Horror Story

Halloween on a Monday just feels wrong...like the only way you could end the worst day of the week is by making it even longer by pretending to be scared, afraid or amused by little kids demanding candy due to the mere fact that they were dressed up in a costume.


He watched the sun slide lower in the sky...where he lived now kept the young kids away so there would be no disturbance, no knocking on doors.  So the evening could be looking like Halloween as the orange sky gave way to black but it wouldn't be behaving like Halloween with the incessant slog of kids.

He set his drink down on the edge of the balcony, balancing precariously on the ledge hundreds of feet in the air.   He knew the moon tonight was a waning crescent...disappearing.  It felt about right..the one pretty thing that he could count on in an evening was slowly fading.  Until it looked like a wry smile.

He had seen that image before...he had seen it in a dream but it was still somewhat horrifying to him now.

In it, it must have been Halloween because he remembered opening the door many times and handing out the small chalky candy hearts in handfuls...people who he didn't recognize...and he grabbed with both hands these hundreds of pieces of candy and dropped them into bags.  And they kept coming back...as his supply dwindled.

Finally he ran out, bag crinkling as he turned it over, hoping for at least one tiny piece to remain to give away.

The door knocked again and he opened it...and she was there.  Wearing a wry smile, like that of a waning moon.

She held no bag but rather simply held out her hand.  He had nothing else to give her.

She tilted her head, curiously, like she didn't believe him.  And merely raised her hand and drew it closer to him until her palm was flat against his shirt, just above where his heart stayed beating.

With a savage yank she plucked his from his chest, and turned and walked down the sidewalk...her hand in her mouth and he could hear her crunching, like the sound made when you bit into one of those tiny candy hearts...that's what is sounded like...well that...

and her laughing.

He had awakened before he could look down, but here, as the sun was flattening out into a gauze of orange in the west he ran his hand smoothly down his chest.  No holes, nothing bad.

Still...it still felt like he was empty though.