle shows them finding my hard drives and servers
with all my homemade porn videos. Then I hear Catherine

(45:37):
in the background. Maybe you'll rot in prison, and maybe
you won't, but we took our revenge against you. Oh
and don't bother trying to look for us. We're somewhere
you'll never find us. We're applying our medical experience on
the black market now, so we'll just keep looking for
more rich pieces of shit like you and harvesting whatever's needed.
So this Halloween, you got the trick and got the

(46:00):
treats thanks for your pillow sack of candy.

Speaker 2 (46:03):
By the way.

Speaker 1 (46:04):
Also, that patient I was telling you about will benefit
greatly from your kidneys. In fact, I'm putting them in
right now as you're watching these apps. Have a nice life,
whatever's left of it. The video ends and then the
apps all disappear. The next thing I know, two detectives
from the Strickfield Police Department are here to see me,

(46:26):
and I'm sure they're not here to ask me if
I'm all right. Photo Sensitive by Joe Salt. Lacey set
the cardboard box down at the door's threshold and took
a minute. This was the last box, and she was

(46:49):
finally moved in to her new home. It really was
a long time coming. She had saved up for years
to afford a house of her own. No more apartments
with noisy manessabors. She was on her own out here
in the country. It really was a steal. Nowhere could
she find a three bedroom house for this cheap she

(47:10):
had been looking for a while. The best part would
be the commute. She was now only five minutes from
work as manager of the tabletop game store Dragon's Den.
She had been there since high school, working her way
up to her position. Get a move on, bitch, came
a voice from behind Lacey as her sister, Simone bumped
into her. Are you trying out your future as a door?

(47:33):
I'm just taking in the moment. This is kind of
a big deal, Lacey said, and moved into the house.
Her sister was always the impatient one, but as far
as older sisters go, she wasn't half bad. There really
wasn't much of a rivalry growing up together. When Simone
and her friends got into witchcraft, they would let her
sit in the corner and watch them. She had no

(47:55):
idea what they were doing back then, the age difference
was too much. Year old can barely understand what the
high school seniors were doing, but it seemed exciting to Lacey.
They entered the kitchen and Lacey put the kettle on
the stove. The cold late October morning chilled the bones.
The furnace guy was coming later today to clean it

(48:16):
and make sure it was good, and she didn't want
to turn it on until he said it was okay.
So which bedroom will be mine when I leave, dan,
Simone asked, pushing her auburn hair out of her face.
You can have the basement, seems more your style, Lacey joked.
You have all the luck, little sis. You know that
right single, owning your own house.

Speaker 2 (48:38):
I envy you.

Speaker 3 (48:39):
Ha.

Speaker 1 (48:40):
I'll be lucky if I can afford groceries after the mortgage.
You don't seem to have that problem, though, Lacey joked,
poking her sister in her belly.

Speaker 2 (48:50):
I miss this.

Speaker 1 (48:52):
Living in North Carolina kind of sucks, to be honest,
Simone finished, well, at least I got three more days
to hang here with you in New York. I fly
back on November first. Don't blame me, You're the idiot
that decided to chase your dreams, Lacey said, as the
tea kettle began to whistle. They spent the rest of

(49:12):
the day putting Lacey's belongings away and making the house
feel more like a home. She was getting worried about
the furnace. The guy they sent over had been down
there a long time. He had startled her when he
showed up. One minute, she was in the kitchen putting
away the dishes that didn't get broke from Simone's lousy packing.
The next he was standing in the doorway. Neither sister

(49:33):
heard him enter the house. When she saw him there
leaning against the kitchen doorway. It made her jump. She
hadn't heard a noise from the basement in a while
and went downstairs to check on him. Since Simone decided
to take a nap on the couch. She always could
fall asleep anywhere. It was like turning off a switch.
Lacey used to tease her and call her a robot.

(49:56):
She descended the wooden basement stairs slowly. Always hated basements.
She didn't like the dark, open space. She knew the
fear was irrational in her imagination. Once a space was
empty and dark, that's when spooky things could fill the space.
She decided in that moment that she would just leave

(50:18):
the basement lights on from now on. That would give
her peace of mind. At least almost done. The furnace
looks good even for sitting, as long as it did.
I put a heavy duty air filter in there because
of the dirt, the furnace guy said, pointing next to
the loose dirt near the washer and dryer. His name
tag on his blue workshirt said, Brad, thank you. I

(50:41):
wonder why they never finished the basement, She replied, Brad
kind of gave her a weird look. Like the answer
should be obvious. It's going to be ninety dollars for
the service. I just need to pack up my tools.
Cash or check works. I don't have a way to
take a credit card, he said. As the furnace kicked
on the first time since she moved in. She couldn't

(51:02):
wait for the warmth. She shivered from the cold. She
headed upstairs to get the man his money. She had
enough cash to cover it. Simone was snoring, so Lacey
took a few seconds to record it on her cell
phone to blackmailer later, like sisters would do. She giggled
with glee at the thought. A moment later, Brad entered

(51:23):
the kitchen where she was taking the cash from her purse.
She handed over the cash to him. She noticed he
wore a gold ring. Too bad he was taken. He
was a little older, but he was good looking.

Speaker 2 (51:35):
Thanks.

Speaker 1 (51:36):
I ran out of her sipts. I'll have the office
send one over in the mail if that's okay with you,
Brad asked with a smile. Yeah, that's fine, thanks for
coming on short notice. The office said they weren't sure
if they could send someone that quick. I'll definitely be
calling you guys. For all my furnace stuff. Let me
walk you out, Lacey said, sure thing, Brad said, and

(51:58):
turned towards the front door of the house house. His
tool belt hit Simone's teacup, which fell to the floor
and shattered. Oh damn, I'm so sorry. I can be
a clutch sometimes, he said, apologetically. Let me pick this up. No,
it's okay, I'll get it, Lacy said, grabbing some paper
towels for the spilled tea. She got down on her
knees and began to clean it up. Oh okay, then

(52:20):
I'll just show myself out, Brad said, and left the kitchen.
Simone entered the kitchen a second later. Hey, what happened?
She asked. You left your mug on the edge of
the table and Brad knocked it over on his way out.
Lacey said, picking up the broken pieces in her hand.
Who's Brad? Do you have a secret boyfriend you haven't
told me about? Simone joked and helped her pick up

(52:42):
the pieces of the mug. You must have seen him.
He was just there he fixed the furnace. Lacey explained,
I just woke up. Must have just missed him, Simone said,
Was he cute? He had his charm. Now that we
have heat, let's get a pizza and watch some cheesy
horror movies. I think I'm done for the day, Lacey said,

(53:03):
fine with me, Simone replied. Later that night, Lacey washed
up for bed. It was fun having her sister around.
After living alone for so long, it was good to
have someone to talk to. She didn't really realize how
lonely she actually was. Simone had passed out halfway through
chopping mall. Lacey left her on the couch, even though

(53:24):
they had set up one of the spare bedrooms for her.
She crawled into bed and checked her phone. No new messages.
She really was lonely. She decided she would try to
be a little more outgoing and make an effort to
meet someone. It didn't have to be romantic, just someone
to watch movies with or something. She placed her phone
on the nightstand and closed her eyes. The next morning,

(53:47):
Lacey woke with a start. She had had a nightmare.
She couldn't remember it, just the uneasy feeling. It gave
her a sleazy, greasy feeling. She got out of bed
and looked for phone. She shook out the blankets and
it fell to the floor. She looked at the nightstand
for a moment and then shrugged. She had been pretty

(54:08):
tired last night. She heard Simone downstairs in the kitchen
and smelled bacon cooking. Her stomach rumbled in agreement with
the delicious odor. She went downstairs and sat at the table.
The kettle was already on. She checked her messages again,
still nothing. Simone looked at her with a cocked head.
Someone special getting a hold of you, she asked. No,

(54:33):
no messages, she said with a sigh, and put her
phone on the table. I'm sorry, Brad hasn't sexted you,
Simone said, and set a plate of food down in
front of her little sister. It reminded her when they
both lived at home and she had to babysit.

Speaker 2 (54:47):
Wait until I.

Speaker 1 (54:48):
Go back to North Carolina before having him spend the night.
I need my beauty sleep. I don't need you to
keeping me up all night, Simone joked me, keeping you up,
that's rich. You know how loud you snore, Lacey said,
and reached for her phone. I certainly do not snore,
Simone said loudly. Dan would have told me when we

(55:09):
moved in together. I have proof, Lacey said, and opened
the photos on her phone. Her face went pale, and
she dropped her phone onto her plate of eggs and bacon. Lacey,
what is it? Simone said? That wasn't very funny, Lacey said,
cleaning off her phone. Simone gave her a confused look.

(55:32):
Taking those pictures last night, Lacey finished, I don't know
what you're talking about. Let me see, Simone said, and
grabbed her phone from her. There were a half dozen
pictures of Lacey's sleeping in the same pajamas she was
wearing now, except the last one. The last one, Lacey's
top was pulled up, exposing her breasts. These are from

(55:55):
last night, Simone asked, Yeah, that's the new room around me.
When did you take them? Lacey asked. She looked at
her plate, but she had lost her appetite. I swear
it wasn't me. The last thing I remember is falling
asleep during the movie and waking up like a half
hour before you. I didn't do this, I swear, Simone said.

(56:15):
You better not be fucking with me, Lacy said and
got up. They both went to the bedroom and looked
everything over. The windows were still locked, Lacey explained to
her sister. How she thought she left her phone on
the nightstand and when she woke it was on the bed.
Both of them agreed that it was really creepy. They
got dressed and went to the hardware store to get

(56:36):
new locks for all the doors. As the day grew long,
Lacey dreaded going to sleep in that room. The more
she thought about it, the closer to a panic attack
she got. Around eight, she came up with the idea
of her sister sleeping in there with her Before they
went to bed. They checked every window and door in

(56:56):
the house to make sure they were locked. Satisfied everything
was secure, they went upstairs. I don't know what's going
to keep me up more the thought of those pictures,
or you're snoring, Lacey joked as she put her phone
in the drawer on the nightstand. I don't snore, Simone refuted.
Lacey's eyes cracked open. It was light out. She rubbed

(57:18):
her eyes and looked at Simone sleeping next to her.
She didn't realize what a comfort her sister had been.
She rolled over towards the door, thinking about going back
to sleep. Startled, she sat up straight in bed. Her
cell phone was on top of the nightstand. She reached
for it with one hand while the other instinctively itched
her side. She lifted her shirt and looked at the

(57:40):
spot that itched. There were scratch marks across her side.
Did she just do that? Her eyes darted to her
cell phone. She quickly opened it and looked. Simone, she said,
and without taking her eyes off the phone, slapped her
sister in the face.

Speaker 2 (57:56):
Get up.

Speaker 1 (57:58):
The panic in her voice snapped Simone out of her
sound sleep. What is it, her older sister asked. It
happened again, Lacy said, and dropped her phone into her
sister's lap. It couldn't have I was here all night,
Simone said, with disbelief. She began to scroll through the pictures,
her eyes widening with each one. The first two pictures

(58:20):
were just like the night before. After that they got
more perverse again. A topless photo of her a wide shot.
Simone was in the photo as well, but asleep an undisturbed.
The second topless photo showed the scratch on her side.
They were from the middle of the night, four gouges

(58:41):
across her belly off on the side. The next photo
showed a close up on her face. A hand from
the photographer could be seen holding her head to the side.
The back of the hand was obscured by a blue
blur that continued out of frame. What's this, Simone asked, asked,
that's a shirt I think like a work Oh shit,

(59:06):
oh shit, Lacy said, and started to hyperventilate.

Speaker 2 (59:10):
I know who it is.

Speaker 1 (59:11):
It's Brad, she cried. Okay, let's call the cops and
nail this fucker, Simone said, and dialed nine one one
from Lacey's phone. They got up out of bed to
meet the police at the door. She explained everything to
the officer that came to take her statement. His name
was Officer John O'Neill, and he was a new transfer
and therefore sent on things like this. He said, once

(59:32):
he reports back, they would make this case a priority.
He paid attention to Lacey as she told him every
detail she could remember. He genuinely seemed like he cared,
and that made her feel better. He left with a
promise to get back to her later that day with
whatever he could find. Maybe I can stay a few
more days until we get some answers, Simone said, as

(59:54):
they hung the last of the Halloween decorations. This used
to be their favorite holiday. Now neither of them could
stop thinking about those photos. You don't have to. I'm
sure Dan is waiting for you to get home, Lacey said,
but the tone in her voice revealed she felt the
opposite way. It's no problem, He'll just have to cook

(01:00:16):
for himself a little longer, she said, probably just order
out every meal. To be honest, if it's no bother,
I would appreciate it. Lacey said, Hey, do you still
do that which thing like you used to do back
in high school. No, I haven't talked to those girls
in years. They were really into it. I just was

(01:00:39):
there to be the third witch. I think they probably
watched too much Charmed, although I would turn Lesbo for
Alyssa Milano. Sorry, Dan, Lacey's older sister said with a smile.
They sat in silence for a moment. Wait, were you
thinking of doing some protection magic or something. I don't

(01:00:59):
know the cops are on it, but I would feel safer,
Lacey said, and grabbed Darcy's peanut butter cup from the
candy dish next to the front door. I don't think
we knew what we were doing. We were just being
edgy and different. Nothing ever happened with that stuff. Simone
explained and grabbed Erce's too. I can look them up

(01:01:20):
on Facebook and see what they say if you want.
Lacey nodded her head and went into the living room.
She plopped down on the couch and wondered when Officer
John was going to call her in a few hours.
It was going to be dark and she wanted some progress.
Maybe him calling to tell her that Brad was rotting
in jail and would never bother her again. That would

(01:01:41):
be ideal. Her dream house has been turning into a nightmare.
What had she done to deserve this? Snap out of it? Sis,
It's ten minutes to go time, Simone said, pointing at
the clock. Trick or treating was about to start. It
was supposed to be a good feeling, the first time
she could give out candy from her own home, but
she felt emotionless and sighed distant. The last two days

(01:02:06):
had taken the fun out of everything. A quick phone
check showed that no one had called her. No news
was good news, that was the saying right. Ten minutes passed,
then twenty. She could hear kids in the street, but
none rang her doorbell. She began to eat the candy.
She was a little disappointed. To be honest, seeing all

(01:02:26):
the happy children would be a good distraction. You want
to watch something, she asked her sister. Sure, what did
you have in mind? By the way, Rachel got back
to me, she told me what to do to protect
the house and keep danger out. I might have to
run out to the store really quick. Do you mind
being here alone while I go? Simone asked, well, I

(01:02:49):
guess as long as I'm awake, I seem to be safe,
she joked. The doorbell rang and they both looked at it. Well,
answer it, Simone said, with a showing Lacy jumped up
and ran to the door. Excited to get her first
trick or treater, She pulled the door open and presented
the bowl of candy. She did so a little too eagerly,

(01:03:10):
and two twigs went overboard towards Officer John on the
front step. He caught them instinctively and held them up.
If I catch them, can I keep them? He asked playfully?
And who are you supposed to be? Little boy? Lacey
joked with him. They both smiled. Simone pointed from Lacey
to the officer and made a whistle noise out of

(01:03:31):
sight of him. Lacey rolled her eyes at her sister.
She was always playing match maker officer. Can you stay
with my sister for a few minutes while I ran
to the store. She would really appreciate it, Simone said
and winked at her sister. Sure, he said, and turned
to Lacey. You can call me John. I'm off duty.
Just wanted to give her some information that I discovered today. Well,

(01:03:56):
by all means, give it to her, Simone said, and
slipped out the door. I took your car keys. Be
back in like an hour or so, she said as
she ran down the driveway. Come in, would you like anything?

Speaker 2 (01:04:09):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (01:04:09):
This TwixT was plenty. I couldn't ask for anything more,
he said as they entered the living room. Listen, what
I need to tell you is a kind of scary.
We better sit down. They both sat on the couch
and Lacy turned off the cheesy movie she was watching, Rubber.
She just wasn't in the mood for a story about

(01:04:31):
a killer car tire. So I did some research. Because
the guys at the station didn't seem very helpful. I'm
still new enough for them to prank me. Anyway. This
is what I found. The furnace company does not have
an employee named Brad. What I saw him, Lacey said,

(01:04:53):
There's more. Not only that, but it seems your house
has a resting history. Did the real estate lady tell
you about the murders, he asked, Never mind. By the
look on your face, I can see she didn't. It's
not actually illegal not to tell you. I looked into
that as well, at least not in this state, although

(01:05:17):
it is shitty in my opinion, He continued, What happened here,
I'm not sure I want to know, actually, Lacey said,
looking around the room as if for the first time.
I think you should. There was a serial killer that
lived here about fifteen years ago. He used to bring
women here and torture them before strangling them and breaking

(01:05:40):
their necks post mortem. There was a police report from
a woman who said she escaped this house and told
the police about him, but nothing was done. The man's
name was Brad, retired police chief Brad Crawford. He opened
an HVAC company after retirement. I think that's how he

(01:06:00):
found his victims. Anyway, they both went missing right after that,
and they discovered a map and photos in his bedroom.
All the photos were in their beds, alive, then the
rest were taken here in your room after he'd broke
in their necks. Several had scratches on them when they'd struggled.

(01:06:21):
The map led to the forest out on Route nine,
where they found the bodies. All but one woman in
the photos were accounted for. The one they couldn't find
was the woman who filed the report. It was all
kind of swept under the rug because the small community
didn't want all the attention. He had fled. The HVAC
company went to his nephew, and they doctored a death

(01:06:43):
certificate to close the case. That last part I learned
from the court records janitor, who was around back then
when I told them of your case. They thought it
was a joke someone was playing on me and ignored it,
John explained. A tear rolled down Lacey's cheek. John reached
and held her hand. I swear, I don't think this

(01:07:05):
is a joke. I won't let this happen, even if
the assholes at the station will, he said, and squeezed
Lacey laid her head against his shoulder and began to cry.
A little while later, Simone returned and prepped the house
as her friend had instructed. After that was done, all
three of them settled in to watch a few movies
and put a dent in the candy that no trick

(01:07:26):
or treater had come for. It didn't take long for
all the stress to overtake Lacey, and she fell asleep
on John's shoulder. Simone made herself scarce and went into
the den, where she kept all the supplies that Rachel
had told her to get. Sometime around midnight, Lacey woke.
She felt the warmth of John next to her and
started to settle into him, but goosebumps spread across her

(01:07:50):
skin like the wind on a lake's surface. She opened
her eyes and saw Brad standing in front of her.
She tried to speak, but was frozen in He held
her cellphone in his hand and took a picture of her,
a wicked smile on his face. He leaned in close
to her and placed his icy fingers on her neck,

(01:08:11):
gently tracing the lines of her veins. She shivered from
the touch, which was enough to wake John. What the fuck?
John yelled out and reached for his gun. Brad turned
and sneered at him. The change of attention broke Lacey
from her fear, and she jumped over the back of
the couch and away from Brad. She called out to Simone.

(01:08:31):
John stood with a pistol drawn and pointed it at Brad.
Back off, asshole, It's over, John said. He called out
to Lacy over his shoulder. Are you okay? Yeah, John,
she said, and called out for Simone again, who came
running from the other room. She stopped dead at the
sight in front of her. Brad leaned in close to John,

(01:08:53):
his chest mere inches from the gun, pointed at it.
John swallowed hard. Not another step, or I swear to God,
I'll fire, he said, You guys, get out of here.
He called over his shoulder, call the State boys in.
Brad stepped closer, and John fired as promised. The bullet
passed through Brad as if you were made of air.

(01:09:15):
He gripped John's neck in his large hands and twisted.
Lacey screamed as she watched John's body drop to the ground.
After the sickening snap, she grabbed Simone's hand and pulled
her towards the hallway. That was when she noticed Simone's
other hand held a backpack. They ran into the kitchen
since Brad was between them and the front door. In

(01:09:36):
their panic, they fled to a dead end. The only
other door in the room led to the basement. They
heard a furious scream from deeper in the house, and
as quietly as they could, went into the basement. The
lights were already on thanks to some pre planning anxiety
from Lacey. They ran over to the washer and dryer
set up by the unfinished dirt floor. They wiggled behind

(01:09:58):
the dryer as best they could. Wasn't really enough room
for both of them. Lacey had to balance herself by
placing her hand in the dirt. They heard the basement
door open, and they both jumped a little bit. The
footsteps sent chills down their spine. Why didn't John's bullets
stop him? The footsteps stopped, and that was even worse.

(01:10:19):
They didn't know where he was. The washer began to shake.
She knew they'd been made, but she didn't know what
else to do. Simone, on the other hand, was digging
in the backpack she had looking for something. She glanced
up at her sister stoll him. She whispered. Lacey grabbed
a handful of dirt and stood up. Brad was on

(01:10:40):
the other side of the washer. He gave her a
predatory look. She tried not to panic as she faced
her stalker. You want me, Lacey said, You can't have me,
she called out and threw the dirt in his face
for a distraction. There was a flash of something in
the dirt as it flew, something shiny. Brad took a
step back as if the dirt had hurt him, and

(01:11:01):
she started to gain some hope that she wouldn't die tonight.
Hate that, do you? She said, and reached down for
more dirt, but her hand found something more unexpected, something
stuck in the dirt. She glanced down to see what
it was and was shocked at what she saw. It
was a hand sticking out of the dirt. Her eyes
went back to the shiny object on the floor. It

(01:11:24):
was a ring, just like the one Brad was wearing. Simone,
look at the dirt, she called out, and grabbed some
more earth to throw at Brad, who had recovered from
the first toss. Gross. Simone called out as she pinged
the hand's fingers with hers. I think it's him. It's
why he disappeared. The woman who reported him came back

(01:11:45):
and got revenge. Does that make him a ghost? You
know about that kind of shit, right, Lacey asked, I
don't know. Maybe hold on, let me ask Rachel, Simone
called out as Lacey pelted Brad with the dirt from
his grave. We don't have time for a fucking online chat.
What do we have to do, Lacey called out, irritated.

(01:12:05):
Rachel says, we need to consecrate the grave. Simone answered,
after a moment of frantic typing, Oh okay, that sounds
easy enough.

Speaker 2 (01:12:12):
How the hell do we do that?

Speaker 1 (01:12:14):
I'm on it, Simone said, and began to pull stuff
from the backpack. Lacey could hear her bad pronunciation of
Latin as she kept Brad at bay with the shower
of his own grave dirt. She had a rhythm going
bend and grab, toss, wait two seconds, bend and toss.
It kept him from getting any closer, and the contact
with the dirt seemed to hurt him. It was like

(01:12:34):
figuring out a boss strategy in a tabletop or video game,
which she had years of experience with. A Few seconds later,
the Latin stopped. Lacey gave a quick glance over her shoulder.
Her sister shrugged at her. That should be it, Simone said. Suddenly,
a rumble shook the basement. As the dirt swirled around
Brad and eerie red light shone from under the dirt

(01:12:55):
and rocks on the floor. Black hands reached up and
grabbed Brad's legs. He looked down in horror and clawed
at the hands gripping him, Trying to break free. Lacy
stepped back against the wall of the basement to get
as far away as she could. More and more hands
reached up, and a demonic cackling could be heard from
the swirling dirt. In a quick second, Brad was pulled

(01:13:17):
straight down into the earth and everything returned to normal.
A second passed as the sisters caught their breath. Holy shit,
Simone said, Holy shit, Lacy repeated. Guess he's done for?
Dragged straight to hell? One would imagine, Simone said, with

(01:13:40):
a wild eyed look. Lacey stood tall in her new house,
which was now her home.

Speaker 4 (01:13:48):
Good bad cop in a small.

Speaker 1 (01:13:58):
Town on how Low Night by John Oak Dalton Farren
didn't know what a viral video was until his daughter
showed him a recording of him sleeping in the patrol
car in the parking lot of the school. Some asshole
kid shot it on a cell phone and sent it
to a friend who posted it on Twitter, and the

(01:14:20):
rest went how it went. That was on a Wednesday morning,
and by that night there was a dance club mix
with Farren's loud snores and a sample from Junie Morrison's
song Susie thunder Tussy. By Friday night, the memes were
in full swing. There was a screen cap of Farren
sleeping in the patrol car and the text read when

(01:14:41):
you've been racial profiling all day and the doughnut shop
is out of coffee and a lot worse than that.
Monday night was the town council meeting, and if Farren
didn't know anything about social media, he sure didn't think
the town council did.

Speaker 2 (01:14:55):
But he was wrong.

Speaker 1 (01:14:56):
It was a three person board who met once a
month at the library with a hand full of old
people and a few cranks in the audience. Ellen Solmes
was the board president and also the town librarian, which
was a tough combination. Joe Lindseed was a retired farmer
who held court at the gas station out by the
highway most mornings, but didn't do much here. Buster Winsome

(01:15:16):
was the son of a retired teacher named Anne Winsome,
and when she passed away. Buster filled the rest of
her term, and then nobody could think of any reason
to vote him off. Farren gave his usual monthly report
about his speeding ticket quota and one or two domestic
calls and one or two drunk driving stops, but he
skipped over the fight at the high school because he

(01:15:37):
didn't want to mention the high school. The town board
seemed to be listening unusually closely, and afterwards Ellen asked
him to stay and talk. We've got some changes that
have been in the works for a long time, Ellen started.
Farren didn't bother to ask what changes. He just stood there.
Ellen started back up. The county agreed to drive through

(01:16:01):
town a couple of times a day, and the high
school has been wanting to hire their own resource officer anyway,
So we will need you as a town marshall through
Halloween on October thirty first. But that's it now, Farren reacted,
that's this Friday. It's been in the works for a
long while, farn Can I at least get my insurance

(01:16:23):
through December? That's for Abby. It isn't going to work
that way. Ellen looked at him with sorrow on her face,
but Farren knew it was for herself. When her son
got back from Afghanistan, it was Farren who talked him
through what it was like to be a civilian. Farren
had gone from high school to Desert Shield and then
had been town marshall ever since, so maybe he wasn't

(01:16:45):
the best, but he was all Darren Solmes had. It
still didn't stop Darren from ending it all with a
takarev pistol. He shouldn't have been allowed to bring back
from in country. We can let you resign, she said,
I'm gonna need the unemployment. Farron answered, nobody is going
to know until the week after Thanksgiving. That's the next meeting.

(01:17:08):
It's okay, I don't got my daughter for Thanksgiving. Farren
walked out. The next day, Farren was sitting in his
patrol car by the flashing light on the main street.
It was Highway one, but through town it was called
Hadley Street, although everyone called it had been street like
there had been a grocery store there, that there had

(01:17:29):
been a bank, and that empty field had been the
school before consolidation. People were speeding and doing rolling stops,
but why did that matter?

Speaker 4 (01:17:39):
Now?

Speaker 1 (01:17:40):
He was talking to his daughter, on his cell phone
as the teasing died down at school, he asked, it
was never that bad. Mercedes dressed her dog up in
an octopus costume and put it on TikTok like Wednesday
or Thursday. People got into that. Well, thank Mercedes for me.
Are you going to in trouble?

Speaker 4 (01:18:00):
Dad?

Speaker 2 (01:18:01):
What Abby was.

Speaker 1 (01:18:02):
Really asking was was her father going to be able
to pay for her college, which she agreed to do
as part of the divorce decree five years ago and
was happy to make happen. He worked as a bouncer
at a bar called the Red Triangle in Ohio on
the weekends, which was outside his agreement as a law
officer in Indiana and was why he was asleep Monday
morning at his third job as resource officer at the

(01:18:25):
high school. If I get in trouble, I can get
out of it, he answered. I'll see you on Halloween.
I'll have candy in the patrol car. I'm a senior.
I'm too old for trick or treating. Well, walk down
there anyways, okay, and they hung up. Farren turned on
the radio in the patrol car and put it on

(01:18:45):
the country station. Everybody listened to. His ex was the
midday DJ and had done a lunchtime request show for
years that Farren still liked. Dolly was singing about how
hard it was to be a diamond in a rhinestone world,
but then she played a Willie song about the red
headed stranger and the yellow haired lady, and his heart
fell in his chest. Faren was a redhead and his

(01:19:08):
ex was a blonde, and they danced to this song
at their wedding, So that's how Farren knew that the
news had spread through the little town about his firing.
His ex was playing the song because she was thinking
of him. Faren didn't want to think about what it
would be like to be an ex cop. Everybody he'd
pulled over and ticketed when pretty women were let go

(01:19:32):
after a smile and sometimes the promise of a drink
or more. All the guys he knew had hit girlfriends
or wives or kids or all three, and might have
accidentally bumped their face on the patrol car, or found
their paperwork lost for days when they got dropped off
at county. All the dealers who were busted because they
weren't his dealer, that was all worth thinking about. But

(01:19:56):
having the pity of his ex wife. That was the worst,
and then his thoughts turned to abby. He could pick
up more bouncer shifts at the Red Triangle, but not
too many more, and he could go back to doing
security at the big outdoor venue where they had stock
races in the fall in concerts in the summer. But

(01:20:16):
it was an hour each way, and the tweakers were bad.
You could put them in chokeholds and kick them in
the balls over and over, and they just didn't seem
to feel any pain or care. At least, the Red
Triangle had mostly drunks and stoners, and only a biker
once in a great while, and anymore. Most of the
bikers were cops and firemen running wild on the weekends,

(01:20:36):
and they always got a pass on their behavior. He
might be able to scratch together money, but he wouldn't
have insurance, medical, or life or anything. He had it
until October thirty first, and then there was nothing, and
a little thought squatted in the corner and he only
looked at it out of the side of his eye.

(01:21:01):
Halloween night, then Farren sat in his cruiser at the
flashing light at Hadley starting around six o'clock and gave
out candy. He waited until Abby came by, and she
had dressed up after all, and dragged out a couple
of girlfriends, and it was all meant to be ironic,
but they were having fun. Farren ribbed them, but told

(01:21:21):
his daughter that he loved her because of the thoughts
that had been growing in his mind all week. She
was wearing a mask, so he couldn't gauge her reaction.
As soon as she was gone, he put the patrol
car in gear and drove south out of town, and
then a little further. Two summers ago, during the town
by centennial, they had closed the main road through town

(01:21:43):
and had a carnival come in. But a night or
two in there was an immigration raid of some kind
and all the carnies were dragged off or ran off.
After a few days of complaints and nobody from the
carnival coming back, Joe Lindseed rode his tractor into town
and dragged the rides off off, one at a time
to a farm field the government was paying him to

(01:22:03):
keep fallow. There, those old rides rotted away, along with
some busted up trailers and some other ragged odds and ends.
It's where Farren pulled in and parked and saw a
little campfire in the dying light. He knew Joe Lindseed's
nephews or cousin's kids or some kin hung out here
all the time, but Lindseed was kind of his boss,

(01:22:25):
so Farren did nothing, even though he had an idea
what they were doing out there. Farren took a Remington
eight seventy shotgun out of the trunk and started walking
towards the campfire, where several figures crouched or sat in
broken down patio furniture, young guys still shirtless. In the
fall chill, there was a chemical smell in the air.

Speaker 2 (01:22:49):
Hello Walls.

Speaker 1 (01:22:51):
The call from the gloom brought Farren up short. Only
one person called him that, and it was his childhood
friend and adult weed dealer, Ricky way Ebb. He knew
his mother had named him after her favorite singer, Farren Young,
and had loved his hit song, Hello Walls. Ricky was
a nephew on Joe Lindseed's wife's side, but never came

(01:23:12):
out to this little encampment. People up the road called
Rusty Town. You look damn serious, Walls, and all you
hillbillies out here look damn jumpy. The energy shifted towards Junior,
though who he was junior to. Farren couldn't remember. He
was the lead dog in this younger group and went
from juvie to county to state prison, and only recently

(01:23:34):
returned from the Grand Tour. The shining whites of his
eyes stared out at Farron, and his neck tattoos looked
like bruises in the blue light. If you want some
of that Leopold gold I had done brought up from
Tell City last week, come by my place tomorrow. You
don't need to be out here, Ricky said, neither do you.
I ain't never out here, but I got business tonight.

(01:23:56):
I do too, So maybe you can slip out past
that tilta whirl and I'll come holler at you tomorrow
for that grass. Somebody snickered, he said, grass, shut up, Garwood,
Ricky said easily, his eyes trained on Farren Fair and
gestured with the shotgun. I tell you what leaving out, Ricky,
if there's eight teeth between all of you, I won't

(01:24:17):
take you whole passel of dickheads in for making and
dealing meth. Junior, Garwood and the others began to move,
but Ricky put up a steadying hand. It dawned on
Farren for the first time that Ricky, despite his easy
going demeanor, might have been the og of this loose
band of related feral criminals. It was just one more

(01:24:38):
thing you had overlooked, not paid attention to. Let's slide walls.
Why don't you ease on out of this here job.
Everybody knows. This is your last night, is town Marshall.
Let somebody else worry about this tomorrow, Ricky suggested. Junior blinked.
Hell if he ain't found until tomorrow, it ain't like
killing a cop.

Speaker 2 (01:25:00):
Junior had a.

Speaker 1 (01:25:00):
Gun in his hand, and then Ricky did too. Farron
just stood with the shotgun loose in his own hands.
We don't need to think like that, cuz, said Ricky mildly.
He knows, said another voice from the growing darkness. Junior
nodded for emphasis. What else would he be doing out
here on his last day? Ricky studied Faren. That's it,

(01:25:22):
isn't it. It's your last day? God damn, Faren, don't
let it go down this way. Think about Abby, you
know I am thinking about Abbey. It was the truest
thing Faren had ever said, And get her name out
of your mouth, Ricky blinked, and Farren swallowed. Then tell
your idiot half brothers or second cousins or whatever this

(01:25:44):
island of misfit toys is to stand over against that
hall of mirrors with their hands behind their backs.

Speaker 2 (01:25:49):
And make this easy.

Speaker 1 (01:25:51):
Ricky shook his head head on back to town, old hoss.
I'm trying to talk these kids out of making a
bad mistake. It's my mistake. I've been too easy on
these young dirt bags because I took most of their
moms behind the football stadium at one time or another.
Junior finally lifted his gun, a high point nine millimeter,
just as Farren had hoped. Only Ricky lifted his own

(01:26:13):
bursa thunder three eighty, and shot his cousin in the face.
Garwood fired, and Ricky tipped back in his chair and
his legs kicked the air. Garwood turned and fired at
Farn next, and Farren felt a hot bite take the
bottom of his right ear off. Ricky was up and
on his knees, pointing his gun at Garwood when somebody
stepped out of the shadow and fired at Ricky. A

(01:26:34):
geyser shot out of Ricky's neck, but he still shot again,
and Garwood's jaw disappeared in a cloud of red, and
his teeth peppered the campfire. Garwood convulsed and fired, hitting
another man in the shadows who started to scream. Farn
stood and waited for the bullet, but the new gunman
turned and ran for the trailer, flannel shirt flapping behind,

(01:26:54):
and the last man broke and ran as well. Farn
watched for a moment, then through his shotgun on the ground.
The remington had been empty, but the glock nineteen and
his holster wasn't, and it turned out he needed it.
It was one thing to die in a hail of
gunfire and another to die in prison. So he walked
up and shot the screaming man, then followed the other

(01:27:15):
two towards the trailer. The one in the flannel banged
the door open and ran in, but the other veered off.
He figured he had the flannel guy boxed in, but
had better catch up to the second guy. That guy
ran hell bent towards what was labeled the Funhouse, a
big sheet metal box that had been built on the
back of a flatbed. The funhouse had some sort of
zigzag gangplank held up with chains, and Farren watched for

(01:27:39):
a moment as the guy who he finally recognized as
the recent high school drop out, Peyton Sandford, tried to
navigate the wobbly platform in the dark. He stepped into
the round oh of a painted clown's mouth, and the
brake must have been off on that tunnel, because the
gears started moving and the opening rolled up like a
hamster wheel. It would have been fun if Farren wasn't

(01:28:01):
trying to die in the line of duty. Farron fired
into the clown's mouth and missed, but the bullet spanged
around and finally hit Sandford and knocked him flat. He
tried to get up, but just flopped around in there
until Farren drew a better bead and shot him again,
and Sandford stopped moving. Farren turned away and saw some
weird shapes dancing in front of him. He triggered his

(01:28:24):
gun without thinking and heard shattering glass. He had shot
right into the stupid half assed hall of mirrors. When
he saw his own image splintering a hundred times, he
kept going. Farren beat it for the trailer and quickly
realized he'd made a mistake when he stepped through the door,
the chemical smell was strong.

Speaker 2 (01:28:43):
He saw a.

Speaker 1 (01:28:43):
Hole that had been knocked in the back wall, with
a blue tarp strung over it and taped over onto
another trailer parked right behind. So Farren bolted through the
trailer and out the back, hoping for the bullet that
would blow up the trailer behind him and everyone around
the world beyond. But instead he found the last gunmen
standing in an open field nearby, next to a beat

(01:29:04):
up nineteen eighty Plymouth Vulaire roadrunner. Faren knew the beater
belonged to a kid everybody called Baby Gates, because once
he got so drunk, his friends gated him into a
kitchen to sleep it off, and he couldn't figure out
how to undo the latch. Even when sober, Baby Gates
had popped the trunk and had the gun pointed inside,

(01:29:24):
which Farren immediately flashed on dogfighting. Even Baby Gates couldn't
think he could get out of trouble by shooting up
a trunk full of drugs, but Farren went ahead and
killed him anyway, then walked over to see what Baby
Gates could have possibly been thinking. Inside the trunk was
a very thin and pale young woman wearing clothes you

(01:29:47):
would throw in a dumpster behind the good Will. The
stench of human smells was strong, but the young woman
was alive. Farren bent over and vomited in the grass.
Then he felt better. It was the killing of the
young men. In the finding of a young woman so
close to Abby's age. He had sometimes vomited after killing
an Iraq and knew that was part of it. He

(01:30:10):
reached a hand out to the cowering, feebly, moving woman,
but finally just reached down and lifted her out and
set her on the ground. She was a flat five
feet and didn't weigh a buck ten by Farren's eyes.
What's your name, miss? The young woman just stood and
shook her teeth, chattering. Can you tell me your name?

Speaker 2 (01:30:32):
Miss?

Speaker 1 (01:30:33):
You're all right now. The young woman slowly opened her mouth,
and Farn saw a darkness within. It took Farain a
minute to realize the woman had no tongue. Faren looked
into her eyes. Okay, we'll go back to my patrol car.
I got a paper and pencil there so you can
write your name down. The young woman shook her head.

(01:30:56):
You don't want to write your name down? She shook
her head harder. The truth punched farin between the eyes.
How long ago did you get taken? The young woman
lowered her hand until the flat of it hovered around
her knee. Faren felt the bile rise in his throat
when he thought about the enormity of what had happened

(01:31:18):
to the young woman. Okay, well, we still need to
get back to the patrol car. Just keep your eyes
on me when we walk that way, and don't look
at nothing else. The young woman nodded, and Faren led
her away from the road runner. But as he neared
the camp fire once more, he saw movement again. He
raised a hand for the young woman to stay where

(01:31:38):
she was, and Faren approached the fire, where his old
friend Ricky was, somehow still alive, holding a bloody hand
to his neck. Faren stood over him. You ain't calling
this one in, are you, old hoss? Ricky asked no.
Farin could see Ricky's eyes slide sideways in a glimmer

(01:31:59):
of firelight. I'm glad she's still alive, if it means
anything to you. I thought baby Gates was talking shit,
some stupid internet thing. I didn't think he could really
go and get a girl from somewhere. I was here
to make Junior let her go. That does mean something.
Where was she from. I don't know exactly, but they

(01:32:20):
bought her in Indianapolis, but I know where she was going.
They sold her to them people out at Comfort Farm.
Comfort Farm where they had those retreats. My ex went
to a writers group out there. Then people went bankrupt
two years ago. This is a different group. They're from Jersey,

(01:32:41):
Jersey East Coast people. Man Farren thought on this for
a moment, and when he looked down, Ricky was dead.
The young woman was standing and looking. She didn't resist
when Farren put her in the front seat of the car.
He started the patrol car and turned and looked at her.
I'm gonna take you into town and drop you off

(01:33:01):
at the flashing light. There are good people there, and
somebody will call the police and the county respond. She
grabbed his bicep and wouldn't let go. I can't take
you with me because I'm going out to the farm
where they were gonna take you, and I ain't planning
on coming back. The young woman grabbed and clawed him
so hard that instead of making a big u turn

(01:33:21):
to town, He turned off the car and started walking
back towards the road runner, with the young woman a
ghost trailing behind. He took the keys out of Baby
Gates Jean's pocket and threw his uniform shirt on the
ground and put on Baby Gates flannel, which only had
some blood on it. He didn't say anything when she
got into the passenger seat. Then pharrenh bumped over the

(01:33:42):
farm field and onto the highway and straight into darkness.
Comfort Farm was right at the very edge of the
county and probably out of his jurisdiction if he was
thinking hard about it. But what he was thinking was
that he should have noticed somebody building a watchtower on
the other side of the big cattle game. Farren idled
there and finally honked the horn, and damned if a

(01:34:04):
big spotlight didn't shine out of the tower and point
right at the road runner. Farron and the woman sat
very still. After a long moment, he heard a deep
throated rumble, and here came a nineteen eighty seven Chevy
El Camino black on top and silver on bottom that
he couldn't help but admire. Some long haired guy with

(01:34:25):
a leather vest over a bare chest came out with
a mac ten in one hand and a gym bag
in the other and stood on the other side of
the cattle gates. Farren waited, knowing he had a flannel
up top but uniform pants and a gun belt below.
The guy squinted at the road Runner. You're supposed to
keep her in the trunk, idiot, Farren said nothing as

(01:34:45):
the man started to undo the chain holding the cattle
gates together. Just for fun. Farron revved the engine and
gunned as the chain fell away and banged the gates
open and knocked the long haired guy backwards and watched
his limbs turn counterclockwise. He heard a gunshot from above,
and so he drove straight on into one leg of
the tower and crushed the grill of the road Runner.

(01:35:07):
He heard a crack and a creak as the wooden
leg gave way, but what happened next was hidden in
a cloud of radiator steam. He opened the driver's side
door in time to see a guy fall from above
and bounce off the hood of the car and AR
fifteen going flying. The guy scrambled for his weapon and
slid off the hood of the Roadrunner, and Farren shot
him before he could get his feet under him. The

(01:35:30):
long haired guy was somehow on his feet and firing
into the steam. Farin bent down and scooped up the
AR fifteen and let it rip into the darkness. He
liked it better than the mac ten.

Speaker 4 (01:35:40):
Anyway.

Speaker 1 (01:35:41):
He heard the long haired guy scream as he walked
over to the El Camino, accidentally kicking the gym bag
on the way. Money spilled out onto the dirt. Farn
couldn't believe what he was seeing, but he picked up
the bag and threw it in the back of the
El Camino. Anyway, somewhere down this dirt road, the big
barn you could rent for weddings was all up. There
were two guys walking down the path towards them. All

(01:36:04):
the little cabins they used to rent to church groups
were all boarded up on both sides of the overgrown track.
They had definitely heard a commotion, but weren't in full
tilt panic yet. These East Coast types didn't think much
of Midwesterners. Farren thought sourly. He climbed into the El Camino,
and there was the young woman sitting there already. You
got to get out of here. You got me through

(01:36:25):
the gate, but that's as far as I was planning
on going with you. There's a bag of money back there,
take it and walk to town. She started grabbing at
him again, so Farin just put the el Camino in
gear and started slowly rolling down the dirt road towards
the men in the barn. This one was absolutely not
the nineteen seventy el Camino he had lovingly finished restoring

(01:36:46):
when his older brother got sick of it. But it
was better than no El Camino at all. When he
got close, he floored it, then breaked hard and knocked
both men down in one swing from the long back
of the car. Farren got out and reached into the
back where he had seen a toe chain laying. He
pulled it out and hit one guy with it and
watched the hook hit him on the ear and yanked

(01:37:07):
part of his face onto the ground. Then Farron got
the other guy as he was standing up and wrapped
the chain around his neck. What's in the barn? Farron asked,
pulling the chain tighter, but he must have pulled too
hard because the guy went limp, blood running from his mouth,
and Farren just dropped him in the dirt. Farren climbed
back behind the wheel and told the young woman to duck.

(01:37:29):
Then he floored it one more time and drove right
at the big barn doors. They didn't bust open as
dramatically as he thought, since he was pushing forty five
or fifty by the time he reached them, but they
splintered well enough that the el Camino went on through
and went in a long skid as Farren pumped the brakes.
Farn jumped out with the ar fifteen and the glock
nineteen pointing straight ahead, and saw he was in the

(01:37:52):
middle of a big space, all painted red, the barn beams,
the floor, everything. There were big bright lights everywhere, little
cameras with red lights. There was medical equipment in the
corners and chains hanging down from above. There were men
and women in animal masks. It was the stupidest thing
Farren had ever seen. He felt tired. He'd gone this

(01:38:16):
whole night and hadn't met anybody with the juice to
kill him. He didn't think any of these people could either.
Then somebody stepped up with an ornate looking knife, and
when Farn stuck his hand up to block it, the
guy drove it right into Farren's palm. Now something was happening,
he thought, and he lifted the glock and blew a
hole in the mask man's face. Bone shards blew back

(01:38:37):
and cut his cheeks, and he realized it was a
real skull of some kind, not some Halloween town plastic
shit like he thought. Faren tried to steady himself on
the hood of the El Camino and work the air fifteen.
Somebody with a metal pole ran up to him, and
too late Farren realized it was a cattle prod. He
tried to kick, and it hit him in the leg

(01:38:59):
and him clear to his balls, and he went down
on his back involuntarily. The masked man threw the prod
aside and came thrusting downward with another fancy knife, but
Faren scrambled under the El Camino and popped up on
the other side, shooting. Farin could hear a low keening
from the front seat and realized it was the young woman,
but couldn't do anything but kill everyone in front of him,

(01:39:20):
and hoped she would get it together enough to finally
run away. Some woman in a flowing red robe rose
from behind a bank of computer monitors and started saying
some shit. Farin couldn't hear between the rumbling of the
el Camino and the sounds of gunshots, and the keening
of the young woman and the screams of the dying.
He shot her, thinking the rest of the might stop
fighting when they saw it, but they didn't, and somebody

(01:39:43):
stabbed Farin up around the collarbone, and the blade deflected
off and screeched across the el Camino's paint job. The
glock was out of AMMO, and so was the Air fifteen,
And now we wished he hadn't thrown that Remington shotgun
on the ground. But it was all right. He felt
about done, But then he started thinking about what that
young woman, or even his daughter, or both of them

(01:40:05):
could do with a.

Speaker 2 (01:40:05):
Bag of money.

Speaker 1 (01:40:06):
And he grabbed the guy who stabbed him around the
neck and beat his head onto the car hood until
he dropped the bloody knife. Then Faren took it and
tried to slip the guy's throat, but it skittered off
the bone of the guy's mask, and then he thought
maybe this was just a shitty knife, and threw it
on the ground. He picked up the cattle prod and
used the business end on some asshole with a big

(01:40:27):
hooked knife and then swung at the computer monitors, and
it sparked and sputtered, and surprising everyone, started a fire.
Then there was a sharp pain in his back, and
he half turned and saw somebody whose wolf mask was
half hanging off, was stabbing him with a scalpel from
the table full of medical instruments. And it was some
guy he had seen a hundred times jogging on the
historical trail out where the old railroad had been. Then

(01:40:50):
Faren got pissed because it was one thing to die
in the line of duty, and it was another thing
to die of a thousand cuts from a bunch of
dirt bags who got all their ideas from beating off
to death metal videos. So he headbutted the guy and
clawed at his scalpel, but couldn't get it loose. He
heard a loud behind him and saw some douchebag holding
a Mossburg pump action shotgun pointed at him. Faraen grabbed

(01:41:12):
the barrel and forced it upwards upwards until he forced
it under the guy's chin. The blast showered Faran with gore,
but he'd lost track of whose blood was whose. There
was somebody running away from the growing flames, and Faran
brought the barrel of the mossburg down on his head,
and the guy stumbled and fell. Farron wiped blood from
his eyes and didn't see anyone else running or moving

(01:41:34):
at all, just the steady red lights looking at him
from every angle of the room. And so he lay
down next to the last corpse and let the fire
warm his feet and waited to see if anything else
would happen. Unfortunately, Farron woke up not in that red room,
but in a white room the county hospital, and there

(01:41:56):
was a little boombox covered in stickers on the bedside table,
and his wife was talking on the radio. And he
knew that the boombox belonged to his daughter, and she
must have left it there, and he must be alive.
His daughter came in and started crying, and he did too,
not for the same reasons. After a few minutes, he asked,

(01:42:17):
who's the girl. They don't know yet, Abby said, everybody's somebody.
Her father whispered, you're a meme again, Abby said, showing
him her phone.

Speaker 2 (01:42:30):
The video was.

Speaker 1 (01:42:31):
Called Sleepy Cop Wakes Up, and somehow there was heavily
edited video of the massacre at Comfort Farm what is this,
Farah asked, pushing the phone away. You shouldn't be looking
at that.

Speaker 2 (01:42:46):
You bust it up. A Red room.

Speaker 1 (01:42:48):
It's where they take girls to be tortured, and people
pay to watch it on the dark web. The what
the bad part of the internet. There was a good part.
Somebody put the video out. They said they thought the
Red Room was a hoax, so they were recording it.
But they are probably just saying that now because they're
trying to stay out of jail. Speaking of which, that

(01:43:10):
guy outside the door looks like a fed I don't
know what he is, Dad, I reckon he wants to
talk to me. He does, but I had to get
in here first. By the way, Mom has your phone
and is taking all your calls. She's doing what the
password is? Still your anniversary?

Speaker 3 (01:43:29):
Dad?

Speaker 1 (01:43:30):
Okay, okay, what calls? People want to interview you pay
for your story a big podcast called What's That? It's
on the internet. You can get paid for that. Abby
snuck a glance at the door where the man in
the dark suit and red tie loomed.

Speaker 2 (01:43:48):
Dad.

Speaker 1 (01:43:49):
I think they want your help. I'm not a cop anymore.
The town council extended you. Mom got on the radio
and raised hell because you were all stabbed and whatever
and weren't going to have any insurance. Farren felt like
crying again. It had to be the drugs. Well, she's
a good woman. The town council still sucks. They only

(01:44:13):
extended it till December thirty. First, Farren tried to shrug
small victories. Farren closed his eyes, and when Abby left
and the Fed came in, Farren was sound asleep.

Speaker 4 (01:44:36):
The Pumpkin King by David O'Hanlon.

Speaker 1 (01:44:41):
Barley and Clyde Sawyer were not the nicest men in Bouchet, Arkansas.
If they were, they never would have found themselves in
my employment. The rural community of Bouchet was somewhere between
a large town and a small city, and had attracted
throughout its years a veritable rogues gallery, changing from petty
thieves to serial killers. The Sawyer cousins fell somewhere in

(01:45:05):
the middle of that spectrum. The boys worked any number
of odd jobs, but often supplemented their income by creative means.
The cousins were the perfect partnership, seeing as Barley was
strong as an ox and Clyde was well almost as
smart as one What Clyde lacked in intelligence, he made

(01:45:25):
up for in loyalty and tenacity, qualities found rarely in
men of his ilk, if they're ever found at all.
Clyde brought a heart of gold to the team, fool's
gold as it may have been, and damned if he
wasn't the best shot I've ever known.

Speaker 2 (01:45:42):
Barley, on the other hand, was not.

Speaker 1 (01:45:44):
In fact, if the boy managed to hit the broadside
of a barn, you could safely bet he'd been aiming
for the opposite direction. Luckily for him, he was hell
fire in a brawl. Barley also served as the thinker
of the two, a meager accomplishment, to be sure. It was,
as it turns out, Barley's bright idea that led the
boys to my doorstep. My name is barnabas A Lambert,

(01:46:09):
and I will do my best to relate to you
the events that would later bring me to employ Barley
and Clyde. Some of the details may have been exaggerated
in their recollections, so please try not to hold that
against me. I'm only telling you how I heard it. Well,
some bitch Clyde Barley said. He said it a lot.

(01:46:33):
It was only by the inflection that Clyde Sawyer knew
exactly how to take it. The slow, drawn out tempo
of the catchphrase told him. Barley was not at all
impressed by the turn of events. Clyde never missed a shot,
not even on purpose. It was like every bullet he
fired magically found the bull's eye. The fat man's head
leaked across the truck bed. Could have at least wrapped

(01:46:55):
him in plastic. Barley griped, I ain't have none. Clyde
we and dug in his pocket for his inhaler. That
bastard weighs a ton, and I had to pick him
up all by my lonesome. If you hadn't shot him
in the head, you wouldn't have to pick him up
at all. Barley grabbed the man's collar and jerked him
out of the back of the truck in three tries.

(01:47:15):
The body poured over the tailgate into a contorted heap.

Speaker 2 (01:47:19):
Ugh.

Speaker 1 (01:47:20):
He squirted brainjuice on me. I didn't say anything about
shooting him. I ain't saying nothing about not shooting him either.
Clyde straightened the corpse out. Things got a little out
of hand. I had to improvise out of hand, my ass.
You just needed to give him the brick and get
the bag of money. Clyde sighed, I got the money
and we can sell the brick again. Ain't the point?

Speaker 2 (01:47:41):
Clyde.

Speaker 1 (01:47:42):
Barley shook his head. What kind of drug dealers can't
be trusted to keep their word? Clyde scratched his head.

Speaker 2 (01:47:49):
All of them?

Speaker 1 (01:47:50):
I reckon, Well, that shit's got a change. Barley grabbed
the man's ankles. Lift with your knees. We ain't got
no workman's comp Clyde hooked the body under the arms
and they began the arduous trek down the levee with
their portly cargo. Thanks to Clyde's hair trigger and Barley's
short temper, the duo was getting good at disposing of
unwanted bodies, a skill they sold to others as well. Clyde,

(01:48:14):
make me a promise. Barley wrestled to fix his grip
around the gargantuan thighs. What's that, Barley? Make the fat
ones run a bit before you shoot them. Clyde laughed
and lost his grip, sending Barley in the body rolling
to the bottom of the incline. He stopped laughing when
he heard the splash and trotted down quickly, Barley shook

(01:48:36):
off the water and unraveled the plastic sheeting from his
pocket in silence. Near silence, anyhow, a low hiss alerted
them to another presence. Clever bastard Clyde pointed behind Barley,
that's the same one as last time. The alligator inched closer,
but stayed to the water's edge. Gators were smart critters
and knew the sound of the sawyer's nineteen seventy eight

(01:48:58):
dodge warlock meant a free meal was coming. Barley laid
the sheet out and rolled the man onto it. If
they're working, they might as well be getting paid for it,
Barley said, and unsheathed the knife from his boot. Hell,
we might even get a couple of them to keep
at the house. Be it damned sight better than coming
way out here to dump a body. Barley ripped open

(01:49:18):
the man's shirt and set about the grim task of
hollowing the corpse, while Clyde went up top to retrieve
the bags of landscaping rocks. By the time the younger
sawyer brought the Duffel bag back, Barley was finished with
his end. Barley tossed a kidney to the gaiter to
thank him for waiting patiently while Clyde stuffed the body
with stones. They wrapped the plastic around the man and

(01:49:39):
secured it with duct tape before loading him into the
camouflage John boat. As they rowed away, the gaiter went
for the viscera left ashore. The channel wound around a
series of bends and into the maze of swamps that
occupied the southeast of Fagin County. There was little in
the way of civilization in that nook of the natural state.
Barley and Clyde until they reached a tiny island known

(01:50:02):
locally as Frog's Ass, so called because it was bare
and wet as an amphibian's behind. Arkinsons can be quite
colorful in their colloquialisms. They rolled the body into the
water before mooring the boat to the ramshackle pier. Frog's
Ass used to be a popular spot with the peculiar
Church of Ebenezer Wit, the sinister minister and founder of

(01:50:23):
the nearby community of wits End, was something of a
local boogeyman. The Spanish flu found its way into the
tiny village and spread amongst the congregation like wildfire. At
least that's what they say. Fact of the matter is
like most stories in the South, there's the truth and
then there's what really happened. Whichever version you believe, the

(01:50:44):
ending is the same. Everyone in wits end died badly.
As the years went on, some of the yokels began
venturing to Frog's Ass to party without the nuisances of
local law enforcement. Reports of strange occurrences were rampant, as
were the disappearances. The island, not much larger than a walmart,

(01:51:04):
was eventually forgotten about except by those of ill repute,
those like Barley and Clyde. The boys got off the
boat and stretched their legs. Rusted beer cans poked out
of the dirt, like headstones of fun times long since dead,
and served as the only proof anyone had ever come
to the aisle before them. They didn't use the small
motor when carrying anything of legal ambiguity, and the two

(01:51:27):
hours of rowing took its toll, so they rested on
the island whenever their work took them so far into
the wetlands. Barley laid back and let the cool mud
soothe his tired muscles. A single cloud drifted lazily across
the full moon. Hey Barley Clyde called, as he urinated
noisily against a stone protrusion. Come look at this, I reckon,

(01:51:51):
I'll pass. Barley sat up and pulled his shirt back.
Best keep it away from the water, though some snapper
might think that little white wiggler of yours is a
minnow and bite it right off. This is why you
ain't got no friends, Barley. Clyde zipper punctuated the statement,
I meant, come look at what I was peeing on.
This better be good. Barley left his flashlight sticking out

(01:52:14):
of the mud and joined his cousin. He took off
his ball cap and scratched at his shoulder length hair. Yep,
that's uh, definitely interesting. It's one of them devil alters,
that's what it is. Clyde informed him. That's just lies
they tell in movies. Clyde Barley felt the carved lines
of the knee high stone pillar. The pentagram means good things.

(01:52:36):
Most of the time. Folks use it to symbolize the
five wounds of Christ. For example, it's even big in China.
Damn you always learn in me something cuz Clyde spat
tobacco juice across it and inspected it. With his pen light,
so this is a good thing. Then Barley checked his
watch and grunted, well, Clyde, I don't reckon this one is?

(01:52:57):
Actually how's that you see, Clyde? We was here two
nights ago and it weren't. That's a bit worrisome. Climb
leaned over closer to the symbol. Maybe we just overlooked
it could be. Barley snugged his hat back on his head.
But it's been Halloween for about three hours now, and

(01:53:18):
it's a full moon, and I'd much rather we didn't
fuck around with the pentagram and the swamp if it's
all the same to you, Big Barley. Scared of an
old star, ain't that something? Clyde pointed at the indentation
in the center of the star. What you reckon that is?
Looks like a hand. Let's get back to the house.
We promised we'd do them hay rides for the kiddies tonight.

(01:53:39):
Barley turned to leave, and don't touch the A cypress
exploded in a flash of lightning across the swamp. The
animals went silent, like scolded children cowering before an angry mother.
Barley rubbed his eyes to clear the spots from his vision.
Frog's ass shuddered twice, and the muddy bank bubbled. The
ground shook again, and Barley's boots sunk into the liquifying

(01:54:00):
soil beneath him. He exhaled sharply and shook his head
before looking back at his cousin. Clyde's jaw was hanging
open and his hand was pressed firmly in the middle
of the bizarre altar well some bitch.

Speaker 2 (01:54:12):
Clyde.

Speaker 1 (01:54:14):
The carved star glowed brightly, and the younger Sawyer jumped away, immediately,
sinking into the island up to his knees. Barley plodded
over quickly as he could and pulled him free. They
made slow progress to the john boat as the ground
sucked at their legs, trying to pull them inside. The
edge of Frog's ass dissolved into drifting clumps of muck
as the land mass became nothing more than sludge and

(01:54:35):
broke apart before them. The remnants of the dock collapsed entirely.
I told you not to touch it, Barley exclaimed, but
you knew I was gonna. The island broke away in
a flash and dumped them into the swamp. Barley clung
to Clyde's back trying to stay afloat, Barley swam slightly
better than a boulder. After all. A pillar of fog

(01:54:55):
rose from the dying island, crackling with its own lightning storm.
Inside its swirling mass, the moon dimmed, and over the
symphony of horrid destruction, the Sawyers could hear something much worse.
It wasn't laughter, as we'd call it, but rather the
perverse imitation of the act by a thing born in
a place where joy did not exist. Clyde took great

(01:55:17):
motivation in this and got them to the boat right quick.
Barley kicked his feet to keep his head above the
black water, while Clyde submerged and cut them free of
the shattered dock. They clambered inside the boat, and Clyde
shook water from his inhaler for three puffs of salvation.
The remains of Frog's ass drifted lazily in all directions,
and the tower of fogs spread out across the sky,

(01:55:39):
blotting out the moon for all of Fagan County. Think
that's a bad omen, Barley Clyde spat swamp water. Barley
clicked the switch of the spotlight mounted on the nose
of the boat and shined it across the swamp. A
piece of plastic sheeting reflected it back as it floated away.
Bubbles popped next to the boat, and a pudgy face

(01:55:59):
rose silently above the water. Water streamed through the bullet
hole like a broken faucet. The man gripped the rim
of the boat and jerked it down, sending Clyde into
the water with him. The man gripped the rim of
the boat and jerked it down, sending Clyde into the
water with him. Clyde bobbed up in time to see
the obese corpse, breaststroking to his revenge, zombie teeth snapping
at the air in anticipation of Clyde's flesh. Clyde shut

(01:56:21):
his eyes tight. The trolling motor hummed to life, and
he knew Barley was skinning out before the corpse could
eat him too. Then the motor bogged down in an entanglement,
whining as it tried to break free. Sticky chunks pelted
Clyde's face. Barley must have gotten stuck in the broken
remains of the aisle. Clyde feared the revenant would have
his vengeance on both the sawyers. Soon enough, Clyde opened
his eyes and watched the headless body sink into the

(01:56:43):
swamp for the second time that night. Barley shut off
the motor and slung it over his shoulder with a grin.
You swiming home or you want to get yourself in
the boat. Barley remounted the motor to its bracket. Clyde
pulled himself in inside. There's a chance this might.

Speaker 2 (01:56:59):
Be my fault.

Speaker 1 (01:57:06):
The rest of the day was without further zombie attacks,
and the boys felt assured the incident at Frog's Ass
was an isolated one. With it being Halloween, they didn't
have any jobs lined up and focused on the evening's
task preparing their truck for the hay rides. The Dodge
Warlock growled into the daycare's gravel parking lot. Barley stepped
down from the lifted pickup, and the much shorter Clyde

(01:57:27):
slid out. The screen door swung open and clacked against
the siding. As she came out to meet them, Barley stumbled,
drawing an amused snort from Clyde. Everyone in Bouchet was
in love with Maude Beaumont. The streaks of green cascading
through her blonde French bob shimmered in the late afternoon sun.
She waved to the cousins with her slender fingers, dancing playfully,

(01:57:51):
and smiled in the way that only she can. It
was a tactic that melted the hearts and befuddled the
minds of men across the county. One had to be
careful with Maud, for if you looked into the depths
of her eyes, you might not ever return in the
same manner you left, as was the case with Barley Sawyer,
who fell into those eyes in the seventh grade and

(01:58:12):
found himself perpetually entwined around those playful slender fingers. I
must admit I myself have fallen for her charms on
some occasion, which has kept the boys employed and alive.
As he rounded the vehicle, Barley spotted a hunk of
brain clinging to the tailgate and quickly tossed it into
the bushes before Maud could see it. She'd convinced Barley

(01:58:32):
to pull the trailer through Driscoll's corn Maze for the
daycare's annual hay rides. Three trips through the field and
Barley would be in a position to finally admit his
love for Maud, though he wouldn't because he'd been in
that position on at least thirty three different occasions and
chickened out every time. Hi, Barley, Maud said, sweeter than Georgia,
t and Clyde. Of course, are y'all set for the rides?

Speaker 2 (01:58:55):
Howdye? Maud.

Speaker 1 (01:58:56):
Clyde pulled the trailer hitch from the bed of the
truck and slotted it into the bumper we are now?
Is Driscoll gonna send them damn scarecrows out this year?
Just like every year since nineteen sixty three, Maud assured him.

Speaker 2 (01:59:08):
Fuck.

Speaker 1 (01:59:09):
Clyde's face soured. I don't like them, not one bit.
Ain't no reason Halloween needs to be scary. After all,
we're taking little kids through that maze language Clyde. Barley
shook his head. I can't take you nowhere. I'm used
to him by now. Maud smiled and gestured to the
trailer with its square holes arranged into benches amidst a
bed of loose straw. I figure we can take them

(01:59:31):
in groups of ten, except the pre k kiddos. There's
eleven in that bunch. Sounds like you got it all
planned out Barley smiled and took his trucker cap off.
Will you be riding in the truck with me, me
and Clyde? I mean, unless you'd be more comfortable if
it were just you and me. Clyde, don't mind riding
in the back none. Clyde's face twisted in confusion. I'd

(01:59:51):
definitely mind riding where them scarecrows can see me. Man up, Clyde.
Barley's shoulders sagged. I reckon, I mean to ask if
you'd like to ride up front with me? Is where
I was going with that? I was thinking Clyde could
sit up front where he's safe. Maud squeezed Barley's arm,
and that you might like to ride with me in
the back. I even got a special Halloween blanket we

(02:00:12):
can sit on. Maud looked up at him with those
damned blue green eyes, and Barley went toppling down into them.
His affirmation came out in a squeaky, bashful yip of excitement,
and he quickly set about moving the truck and getting
the trailer hitched to it, while Maud went inside to
prepare the plastic pails the kiddies would be carrying on
the ride. Clyde wrestled loose bales into the bed of
the warlock for Barley and Maud to ride on. The

(02:00:34):
first carloads of kids pulled into the parking lot and
went inside to get their baskets. Clyde slipped the aluminum
bat from under the seat and patted it against his palm.
The hell you need a baseball bat for, Barley asked, Well,
I reckon, we got attacked by a zombie this morning,
and I might have sank an island after fiddling with
that magic do hickey, so we should have some protection tonight.

(02:00:55):
Clyde beamed with pride for his forward thinking. There's also
the time to think about it. What about the time Clyde.
Barley checked his watch. It's a quarter to six, exactly
because Clyde pointed up at the sun, or where it
should have been. Anyhow, why is it dark already? Barley
looked at the dense blanket of clouds folded across the sky.

(02:01:16):
Somewhere beyond the fluffy barrier. The sun struggled to come through,
staining them a hellish red. The screams of excited children
swarming out of the daycare or interrupted the cousins, the
little gremlins piled into the trailer, with their haggard parents
shuffling behind to wish them a plentiful bounty. Maud strode
up to them. Barley, forgetting the rest of the world existed,

(02:01:36):
lifted her gingerly into the bed of the truck. Before
joining her. He leaned over the edge and tugged Clyde
to him by the collar. It's probably just a storm
blowing in, but keep your eyes open. Nonetheless, he glanced
over his shoulder at Maud before turning back to his cousin.
Give me your gun. I ain't bring one. Barley stared
at Clyde until he begrudgingly pulled the revolver from his

(02:01:57):
boot and handed it up to him. Don't know why
you want it, Clyde said. You shoot straight as the
letter s. Just drive and watch out for the dead.
Clyde made the turn into the corn maze. Sure enough,
Driscoll scarecrows were waiting at the entrance. The whole Driscoll
clan was there as well, tossing candy into the trailer

(02:02:17):
to the joyous wails of the children. They were deep
into the maze before the lightning started. Clyde slowed the
truck to a crawl and watched the clouds crackle with
tangerine bolts of electricity. He mashed the brakes and put
her in part before leaning out the window to whistle
for Barley. He jerked a thumb up at the storm.
Barley stood up and looked to the clouds. They rolled

(02:02:38):
like waves, cresting in saffron strobes. The laughter echoing from
around them turned into harmonious singing, a hymn known only
to the forgotten cult of WIT's End. The stalks rustled
with sudden excitement. Clyde sucked his finger and held it
to the sky. Ain't no wind blowing, Barley. He slipped

(02:02:58):
out of the cab with his bat in hand. Nope,
they're sure, ain't Clyde. Barley climbed down from the truck
and looked to Maud Best you wait here, my dear.
The minuscule forms, adorned in temple garments ambled out of
the maize, not much higher than Barley's waist, with pumpkins
resting atop their scrawny shoulders. Clyde took tentative steps toward

(02:03:19):
the nearest of the infernal carrollers and swung.

Speaker 2 (02:03:21):
For the fences.

Speaker 1 (02:03:22):
The singing, stopped in a collective gasp as they watched
one of their number drop flat. Well, some bitch, Clyde
Barley pulled the pistol and kept it trained on the mob.
You can't just go whacking little kids with a bat
for being creepy. Weren't no kid, Clyde pointed to the
shattered remains of the pumpkin and slithering worms oozing out
of the neck.

Speaker 2 (02:03:41):
It's an imp.

Speaker 1 (02:03:42):
They're like goblins, but they serve a Oh shit, serve
a what, Clyde Barley asked. An earth shattering roar answered.
The imps shrieked in agreement. A vine whipped out of
the maze and twisted around Barley's legs, jerking him under
the truck. He screamed for help, clutching the cornstalks while
the vine pulled tighter. He drew the pistol and fired
into the maze. Still, the vine fought against him, snapping

(02:04:04):
the stalks and pulling him deeper inside. Clyde found himself
swinging at the swarm of charging imps. Unable to aid
his cousin, Maud jumped into the trailer and ushered the
terrified children into the truck.

Speaker 4 (02:04:15):
Bed.

Speaker 1 (02:04:15):
Stay here, We're leaving soon, she promised them. The tire
iron screeched across the bed as she pulled it to
her and joined Clyde in the game of demonic whack
a mole. More gunshots cracked in the maze. Clyde cursed
the whole situation and smashed another pumpkin sprang maud with
the wriggly contents. She swiped the worms from her hair
and slapped Clyde hard enough to dislodge the tobacco glob

(02:04:38):
Watch where you're swinging, She shouted. We need to get
these kids out of here and rescue Barley. You got
a plan for this, Barley does the planning. Clyde kicked
one of the creatures between the legs and laughed as
it collapsed. Ips got yards too. That's not helpful. Get
in the truck and tell them crotch dumplins to hold tight.
Clyde winked, I think I got me a plan after all.

(02:05:00):
The warlock bounced violently through the field, following the bent
and broken path of Barley's abduction. The truck was designed
for off road shenanigans, but the trailer slid and twisted,
tossing hay bales into the field like mortar fire. The
truck jerked hard, narrowly missing Barley. As they caught up
with him, Clyde pulled the truck alongside Barley and grabbed
the chrome nerf bar This is not a plan, Maud shouted,

(02:05:23):
as she tried to keep the kids from bouncing out
of the truck. Well it's working, lack one, Clyde shouted.
Clyde leaned out the window, told.

Speaker 2 (02:05:30):
You, Barley, you can't shoot for shit. Now hold on.

Speaker 1 (02:05:34):
Clyde jerked the wheel and pulled Barley away from the vine,
snapping the tendril in two. The agonizing scream drowned out
the roar of the Warlock's big engine. Clyde stopped the
truck and got out. Barley handed him the revolver and
went to check on the kids in Maud. Clyde opened
the cylinder and cursed. Only left me one bullet, he asked,
You ain't never needed more than one. Barley climbed into

(02:05:57):
the truck bed and tried soothing the children. What do
him serve, Clyde. A wall of corn dropped away with
a swish, and two scarecrows staggered forward with scithes held high.
Mad hopped out of the truck and cocked the tire
iron back. Hell Fire burned in the mouths of their
jack o' lantern heads. Barley broke a board free of

(02:06:17):
the warlock's bedrail and joined Mad. You boys can fuck
right off, Maud warned them. They didn't listen. They reaped
the air with their blades and ambled closer, side by
side in their pursuit. The gunshot silenced the wails of
terrified kiddos. The two pumpkins wilted, and their fires spread,
engulfing the straw bodies. I hate scarecrows. Clyde spun the

(02:06:39):
pistol on his finger and blew smoke from the barrel.
Barley's right, I ain't never needed more than one bullet.
Lightning crashed to the ground and scores the mazic I
knighted in their wake, and twisting vines curled out of
the flames like snakes seeking mice. The ground split open,
crazing in fissures that stretched the boys in Maud. The
sulphuric fumes right out from them, stung their nostrils and

(02:07:01):
brought tears to their eyes. Imp served the Royal Family
of Hell. Clyde grumbled, how do you know that? Maud whispered,
learned it from the YouTube. Clyde pressed a water tobacco
into his lip. Really wish you ain't wasted my bullets, Barley.
I was trying not to get killed, Clyde. Barley hoisted

(02:07:22):
the two by four the three story jack o' lantern
tore out of the earth. On the verdant coiling, vines
sprouting from the white fuzz along its spongy orange belly.
A great guffaw resonated from the pulpy mouth of the beast,
matched by the torso of a man rising where its
stems should have been. Tiny gourds grew out of his
flesh like tumors, and more greenery sprouted amongst his white hair.

Speaker 5 (02:07:44):
I was Ebenezer, wit, prophet of the ascendant one Hamad.
He bellowed, for as the angels fall, so shall the
demon rise. That sounds bad, Barley whispered. Maud ran over
to the truck bed. Kids, I'm gonna need you all
to get on down from there and sit in the

(02:08:05):
trailer nice and sweet?

Speaker 1 (02:08:07):
Can you do that? Just like when we play the
quiet game?

Speaker 5 (02:08:09):
For my sacrificed and the lot of five hundred souls.
I am beyond the limitations of the flesh, the creature continued,
I am the pumpkin King, pontiffects of the Temple of
the Blight, and the harbinger of famine.

Speaker 4 (02:08:23):
Famine.

Speaker 1 (02:08:24):
Clyde spat tobacco juice down a fissure. How about you
come on down off your pumpkin, and Barley will just
go ahead and whoop your ass. Barley nudged him with
a board. Why me, damn it all to hell? Barley
Clyde threw his hands in the air. I took care
of them. Scarecrows and Maud helped with the imps. Carry
your weight some The vines lashed out, and Barley rolled

(02:08:45):
away from them. He tossed the board aside, switching it
out for one of the sickles lying on the ground.
Clyde wasn't as nimble. The creeper constricted around his narrow figure.
The blade flashed before him. Chlorophyll sprayed his face as
the tentacles shrank away. What did YouTube say say about
killing this guy? Barley swiped at vines, cracking like whips
at the boys. Need virgin blood Clyde jumped over a

(02:09:07):
fissure and grabbed the other side. I think we're in trouble.
Then Barley grunted, got a whole trailer full. I reckon.
Clyde cut down an attacking appendage. We're not feeding the
kiddos to the pumpkin. Barley grabbed Clyde's collar and swung
him to safety as the field cracked open beneath them.
I'm never gonna get a second date now, fools. The

(02:09:29):
pumpkin King lunged forward. The jack O'Lantern mouth stretched wide,
unleashing a wave of orange and green bugs. Millions of
aphids poured across the ground, their tiny bodies sliding across
one another like sand in an hourglass. This is entirely
your fault, Clyde. I told you not to fiddle with
that damn thing. Barley stomped at the early arrivals. The

(02:09:50):
cousin stood back to back while the famished horde besieged them.
The warlocks engine revved, rumbling through the smokestack exhausts. The
aphids slowed their advance and halted all the together. When
the engine roared again, the cousins looked at the truck
the rumble of the motor shook the gold striped body.
Through the window, they saw Maud rigging the steering wheel
in her fists as she pumped the accelerator in an

(02:10:11):
uneven rhythm. The aphids turned the movement imperceptible on account
of their size, and seemed to rewind with the cooriaceous
flesh of the pumpkin king. The warlock's tires spun, flinging
dirt across the kids hunkering and the unhitched trailer. Before
jumping forward. The engine roared like a lion pouncing at
its prey. The bullbar struck the cottony peach fuzz growing
along the demon's belly. The rind collapsed under the full

(02:10:33):
force of the redneck Limousines V.

Speaker 4 (02:10:35):
Eight.

Speaker 1 (02:10:35):
The cousins, dumbfounded more than usual, stared at the brake
lights glowing Within the moment it took the whole thing
to collapse on top of it. The house sized gourd
putrefied in a puddle of pie filling that heaped over
the truck, swallowing it like the tide takes the beach.
The pickup pulled out in reverse, its smokestacks bubbling hot
pumpkin puree as it slid in a j turn beside

(02:10:56):
the sawyer's Maud jumped down from the driver's seat. Orangeop
covered her body and dripped from her hair down her
stained blouse. She wiped her lips and muttered. Clyde left
the windows down.

Speaker 2 (02:11:08):
Maud.

Speaker 1 (02:11:09):
Clyde started and then snorted with her strained laughter, you
look gorgeous. Fuck you, Clyde. Maud slapped her hands over
her mouth and looked to the trailer. I'm sorry, kids,
Miss Maud shouldn't have used that word. Most of the
children were sobbing or calling for their mothers. Others simply
rocked silently. I'm sure they'll recover eventually. After all, nothing

(02:11:31):
builds character like supernatural trauma in early childhood. I wouldn't
be the man I am today if it weren't for
such events. Barley watched the mutated form of Ebenezer Wit
pulling himself out of the puddle, dragging his entrails behind him.
Clyde charged at him with a scythe overhead. Wit slithered
down a fissure. Clyde narrowly missed, sinking the curved steel

(02:11:52):
blade into the earth. Clyde threw his trucker cap to
the ground. Damn it all to hell. Tubular yellow flowers
blue around the blade, and Barley knelt to inspect them.
He plucked one and stood up pumpkin flowers. He slipped
it behind Maud's ear. I reckon, that means this ain't
over yet, whatever comes next, Maud said, lacing her sticky

(02:12:14):
fingers between his We can handle it, just like tonight.
How did we handle it? Clyde asked. Aphids don't like
acoustic stressers, so I used the truck to drive them away.
Maud pointed at the remains of the former pumpkin king,
and that was just a case of fitophora blight. Obviously, obviously.
Barley agreed. You know, I was thinking, after we get

(02:12:36):
these kiddos home, we should go on over to Orville.
Oh no, Clyde shook his head. I know what you're
gonna say next. We ain't never going near that shack again.
What shack?

Speaker 2 (02:12:47):
Maud asked.

Speaker 1 (02:12:48):
There's an old woman that lives in the woods outside Orville.
Barley said, she's a witch or a ghost. We ain't
too sure which one. She used to scare the Bejesus
out of us, as kids. She'll be able to shine
some light on what Clyde done did. I ain't going
Clyde crossed his arms. You know what happens when you
mess with ghost witches. Maud shook her head, splattering Barley

(02:13:10):
with pumpkin juice. Me neither, and we ain't finding out.
I draw the line. Clyde swiped his hand, making an
invisible line in front of him. Barley hitched the trailer
and got behind the steering wheel, with Maud snuggled up
against him. Clyde pouted on a bale of hay next
to the kids while they drove out of the corn maze.
They told the parents the scarecrows had been extra scary

(02:13:30):
that year, and promised the children would stop crying eventually.
Then they headed out across the old Highway to Orville
to see the Crone of cockscall holler. I told you
they got some colorful names for things in Arkansas. It
was Barley's bright idea to see the crone, and it
was that idea that brought them to my door. Sometimes
things just work out, and that's the story of how

(02:13:53):
Barley and Clyde first met the Pumpkin King. It might
not all be true, but that's how I heard it.
Another Mischief Night by Shane Migliovaca. Fresh from nursing school,
Kay Ferris had only been at Forbes Sanitarium for three months,

(02:14:17):
yet she was already sure she'd never get used to
that building or the psychotics that dwelled within. Lightning flashed
outside its crooked fingers searching for the ground. Halloween was
a few days away, but for Kay it may as
well be tonight. The dark hallways and stillness of Level

(02:14:39):
five were creeping her out, and the damn storm wasn't
helping matters. Doctor Chandler had all the patience on Level
five sedated early, something to be thankful for, she thought
as she made her rounds. But with the storm, it
really was the only course of action, as bad weather
tended to knock out the sanitarium's power, and since the

(02:15:00):
doors were locked electronically, if the power went out, all
the doors would unlock. The cheapskates in charge refused to
pay for a backup generator. She stopped. Ahead was the
end of the hall and the last door on the left,
behind which sat Patient fifteen. Patient fifteen, that girl in

(02:15:24):
the mask, Amanda Williams. She was worse than all the others.
The girl just sat there day and night in her
white mask, never making a sound. Chandler, who had treated
the girl since she'd first arrived, said she wore the
mask out of shame, shame that her brother was murdered

(02:15:44):
in a botched robbery. While she stood by, paralyzed with fear.
Kay heard noises coming from the room late at night,
not surprising since Amanda was the only patient that was
never sedated, as Chandler felt it unnecessary. Kay suspected the
old man thought of the girl as a daughter. She chuckled,

(02:16:06):
picturing them sitting down for a Sunday dinner. She started
down the hall again when there was a bright flash
of lightning followed by a loud crash of thunder. The
lights dimmed before finally flickering back on spooky shit. Huh,

(02:16:27):
Kay jumped. She spun around to see Johnny Earle behind her.
The husky orderly smirked, and she felt her face turning red.
What down there the last cell? His loud booming voice
trailed off into a whisper. Patient fifteen, I guess. Kay shrugged,

(02:16:48):
not wanting to let on how freaked the girl made
her feel all the ghosts and goblins will be coming
out soon. He made eerie sounds. I can protect you.
Save the trick or treat shit for Halloween night, Johnny Earle.
Thank god Halloween was on a Saturday this year. Kay
thought safe in the knowledge that she had the day off. Hey,

(02:17:13):
I'm sorry.

Speaker 2 (02:17:13):
How about I make it up to you?

Speaker 1 (02:17:15):
He touched her arm, making Kay flinch. There's some empty
rooms downstairs. We could take a little break. She pulled
away from the big orderly Not a chance, stuck up, bitch,
Kay heard him mumble as she walked away. Smiling at
his disappointment. She walked back to the nurses station. An

(02:17:36):
older nurse sat watching a small TV, which sat next
to a large jack O lantern. Lightning flashed, causing the
lights to dim again. The woman looked up as Kay approached.
Don't worry, the older woman took out a cigarette, lighting
it up. Happens every time there's a big storm. A

(02:17:57):
sinister laugh erupted from the TV. Thirty one Days of
Halloween will return with Jesse James meets Frankenstein's daughter after
these horrendous arcane adverts. Missus Bradley was the senior nurse
on the fifth floor, which meant she could do whatever
the hell she wanted. So the old nurse spent her
shift watching old horror movies and smoking. How are all

(02:18:19):
our little chickadees sleeping? Good, missus, Bradley coughed, Sit down
for a bit. They ain't going anywhere. Kay sat, stifling
a cough. She hadn't talked to the older nurse much
since starting at Forbes. Bradley intimidated her, and Kay had
heard stories from the other nurses that the old woman

(02:18:40):
could be quite the tyrant if he crossed her. So
Kay did as she was told and kept her head down.
You like it here, She felt her throat tighten as
Kay strained to think of the appropriate words. Um, it's
a shithole, missus, Bradley laughed. Don't worry about trying to
kiss my ass and say this is a great do

(02:19:01):
your job, put in your time, and if you're smart,
you'll use this as a stepping stone. After a few
moments of silence, Kay worked up the courage to ask
a question, how come you stayed? Before answering, the old
nurse tapped some ash into a coffee cup. Big fish,
small pond. If I'd gone somewhere else. I'd have to

(02:19:21):
start over again. Johnny Earle sauntered towards them. Well, well, well,
nobody told me it was break time. He made a
hurt face. Standing Kay adjusted her uniform well back to it.
She walked by Johnny Earle, giving him the cold shoulder.
Kay could feel them both watching her as she walked away.

(02:19:43):
She listened to the squeak of her sneakers on the
cold linoleum floor. Outside, lightning flashed, the brightest one yet
On its heels was a building shaking rumble. As the
thunder rolled above the earth, the lights flickered and hummed
again before going out. This time they remained dark. Oh fuck,

(02:20:03):
Kay muttered to herself. She stood alone in the hallway,
darkness surrounding her. Kay used the faint light from outside
to find the wall. Slowly feeling along the wall, her
hand glided over the concrete of the wall and the
mettal of the doors. She continued on this way until
she bumped face first into the wall at the hall's end. Embarrassed,

(02:20:28):
Kay headed back. She could see the pumpkin grinning there
by the now dark TV, a fiery face grinning at her.
A beacon in the dark. Another sharp blast of lightning
revealed the older nurse sitting there in her chair. Kay's
eyes strained to adjust after the bright flash of light.

(02:20:49):
This is really something, Kay said, feeling a little better
in the veteran's presence. I'm sure the power will be
back on soon. Right. Unable to see but the faintest
outline of the older nurse, Kay turned the face of
the jack O lantern towards the woman, Missus Bradley. The
woman's head slumped to the sode, her eyes open and wide,

(02:21:12):
her swollen tongue hung limp from her mouth, which was
frozen in a silent scream. Nearly tipping over her own feet,
Kay backed away. What should she do? Find Johnny Earle
call the cops. Slowly turning, Kay came face to face
with a blank, white face. Mask. Narrowed eyes sized her

(02:21:35):
up from behind it. Amanda was all Kay could spit
out before the strong, muscular hands gripped her by her throat,
lifting her off the ground. Amanda's eyes met Kay's cold, deep,
and somehow innocent. Suddenly there was a deafening crack and
it was over. Kay's body hit the linoleum floor with

(02:21:58):
a dull thud. Amanda stepped over the body without a
second glance. She had much to do. Kyle Williams felt
guilty as he put on his Halloween costume. Amanda would
want him to go out have a good time. The
thought of her made him touch the side of his

(02:22:19):
face as he ran his hand over the scar on
his cheek. If only he'd done something to help her
that night. Come on, let ask Trevor. His impatient roommates
stood in the door, dressed as Dracula. Them wild women
ain't waiting forever? Sure, almost done. Truthfully, he was glad

(02:22:40):
to be going. It was a chance to get out
of the dorm instead of sitting around by himself while
everybody had fun. I can't believe you're going as a hobo.
I'm not a hobo, Kyle groaned. I'm doctor who. I've
seen doctor who. He doesn't dress like a hobo. The
second one did. Trevor shook his head. Whatever, man, I'll

(02:23:02):
take your word for it. Let's go. As they pulled
up the driveway, Kyle was amazed by just how many
people were there. Holy shit, got that right, Trevor said,
looking for an open spot on the lawn to park.
I think the whole college is here, and then some
Finding a spot on the outer edge of the lawn,
Trevor parked. They got out, both marveling at the lid

(02:23:23):
up three story house, Halloween lights criss crossing its front.
A pretty Latino woman in a revealing red dress and
shoddy black wig, a close enough approximation of Sigourney Weaver
from Ghostbusters, brushed past Kyle as he and Trevor made
their way towards the house. Sorry, she said, turning to
look at Kyle, before disappearing behind a van. No prob,

(02:23:46):
Kyle replied, watching her go dude, she was checking you out.
Yeah right, fuck she was, Trust me really, Trevor nods,
go on, I'll be inside. Kile hesitated for a moment
before going to look for the girl in the red dress.
Poking his head around the other side of the van,

(02:24:07):
Kyle scanned the rows of parked cars. A guy his
hair pulled back into a ponytail, dressed in a karate ghee,
and a blonde girl in a cheerleader newiform stared at
him as he prowled around looking for the girl. He
headed back towards where they'd parked.

Speaker 2 (02:24:21):
It was like the.

Speaker 1 (02:24:22):
Girl had vanished into thin air. Hey over here, Kyle
turned to see the girl in the red dress leaning
against a tree. Hi, he stammered. She beckoned him over.
Kyle williams, Yeah, come with me if you want to
live what I always wanted to say that. A man

(02:24:44):
cleared his throat, stepping from behind a tree. Officer Mortez,
we don't have time for shenanigans. The man rubbed his
hands together, His thinning white hair was combed back. Kyle
was very familiar with the little man, Doctor Chandler. Kyle said, perplex,
what are you doing here? Did something happen? The doctor

(02:25:05):
stroked his chin. Your sister escaped after killing two nurses
in an orderly and later she stole a car after
killing a motorist, Mortes added. Kyle looked at the pair, dumbfounded.
Why Mortes scanned the area. Let's get to the car.
We can talk about it there. I don't like being
out in the open. She hustled them to an unmarked car.

(02:25:28):
Kyle stopped, What about Trevor. I don't want to just
ditch him. Mortes pushed Kyle into the back seat. In response,
Chandler slid into the passenger seat just in time. As
Mortes peeled out, how is this possible? Doc, Kyle asked,
I thought she was harmless. It's complicated. Something must have

(02:25:48):
been triggered within her. As the doctor tried to explain
his theory, Kyle became aware of the headlights bearing down
on them. Are we Mortes cut him off, being followed yes,
as we left the party. So you're a cop? Sure, am,
she said, their eyes meeting in the review mirror. Great
legs for a cop, Kyle said under his breath as

(02:26:10):
he looked over his shoulder. Mortes took the radio from
the dashboard, got the kid and the dock heading in
over kid, Kyle mumbled, I'm in college. Kyle could hear
the other car gunning its engine as it accelerated before
pulling up alongside them. Kyle made out an all two
familiar face in the driver's seat. His sister's blank white

(02:26:31):
face mask stared back at him. Amanda swerved the car
into them. Mortes fought to keep the car on the
road as they were struck again. Why the hell is
she doing this, Kyle screamed over the scraping of metal.
Mortes managed to shake off the other car for a moment,
but Amanda hit the gas and rammed their car again.
Your sister is getting on my nerves, Mortes snapped. As
Amanda continued to assault, Kyle leaned over the front seat.

(02:26:54):
He looked at Chandler, who was sweating profusely. Why is
she doing this, Doc? Chandler looked ready to faint. She
wants to kill you. Before Kyle had a chance to
process this, Amanda sent their car flying off the road
and into a ditch. Kyle wasn't sure which one of
them was screaming at the top of their lungs before
he realized it was himself. As darkness descended upon him, Hey,

(02:27:21):
great Gatsby, wake the fuck up. He looked up to
see Mortes hovering over him. As she pulled him up,
he saw Chandler nursing a nasty gash on his forehead.
Where is she, Kyle asked, feeling a sting of pain
in his back.

Speaker 2 (02:27:35):
Don't know.

Speaker 1 (02:27:36):
We got to get out of here. Mortes pulled a
pistol from her thigh holster, flashing a bit of leg
I radio. In our situation, there's nobody close, and I'm
not hanging around here waiting for your crazy sister to
show up. She popped the trunk open. Rummaging around, she
pulled out a tire iron and offered it to Kyle.
Merry Christmas. Don't say I never gave you anything. He

(02:27:57):
took it, turning the dingy looking metal bar over in
his hands. If I can get close enough, Chandler spoke up.
You don't need violence. He pulls a syringe from his jacket.
I can sedate her. Mortes frowned. We'll see, doc. Can
you walk okay? I think so, Officer Kyle helped him
forward as they headed into the tree line beyond the ditch.

(02:28:20):
Moretes took point. Kyle leaned in close as he helped
Chandler step over a tree root. Why is she doing this?
As you know, your sister believes you died in that
home invasion, He wheezed between words. Think of that time
you visited her in the hospital when she became agitated.

(02:28:40):
Agitated was one way to say it. Kyle thought he
could still remember that day, not that long after that
Halloween invasion, the doctor had ushered him into her room.
Upon seeing him, Amanda had started screaming at the top
of her lungs, A wild, terrified look in her eyes.
Since then, his visits consisted of seeing her through two

(02:29:00):
way glass. The doctor cleared his throat before finishing. What
I learned is your sister feels you're an impostor, a
phony duplicate of her brother, a doppelganger. Kyle let the
words sink in as they made slow progress through the
heavily wooded area. His sister, the one he loved more
than anything else in life, truly wanted to destroy him.

(02:29:24):
More Tes motioned for them to stop. There's a field
up ahead. Sit tight, I'll take a look. Not a
good idea, Kyle replied. Chill, kid, I'm just going five feet.
She slipped through the trees as Kyle shook his head,
I'm not a kid. After a few minutes, more Tes
came back. Looks like a farm in the distance. Can't

(02:29:46):
tell if there's anybody there. I think it's our best bet.
There might be a phone or a car. Beyond the
trees was a large field overgrown with tall grass. As
they started across, Kyle felt his heart beat faster. Amanda
could be anywhere out there, lying in wait. The grass
was overwaist high, tall enough to conceal one very pissed

(02:30:07):
off sister. A cool autumn breeze rolled over the field.
The grass swayed back and forth. Kyle's eyes darted back
and forth as he gripped the tire iron tightly. Suddenly
he caught a black shape off to their left in
the field, just sitting. Moonlight gave it a vague, ominous shape.

(02:30:27):
What the hell is that? What is what? Mortes asked
there Kyle pointed with the tire iron tractor, maybe, Chandler offered.
They kept going, like some great beast opening its eyes
after a long slumber. Headlights flooded the field as the
dark shape roared to life, the car's tires peeling out
as it shot forward towards the trio shit Mortes spat

(02:30:50):
as she took aim. She fired off around as the
car screamed towards her. Mortes dove to the side as
the car barreled by, heading straight towards Chandler and Kyle.
Kyle grabbed Chandler and pushed the startled doctor to the
ground and out of the car's path. The vehicle spun
around for another attempt. Kyle was running and screaming before
he even realized what he was doing.

Speaker 2 (02:31:09):
All that he knew was.

Speaker 1 (02:31:10):
He had to draw the car away from them, Amanda,
Kyle screamed as he ran full tilt towards the farmhouse.
Maybe there was something there he could stop his sister with.
Adrenaline was the only thing fuelling his fight. He ran,
huffing and puffing until the world slipped out from beneath
his feet and he fell face first on the grass.
Regaining his wits, Kyle rolled at the last possible minute
out of the way of the oncoming car, screeching to

(02:31:31):
a stop. The car now blocked his path to the farmhouse.
Amanda met his gaze behind the wheel of the car.
Getting to his feet, Kyle felt the sting of a
skin knee and a twisted ankle acquired from his tumble.
Hobbling towards the barn, he heard the car slowly turn around.
No rush, She had plenty of time to kill him.
The brake lights bathed the landscape in a bloody red hue.

(02:31:51):
The place looked deserted, A good thing no one else
could get in his sister's path. Kyle pushed open the
large barn doors. The headlights of the slowly approaching car
at his back illuminated the dusty interior. Kyle entered the barn.
As the car crept further towards him.

Speaker 2 (02:32:06):
He could feel a.

Speaker 1 (02:32:07):
Manda's eyes fixed on him, as well as the weight
of the tire iron in his hand. He turned as
the car lurched forward and stopped, then moved forward again.
It was halfway in the barn. Now she was taunting him,
playing with him. The high beams stung his eyes as
the car drew closer. God damn it. Mortes pushed tall

(02:32:28):
stalks of grass out of her way. When she'd gone down,
after the car had nearly clipped her. She'd lost her gun.
A fucking rookie mistake. It had to be here somewhere.
She glanced up across the field. The light from the
car was still visible. Stay here, doc, she ordered, I
gotta help the kid. Chandler tried to say something, and
she cut him off. He'll be a bigger help finding

(02:32:49):
my gun.

Speaker 2 (02:32:51):
Take this.

Speaker 1 (02:32:51):
Then he handed her the syringe. It'll put her out quick.
She took off running. If the kid was dead when
she got there, Mortes would make sure his sister was too.
Fucking knock her out. No going back to a nice
cell for that bitch, she thought. If Chandler didn't like that.
He could take it up with her captain. The car
stopped a couple of feet from where Kyle stood. The

(02:33:14):
roar of the Great Beast died as a man to
turn the engine off. The bright blinding headlights faded, leaving
spots in Kyle's eyes. Spots are not He could see
the pale white mask watching him from behind the wheel.
Come on, he taunted, you want me, I'm right here.
The car door swung open as Amanda exited the vehicle,

(02:33:35):
Her eyes blazed behind the mask, studying him. It's me,
Kyle said, don't you recognize me?

Speaker 2 (02:33:43):
Sis.

Speaker 1 (02:33:44):
As Amanda moved away from the car, Kyle could see
she was holding a large knife in her blood stained hands.
He held out the tire iron at the end of
his trembling arm. I don't want to hurt you, Okay,
She moved forward, her gaze never left him.

Speaker 2 (02:34:00):
Got some copy.

Speaker 1 (02:34:00):
You know it's me, Kyle, raising the blade, she advanced.
Remember when Bobby Ivers stole my book bag. You threatened
to kick his ass after school if he didn't give
it back. Amanda stopped, her eyes locked on him. Come on,
there has to be something there, Kyle, pleaded. Remember when
you were hung up on by Stevie Lee, you were

(02:34:21):
crying in your room and I sat with you. You
have to remember. She raised the knife over her head,
ready to strike. Kyle touched the scar on his cheek.

Speaker 2 (02:34:32):
See this.

Speaker 1 (02:34:34):
That man did this. He lied about killing me to
his buddy. He lied to save me. I didn't die
that night. Amanda's hand shook. She started to lower the knife.
Don't you fucking move, you crazy bitch. Mortes stood behind
the car holding a broken board. Stay away, Kyle warned.

(02:34:55):
Amanda turned towards the young cop and let out in
a human howl. She leapt on the the car's roof
In two swift movements. She crouched there, scraping the car's
roof with her knife. Kyle rushed forward, trying to put
himself between the two. He was too late, as Amanda
jumped off the car toward Mortes. Kyle caught a glimpse
of the blade as the two women collided. The two
struggled as Kyle tried in vain to separate them. Kyle

(02:35:18):
was pushed away from the skirmish, but managed to see
Amanda stand holding Mortes by the throat. His sister's fingers
tightened like a constrictor on the CoP's neck. For her part,
the struggling Mortes managed to land a solid punch to
Amanda's face, stunning the woman and cracking her mask in
the process, but her grip remained firm. Let her go,
Kyle pleaded, we can go home.

Speaker 2 (02:35:39):
I'll take you.

Speaker 1 (02:35:40):
Amanda let go of Mortes and turned to her brother.
Half of her mask gave way, revealing the pale, beautiful
face of a young woman. Still gasping for air. Mortes
jammed the syringe into Amanda's shoulder. Amanda responded with a
backhand that sent Mortes violently to the ground. She started
to walk away from them, staggering as she went, until
finally collapsing against the side of the car. Kyle took

(02:36:03):
her in his arms, sliding her into the backseat of
the car. What are you doing, Mortes asked, barely able
to speak. I'm taking her home, he said, getting into
the car. She'll kill you. We're family, he said, starting
the car. Mortes could only lean weakly against the barn

(02:36:25):
door and watch them drive off into the black October night.

(02:36:46):
Pumpkin Spice and Nothing Nice by Charles Campbell, seven o'clock am,
October thirty first, Amber Hannah sighed in frustration as she
impatiently waited in line at Frankie's Donuts, a line that

(02:37:10):
was threatening to spill outside the front door. By her count,
she was in spot eight and so far every single
person is ordered a pumpkin spice latte or pumpkin spice
donuts or both. Amber was so over the fall season
she just wanted her caramel cappuccino and glazed donut before

(02:37:34):
heading into the office. Everything was pumpkin spice, from candles
to fucking clorox. No shit, she saw pumpkin spice clorox
in the grocery store the day before. She dreaded the
three block walk to her office because as soon as
she arrives, Amber knows the place will smell of pumpkin spice.

(02:37:59):
Whoever thought of putting pumpkin spice and fucking everything ought
to be bound and flogged. Needless to say, Amber was
no fan and would be happy when November first rolled around.
It meant half priced candy and folks would start easing
up just a bit, and all this pumpkin spice shit.

(02:38:21):
Fuck Halloween, Fuck pumpkin spice. It was almost her turn
in line when a small hand tugged on her finger.

Speaker 2 (02:38:31):
Trick or treat, the little.

Speaker 1 (02:38:33):
Boy said, get away, Amber said, and stepped forward to
place her order. She felt a finger poke her on
the butt and spun around. Trick or treat. The little
boy repeated, look, you little turd? Where is your mother?
Amber asked angrily, what's your problem? Frankie asked Susie. The

(02:38:57):
cashier stepped aside for her boss. Oh, oh, nothing much.
I'm so sick of all this Halloween shit, the pumpkin
spice bullshit. This coffee shop used to be great because
it wasn't a fucking Starbucks or Duncan. But I'll be
damned if you fuckers didn't go ahead and sell out.
I hate all this pumpkin spice bullshit and snot nos

(02:39:20):
brats trying to touch my ass. That is my fucking problem.
Amber's face was beat red and she just couldn't stop
the spew of venom. Once it started, the little boy
with blue eyes and sandy blonde hair started to cry,
you're a meanie. The pumpkin man is gonna get you.

(02:39:42):
The kid cried out, pumpkin man, give me a fucking break,
Amber said, Get out of my store and don't come back.
Since you hate us so much, go to Starbucks or Duncan.
But you're not welcome here anymore. Frankie shouted, fine, Amber said,

(02:40:03):
and turned to leave. There was a tap on her shoulder.
It was the boy's father.

Speaker 4 (02:40:10):
Miss.

Speaker 1 (02:40:11):
The way you talked to my son was crass and unacceptable.
You owe him an apology. The tall man with a
dark complexion said he wasn't angry, but he was serious.

Speaker 4 (02:40:23):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (02:40:24):
Yeah, that ain't gonna fucking happen. You're lucky I don't
call the police. The little perv tried to grab my ass.
Amber said she was over it and ready to go. Okay,
so you're going to forego the apology, asked the man.

Speaker 2 (02:40:40):
Duh.

Speaker 1 (02:40:41):
Amber answered and began walking toward the door. The man
tapped on her shoulder once more. She turned to let
him have it for the final time. He held out
his palm and quickly blew orange dust into her face.
Amber coughed and gagged. She breathed it in and swallowed
a good.

Speaker 2 (02:41:01):
Bit of it.

Speaker 1 (02:41:02):
Her eyes burned, and she was fiercely rubbing them. What
felt like agonizing minutes was only a few seconds when
she felt the cool water wash over her face. Frankie
was pouring a bottle of cold dasani over her eyes.
It was helping. Did someone call the cops, Amber asked?

(02:41:23):
Nobody said a word. Where'd they go? Amber looked around.
The little boy and tall man were gone. She thought
about calling the police, but what was the point. She'd
go to work and tomorrow, this Halloween horseshit would be

(02:41:44):
over until next year. Ten minutes later, Amber was tapping
away on her front teeth with her index finger as
she was trying to decide what she wanted from the
vending machine. She rolled her eyes when she noticed what

(02:42:04):
was in B seven pumpkin pie pop tarts. This season
couldn't come to an end fast enough. She chose some
generic peanut butter crackers and had just enough change in
her pocket for a doctor pepper to wash it all down.
She needed something in her stomach to deal with all
the Halloween freaks in the office today. Shelley was a witch,

(02:42:28):
John was a half asked Frankenstein, Monster, Chuck was a
bargain basement mummy, and Tina, well, she didn't know what
the fuck Tina was supposed to be she had drawn
on whiskers, So maybe some kind of a dying cat
or something. Just another Halloween at Whitman's Insurance Agency. Chuck

(02:42:52):
and Tina Whitman owned the place, and they were very
firm believers in all Hallow's Eve. Another year without dressing up,
hih amber, Chuck asked, as he held his arms out
like a lumbering mummy from movies long long ago. Yeah, well,
you know, I really couldn't find anything to wear, mister Whitman,

(02:43:14):
Amber said, Looking at him made her want to puke.
At least you're consistent. You sure you didn't try a
little makeup this morning, Chuck asked as he pointed at
her neck. You've got a little something there. You get
one of those pumpkin spice donuts from Frankie's. No, mister Whitman,

(02:43:36):
let me go wipe this mess off, Amber said, and
excused herself from her desk. Thankfully, there was no one
else in the restroom. Amber looked in the mirror and
she could see the little orange smudge that mummy Chuck
pointed out. She soaked a paper towel sheet with warm
water and dabbed at the small spot on her neck.

(02:43:57):
She dried it and took another look. The smudge was
still there, so she added a little soap from the
dispenser and scrubbed.

Speaker 2 (02:44:06):
A little harder.

Speaker 1 (02:44:08):
She dried it again and the smudge hadn't gone anywhere. Fuck.
Amber whispered and tossed the paper towels into the garbage.
She'd have to wash the spot away in the shower
that night. It was par for the course. She'd have
to work all day with that pumpkin orange blotch on

(02:44:28):
her neck. Naturally it would be pumpkin orange. She took
one last look in the mirror and blew a strand
of hair out from in front of her face. Amber
then went back to her desk. This morning was busy

(02:44:49):
and lunch was fast approaching. Amber was hungry. The crackers
and doctor Pepper weren't quite the breakfast she expected. She
fielded quite a few calls and set soul several appointments
for the agents. Some customers came in with their young kids,
all dressed up. The little fuckers had their trick or
treat bags and the whitman's were more than happy to

(02:45:11):
fill them. To Amber, kids didn't belong in a place
of business, even if it was Halloween. She rose from
her desk and stretched her arms. Amber was going to
take a walk down the block and grab a sandwich
from underground Joe's. That's when one of the kids in
the office shouted.

Speaker 2 (02:45:29):
Oh wow, Mom, look at her.

Speaker 1 (02:45:32):
He shouted and pointed at Amber. I don't think she's
finished her costume yet. Stop pointing. It's not polite, the
portly woman said and waved at Amber before pulling her
son away by the arm. What the fuck was that about,
Amber whispered to herself. Then Chuck walked by and stopped

(02:45:53):
cold Amber. Have you been getting into the Halloween spirit?
Looks good so far, Chuck said, and made a circle
with his finger as he pointed at her neck. Amber's
brow furrowed. She noticed the others in the office now
looking at her. Tina, the afflicted cat, put her hand

(02:46:13):
over her mouth. That was enough for Amber to high
tail it back to the restroom. Amber locked the door
behind her and moved quickly to the mirror. She put
her hand over her mouth to stifle a scream. Fuck, fuck, fuck,
Amber repeated. It was the only word her brain would register.
The orange smudge had spread and there was more The

(02:46:37):
bottom half of her neck was pumpkin orange, covered with
what appeared to be black spider veins. There was no
washing this shit away. Amber took a deep breath and
exited the bathroom. She moved quickly to the coat rack
and lifted Tina's long black scarf. She wrapped it around
her neck and shouted.

Speaker 2 (02:46:58):
Ah, I'm not fear feeling while mister Whitman.

Speaker 1 (02:47:02):
Going home to lie down. She waved a hand in
the air and almost knocked Freddy Caldwell over as she
rushed from the building. Fifteen minutes later, Amber was safely
in the confines of her one bedroom apartment when she
immediately removed her clothes and stepped into the shower. She

(02:47:25):
saturated the loofa with soapy water and went to work
on her neck. There was no rush of orange and
black makeup running down her chest. She scrubbed harder, but
nothing was happening. It was as if someone tattooed this
shit on her.

Speaker 2 (02:47:44):
Uh what the fuck?

Speaker 1 (02:47:47):
Amber screamed. The shower was as hot as she could
stand it and nothing was happening. She pulled the shower
curtain and grabbed a towel from a clean stack on
the shelf. Amber wrapped her body and opened the bathroom
door to let the steam escape. Then she used a
dry washcloth to wipe the fogging mirror. Amber almost fainted

(02:48:11):
at what she saw. Not only did the orange and
black mess not go away, but it spread even more.
Now all of her neck was completely covered to the
base of her chin. Amber's heart was racing. Her hands
trembled as she attempted to remove her nose ring, and

(02:48:34):
quickly gave up on the notion when the scent crept
into her nostrils. It was the unmistakable combination of nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice,
and ginger, the fucking smell of pumpkin spice. Something else

(02:48:57):
was strange. Amber noticed the color of her eyes were darker.
They were a sky blue before, but now they were
almost like dark pools of water.

Speaker 2 (02:49:11):
This was fucked up.

Speaker 1 (02:49:13):
On so many levels. Then it hit her. The man,
the man at Frankie's did the shit He poisoned me?
Amber said out loud, before thinking, what the fuck did
that kid say? The pumpkin Man will get you. Amber

(02:49:36):
got dressed as she opened the uber app on her phone.
She was going to the emergency room. Thirty four minutes later,
it was mid afternoon in AUGUSTA University Hospitals er was
crazier than usual. As soon as the uber driver dropped
her off, Amber knew this was going to be a

(02:49:56):
wasted trip. The er waiting room was almost to capacity.
A lot of them were snotty nosed little shits, sniffling
and coughing all over the place. There are prompt cares
and pediatricians for this bullshit, is what Amber thought as
she stepped to the front desk. The pretty young nurse
smiled as Amber approached. Wow, that's some great makeup. You

(02:50:21):
go into a Halloween party, No, Amber replied, She wanted
to look in a mirror trick or treating with some kids. Then, no,
how long is the weight? Amber asked, Well, the lobby's full.
You can fill out this paperwork if you want to wait.
The young nurse held a clipboard with a small stack

(02:50:44):
of paper attached. You're looking at a two to three
hour weight. We got a lot of sick kids today. Fuck,
Amber replied, and waved off the clipboard. Amber walked away.
The nurse smiled and greeted the next person in line.
Seventeen minutes later, Amber shuffled back into her apartment and

(02:51:09):
went into her bedroom. She turned on the light and
stood in front of the full length mirror attached to
the door. Half of her face was now covered in
pumpkin orange and black to est under her nose. Amber
stared in horror as the image was starting to present itself.

(02:51:30):
Oh my god, she screamed. The jagged black lines around
her mouth formed the unmistakable grin of a jack o' lantern.
The smell was back, too, and it was driving her bananas.
It was as if her nose were made of pumpkin spice.
It was sickening and caused her to convulse. She scurried

(02:51:54):
to the bathroom and dry heaved. After a couple of minutes,
she calmed down and caught her breath. The smell was
still there, but the compulsion to puke her guts out
was gone. For the moment. Amber laid in her bed
and sobbed. She cried herself to sleep. Four hours later,

(02:52:18):
Amber awoke with a pounding headache. The room was dark
except for the television. One of the Halloween movies was playing,
and she really didn't give two shits which won as
far as she was concerned. If you've seen one, you've
seen them all. She placed her hands on her temples
and was all but convinced that she just woke up

(02:52:39):
from one of the most vividly terrible nightmares she's ever had.
But the smell was still there, and she didn't think
it possible. It was even more prominent. This stoked the
fear in her, like a blow poker to a dying fire.
Amber turned on the law and fell to her knees

(02:53:01):
in front of the mirror. Dear God, she screamed. Her
face had completely transformed into that of a Jack o' lantern.
It wasn't makeup or parlor tricks, it was one hundred
percent her face. Her eyes were oval shaped and so

(02:53:23):
dark the iris blended with her pupils. The same type
of black jagged lines around her mouth now surrounded her
eyes and nose. Everything else was pumpkin orange, with streaks
that looked like ominous roads on a map. Her shoulder
length hair was black with orange highlights.

Speaker 2 (02:53:48):
What did he do to me?

Speaker 1 (02:53:50):
Amber was panicking. She should go back to the hospital,
but how could they fix this. She could go back
to Frankie's. Maybe the tall Man came back with his kid.
She could give the apology he asked for and maybe
he could fix it. That was her best shot. She

(02:54:12):
didn't want to go out looking like this, but it
was Halloween, so she shouldn't turn too many heads. Amber
retrieved her phone and headed out. Frankie's was, after all,
within walking distance. Nine minutes later, there were oohs and

(02:54:33):
ahs when Amber stepped into Frankie's. A line of kids
were waiting their turn at the candy table. Susie Reynolds
was dressed as a witch. It was one of those
Dollar General costumes, but Susie filled it out rather nicely.
Amber pushed to the front of the candyline. Susie didn't
recognize her at all until she spoke, Susie, you've seen

(02:54:59):
that kid from this more. Amber asked Amber that you wow,
your makeup is amazing. Susie was thoroughly impressed. Shut it, Susie,
the kid from this morning, have you seen him, Amber asked,
in desperation. No, Susie replied, and, because of Amber's bitchiness, added,

(02:55:25):
didn't Frankie tell you not to come back? Come on, Susie,
I need to find the kid and his dad. Let
me sit in the back for a little while in
case they come in please, Susie. Okay, but if Frankie
shows up, I'm not covering for you, Susie replied as
she grabbed a fistful of candy for the next kid.

(02:55:48):
Thank you, thank you, Amber said, before taking a seat
in a booth facing the entrance. She was tapping her
fingers nervously on the table. She kept her eyes on
the front door, hoping against hope for the kid and
his dad to return. Amber glanced at her phone to
check the time, and an immediate lump formed in her throat.

(02:56:11):
Her wrists were pumpkin orange. Amber was wearing gray sweats,
so most of her body was covered up. She quickly
glanced around, held her breath, and took a quick peek
down her shirt. Amber was on the verge of breaking down.
Her entire torso was pumpkin orange. No, no, no. Amber

(02:56:37):
was trembling uncontrollably. The kids, along with their parents in
the candy line, started to notice her. Then a line
of her very own started. Oh wow, you're a pumpkin. Look, mama,
she's a pumpkin. The little redheaded girl dressed like raggedy
Ann shouted, where's the rest of your costume? She asked

(02:57:00):
as she looked over the gray sweats. Amber gave the
little girl a nervous smile and squirmed in her seat.
Come on, come on, please, Amber mumbled, you look so cool.

Speaker 2 (02:57:14):
You want some of my candy?

Speaker 1 (02:57:15):
A little boy asked. Amber smiled and shook her head.

Speaker 2 (02:57:19):
No.

Speaker 1 (02:57:20):
There was now a full fledged crowd of kids in
front of her. Half of the kids were in the
candy line and the other half were in the line
to see the pumpkin lady. Please come please, Amber whispered.
The kids gawked, and most of the parents were impressed
with the detail of the make up. Almost an hour

(02:57:41):
passed and Amber was just about to leave and head
back to the er when she heard a familiar voice.

Speaker 2 (02:57:49):
Trick or cheet.

Speaker 1 (02:57:51):
He was wearing a pumpkin mask, but she immediately recognized
the voice. It was the little boy with the blue
eyes and sandy blonde hair. Hey, you want some candy?
Amber grabbed a handful some of the other kids left
for her on the table. Here you go, He held
a plastic pumpkin in front of him, and she dropped

(02:58:12):
the candy inside. Look, I want you to know that
I'm so sorry I yelled at you today. It was
wrong of me, and I shouldn't have treated you like that.
Please tell your dad that I'm sorry. Amber said, tears
filled her black eyes. She could tell the little boy

(02:58:34):
was smiling behind his mask. It's okay, thank you for
the candy, he replied, and opened his arms for a hug.
Amber scooched out of the booth and knelt down. The
little boy hugged her around the neck and whispered in
her ear. My daddy is the pumpkin Man. When Amber stood,

(02:59:00):
the tall man was there. He was behind his son
holding a cup. Thank you for apologizing to my son.
Halloween is his favorite time of year and he gets
very excited here, the tall man said, as he handed
Amber a Frankie's cup. Take this as an acceptance of

(02:59:20):
your apology. Make sure you drink the entire cup. You'll
feel like a new woman in the morning. Come on, son,
let's go. The two of them walked out of Frankie's.
Amber looked at the cup. It looked like a regular
old cup of pumpkin spice latte. She took a sip

(02:59:42):
and nothing ever tasted better on her tongue. It was hot,
but not too hot. Amber drank every single drop. Nothing
was left in the cup. She hugged a few more
kids before she left Frankes. She liked the feeling. One

(03:00:05):
year later, the line at Frankie's Donuts was almost to
the door. By her count, she was in spot ten
and so far every single person had ordered a pumpkin
spice latte or pumpkin spice donuts or both. Amber waited
patiently for her turn to order. Susie smiled as Amber approached.

(03:00:29):
Nice costume, Amber, not quite as good as last Halloween,
but not bad girley, Susie said. Amber was wearing a
tight fitting sexy witch costume straight from the Dollar General.
Thank you, Susie, I'll be by tonight to see what
you're wearing. I'd like a pumpkin spice latte and two

(03:00:50):
dozen pumpkin spice donuts for the office. Okie doke, Susie replied.
A smiling Frankie approached the counter. What a difference a
year makes, Hi, Amber. Amber nodded and replied, yes, sir,
I friggin love Halloween. Retro Halloween Weekend by Rob Fields.

(03:01:24):
Strickfield is always a major hotspot for the two major
holidays of the year. When the Christmas season comes around.
Each and every house is decorated to the max. There
are many events that go from the day after Thanksgiving
until the end of Christmas. The Christmas season is the
second biggest event of the two. The biggest event is Halloween.

(03:01:49):
Much like the Christmas season, each and every house is
decorated to the max. There are many more events that
take place for Halloween than during the Christmas season. What
sorts of events happen during the entire month of October
and Strickfield, you may ask. Many parties take place at
the local businesses. Denoyer's Grill, the popular restaurant in Strickfield,

(03:02:12):
usually picks up more customers seemingly every day. There are
plenty of haunted attractions around the area, though you may
want to avoid the backwoods areas. If you head out
to these attractions, all of the bars are open for parties,
which brings many of the students in from Strickfield University.

(03:02:34):
Strickfield also has the two biggest events that are greatly
talked about for the Halloween season. The first one is
their Trick or Treat Nights, which take place on both
October thirtieth and on the thirty first. The tradition here
is that anyone can go door to door and collect

(03:02:54):
candy without any judgment. It doesn't matter how old you
are or where you come from. In fact, people come
from miles away just to experience this event, and there
seem to be more and more tricker treaters here each
and every year, which was why the event was extended

(03:03:15):
to two days. There's even going to be an issue
on the November ballot to extend the event to a
full week. The second of the two biggest events for
Halloween takes place at the Strickfield drive In Theater on Friday, Saturday,
and Sunday of each weekend in October. There are triple features.

(03:03:35):
Monday through Thursday features a horror double feature each night.
The drive in sells out even on Sundays and weeknights,
which are school nights. However, on Halloween weekend, the drive
in hosts special marathons in which four films are screened.
But on Halloween night itself, the drive in hosts an

(03:03:59):
extra special marathon in which they screen four secret movies
which aren't revealed until they hit the screen. Only the
manager knows what the titles are. The event sells out
just the same This year. Halloween night will be on
a Sunday as part of retro Halloween Weekend. It's Saturday

(03:04:22):
now Halloween Eve that I'm seeing Charity Miarn on TV
at the drive In giving a speech. As it turns
out the Strickfield Drive In Theaters in need of some
major renovations. Really, you just know the theater makes damn
good money. The owners can't raise the funds to renovate
the fucking place. Charity and her girlfriend Micah Collins were

(03:04:45):
at the drive in for a summer triple feature event
and had heard about the theater's peril. Not only did
Charity and Micah raise the money for the renovations, but
whatever was left over went to a charity of the
owner's choice, which was the Strickfield General Hospital Children's Ward.
Charity is standing at the podium with Micah next to

(03:05:06):
her and talking about how she and Micah heard that
the drive in was in trouble and might not reopen
for next year's season. She talks about how the former
drive in location on the other end of the village
went to hell. The old Strickfield Drive In Theater location
is on the very same road here as this current location.
Charity explains the Old Theater closed down in nineteen eighty

(03:05:29):
seven after hosting the final retro Halloween Weekend event there.
But now as we get to the end of the
Halloween season, the Strickfield Drive in Theater will finish this
final weekend with the traditional four four secret movies and
that's both nights this year. Charity laughs a little though

(03:05:51):
after tonight they won't be a secret so much. Then,
Charity really smiles. Micah and I would like to thank
all of you who donated. Because of your donations, this
Drive in Theater will continue to operate for seasons to come,
which means there will be many, many more special nights,
just like the Halloween season and Retro Halloween Weekend. Her

(03:06:15):
statement was followed by lots and lots of applause. Charity
lets Micah speak. Also, many of you requested to have
actual vendors here for retro Halloween Weekend. Well, consider that
wish granted. There'll be plenty of vendors here to sell
whatever your horrific little heart's desire, including even more scary movies.

(03:06:38):
This is going to be a retro Halloween Weekend. None
of us will ever forget, we promise, so we'll likely
see many of you here this weekend, and remember the
four Secret Movies will be playing on this screen here
both tonight and tomorrow night. Very few tickets are still available,
so don't wait. Happy retro Halloween weekend and happy Halloween.

(03:07:03):
More fucking loud applause. Yeah, everybody's all happy and excited,
ain't they? Fuck you, Charity. I'm lying on my bed
and shaking with seething hatred for my older sister by
a little over a year. I've had to watch you
on TV ever since I heard that you and Micah
were doing all those charity drives together. You two raised

(03:07:26):
funds for the expansions to Strickfield Elementary School. You even
raised funds to get the Stricfield Fire Department new fire engines.
I heave and heave with hatred, and now realize I've
tightened my fists so much that I feel myself bleeding
from where my long fingernails have dug into my palm.
Still shaking with hatred, I stand up and scream at

(03:07:50):
the top of my lungs. I'm heaving again. My hatred
for you will never stop, Charity. I march right of
the house and head down the road to my friend
Sienna Michael's house. When I get there, I open the
front door and walk right in. Sienna's parents just look
at me as I disappear upstairs and open the door

(03:08:12):
to Sienna's room. Sienna's lying on her bed with her
headphones on, listening to heavy metal records. When Sienna sees me,
she pulls her headphones off, destiny, Hey, babe, what's up.
I sit down next to her. Why does she do it, Sienna?
Why does charity have to make our family look so bad?

(03:08:34):
Sienna listens to me bitch about everything that happened at
the drive in, along with all the other charities. My
sister scored funds for mom, and Dad disowned charity, and
it's like this this. I glare at Sienna. She's so
goddamn happy, go lucky. She even has a girlfriend, a girlfriend.

(03:08:54):
I raise my finger. And every time charity raises money
for something and Dad hear about it, know what they do?
I stand up and scream they take it out on me.
I sit down again. Sienna sees a tear run down
my cheek and tries pulling me to her to hug me,
but I push her away and quickly wipe away the tear.

(03:09:17):
I won't show weakness. When mom heard on the radio
that Charity had saved the drive in theater, she turned
and slapped me hard across the face and told me
to get out of her sight. I tighten my fists again.
I hate you, Charity, I really really hate you. Just

(03:09:37):
then Sienna's door opens. Her parents come into the room.
What is going on up here? Her dad points right
at me. You just barge into our house. Then you
come up here and start screaming at Sienna Dad. She didn't,
Sienna tries to say. I stand up quickly and scream
at her father fuck off. Before he can respond, I

(03:10:01):
shove right past Siena's parents and move downstairs. They hear
the door slam shut behind me. It's not long before
Sienna comes after me, likely against her parents' wishes. Destiny.
Come on, don't be like this. Mom and dad said
you're not welcome at our house anymore. Fuck your parents,
I yell. I'm ready to say the same thing to Sienna,

(03:10:23):
but I quickly stop myself. Sienna is my only friend
in this world. I just look ahead and fuck you Charity.
We sit down on a bench outside of Gunter Square
and talk about things. Sienna really tries to calm me down,
but I'm so full of hate. I can still feel

(03:10:44):
Mom slapping me across the face so hard that I
fall and hit the floor just as hard. I keep
feeling her hands slapping my face again and again, all
because of you, Charity. Suddenly I stand up. I've got
at Siena. I know exactly how to get my revenge
on Charity. What are you talking about, Sienna stammers. I

(03:11:09):
turn to her retro. Halloween weekend, Tomorrow night is Halloween.
It doesn't matter what day of the week Halloween falls on.
It doesn't matter where it is or what the event is.
Halloween is, without a doubt, the biggest money maker in
all of Strickfield. I sigh a sinister sigh. That means

(03:11:32):
the Drive In will have its biggest money maker tomorrow.
The banks won't be open for them to take their
cash to and deposit it, and there are no night
deposits at any of the banks around here. I should know,
because our family owns all the banks. I sit back down.
That means the Drive In keeps the money locked on

(03:11:53):
the premises. Then I shriek with the light. The charity
money will also be there. Sienna looks at me uneasily. Um,
you're not thinking of oh, but I am Sienna. I
assure her I have a plan. Sienna still looks uneasy.

(03:12:14):
That's stealing destiny. I laugh. Why, yes, yes it is.
Sienna keeps giving me that uneasy look and pissing me off.
Fuck off, I'm doing this. Sienna lowers her head and
seems ready to cry. I hate it when you yell
at me. Now I feel awful again. Sienna is my

(03:12:37):
only friend. I hug her. I'm sorry, I say sincerely,
I won't involve you in my plan. But Sienna suddenly
hugs me back tightly.

Speaker 2 (03:12:49):
Stop.

Speaker 1 (03:12:50):
You can't do this by yourself.

Speaker 2 (03:12:52):
You need me.

Speaker 1 (03:12:54):
When we come apart, I wait for her explanation. I
love you and I won't let you do this yourself.
I know I can't talk you out of it, so
I'm going to help you. I consider her now. Then
I sigh. I'm such a bitch to you, and you
still want to help me because I love you, dummy,

(03:13:18):
You're my best friend. I only have one. I sigh again,
and whisper, I love you too, and I'm sorry for
how I treat you. We hug again. What's the plan,
Sienna asks. I compose myself. Okay, we'll meet at the

(03:13:39):
drive in tomorrow night and do the marathon. Plenty of
time to scope everything out. We'll wait until the final
movie plays before we grab the cash. I've never been
to the drive in. Where is it? Sienna asks me, neither.
I take out my smartphone and look it up. Thirteen
thirteen Harlow Roade. Here's a pick. You can't miss it.

(03:14:02):
It looks like it's ready to fall apart from the outside.
I look at the pick again and realize something else. Hey,
it's actually not far from Denoyer's grill.

Speaker 2 (03:14:11):
How what?

Speaker 1 (03:14:11):
We meet there and get shakes before we hit the
drive in. Great idea, Sienna agrees enthusiastically. I smile for her. Okay, Babe,
see you tomorrow at Denoyer's. It's Halloween night. After we
have shakes at Denoyer's grill, we leave the still packed

(03:14:32):
vintage diner and make our way to the drive in.
We pass a lot of trick or treaters. Like I said,
Strickfield is the place to trick or treat period. It's
not long before we see the drive in. The old
sign out front is brightly and dully lit at the
same time and reads welcome to retro Halloween weekend in

(03:14:53):
red letters. Suddenly, two cars appear from out of nowhere
and speed right past us. Just we all over the
fucking road. Sienna and I quickly find ourselves on our asses.
I quickly get up as I help Sienna to her feet,
I yell at the.

Speaker 2 (03:15:08):
Cars, Hey, jerks, speed kills.

Speaker 1 (03:15:13):
I'm okay, Sienna assures me when she's on her feet again, assholes,
I mutter, come on, let's get inside the drive in.
We can just go around and jump the fence. This way,
we won't have to pay shit to get in. As
we walk to the fence, I have an evil thought.
You know, once we rob this place, Charity's going to

(03:15:35):
hear all about it. It'll be a big fuck you
to her. Sienna glances at me. Can we go over
the plan again?

Speaker 2 (03:15:45):
Sure?

Speaker 1 (03:15:46):
I explain the plan over again. I'm finished. When we
reach the fence, got it, babe, Yeah, I got it,
Sienna assures me. Sounds good. We climb up and over
the fence and drop to the other side. I quickly
look around.

Speaker 2 (03:16:04):
We're good.

Speaker 1 (03:16:05):
Nobody saw us. We walk across the gravel lot pass
one car after another, noticing the speakers. People are hanging
on the windows for inside sound. Don't they broadcast the
sound through the car radios here? No wonder this fucking
place needs renovations. I had no idea retro Halloween weekend

(03:16:25):
meant retro cars too. Sienna says, yeah, I noticed that too.
I point to the concession stand. Okay, let's get refreshments
and make ourselves look like we're here for the event.
We enter the concession stand. Wow, I'm surprised by what
we're seeing. Everything in here looks vintage to Sienna. Well,

(03:16:48):
maybe being retro is the theme here, Sienna offers, I mean,
everything's supposed to be getting renovated, right, I smile wickedly.
Not after we're threat here tonight, we order food. Fuck,
even the prices are vintage. Everything's so cheap. Not only that,

(03:17:09):
the food actually looks and smells a lot better and
you actually get more. We head out and sit at
a picnic table and wait for the first feature to start.
I bite into my quarter pound hot dog. These are
the best fucking hot dogs I've ever eaten. The marathon
starts and the PSA's are playing. Some trailers follow then

(03:17:32):
The first movie of the night begins to play Carnival
of Souls. Something doesn't feel right. I can't put my
finger on it. We watch the movie. It's cloudy outside
and the wind starts to pick up. Intermission comes, We
buy more food and come back to the picnic table.
The second feature is Night of the Living Dead. Christ

(03:17:56):
are they going to be playing black and white movies
all fucking night? My question is answered one more time
when they play The Last Man on Earth for round three. Really,
these are the big, super secret mystery movies. We hit
the concession stand again. The last movie plays, which is
called Halloween Destiny. During the other movies, Sienna and I

(03:18:20):
would get up and look around. We confirm our plan
to get the money and are ready to make our move.
As we get up, we look at the movie. This
one's not familiar, yet Sienna and I feel compelled to
watch it. This black and white movie starts out with
a vengeful, mean rich girl who hates her older sister

(03:18:42):
for being kind hearted. She meets up with a friend
and gets her to help her with a revenge plot.
The two of them met up at a diner and
eat before they walk to the drive in and climb
the fence to get in. It's not long before the
girls hear the rumble above them, and no, it's going

(03:19:05):
to rain soon. Suddenly we hear a low rumble just
above us. What the fuck, Sienna, It's supposed to be
windy tonight, just windy, not raining. In the movie, the
girls take shelter underneath another picnic table that has a

(03:19:27):
large umbrella over it as it begins to pour down rain.
At the same time it pours down rain on us.

Speaker 4 (03:19:39):
Shit.

Speaker 1 (03:19:39):
Sienna shrieks, Damn, it's so cold. Unlike the film, there
are no picnic tables with umbrellas. In spite of the rain.
The driven patrons, both in the film and in the
real world, are still in their cars and watching the movie.
I take Sienna's hand and lead her back to the
concession stand, and the workers are a guy and a

(03:20:02):
girl about our age. They both look a little off somehow.
I know it's Halloween night and people usually dress up,
but still Sienna and I both look at each other
as if we're thinking the same thing. Nice night for
this event, huh. The girl asks us, all dark and stormy.

(03:20:26):
She quickly raises her hands in front of her, making claws.
Spooky goes great with the movie. The guy adds, looks
like you both got soaked. I glare at the guy.
No shit, Sherlock. The guy points at us, please refrain
from using profanity. I raise both of my middle fingers.

(03:20:47):
Eat me. The girl smirks, Sienna feeling uneasy destiny. That
wasn't very nice. The girl says, now I'm ready for
a confrontation. Oh you want to throw us out? The
guy and the girl laugh. Oh, no, no, no, The

(03:21:07):
girl says, we would never do that. On the contrary,
when the guy and the girl both come out from
behind the concession stand, we both shriek. The girl's uniform
top is torn open at the bottom and her stomach
and intestines are hanging out. The guy looks even worse
than her and seems to be broken in many places.

(03:21:31):
You're both going to be here for a very, very
long time, the guy kroons. We were on our way
to the Halloween formal at Strickfield High School. The girl cries,
we were hit by a drunk driver and we crashed

(03:21:52):
into that big tree just outside the entrance. Here, she
gestures to both herself and her boyfriend, drinking and driving kills.
She points to us. You two should know, the guy adds,
and now you're both here with us. Enjoy the show

(03:22:16):
because it will always go on. The guy and the
girl both laugh long peals of horrible, horrible laughter. We
both scream and run back out into the cold rain.
Oh fuck this shit, We're out of here. Damn right, Destiny.

(03:22:36):
The lightning flickers enough to light up both the sky
and the entire drive in. When the thunder finally crashes,
it actually sounds just the way it did in the
older horror movies, just the same. We both scream again
when we see the people in the car directly in

(03:22:59):
front of us. The couple look similar to the zombies
featured on the Return of the Living Dead poster in
the concession stand. The lightning flashes again and shows us
how hard the rain is pouring. We scream again when
we see that the cars are just full of dead people,
and the vintage cars themselves don't look so nice anymore.

(03:23:23):
You'd think this place was a fucking junkyard. Now we
turn and run and see that Halloween Destiny continues to
play on the screen. Those girls in the movie seem
to be in the same predicament. We're in, Sienna slaps
my arm. Let's climb back out over the fence. I
got a better idea. We're right by the front entrance.

(03:23:43):
We run to where the cars came in. When we
reach the admission booth, a man with half of his
face missing and several broken teeth steps out and points
at us. The rules specifically state that no one leaves
until the final feature has ended. Back you go, We scream,
as the wind suddenly picks up and drives us both

(03:24:06):
back into the main.

Speaker 2 (03:24:07):
Area of the drive in.

Speaker 1 (03:24:08):
We're both completely soaked. We move to try and climb
out over the fence, but now the fence is a
fucking brick wall. It's much too high and too slippery
from the rain to scale. Then there's the fact that
the walls covered with thorny vines and moss. Just then,
a security guard approaches us. When the lightning flashes, the

(03:24:32):
guard has rotting flesh everywhere, even as uniform looks ragged
and dull. You girls need to stop causing problems and
just watch the movies, he gurgles. We scream again and run.
What are we going to do? Sienna cries, What the
fuck can we do. I shriek, How the fuck is

(03:24:53):
this shit even happening right there? Grab them? It sounds
like the gurgling security guard again. Suddenly we're grabbed by
two big, hulking creatures and force to our knees. Now
the guy and the girl running the concession stand approach us.
The manager's here. The guy says he wants to have

(03:25:14):
a very serious talk with the both of you. I
am already here, A new, disembodied voice says. We both
scream again when we see who's suddenly standing in front
of us. There's no mistaking the figure with the long
shroud and the sickle. I gasp in terror when I
see the skeletal hand holding that sickle. Then the figure

(03:25:39):
points to the screen. Watch Watch Destiny, Mirren Siana Michaels.
Watch the events that have brought you to before me.
We're forced to finish watching Halloween Destiny. The girls in
the movie are at the exact point where we are now,

(03:25:59):
except now well, we see a flashback that shows that
both girls had been hit by cars with drunken fraternity
boys in them as they were nearing the drive in. Yes,
death tells us you two have perished. You will wait
your final judgment from me now. But before I render judgment,

(03:26:24):
you shall finish your movie marathon, and we have bonus
features just for the two of you. The Hulks pick
us up and seat us at our picnic table. The
fifth feature, called Destiny's Life plays for us. Here I

(03:26:45):
see the horrible truth. My parents never even wanted me.
They were happy with just having charity. Then shit happened
and I was born. I had tried doing everything I
could to please my parents, but I was treated like
shit by them time and time again in favor of charity.
Death speaks to me it would be your early life

(03:27:09):
that would cause your unbridled hatred for your older sister,
that tainted your soul. This is what ultimately brought you
before me, Destiny Miron. The sixth feature plays, which is
called Destiny's Friend. This showed the time from where Sienna
and I had met. We were just kids. Sienna kept

(03:27:31):
following me around on the playground at school like a
lost little puppy. No matter how many times I yelled
and screamed at her to just go away, she kept
following me around. Finally I gave in, if we hang
out after school once, you'll leave me alone, I offered.
Sienna nodded eagerly. I met Sienna after school and hung

(03:27:52):
out with her. By the time the day was over,
I decided that I actually liked Sienna. Okay, you can
be my friend. We watch as I could sometimes be
verbally abusive towards Sienna. She even cry a little when
she knew I wasn't watching the movie even shows the

(03:28:13):
day before when I just walked into Sienna's home uninvited
and unannounced. I look at Sienna and feel heavy remorse inside.
Now it's too much. I've become very weak and start
to cry. I'm sorry, Sienna. I choke out. I'm so
sorry I made you come along with me on this.

(03:28:36):
I'm so sorry about everything. Sienna shakes her head slowly. No,
I offered to come with you. You're my best friend,
I only have one. I shake my head quickly. I
did this out of hatred for Charity. I strive to
be everything my parents wanted her to be. But Charity

(03:28:57):
was kind, very kind, and our parents ultimately disowned her.
I thought I would get all the attention Charity used
to get. Yeah, I got all the attention. Mom and
dad hated my fucking guts. Mom absolutely refused to touch
me before yesterday. She wouldn't even let me hugger. Then
she heard about how charity was doing so much good

(03:29:19):
raising money for all these charities, and Mom hit me.
I looked Death in his vacant space where his face
should have been.

Speaker 4 (03:29:28):
I did it.

Speaker 2 (03:29:29):
It was all me.

Speaker 1 (03:29:30):
I came here to steal the money tonight, punish me,
torture me, make me burn in hell. But please let
Sienna go. She doesn't deserve this. No, Sienna interjects, I
offer myself in exchange for Destiny. Let her go. Why
would you offer yourself for destiny? Miron, Death inquires, didn't

(03:29:55):
you hear me? I told Destiny she was my best
friend and that I only have one. Sienna turns to me.
You gave me a chance. You let me be your
best friend. You had to have one. I wanted to
be it. Death raises his hand enough. I have made

(03:30:16):
my decision. We're both scared now, as Death looks from
her to me. As it turns out, I have two
openings I need to fill, he points to Sienna. I
charge that you, Sienna Michaels, shall be the new manager

(03:30:38):
of this drive in theater by day, you shall live
in the mortal world. By night, you shall work here
in the after life and run my theater for me.
Sienna gulps, But I can't run this theater. I don't

(03:30:58):
know how I shall teach you all that you need
to know. I offer you this position because I know
you will be fair and just towards those who enter
the after life. Death looks at me now, I shall
not claim your soul, Destiny, Miren. It is the events

(03:31:21):
of your life that have poisoned your soul and have
caused you to make poor decisions that have brought you
to me. It is both your admission of guilt and
the selflessness of your friend that have convinced me to
give you my other job opening. I'm still crying. Just

(03:31:43):
let Sienna go and I'll do whatever you want. I
won't even try to run away. It's okay, Destiny, Sienna replies,
I am staying with you. My decision is final, Destiny mirn.
Death tells me I have my new theater manager, but

(03:32:03):
your new job shall carry even more responsibilities than hers,
And before I know it, Death places his sickle into
my hands. What what what do you want me to
do with this Suddenly my skin and long blonde hair

(03:32:24):
turn ghastly white. I feel my eyes, lips, and nails
also changing, turning black. I also feel powerful, stronger, immortal.
You shall be my replacement. Death explains, I have carried
souls from the mortal realm to the after life since

(03:32:47):
the dawn of time. Now it is time for me
to move on, though I shall look in on you
from time to time. From this moment, you shall carry
on with my name and my former duties. In addition

(03:33:07):
to bringing souls to the afterlife, you shall help those
who have tainted souls to change their ways for the
better and perhaps avoid their fates. Then Sienna steps up, Wait,
would you consider granting us the rest of Halloween night?
Come on, we can't possibly run away, not from you.

Speaker 2 (03:33:29):
Please.

Speaker 1 (03:33:31):
Death considers Sienna's request very well. I shall release you
both for tonight Tomorrow evening. Both of you shall begin
your duties in the afterlife. Thank you, Sienna says gratefully
for both of us. Suddenly, we find ourselves back in

(03:33:53):
Strickfield on Halloween evening, outside the drive in about the
time I first got here. Only this time there's no
sign of life whatsoever. Inside the theater. Sienna moves the
sign and examines it. Destiny, could you look up the
address again? I take out my smartphone and show Sienna

(03:34:15):
the pic from my search earlier. Here Sienna looks at it.

Speaker 2 (03:34:21):
Oh my god, what.

Speaker 1 (03:34:25):
Sienna looks at the sign again. This sign says thirteen
thirteen West Harlow Road. So Sienna shows me my phone.
Look closer. The text below this pick says this location
is closed. The drive and we should have gone to
is at thirteen thirteen East Harlow Road on the other

(03:34:47):
side of the village. I take my smartphone back and
see that. Sienna's right. I just looked at the picture
for this place. I didn't even read the text below.
I'm sad. Now this is all my fault. I'm so sorry, Sienna.
Sienna takes my hand. Why you didn't drive drunk and

(03:35:08):
kill us both. That's why we're really in the afterlife, now,
you know. I consider her.

Speaker 4 (03:35:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (03:35:17):
I hug Sienna to me. You know what, let's have
some fun. Let's go trigger treating. Sienna hugs me back,
then she backs away and looks me over. Black and
white holding a sickle. You'll never need a Halloween costume.
I smile at my friend.

Speaker 2 (03:35:37):
Thanks.

Speaker 1 (03:35:38):
Now, let's go get some candy to take back to
the afterlife with us. Sienna shrieks with happiness.

Speaker 2 (03:35:45):
Let's go.

Speaker 1 (03:35:55):
The Halloween Party by Keith Tomlin. A rock skittered across
the cracked pavement of the road as a black engineer
boot playfully kicked at it. Clyde, a young man dressed
in blue jeans, white T shirt and a leather jacket,
stopped to survey his surroundings. There were empty warehouses and

(03:36:18):
factories on all sides, most falling apart, victims of a
failing economy. The blight stretched as far as he could see,
and from what he could tell, he seemed to be
the only person within miles. He paused next to a
rusty rim with a flat tire and lit an unfiltered cigarette.

(03:36:41):
He took a deep drag, closing his eyes, enjoying the
pleasure of the harsh, burning smoke in his lungs for
a few moments. He then opened his eyes and once
again surveyed the empty expanse around him. Okay, stop fucking around,
where are you? He yelled. Not hearing a response, he

(03:37:04):
tilted his head back and drank from a large bottle
of whiskey. He stopped long enough to catch his breath,
and then guzzled more of the bitter liquor. He wiped
his mouth on his sleeve and yelled again. Come on,
I'm bored. Where are you guys? I don't want to
miss the party? Fine fuck it, Clyde yelled, giggling. Downing

(03:37:29):
the last of the liquid, he turned and threw the
bottle over a tall, rusty chain link fence. He smiled
in satisfaction when he heard the bottle break. Running his
hands along his hair, which was greased back into a
duct tail, he started to walk on down the deserted road. Suddenly,

(03:37:51):
the evening was split by a soul shattering scream. The
sound echoed off of the mty buildings and seemed to
come from everywhere. The young man stopped, his head whipping
back and forth as he tried to pinpoint the source
of the scream. He finally zoned in on a row

(03:38:14):
of old brick factories. Flipping the cigarette to the ground,
he took off, running and grinning like a madman. Amber
slowly guided her eyeliner pencil across her cheek. Leaning back,
she looked at the results in the mirror prefect, she thought.

(03:38:38):
Pleased with the cat whiskers she drew, she stood up
and looked at the whole costume in the mirror. The
catsuit accentuated her slim figure and provided a decent amount
of cleavage without showing too much. She spent three weeks
designing and creating the costume and was very proud of
the effort. Plus she could submitted as a final project

(03:39:01):
in the fashion design class. She was taking loud laughter
and crude jokes from her sorority sisters Madison and Sarah
intruded on the moment. It almost made Amber wish that
she'd not agreed to drive them to the party at
a friend's cabin on Belleville Lake. Both of them had
started drinking hours earlier, and they were pretty wasted by then.

(03:39:24):
Having lived with an alcoholic father, Amber rarely drank and
was the resident designated driver. Amber sighed and began the
process of hurting the two drunks out the door. Thirty
minutes later, Amber turned onto a dark, deserted country road
near the lake. After a few minutes, red and blue

(03:39:45):
lights appeared behind her. God damn it, Amber said, turning
down the radio. Her two friends looked at each other
and burst into laughter. Oh no, Amber's getting a ticket,
Sarah teased. Maybe the cop will be cute. Ask if
you could touch his gun, Madison said, causing Sarah to

(03:40:07):
burst into laughter. Will you two stop it, Amber said, annoyed,
she hated dealing with drunks. She pulled over and shut
the car off, rolling her window down, She tried to
get a look at the car that pulled in behind her,
but a bright spotlight lit up from the car, almost
blinding her. Amber had a bad feeling about this. She

(03:40:31):
ignored the snickering comments from her friends as she tried
to watch behind her in the side mirror. After a
few seconds, she saw a shadow pass in front of
the spotlight as a large man walked up alongside the car.
Being backlit. It was hard to see any details, but
it looked like he was wearing a uniform. Something in

(03:40:54):
the way he moved seemed off. When the man reached
the driver side window, he stopped for a few seconds
and then leaned down and looked into the car. Amber
stared into his face, shocked at seeing him wearing a respirator.
She started to speak to ask why he stopped them,

(03:41:16):
but everything froze when she looked into his eyes, wild
crazy eyes, eyes that seemed to scream out for violence
and blood. Are you good girls or bad girls? He
said in a whispery voice muted by the mask he

(03:41:36):
was wearing. Amber jolted into motion and tried to start
the car. As the man brought his hand up and
sprayed a mist from a small tank into the car,
Amber faded into darkness. Hearing the screams of her friends,

(03:41:57):
Amber jerked awake to sounds of screaming. Groggily. She looked
down and saw that her hands and legs were tied
to an old office chair. The chair was on some
kind of loading dock in an old, dirty warehouse or factory.
She turned towards the screaming and realized that they were
coming from a naked young woman lying on the floor.

(03:42:21):
She was staked out in the middle of a crudely
painted pentagram with candles at each point, with her arms
and legs stretched out to her sides. The woman was
covered in blood, and between cries of pain, she was
pleading with a large man standing over her to let
her go. The man answered with swipes of a large

(03:42:43):
bloody knife. Amber tried to yell, but she found that
she had been gagged with a dirty rag, held there
by a cloth tied around her head. Even though her
cries were muffled, the man responded by turning toward her.
His eyes seemed to shine lit by the light of insanity.

(03:43:03):
These were the same eyes she saw on the man
who had pulled them over. He grinned and held the
bloody blade up to his mouth as if to shush her.
Amber was able to get a better look at the
woman on the floor and realized it was Sarah. Amber
strained against her restraints, trying to yell for help, desperate

(03:43:26):
to do anything to save her friend. The man grinned
even more and turned back to Sarah, using the knife
with more enthusiasm. Pleased that he now had an audience.
Amber sobbed, choking on the gag, trying to find a

(03:43:46):
way to break free. The killer plunged his knife deep
into Sarah, her screams fading into a low gurgle. He
reached into her abdomen and cut out a bloody piece
of flesh. He turned toward Amber and waved it in
the air, mocking her. He flipped it at her, and

(03:44:08):
she had to jerk her head to the side to
avoid being hit by the small piece of her friend.
The killer laughed and then began to make a game
out of cutting pieces of her friend, who now lay
silent and unmoving and tossing the matter. After a few minutes,
he seemed to grow bored with this game and raised

(03:44:31):
the knife high in the air. He mumbled words in
a language that Amber didn't recognize, and plunged the knife
deep into Sarah's chest. With effort, he ripped the knife down,
breaking ribs and cutting flesh. He reached into the large

(03:44:52):
gaping wound and ripped something out, holding it up high
as if offering it to the heavens. Amber felt bile
rise up as she realized it was her friend's heart.
She closed her eyes and turned away from the horror.
A few seconds later, she heard footsteps scraping on the

(03:45:15):
concrete and felt the killer's rancid breath on her face.
She closed her eyes even tighter as he spoke, Hey,
pretty girl, little miss kitty cat, look at your savior.
Amber turned her head away from the voice. A hand

(03:45:36):
with an iron grip seized her jaw and forced her
head up. A cold, sharp object placed against her throat.
I said, look at me, the killer stated in a cold,
hard voice. Amber opened her eyes and whimpered as she
looked into the face of evil. You look like a

(03:45:59):
good girl. I think Master will be pleased with you.
He wasn't pleased with the other sacrifices, the killer said,
pointing towards Sarah. Then gestured to a dark corner. Amber
looked and could make out an outline of a body
barely recognizable as human. Amber knew without a doubt that

(03:46:25):
the bloody mess was what was left of Madison. She
tried not to sob as she looked intently at her face. Yes,
I'm sorry you slept through that one. How inconsiderate of me. Anyways,
you didn't miss much. The Master didn't respond to her flesh.

(03:46:49):
She must have been unclean you. On the other hand,
the killer used the knife blade to play with the
buttons on her costume. You look like a good girl,
and the dark Lord likes good girls, he said, grinning.

(03:47:11):
Amber trembled with fear, tears and snot running down her face.
She tried to talk past her gag, begging him to
let her go, to let her live. The killer stepped back,
looking pleased. Let's get you ready to meet the master,
he said, as he wiped the blood off of the

(03:47:32):
blade and inserted it into a sheath on his belt.
He stretched, seeming to enjoy the discomfort and fear he
was provoking in her. As he started to lean forward,
a young man suddenly leapt out of the darkness, swinging
a large pipe. The pipe hit the killer on the
side of his head and sent him sprawling across the room,

(03:47:54):
landing near the unmoving body of Sarah Damn home run.
Clyde yelled, flipping the pipe like it was a baseball
bat and raising his arms in the air, waving to
an imaginary crowd. Amber stared at him in astonishment. Clyde
lowered his arms and looked around. Wow, man, what the

(03:48:17):
hell happened here? Looks like a slaughter Like one of
those slasher movies I keep hearing about, he said, pointing
at Madison's body in the corner. Amber snapped out of
her trance and struggled against the gag, trying to plead
with him to let her go. He turned to point
at the killer. Two bodies and a large ass fuck

(03:48:39):
slicing everyone up. This is a slasher movie. He said excitedly.
He reached into his jacket and pulled out a flask
and began to drink from it. I keep hearing about
these movies at work. Sounds like a blast, baby, he stated,
taking another long pull on the flask. Wiping his mouth,

(03:49:00):
he looked at Amber. Damned doll, you look like shit,
he said, walking over to her. Amber started to sob again,
straining against the gag. So uh, you must be the
final girl. All of these movies have one, he suddenly smiled.

(03:49:21):
That must make me the dutiful boyfriend that sacrifices himself
to save you. God, and I thought this would be
a boring night, he said excitedly. Amber tried yelling even harder,
begging him to let her go drink, he said, offering

(03:49:41):
her the flask. Seeing Amber struggle against her restraints, he
smacked himself in the forehead. Sorry, little missy, let me help,
he said, apologetically, as he reached down and took the
gag out of her mouth. Amber took a few deep breaths.
Please please, oh God, You've got to help me. Untiiny

(03:50:02):
and call the police. This crazy man kidnapped us and killed.
She broke into sobs as She looked over at Sarah. Hey, now, babyface,
dry those tears. As the dutiful boyfriend, I have to
help you. That's how these movies work, he said. Now
let me cut you loose. He gestured to his right
hand and a switchblade popped open in it. He gently

(03:50:25):
reached down and cut the ropes tying her to the chair.
There we go, sweets, he said, pulling the ropes loose. Oh,
thank you, thank you, thank you. Amber sobbed. Do you
have a phone. We need to call the police. Sorry, babe,
ain't got no phone, he said. We need to get
out of here. We need to get help. She said.

(03:50:47):
Her legs were numb from lack of circulation, and she
stumbled as she tried to stand. As he steadied her,
she could smell the overpowering stench of alcohol. We got
a long walk then, because I ain't got no car either.
I was with some coworkers on the way to a
Halloween shindig when I suddenly found myself here in the

(03:51:07):
middle of fucking nowhere. There ain't no one around for
miles except us and him, he said, pointing to the killer.
Amber looked to the killer and was shocked to see
him beginning to stir. She could now hear a low
moan coming from him as the maniac began rubbing the
side of his face. Oh God, you have to finish him.

(03:51:28):
He's getting up, she gasped. Well it's not time for
that yet. What kind of movie would that be? This
is where we beat feet and try to hide from
the vicious killer, the young man said as he turned
away from her. God, I always wanted to be in
a horror movie. Giggling, the young man walked through a
door leading deeper into the factory. Amber looked at the

(03:51:52):
doorway and then back at the killer, who was trying
to pull himself up to his knees. She limped through
the door. It took Amber a second and to see
Clyde moving silently through the rows of rusty machinery. She
moved as quickly and quietly as her aching legs would allow.
When she caught up to him, he turned and looked

(03:52:12):
at her with a sly smile. I hope he's a
good killer. I hate for this night to be a bust,
he said. Amber stared at him for a second before saying,
you're crazy. I'm not crazy, I'm Clyde. He whispered, giggling again.
Clyde turned and glided into the darkness. Amber hesitated, but

(03:52:34):
began to move once she heard a metallic scrape somewhere
behind her. Amber stumbled and groped her way through the
darkened factory, following Clyde. The killer could be heard yelling,
his voice echoing off the factory walls. After long, tense minutes,

(03:52:58):
everything grew quiet. Suddenly, a beam of light sprung out
of the darkness, illuminating the row of machinery ahead of her.
She stifled a scream as the light moved back and forth,
seeking them out. A booming voice yelled from the darkness
behind the flashlight.

Speaker 5 (03:53:16):
Here, Kitty, Kitty, come out, kitty, and your little boyfriend too.

Speaker 1 (03:53:22):
Clyde reached out and padded Amber's hand. I think it's
time for the big scene. You wait here and I'll
go out and see if we can't speed things up.
I have to be back by dawn, Clyde whispered. He
picked up a large, rusty wrench off the bench next
to them and banged it on the cement floor. The

(03:53:43):
flashlight whipped around and locked onto the crouching figures of
Clyde and Amber. Clyde stood and shaking his fist at
the killer, roared, if you want her, daddyo, you have
to go through me first. The killer, scene behind the
bright light, laughed and said that.

Speaker 3 (03:54:05):
Come.

Speaker 1 (03:54:06):
Clyde ran at the killer. Amber heard sounds of a struggle,
and the beam of the flashlight swung back and forth
as they fought, but it was difficult for her to
tell what was going on. Finally, the struggle ended. A
figure stumbled back and fell on the ground in front
of Amber. The flashlight swung around a spotlight. Clyde lying

(03:54:30):
on his back, holding his hands to his throat, blood
pouring out from between his fingers. Clyde tried to speak,
reaching out to her, but all that came out of
his mouth was an eruption of blood. His outstretched hand
fell to the ground as he stopped struggling and laid there,
limp and unmoving. The light snapped to Amber's face, blinding her.

(03:54:56):
She tried jumping to her feet to run away, but
her legs out from under her. She fell forward, striking
her head on the edge of a bench, landing on
the floor. Dazed, she felt the breath leave her as
the killer brought his large boot down upon her neck.
I have so much to show you, my little kitty cat,

(03:55:19):
he whispered. Once again, Amber's whirled went dark. As Amber
came to, she felt a coldness under her bare skin.
She tried to roll over, only to find that she
was tied down, spread eagle. She blinked the dizziness from

(03:55:42):
her eyes and squinted at her body. Each wrist and
ankle was tied to a steel rod hammered into the concrete.
As the fog continued to lift from her consciousness, she
saw something move above her, and, after a moment of effort,
her eyes focused on a face, the face of the Killer.

(03:56:07):
There you are, my little one, he cooed, grinning. You
gave me a scare. I thought you may not wake
up to accept the dark One's blessing, he said, his
wicked blade catching the light from the candles that were
placed around her. Amber began to weep, begging for her life.

(03:56:29):
Sh I'll have none of that. This is a joyous time.
If you start blubbering, I'll begin by carving out your tongue,
the Killer whispered to her. Amber struggled to control herself,
but she could not stop her sobbing. Maybe I should
begin here, the killer purred as he ran the knife

(03:56:51):
down her bare belly toward her privates. After all, that
is what turns little angels into lie hoars, he said,
yelling the last few words, he plunged the knife several
inches deep inside her. Amber screamed as she felt blood
flowing from between her legs. The Killer pulled the knife

(03:57:12):
out of her and slowly ran his tongue along the
flat of the blade, savoring the taste of her blood. Oh, yes,
the dark Lord will shower me with rewards for bringing
him a soul like yours. He leaned down and licked
the tears from Amber's face. As sobs wrecked her body,

(03:57:33):
Laughter exploded from behind them. The Killer whipped his head
around and gawked at what he saw. Amber, with considerable effort,
raised her head and stared unbelieving at Clyde, sitting calmly
on the loading dock in the chair that Amber had
been tied to earlier. Clyde's white t shirt was covered

(03:57:54):
in drying blood, but he seemed unhurt. He flicked his
thumb across a match head, causing it to burst into flame.
He brought the match up to a cigarette in his mouth,
lighting it. Damn, you have no idea how much I
miss these, he said, taking a deep drag. You'd think
with all the smoke and fire where I work, they

(03:58:16):
would allow these, But nope, Clyde continued wistfully. Hell can
be a weird place sometimes. The Killer rose to his feet.
He waved his knife in the air before saying, you
stay back. She is my sacrifice to the dark One,
and you cannot have her. Clyde laughed again. Dark and ominous,

(03:58:40):
you think this, he said, spreading his hands toward the
carnage around them, will get you the attention of the
dark Lord. You have no idea what it takes. I
committed countless atrocities, gave him the souls of hundreds of men,
women and children. I ripped babies from the wombs of
their and burn nuns alive, screaming for their God to

(03:59:02):
save them. And yet I barely registered on the radar
of his lowest Lieutenant Clyde was now standing screaming at
the killer. I devoted my whole life to killing for
his glory, and he doesn't even know my name. You
think killing a couple of skirts will bring down his blessing?
You're a fool, he said with contempt. The killer, shaking

(03:59:26):
with rage, roared the dark one promised me glory, eternal life.
You will not take that away from me. The killer
lunged forward and buried his knife up to the hilt
in Clyde's chest. The killer stopped dead, his mouth agape
as Clyde almost nonchalantly grabbed him by the neck and
lifted him off the ground. Clyde looked up at the

(03:59:49):
killer and grinned. So he promised you eternal life. Well,
let's u test that out. Clyde's hand shot out and
plunged into the ki killer's chest. When he withdrew his hand,
he was holding the killer's still beating heart. He left
both the killer's body and heart to drop to the ground. Sighing,

(04:00:12):
Clyde took a seat at the edge of the loading dock.
He reached over and picked up his cigarette from the
floor where he dropped it during the confrontation. He ran
his hand, still slick with the killer's blood, threw his
hair and sighed again. Taking a drag from his smoke,
he said, man, this isn't how I pictured this night going.

(04:00:36):
Hell's a bitch of a place, to work. A handful
of us get one night off a year on Halloween.
For the first time since I've been there almost seventy years,
I was picked. We had a great night planned. We
were going to terrorize a small remote village, burn their
crops and livestock, possess a few people, and end the

(04:00:57):
night in a blood bath. He flicked ashes on the
killer's forehead. Somehow I ended up here. I think it
was because of this fuck wad's ritual or whatever he
was doing. Maybe I was sent by the big Guy
to teach him a lesson. Hell, he laughed. Maybe the

(04:01:18):
dark Lord did have big plans for him and I
uh fucked it up. Oh well, either way, I'll find
out in the morning. Clyde took a final drag off
of his cigarette and flicked it off into the darkness. Well,
little missy, he said, as he looked over at Amber,

(04:01:39):
I don't have to leave until dawn, so let's have
ourselves a little Halloween party. He pulled the knife from
his chest and tested the edge with his thumb. Grinning,
he jumped to his feet and walked toward Amber for
the last time. Amber began to scream a wet and

(04:02:09):
wild Halloween by David O'Hanlon. Bryce glared into the gaping
mouth of the Pumpkin King and knew he was going
to die. He could hear the terrified screams of those
already inside. The screeching, piercing wails of their panic rang

(04:02:30):
out over the cacophony around him, drowning out the rest
of the world.

Speaker 2 (04:02:35):
One of the.

Speaker 1 (04:02:35):
King's victims launched between the bright orange lips and hung
in the air. Bryce's stomach twisted in nervous knots as
the child flailed about in the afternoon sky before splashing
into the pool below. The little boy exploded through the
surface and shrieked a prepubescent yeehaw.

Speaker 2 (04:02:56):
Bryce shook his.

Speaker 1 (04:02:56):
Head and wandered around the ever growing line of texts
Greatest water Slide. The only thing good about the state
was that Halloween was still hot enough to enjoy a
trip to the water park. The other water slides were
largely being ignored in favor of the big new attraction.
It was their last chance before the park closed for

(04:03:17):
the year. Some twisted genius had designed the winding Tubes
of Certainish Death so that four people could go down simultaneously.
Cris crossing each other's paths along the black and purple
shoots until being vomited out of the Pumpkin King's smirking face.
The oversized gourd hung perilously over a bat shaped pool,

(04:03:39):
with orange lights illuminating the water from below, so the
line of anxious guests could see the previous victims churning about.
A heinous cackle emanated from hidden speakers, signaling the attendants
to prepare the next victims. Bryce would be one of
the night's sacrifices. Splashtown was opened from the last day

(04:04:02):
of school to Halloween every year, and with the water
drop shaped season pass around her neck, Rebecca Angle would
be there almost every single day. Bryce had fallen in
love with Rebecca when they shared a moon pie at
recess in the third grade. After eight years of awkwardness,
Bryce had finally worked up the nerve to ask Rebecca

(04:04:24):
to go on a date with them. She'd be at
Splashtown anyway, so it wasn't any extra effort on her part.
He was still surprised when she said, yes, Mommy, my
skin is stinging. A little girl with auburn pigtails whined
as she walked past Bryce You're fine, Susy, Her mother said,
you just need more sun block. Bryce stuck his hands

(04:04:47):
in the pockets of his swim trunks and made his
way to the concession stands to meet up with Rebecca.
He sniffed the air and tried not to drool at
the flavors attacking his nose. He mentally und tangled the
sweet smell of funnel cakes from the savory chili dogs,
the pizza slices from the cheeseburgers. His stomach growled with

(04:05:09):
rage at the boy's new diet. Bryce rubbed his belly
and looked down. For the first time since he was seven,
he could see his feet again. He missed the delicious foods,
but he was glad he'd started eating right and working out.
He ordered a bottle of water in a bag of
peanuts before taking a seat on a nearby bench. A

(04:05:31):
girl walked by, sniffing her hair. Though he couldn't see
her face, Bryce recognized Tabby Winfield by her high pitched
nasal wine. She tossed the thick braid over her shoulder
and scrunched her nose. The water here smells like daddy's
farm hands, she told her friends. Bryce remembered the girl
from earlier and looked around the park. Others made sour

(04:05:55):
expressions as they towled off as well. A man rinsed
his sobbing grandson off with a bottle of water. John Cahill,
the star of the basketball team, wretched excess water into
a trash. Ben Bryce watched more park goers flying out
of that damn pumpkin. Something was wrong, God damn it,

(04:06:21):
stew Peter Brack shouted as he ducked under the low
hanging pipes on his way to the maintenance supervisor's office.
You got the solution up too high. These assholes are
beating down my door demanding refunds and free T shirts.
Those shirts cost me six fifty apiece. Peter stopped complaining
once he got to the water treatment controls. Stu Band

(04:06:43):
was nowhere to be seen. Pete checked the gages on
the machinery himself and sputtered his plump lips. Everything was
in the green. He thumped them each to see if
they were stuck, but nothing happened. He squatted as much
as his knees allowed and stared at the water samples
collected in the slight tubes. Something sparkled in the suspension.

(04:07:07):
What intarnation is going on? Pete scratched at his horseshoe
of silver hair. Pete shouted for Stew again, no response.
He continued his inspection of the machine, then stumbled to
a halt. He closed his eyes and gritted his teeth,
hoping he was wrong. He opened his eyes slowly and

(04:07:30):
looked at the fifty five gallon drums plumbed into the
treatment lines with a defeated sigh. Pete had been running
Splashtown for thirty years. The drums for the water treatment
solution had always been blue polymer. Pete stomped closer to
the red steel drums and wrapped his knuckles against the
side of the nearest one. It was already half empty.

(04:07:54):
He searched each of them for a label or any
other indication of what might have been inside. I'm going
to break your scrawny neck, Stew. He grabbed the wheel
to shut off the flow. The lawyers are going to
have our balls for breakfast if this shit is toxic.
A moist hand clamped onto the back of Peter Brack's neck.

(04:08:15):
The screwdriver plunged into his ear and he fell to
the concrete Stew's slimy, malformed hands cranked the wheel, fully
opening the valves. Brack's final seconds were pure terror as
he watched the sample tubes change color. That horrible shimmer

(04:08:35):
became a frantic, swirling glow. Something slithered along the pipes overhead.
Pete could almost see it. Bryce sipped his water and
watched the park staff meander about in their Halloween costumes.

(04:08:58):
Attendants at the Pumpkin King tossed handfuls of sweets at
the line to keep everyone calm. Bryce missed tricker treating.
High school parties were fun, but they lacked the same
spirit of the more childish pastime he was a year
from adulthood. Halloween couldn't offer anything as scary as that.

(04:09:20):
A group of parents cornered a staffer in a witch
costume and began berating the poor girl. Bryce couldn't hear
what they were saying as they furiously waved their hands
at the crying children behind them. A hand on his
shoulder made him jump, and he spun around on the
bench to see Rebecca Angle standing there, smiling down at him.

(04:09:42):
Her black one piece was festooned with sparkling pumpkins, and
he tried to pry his eyes back to her face. Hi, Becca,
he said, with all the coolness he could muster. Been
here long. He didn't know why he'd asked. Her hair
was dry and they'd agreed to meet at the concession stand,

(04:10:02):
so the answer was obvious. Bryce forced a smile and
hoped it covered up his folly. Nope, just got done
putting my stuff in the lockers. She pointed at the
pumpkin king. Should we get in line for that one first?
It'll take the longest. I thought we could get it
out of the way and just hang out while we wait.
Bryce nodded, Sure, sounds good. The line zigzagged back and

(04:10:28):
forth in six rows between orange and black velvet ropes.
They took their place at the end of the line
and talked about their chemistry test and the fall dance.
He was too distracted by more disgruntled guests, which caused
him to miss his opportunity to ask her to the dance.
He tried bringing the conversation back around to the event.

(04:10:50):
When the screaming started, they echoed down the tubes of
the slide as heralds of the misery still to come.
The child shot from the mouth of the pumpkin, king
an iridescent gout of violet water. The shrill cries continued
until the boy splashed into the pool below. From his position,
Bryce couldn't see the chemicals spilling forth and spreading, consuming

(04:11:13):
the ordinary water with ferocity. His gaze flicked back to
the gargantuan gourd and the elderly man that flew out next.
Bryce rubbed his eyes to clear what must have been
a trick of the light, and obese lady streaked down
the water slide right behind the geriatric high Above them,
Splashtown employees dressed like Mario and Luigi hurried the next

(04:11:34):
riders into their passages. Bryce called for one of the
candy throwers, but got no response. Maybe it was for
the better, after all, how was he going to explain
his request to shut down the slide. They weren't going
to believe him if he said the geezer's skin was wrong.
Bryce shoved forward in line to one of the pool's

(04:11:55):
viewing windows. The purple fluid dyed the pool with shimmering,
ancerous swirls. The team cupped his hands around his eyes
and leaned on the cool glass. The underwater lighting reflected
off whatever. The violet substance carried and twinkled like thousands
of stars, but Bryce couldn't see anyone. The little boy

(04:12:17):
swam by the window, giving Bryce a start. More screams
pierced the evening, only these weren't filled with the playful
fear of sliders. Another shape whipped past the glass portal.
Bryce leaped away from the wall. The boy came back
into view. The old man clung to his back. Finger

(04:12:39):
length appendages danced from open wounds along the man's exposed torso.
A shiny black spine snicked out each like switchblades and
darted into the child's flesh. The fat lady flipped over
the guardrail overhead and hit the sidewalk next to Bryce,
pinning another impatient guest below her girth. Bryce listened to

(04:12:59):
the muffled sark screams beneath her and saw the same
dancing wormlike things stretching out from her skin and fighting
the fabric of her ill advised bikini. He bolted to
the back of the line for Rebecca. As the crowd
began to scream and run in all directions around the park.
Others were doing the same. Bryce seized Rebecca by the arm.

(04:13:20):
We've got to go, now, what's happening, she asked, as
he dragged her away from the pumpkin king. Did someone
get hurt? Tabby Winfield answered her question by tackling two
of their classmates. Her hand gripped the bag of Tom
Zabo's collar. The worm things tore out between her fingers
and stuck their talons into the base of his skull.

(04:13:41):
Tom's dates squirmed under Tabby, who lifted her head in
a weak shrill scream. Her throat undulated and ripped open wide,
revealing rows of teeth. The new mouth clamped onto the
trapped girl's skull with a crunch. What the hell, Becca whimpered,
she stumbled as Bryce pulled her along. More park goers

(04:14:02):
were being attacked by the mutants. Their new digits twisted
away from their bodies in search of prey. The black
talons darted in and out, ready to pierce flesh. Victims
screamed and cried around them. Bryce pulled Rebecca into one
of the restrooms and slammed the door. His hands slapped
at a bare brass plate. Damn it, he shouted, kicking

(04:14:24):
the door. It only locks from the outside. Wonderful hiding spot.
It'll do for now. Do you mind? A voice bellowed
from one of the stalls. Some of us are concentrating.
There's an emergency, Rebecca shouted.

Speaker 2 (04:14:39):
Do you have a phone?

Speaker 1 (04:14:40):
Obviously the toilet flushed. What else do people do on
the toilet? The door swung open, and a middle aged
man in a power ranger's costume stepped out, adjusting the
bulge in his crotch. Don't worry, miss, It's a sock,
not a chubby, he informed Rebecca. Spandex isn't the most
flattering fabric. Got to beef up the beef bus for

(04:15:02):
all the single moms that come through here. Know what
I'm saying, Jesus Christ mutants inside and out. Rebecca grumbled.
You've got some mighty fine genetics, the old man told her.
Wouldn't have any single moms swinging in your family tree.
Would you listen, Harvey Weinstein, people are getting killed outside
and we need to call for help, she blurted. Hell,

(04:15:24):
I was just joking about the phone, he said. They
make us lock them up at the start of each shift.
Bryce pointed to the plastic card dangling around the man's neck.
You're an employee. Who else wears a costume to a
water park. He chuckled names Flint, flint Stone, you can
shit can the jokes. I've heard them all my life.

(04:15:46):
Then you can get us to an office a guard shack.
Bryce stammered, I don't care where, just somewhere with a phone.
That's cute, kid. Flint told him, I'm not taking you
anywhere to make a prank call to the police about
monsters eating people. Can't you hear the screams, Rebecca questioned,
people are always screaming. It's an amusement park factor in

(04:16:08):
board staffers in spooky costumes, and they'll do it more so. Frankly,
miss it sounds like a Tuesday. The door exploded inward,
shattering from the force of the blow. Before the hinges
could swing it open safely, a man rolled across the
tile and came to a stop on all fours. The
white digits wriggled from his back like thick sentient hairs.

(04:16:30):
Purple drool trickled from the corner of his mouth, forming
a puddle beside his head. A tooth dropped into the saliva,
followed by another and another. Brown anorexic serpents slithered from
the empty sockets of his gums. Stretching two feet in
front of him. Mandibles unfurled from the sides of each

(04:16:50):
creature's head and snipped at the air. Flint backed away slowly.
His boots squeaked on the damp tile, drawing a hiss
from the throat slit of the mutant. The three oversized
worms lunged forward. Their motion tugged the man thing forward
as they followed the sound of Flint's retreat. The infected

(04:17:11):
man sprang up and dashed across the bathroom. Bryce stuck
out his foot and tripped the creature. It toppled to
the floor and slid closer to Flint. The mandibles hooked
into his thigh, and he let out a shrill squeal
before kicking the man's jaws shut on the bizarre appendages.
They released their prey and shot backwards. Flint leaped into
the air and came down on the man's back with

(04:17:33):
both feet. The black talons speared at the white leather
boots with sewing machine quickness. Flint pushed off, rolling across
the floor and away from the failed counter attack. He
dipped into the stall and shut the door seriously. Rebecca
shouted after him. Bryce hefted the rubber trash can overhead
and tossed it at the creature. It bounced off harmlessly.

(04:17:56):
Rebecca looked around for something more effective. When the creek
jumped to its feet. The throat slit spread wide and
gurgled a threat. The stall door banged open, and Flint
rushed toward the creature and bashed it across the back
of the head with a green bucket. A follow up
shot sent it careening into a mirror. The glass fell
into the sink and clattered to the floor. The makeshift

(04:18:19):
weapon flipped open and Flint swung it upward in a
single deft motion. It wasn't a bucket, but the helmet
to his costume. He clicked the latches in place. Can't
go into battle without my armor, Flint muttered and dipped
under an attack from the mouth tentacles. His gloved fingers
found a piece of glass in the sink. A moment

(04:18:39):
before the man thing's hand closed around his neck. A
talon clicked against the plastic helmet and drew back for
another try. Bryce placed his foot on the wall and
tore the paper towel dispenser free. The creature turned its
attention to the sudden commotion long enough for Flint to
drive the shive into its torso. The chest wound sputtered
as the obsolete lungs drained of it. The mouth tentacles

(04:19:01):
reared back and struck at the helmet. Flint thrust the
glass dagger into the man's abdomen and slid him from
hip to hip. Intestines unspooled from the wound and piled
at Flint's feet, and then something else plopped into the viscera.
The former person collapsed in a heap as the thing
evacuated the host body. The two foot long slug latched

(04:19:25):
onto the toe of his boot and slurped loudly. Flint
sprang up and sat on the sink. The radula darted
from the mollusk's mouth like a harpoon. Its serrated teeth
scraped across the porcelain and slashed side to side for
tender flesh. Rebecca slid across the floor like she was
stealing home, and kicked the slug against the wall. She

(04:19:46):
tried to stand, only to slip in the thick layer
of mucus clinging to her bare feet. Bryce ran forward
and jumped over the discarded carcass. He swung the paper
towel dispenser under his knees and landed on the strange entity.
A bright spray of yellow and magenta gushed across the floor.
To signal his success, Flint pushed off the sink and
helped Rebecca balance herself. Hugest air Sabuddha, goddamn space booker,

(04:20:11):
He shouted, It's a snail, Rebecca corrected him. Still look
like a Tuesday to you. Snails have shells, Bryce said,
between gags, what do you think that was? Rebecca pointed
at the dead body. They got in the water into
the pumpkin king wear their shells now. Flint shifted his

(04:20:34):
visored gaze between the teens. I don't follow. How'd a
bunch of those things go unnoticed? Maybe whatever that purple
shit was made them grow faster. Bryce threw his hands
into the air. What's it matter it drooled purple too.
Rebecca shook her head. These things might be able to
infect others by attacking them. We can't let them out

(04:20:56):
of splash town. Snails move slow, Flint said, like goddamn
hobbits trekking to Mordor slow. We've got time if you've
got a plan that is salt, Bryce suggested, we need
a lot of it, not to mention a way to
disperse it. Check and check. Flint put a hand on

(04:21:18):
each of their shoulders. You can't see it behind this
totally bitching and officially licensed replica helmet. But I'm smiling
bigger than shit right now. Rebecca turned to the door.
Well then, let's yabba daba do this, Flint groaned. You
just had to fucking say it, didn't you. This is

(04:21:42):
not a plan, Bryce shouted. Creatures hissed and shrieked in
hot pursuit of the six wheeled ATV. Designed for utility,
not recreation, the vehicle was barely keeping its lead under
the weight of its cargo. If there's one thing Texans
don't fear, it's a high cholesterol Dietzels, fries, burgers, homemade chips, popcorn,

(04:22:02):
tater rounds, fresh roasted peanuts, nachos, and onion rings were
available at each of the eighteen concession stands, which is
precisely why Splashtown bought salt in fifty pounds sacks. It's
working like a plan, Flint yelled back. One of the
mutants lunged onto the purely cosmetic brushguard of the ATV.
The mouthworms snapped at Flint's face. He seized one of

(04:22:24):
them and jerked down, bouncing the creature's face off the
hood and sending it back to the cobblestone path, where
the tires rolled over it. What exactly do you do here?
Supposed to be helping on the pumpkin king good thing?
I ate pizza heroes last night. If I hadn't had
the shits, the lines would have been moving faster and
you'd be a hobo murder slugs new tenement. Thank you

(04:22:45):
for your poor dietary choices, hopefully your girlfriend's imposition. She's
not my girlfriend, Bryce corrected him. Son, you're about to
save the entire state from Satan's s car go. Flint
punched him in the arm. Soon as we kill the
he's jiz drooling sons of bitches. She'll be all over you.
Like imitation cheese sauce on a corn chip. You should

(04:23:06):
consider writing poetry. Roses are red, violets are blue. I
get carpal tunnel thinking of you, Flint laughed. There's one
for you to use when you ask her to make
it official. Later, Rebecca waved at them from a tower
high above the path. Flint bleaped the horn three times
to signal her to go. She stepped out of the
tower and rode the zip line across the way to

(04:23:26):
the platform over tsunami falls. She grabbed the bullhorn from
the hook next to the lifeguard station and squeezed the trigger.
Hey over here, her voice bellowed across the park, Oh
get me. Several mutants clamored through the pool below and
slipped about in a vain attempt to scale the curly
slides leading up to her. She smiled down at them.

(04:23:48):
Her plan was working complex alien biology aside, they were
still powered by primitive ganglia clusters. She needed as many
of the stupid mutants coming after her as possible. She
pressed the button on the bullhorn to set off a siren.

Speaker 3 (04:24:03):
U space snel. Dickheads hear that.

Speaker 1 (04:24:05):
She called out, that's.

Speaker 3 (04:24:07):
The dinner bell. What are you waiting for?

Speaker 1 (04:24:09):
Apparently just that very thing. The creatures broke from their
pursuit of the ATV and rushed toward Rebecca's diversion. Flint
whipped around the corner, putting the ATV on three wheels
before it rocked back down to safety. A wall of
mutants converged on their path, some more changed than others.
Mouth tentacles flailed in anticipation of the fight. I'll meet

(04:24:33):
you at the water treatment station. Take the wheel. Flint
didn't wait for Bryce to listen. He rolled out of
his seat and toppled across the path. He groaned and
tried to ignore the bone sticking out of his forearm.
It looked a lot easier in the movies. This is
what we get for using civilian contractors. General Wade Cisco

(04:24:57):
pinched the bridge of his nose. Do we know the
low of the samples? Captain del Harmon leaned a curvy
hip on the plastic blue drums they'd been shipped by mistake,
and nodded slowly. Fuck Cisco sighed, how.

Speaker 4 (04:25:12):
Bad is it?

Speaker 1 (04:25:14):
She waved for the General to follow her. They navigated
the winding corridor to the elevator, an in turn, mixed
up the shipping instructions. We got water treatment chemicals, Del
Carmen said, with a voice too sweet for her skill set.
The Argos samples went to a water park in eastern Texas.
The elevator door hissed open in a room full of

(04:25:36):
computer stations and one wall to wall screen showing a
live satellite feed of Splash Town. Mutated guests ran down victims,
small fires, burned corpses twitched to life as the parasitic
mollusks burrowed into their brains and took control of the flesh.
Do we have options, Cisco asked, Nuclear and conventional. The

(04:25:59):
captain stated bluntly. Retrieval is out of the question at
this point. The sight and samples are lost. We only
need one, Cisco reminded her. I want a team in
there to snatch one of those things. Have our people
cook a story about a chemical spill? Yes, Sir del
Carmen said, aren't we forgetting about the big one? Sir

(04:26:19):
oh him? Cisco swallowed hard. Scratch the retrieval burn the
whole sight. Flint spotted a salt sack that had fallen
when the ATV tipped and darted for it. He tore
the bag open. As the horde charged closer, he tossed
a handful of salt at the nearest one. It plowed

(04:26:41):
into him, driving him to the ground. The human host
was protecting the snail inside from the salt. Flint clutched
the mutant by the chin, pushing the snapping tentacles away.
The throat slit hissed and chewed the air. Flint gritted
his teeth and used the bone protruding from his arm
to stab into the creature's chest, aiming for the slug inside.

(04:27:01):
A magenta spurt let him know he'd found it. He
stabbed it again. The corpse went limp, pinning him to
the path. He felt the stick of black spines going
into his legs. The world became a kaleidoscope of shapes
and colors. The ground swayed beneath him like a gentle current.

(04:27:22):
Pain drifted away from his wounds, and he giggled softly.
Sons of bitches brought the good stuff to the party,
Flint said, quietly, You guys are swell. A small mutant
with auburn pigtails tore Flint's arm off at the elbow
and shoved the nub to her throat slit. This is

(04:27:43):
better than ozfest, Flint snorted, Just swell. The mutants clamored
over their own, building a meaty ladder off of each
other's failed attempts at ascending the water slides to get
to Rebecca. Her plan was working. Too well. She scurried

(04:28:04):
down the ladder into the tiny chamber where the staff
entered the ride and cracked the door open. The area
behind the ride looked clear, and she bolted across the
grass to hide behind a fish shaped fountain, spewing violet
water from its puckered lips. Then something caught her eye
the clear path to the front gate. Bryce aimed the

(04:28:33):
ATV at the roll up door and floored the accelerator.
The little green vehicle bounced off the door with a bang,
and Bryce's face whipped into the steering wheel. Shit he
slid out of his seat with a groan. He made
his way inside and opened the bay door that rolled
up noisily thanks to the massive dent he'd added to it.

(04:28:53):
He looked around for a trolley to load the bags on.
An empty pallet sat unsafely on a jack in the corner,
and he ran for it, quickly wheeling it back to
the ATV and offloading the salt. He looked around for
flint and cursed he didn't know anything about the water
treatment system or where to find it. He scanned the
large room and spotted a yellow sign shaped like an

(04:29:15):
arrow in black letters, Water Treatment Bryce ran toward it,
tugging the pallette jack behind him. He told himself he'd
be able to figure it all out, and then the
monsters would die, Texas would be saved, and Rebecca would
throw herself into his arms. It was all going to
work out perfectly. Rebecca crept through the shadow of the

(04:29:38):
nearest concession stand. Fifty yards of mutant free grass were
all that separated her from a safe getaway. Something moved
in the corner of her eye. A thin black post
pushed up from the ground. You've gotta be fucking kidding me,
she shot from her hiding place. As the sprinklers kicked on,
she zigzagged between them back onto the walkway. Her legs

(04:30:01):
burned with effort. Rocks cut into her bare feet. She
couldn't stop running. A body twitched along the path and
sat upright. Rebecca kept running, cutting away from the thing's
desperate lunge to seize her legs. She hurtled the turnstile.
Her ankle twisted on the landing, and she fell on
her face. She groaned and wiped the blood away from
her lip. She gazed down at the crimson smear along

(04:30:23):
the back of her hand. Her eyes shifted to the
purple tinged water droplet rolling down her arm. She sniffled
and shook her head. It's just a drop, she stood up.
It takes more than a drop. Rebecca started running again.
The old War Highway was only a mile away. She
could find a ride away from the nightmare. There she

(04:30:44):
would be home by dawn. Bryce's feet shuffled in the
thick trail of slime. The jack bumped him from behind,
pushing him into a vertical water pipe. A deep, moist
laughter resonated from the shadows. Glowing orbs angled toward him
in the darkness, and the things slithered forward. People in

(04:31:07):
maintenance coveralls lined the monstrous snail's undulating body, held tight
to its flesh by hardened strands of mucus. Their flesh
writhed with hundreds of the white tube worms, flicking their
talons in and out. Bryce lunged for a sack and
tore it open, pouring a line of salt between him
and the suv sized hell snail. Get back, you ugly fuck,

(04:31:31):
he warned, Oh or what it said in a sticky.

Speaker 4 (04:31:37):
Hiss, Will you assault me?

Speaker 1 (04:31:42):
The snail attempted to laugh again. This shit keeps getting weirder.
Bryce scooped a handful of salt and cocked his arm
back last.

Speaker 4 (04:31:53):
Warning, I fear not morsel.

Speaker 1 (04:31:57):
The behemoth slithered forward, inching closer to the saline barrier.

Speaker 4 (04:32:03):
You fight tasty meat in a fighter.

Speaker 1 (04:32:07):
The monstrous mollusk speared its ragula over the line and
pierced Bryce's shoulder. The teen screamed and collapsed onto the pallet.

Speaker 3 (04:32:16):
Tasty meat, indeed.

Speaker 1 (04:32:19):
Bryce clutched the wound, watching his own blood spurt between
his fingers. He remembered enough from biology class to know
the brachial artery was severed. He was a goner. You
want to taste a fighter? Bryce rolled over and pressed
his gory hands into the salt. Let me just season

(04:32:40):
your meal first. The snail overlord stretched its head across
the line, letting the tip of the radula wrap around
Bryce's ankle. It tugged the teen closer. He rolled and
punched the organ. The snail whipped back its head, slinging
the radula side to side. Violet drools splattered Bryce as
it roared angrily. Your motherfuck's garden gnomes. Bryce lunged forward,

(04:33:03):
punching the beast in the gaps of its cadaver shell.
The mucus glazed tissue shriveled and bubbled in the wake
of the boy's salted knuckles. He jumped up and struck
a blow against one of the beast's googly eyes, rupturing
the orb in a shower of goo. The monster headbutted
him to the.

Speaker 3 (04:33:19):
Floor valorous effort.

Speaker 1 (04:33:23):
More sore, the snail said, in a pained slur, But
you have failed. They both cocked their heads at the
sudden piercing whistle coming from high above. Rebecca Engle watched
the ground sail beneath her and then toppled through the

(04:33:44):
muddy field. She groaned with pain as she sat down
and tried to orient herself. A fiery pillar rose where
Splashtown used to be. She hadn't even heard the explosion
when the shockwave caught up with her and launched her
far far from the nightmare. Everything was gone. All the

(04:34:05):
monsters were dead, so was Bryce. She'd wanted to tell
him how much she liked him ever since they shared
a moonpie at recess in the third grade, but she
was always too chicken. He died trying to save her
and the rest of the world from the murderous mollusks.

(04:34:27):
At least that much happened. We're all safe now, Bryce,
we won. It's over, Rebecca said softly and scratched at
a stinging spot on her arm. Halloween nineteen eighty six

(04:34:53):
six' six By Dan. Wilder are you sure this is
going to? WORK i can't believe. This i'm fucking, unemployed
dateless eighteen and working a spell more than two thousand
years old On halloween in the dark in a. Graveyard.
Damn if this crap got any more, CLICHE i would

(04:35:15):
have flown in here in a sopwell camel while my
pals bobbed for apples and picked on a kid with
obvious alopecia. Issues don't you think she'll be all hot
with a big old set of? Boobs how DID i
end up? Here october thirty, first nineteen eighty six started well.

(04:35:39):
Enough halloween fell on A, friday which meant that in
the past we would all rush home from school in
the already fading daylight and either throw on a store
bought number or a homemade concoction most likely thought up
that day in one class or another and drawn in
ballpoint in our well illustrated notebooks that served as impromptu

(04:36:00):
art galleries and occasionally as a method for taking. Notes
then had out in those, mean small town streets until
we were loaded down with enough candy to ensure our
lives as future diabetes, sufferers with a whole weekend to
utilize as a recovery from our night of unspeakable corn
syrup drenched. Darkness, anyway all of that happened for seventeen,

(04:36:26):
years with more of our friends bailing with each passing.
Year and this this was to be our soween swan.
Song the sun hung low and swollen when my best Friend, ace,
well his name Was, ricky but he looked Like Ace
freely formerly Of, kiss all gangly energy and long straight,

(04:36:47):
hair AND i headed out into the cold dusk to
collect our saccharin. TITHE i was dressed As Brett michaels
from the new band on the, Scene, poison And ace
was dressed As Gene simmons From kiss That ace always
one to defy. Expectations so long story, short our haul

(04:37:09):
was kind of, lame full of bullshit like mallow cups
and pennies in a baggy and a deficit of miniature
name brand candy bars And reese's cups plus it started to. Snow,
yeah it snows here a fucking, lot and early. Too
and when temps drop and quality sugar is in short,

(04:37:30):
supply there was only one solace a young wanderer could
seek woods. Porn ace, queried as if reading my. MIND
i exhaled a long trail of visible breath into the
rapidly cooling night woods. PORN i nodded. Stoically, now, wait
some of you city folk may not be acquainted with

(04:37:52):
a rural kid's main source of sex, education namely a
pornomag stuck under a rock in a nearby forest used
by any number of neighborhood horn dogs for unspeakable. Deeds
and we had a real doozy safely stored under the
third large rock from the left and barely covered in
mold worms or. Spunk only problem the magazine wasn't, there

(04:38:20):
but a spell book. WAS i flipped through that tone
While ace bitch that his titty rag was. Gone, Hey,
ACE i think this may be even better than, porn
better than. Porn are you having a? Stroke, no listen to.
THIS i read aloud the parts of the text that

(04:38:40):
were In. English certain words stuck out sex witch resurrection
unspeakable evil will be unleashed upon all. Mankind sex witch
fucking Rad ace ejaculated almost. Literally it was, then right
then THAT i should have just ripped that book to

(04:39:01):
shreds and to hell With ace's. Libido BUT i. DIDN'T
i simply fucking. DIDN'T i was. Horny may my descendants forgive.
Me the pictures in the book indicated we'd need to
be in a graveyard and acquire a few, supplies mostly simple, herbs,

(04:39:27):
spices some virgin. Blood where the hell are we going
to find virgin's? BLOOD i have no, Idea, Ace i'm
pretty sure these kinds of things were probably easier to
come by in the old. Days, yeah the ancients never
had to deal with the liberated eighties woman all in
control with those sweet sweet shoulder.

Speaker 2 (04:39:47):
Pads, hmm are you? Okay do you need a? Minute my?

Speaker 1 (04:39:53):
Sister how is that any way shape or form the
answer to that? Question my, Sister my sister is a.
Virgin are you? Sure have you seen her?

Speaker 2 (04:40:02):
Face? Yeah it's?

Speaker 1 (04:40:05):
Gorgeous?

Speaker 3 (04:40:06):
What?

Speaker 2 (04:40:07):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (04:40:07):
NOTHING i was just fucking around as all good, ANYWAY
i know she's a. Virgin how SIMPLE i read her? Diary,
dude isn't that a bit? Wrong who? Cares she writes
funny ass girl shit in, there including the fact that
her legs are locked together tighter than a hummingbird's.

Speaker 2 (04:40:28):
Tweet.

Speaker 1 (04:40:29):
WHY i don't. Know she hasn't found her prince charming or.
Something does she mention me in there? Anywhere?

Speaker 2 (04:40:38):
No why the hell would? SHE i don't.

Speaker 1 (04:40:42):
Know an eligible younger guy can be a real enticing
thing for a older. Lady older, lady she's nineteen, Whatever so,
genius how are we going to obtain her? Blood leave
that all to? Me, Hey, hannah Can sam use your? Bathroom?

(04:41:05):
Why what's wrong with the other? Two dad's in one
and the toilets clogged in the other. One hannah scrunched
up her, face her angelic, face and. Thought ace leaned
in and offered this. Wisdom head straight to the trash
can next to the. Toilet it'll be in there all
right for the. TAKING i. Nodded hannah looked me. Over,

(04:41:28):
fine he looks like he has okaim a. Compliment she
actually paid me a. Compliment he probably sits down to pee.
ANYWAY i have a condition split. Stream it's just easier
to sit you shut up and go.

Speaker 2 (04:41:44):
Quick. THANKS i.

Speaker 1 (04:41:47):
SPUTTERED i entered her bathroom and was immediately. Overcome here
was my holy. LAND i cast my eyes, around so
many sweet smelling lotions and. Soaps FINALLY i saw the,
goal the snoopy trash can that sat on the tile
floor just left of the. SINK i headed across the

(04:42:09):
cold floor and swallowed.

Speaker 2 (04:42:11):
Hard there it was.

Speaker 1 (04:42:14):
A, simple DISCARDED maxi. PAD i eyed it nervously and
made my. Approach we reconvened. Outside the, swollen full moon
and ever increasing snowfall made the whole scene seem. SURREAL
i held aloft that sacred feminine hygiene. Product ace, Beamed,

(04:42:36):
yes awesome, job, DUDE i smiled. Sheepishly. Thanks the walk
to the graveyard was long and, quiet given how it
was now after nine and trick or treating had officially.
Ended we were two cold lunatics strolling around in the,

(04:42:58):
snow heading off to make our selves a.

Speaker 4 (04:43:01):
Woman.

Speaker 1 (04:43:02):
Yeah now THAT i say it, back the whole thing
does sound, ludicrous like an ec comic mixed with a
letter To Penthouse forum as the. Script to be, HONEST
i literally had nothing else to. Do neither Did. Ace,
well Maybe. Nintendo the growing wind lashed me in the,

(04:43:24):
face like a slap from a fist made of frozen pizza.

Speaker 2 (04:43:27):
Roles.

Speaker 1 (04:43:28):
FUCK i could be eating pizza roles and Playing. Nintendo
no boob's, there my FRIEND a said. QUIETLY i said
that out. Loud you said a lot of stuff out loud,
tonight like you're narrating our. Adventure it's, weird but it's
kind of, funny SO i figured it's best to keep
quiet and enjoy the. Ride you're a Real we're, Here

(04:43:49):
ace said. Happily the gates To Prospect Hill cemetery were three,
things iron locked and very very. Tall four. Things what four?
Things it's also decorative and connected to a two foot concrete.

(04:44:12):
Wall walk like a foot left and, right and we
can just hop over and be inside in a. Jiff
not even a particularly robust leap, either for shit's. Sake
one small leap, later we were traversing that icy necropolis
on our way to where the fuck are we?

Speaker 4 (04:44:32):
GOING i don't.

Speaker 1 (04:44:34):
Know cemeteries don't usually have a designated practice black magic.
Section that's, true and a tad passive. Aggressive. SORRY i
was just hoping for more candy and horror flicks and
less schlepping around in the freezing. Cold wandering among the.
Tombstones it's pretty, metal, Though ace. Offfered we both. Laughed

(04:44:58):
here not. WRONG i tripped over an ancient. Tombstone ace
extended a hand to help me to my feet and
glanced at the. GRAVE i had completely. Decimated, whoa this
chick was eighteen like us when she, died so, young
that's so.

Speaker 2 (04:45:16):
Sad?

Speaker 1 (04:45:17):
What, no she was eighteen, okay eighteen three times six
three sixes oh oh sixty six to. Six, yeah after
that indisputable sign from, above well more. Below in this,

(04:45:42):
case we got down and dirty with the devil's. Work
you said that out, LOUD i.

Speaker 3 (04:45:49):
Did.

Speaker 2 (04:45:50):
Yeah, shit now you got.

Speaker 1 (04:45:53):
Me doing it. Anyway ace AND i set up our
eleven herbs and, spices lit a, candle got the. Spellbook
everything was in, order well almost. Everything get, it, dude
you get. It she's your, sister GROSS i suppose you're.

Speaker 2 (04:46:12):
RIGHT i.

Speaker 1 (04:46:13):
Am, besides you already touched, IT i sighed AS i
reached into my backpack and removed The maxi. PAD i
held it in my trembling hands and placed it on
the makeshift, altar wiping my hands and silently apologizing To,
hannah his, mother and Especially pap pap and, mema dear Sweet.

(04:46:34):
Mema it took me a few seconds to register what happened.
Next there was an electric, pop then a slight plume
of lavender smoke wafted into the, air after which a
crow like out of a post. Story that was a.
Raven what's the? Difference ravens are bigger and their tails

(04:46:55):
are a different. Shape how the hell do you know?

Speaker 2 (04:46:58):
This?

Speaker 1 (04:46:59):
Ranger Ranger? Rick, yeah it's one of those magazines at
every doctor's, office Like, Highlights. Highlights now you're talking timber,
toes goofis and.

Speaker 2 (04:47:11):
Gallant.

Speaker 1 (04:47:12):
Shit that crow just Snatched Hannah's maxi pad and flew.
OFF i exhaled. Dejectedly you ready to call this one?

Speaker 2 (04:47:22):
Ace?

Speaker 1 (04:47:23):
Yeah a shitty send, off if you ask, Me, yeah
build nest use thing humans had taste like, blood, blood bad, body,
hurt ave. SETANUS i sat the plate of pizza rolls

(04:47:53):
down and returned to my. Game while most of the
night had been either weird as, fuck, disappointing or an
holy combination of, both this was a welcome. Reprieve after
the ceremonial burning of the mouth on the pizza, ROLES
i swore and played on tap Tap what in the

(04:48:15):
hell was?

Speaker 2 (04:48:15):
That tap?

Speaker 1 (04:48:18):
TAP i looked around the, room but nothing seemed to.
Miss tap tap the. Window it's coming from the. WINDOW
i crossed the room and stared into the darkness. BEYOND
i didn't see jack. SHIT i wonder if those pizza

(04:48:42):
roles have cooled down a.

Speaker 3 (04:48:43):
Me they.

Speaker 1 (04:48:44):
Hadn't. Shit, NOW i can't stop messing around with the
loose dangle of burnt skin hanging down from the tender
roof of my. Mouth tap, Tap back.

Speaker 2 (04:48:57):
To the, WINDOW i.

Speaker 1 (04:48:58):
Go this, TIME i barely caught a glimpse of a
porcelain skinned. Hand retreat into the darkness after the, hole
jump back and hope that fart wasn't a shit. ROUTINE
i scrambled back to the. WINDOW i pressed my face
against the pane in a futile attempt to see further
into the. Night the glass was ice. Cold the hand

(04:49:22):
that tapped the glass felt even. Colder for a, second
my heart. STOPPED i cartwheeled around the room like a,
madman upending everything in my whirlwind. Wake the pizza rolls
definitely didn't. Survive neither did the can of soda that

(04:49:45):
fell onto the video game, console creating a massive jolt
that traveled along the controller cord threw the buttons and
directly onto my bare feet that were admittedly a tad
damp from. Piss don't d, Me i'm. Frail can you
keep your private time a tad more?

Speaker 2 (04:50:05):
Private?

Speaker 1 (04:50:05):
Dear my mother called up the. Stairs just, Great i'm
going to die and my mother will be left with
just a memory of her darling, offspring cock in, hand
trying to beat the devil and losing good. News the
shock restarted my. Heart so there's a Fucking halloween. Miracle tap,

(04:50:26):
Tap oh, SHIT i haven't even caught my breath from
dying the last TIME i saw the hand, again but
this time it didn't. Retreat, Hello hannah came into, view
the extended hand connected to her alabaster body by an

(04:50:46):
arm so delicate it could have been that of an angel.
Itself she was wearing an Oversized Kaja GOOGO t, shirt
and if the suddenly bright moonlight behind her illuminating that
which lurked, meath the smug smile Of limbhaul was to
be believed absolutely nothing. Else, Hannah, yeah what are you

(04:51:12):
doing out there trying to get your? Attention well you
definitely got, That, hannah drew closer to the, window her
t shirt shifted to reveal more of her perfect shoulders
and just a pixies whisper more. Cleavage after seeing you,
EARLIER i couldn't get you off my.

Speaker 2 (04:51:31):
Mind you.

Speaker 1 (04:51:33):
Couldn't, No i'm SORRY i made fun of. You your
condition must be a heavy cross for you to. BEAR i,
mean it's a bit of an inconvenience at, times but it's.
Manageable look at, you shouldering your pain like a big strong.
Man are you feeling, Okay?

Speaker 2 (04:51:55):
Hannah?

Speaker 1 (04:51:57):
Yeah why because because usually you're repulsed by my very.
Existence now you're rubbing against my window like a cat in.
Heat Oh i'm in heat all? Right with, That leamal
and the lads were torn free and tossed into the

(04:52:17):
crisp night. Air holy fucking, SHIT i, exclaimed As hannah's
naked form stood at the. Window you like what you
see my, boner AND i answered in the, affirmative why
not let me in and we can get to getting
know WHAT i? Mean hannah, WINKED i don't know what

(04:52:40):
in the hell WAS i? Saying you, Don't hannah, pouted
it was sexy as all. Shit, well it's just it's
weird is? All isn't tonight reserved for the strange and?
Unusual my pulse pounded in my. PANTS I i suppose you're.

(04:53:02):
RIGHT i started to make my way closer to the,
window as if on. Autopilot, oh you can just, BET i.
AM i unlocked the window and opened it. Quickly hannah
smiled so, saccerin so. Sweet the door to my bedroom
nearly exploded off the hinges of. IT i turned to

(04:53:24):
See ace And. Hannah you guys look like shit did,
too all bruises and. SCRATCHES i turned back To. Hannah,
Wait hannah at the, Window hannah at the door. Door
hannah pointed at, Window hannah. Window hannah's skin was going
from pure driven snow to blood clot rotten, blood and

(04:53:46):
her pitch black eyes and anglerfish teeth weren't doing her
any favors. Either it was then that a bit of
logic slapped me right in the. Face i'm on the second.
Floor hannah can't, float at least as far AS i. Know,
man that should have been a huge tip off that
something was slightly. AMISS i blame the pizza. Roles you

(04:54:11):
guys really look like. Shit blame it on your. Girlfriend out.
There tap, tap she's not my. Girlfriend closest you'll ever
get to, me, Real hannah said under her. Breath tap, Tap,
HEY i heard, that come on in my own house and.
Everything you two can kiss and make up when we're

(04:54:32):
out of. Here, tap mother fucking. Tap the window exploded
inward as we all turned in unison to see the
creature's extremely enormous bird foot extend back into the. Darkness
speaking of, DARKNESS i then realized WHY i couldn't see,

(04:54:53):
outside as quick flashes of the beast's dreaded wings revealed
a wingspan of nearly thirty Fe we didn't hesitate to
haul ass from the, room the nightmare form of that
toothy horror snapping in our. Wake we slammed my bedroom
door closed behind us and dashed down the stairs as
the sound of the cheap plywood door of my bedroom
being splintered from repeated blows of the monster spurned us.

(04:55:16):
On we dashed past the kitchen where my mother washed
dishes as she danced and bopped the music issuing from Her, walkman,
wait we have to get my mother out of. Here
we don't have, Time ace, screamed dragging me by the.
ARM i tried to fight, back but a lifetime of
video games and shitty eating habits had left me a

(04:55:36):
tad deficient in the strength. Department we blasted into the chilly,
night large snowflakes blowing past our. Faces the creature sailed
directly past my mother and followed us through the open front.
Door we flew into the. Night we sat in the,

(04:55:57):
closet trying not to. Breathe we'd snuck into a house
a few blocks, away climbed into an unlocked, window and
paused to collect our. Wits after long moments of, Silence ace,
spoke what the fuck are we going to? Do We
you're the one that talked me into. THIS i was, horny,

(04:56:21):
reasonable but, still, hey does anyone want to discuss how
you groedy fools stole My maxi pad to make that?
Thing it was, Him it was your, Idea, Ace, yeah
but you took the.

Speaker 2 (04:56:32):
Pad you didn't want to touch.

Speaker 1 (04:56:34):
It neither did. You BUT i, figured since you're all
hot and horny For, hannah are you? Serious you too are.
DISGUSTING i think you're a beautiful, Woman. HANNAH i had
no desire to touch your your period. Blood shut, Up.
Ace we both spat screams filled the. Air what the

(04:56:54):
fuck was? That more screams. Followed, Jesus hannah exhaled. Dejectedly
i'll go and check you. Too cuddle. Here hannah gingerly
snuck out of the. Closet the seconds seemed like. Days
more screams followed by stifled. Giggles, hey, heroes come, Here hannah.

(04:57:20):
Whispered we quietly exited the closet and Joined hannah in the.
Hallway she pointed down the. Stairs we peered cautiously down
the steps to see a family watching a, film a
horror film where a family was being menaced by some
monster porcupines on a. Farm oh, shit this flick. Rocks

(04:57:41):
you've seen? It, YEAH i rented it last. Weekend it's Like,
gremlins but with. Aliens why didn't you call? Me we
could have watched it. TOGETHER i don't know you had
bowling or some such. Bullshit you too belonged. Together girls
can sense. That shut, Up, hannah don't tell her to shut.
UP i don't need you to defend me from this.

(04:58:02):
Dweeb the family turned and locked eyes with the. Trespassers, hannah,
yes Missus, henderson it's.

Speaker 2 (04:58:11):
Me what are you?

Speaker 1 (04:58:12):
Doing upstairs in our. House i'm not going to. Lie
we're running for our lives from a crow that is
turned into an evil version of. Me oh, oh, Dear
hannah smiled and turned towards her. Comrades she believes.

Speaker 2 (04:58:29):
Me are you on the? Drugs?

Speaker 3 (04:58:32):
What?

Speaker 2 (04:58:33):
No no? Drugs?

Speaker 1 (04:58:34):
Monsters should we call your?

Speaker 2 (04:58:37):
Mother?

Speaker 1 (04:58:37):
No, No ace led the march down the. Stairs enjoy your.
Movie we'll get her home so she can sleep it.
Off ace smiled his Best Scheshire cat. Grin he reached
into the nearest popcorn bowl and grabbed a handful of
the salty snack within good, night now, Eh Happy, HALLOWEEN i.

(04:58:58):
Injected we were soon on the streets. Again we walked, on, aimless.
Directionless in the distance came the sound of great wings
flapping in the midnight. Sky we are so, fucked you think?

Speaker 3 (04:59:16):
So?

Speaker 1 (04:59:17):
YEAH i, mean come, on we're just some kids in
the middle of, nowhere harassed by a. Demon the odds
are stacked against. Us but come, on the assholes in
this town always. Survive that isn't, wrong you, Guys hannah,
Offered so what should we?

Speaker 2 (04:59:35):
Do as?

Speaker 1 (04:59:36):
If on que far in the, distance the bells Of
Saint James church of our holy. Concubine rung, out we
headed towards the. Church the doors of the church were.
Unlocked we slinked, inside looking high and low for any
means of. Salvation it was then we saw, it tucked

(04:59:57):
away in the corner of the pantry far the. Church
we cut open the box and dragged it up the
stairs to the main hallway to the front, doors and
then we started to toss that consecrated bird. Seed we
scattered the communion wafers about the parking lot of the,
church all the while those thunderous wing movements filled the,

(05:00:18):
air punctuated by the angry screams of that unholy. Amalgamation,
finally that putrid pigeon came to, roost and forever a
slave to Its avian, instincts it began to peck at
the bread we, offered on and on at, eight so
long that the sun began to rise and chase away the.

(05:00:38):
Darkness the illumination increased as the creature feasted on. Crow
hannah burpt and looked at the. Sky its eyes grew
wide at the, sunrise filled with, hope, peace and possibly
a chance at redemption for its blasphemous. EXISTENCE i stepped
forward and stroked its, furrowed nearly innocent. Brow it cooed

(05:01:02):
low and. SATISFIED i leaned close to kiss its. Forehead
the creature exploded in a shower of gore that plastered
us in underworld. Filth ace, Puked hannah, sneezed AND i
spit bloody chunks from my. Mouth Greatest halloween, Ever ace, Offered. Fuck, Yes,

(05:01:29):
well if you're still with, us the sun is probably
beginning to rise over the. Hills that's our, marathon at
least until Next, tuesday when will bring you even More halloween.
Horrors consider the Weekly Spooky vault officially opened for the,

(05:01:49):
season huge thanks to our fiendishly talented Storytellers shane Migliovaka Rob,
Field's Joe, Solmo John, Oakdalton dave, O'hanlan Charles, Campbell Keith,
tomlin And Dan. Wilder If tonight gave you, chills do
The Spooky signal boost and give us a rating and

(05:02:12):
review on your favorite podcasting. App maybe share this extensive
episode with a horror hungry friend who always wants to
have a little something scary to get them through the.
Day and, remember there's a brand news story dropping every,
week in, fact nearly every day In, october not just

(05:02:33):
classics from the. Vault so until next, time keep the
porch light, low keep the candy bowl, close but most,
importantly keep. Listening talk at you next. Time

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