By Carolyn Scott
© October 2002
© & Revised October 2003, 2007 and yet again, October 2010
(One of these days I’ll get it right!)
WARNING: Some readers of this story have experienced panic, diarrhea, insomnia, and a nightly fear of bogymen hiding under their bed. Others have suffered mild to severe boredom. May cause paper cuts if used as toilet paper.
The tree limbs cast eerie shadows across the deserted stretch of narrow, graveled roadway running alongside Mossy River. The wavy silhouettes of the branches beckoned like long, black fingers snaking across the lane, patiently waiting to snare a victim in their grotesque tentacles. For 15 year-old Sally Jones, the reflections cast by the low-hanging harvest moon seemed like a macabre omen on this Halloween night. Sally, together with her Golden Retriever, Buddy, had safely traveled this road hundreds of times during the late evening hours to visit nearby friends. Tonight, however, Sally had an unsettled feeling as she and Buddy walked home from her best friend Jan’s house.
She had spent the evening passing out candy to groups of shrouded Trick-or-Treaters at Jan’s front door. Afterward, she watched a video of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre with Jan and her brother, Timmy. Even as a small child, Sally did not spook easily by monsters, witches, and ghouls running helter-skelter on Halloween night. Up until a couple of years ago she had enjoyed disguising herself as one of them and performing the annual ritual of running about trying to scare people into giving her handfuls of candy. But on this particular All Hallows Eve, she felt something unnatural in the chilly breeze rustling through the dead, fallen leaves. The swamp frogs and hoot owls seemed to utter whispered warnings of impending doom as they stirred restlessly in the dark. She noticed how the curling fog rose up from the riverbed and draped itself around the trees, taking on the form of a phantom’s cloak.
Chill bumps popped up on her skin. “I’ve seen Nightmare on Elm Street and Halloween one too many times.” she muttered nervously to Buddy. “My imagination is getting the best of me.” But one glance at the dog and Sally’s uneasiness turned to fear. The playful canine usually relished these nighttime excursions as opportunity to run wild and scour the underbrush for elusive possums and raccoons. But not this night.
Buddy tread close by his master’s side. His normally wagging tail was pointing stiff straight in the air, his ears peaked high, twitching from sounds only he could hear. He kept sniffing the air like he was picking up some fresh, unknown scent and faintly growling now and again. “Let’s pick it up Buddy,” Sally encouraged, her sneakers churning up dust and gravel as she began running down the road.
Just as they neared the swinging footbridge they had to cross to get home, Buddy stopped suddenly and began to growl louder than before. Sally skidded to a quick stop and fell to her knees in the gravel. She sat there catching her breath, watching Buddy. He stood completely still at attention staring toward the river, his fur bristling up and down his neck and back.
Creak, creak!
Sally jumped from the eerie sounds coming from the footbridge. She looked in that direction and froze, paralyzed with fear! She wanted to scream but couldn’t open her mouth. Her eyes fixed with fright upon the sinister image slowly looming up before her. It floated across the bridge, coming in her direction. Buddy growled menacingly, as if he understood that the approaching form only meant one thing...danger!
Sally gasped. Her heart beat so loudly she thought it would explode in her chest! She knew she would faint if she didn’t pull herself together. With her gaze fixed on the frightening figure, she cautiously slid her hand across the gravel toward Buddy. He was barking furiously now, jumping and pawing at the dirt. His lips were pulled back showing his perfect set of teeth as he growled in preparation of a fight to protect his master. Sally grabbed onto Buddy’s fur but in a flash he bolted from her grasp and ran toward the approaching image!
She watched helplessly as the figure continued to float closer, closer towards her, unmindful of Buddy’s fast approaching attack. He was racing toward the figure now! His barks and growls became more menacing than ever as he readied himself for the encounter. Buddy leaped through the air in an attempt to knock the spooky creature down but it glided right through him! The retriever yelped from fright and confusion as he hit the ground. The figure paid him no mind at all and continued along its trail toward Sally. Larger and larger it loomed above her until it was right in front of her-- within her reach! She wanted to scream more than ever now, but she felt almost hypnotized by it. She slowly looked up at the form and her spine tingled at what she saw! It's fur was dark and it had a cone-shaped head with a long mane of yellow, prickly hair running Mohawk style down the center. A set of devilish ears stuck straight back and narrowed to sharp points on each side of its head. Its eyes were big and slanty, fiery red in color and glowed like hot coals. It had a long, slender wolf-like nose and its open mouth showed gleaming, shark-like teeth protruding from within. It was gigantic in size, with long, skinny arms and dangling hands with spiky fingers. Instead of legs, it had a mermaid shaped trunk. Sally gasped!
“Oh m-man!” she stammered as she looked up into its face. “I’ve n-never seen anything like thi-this in the m-moo-vies!”
Buddy growled ferociously and ran back to protect Sally. Just when the dog approached, the creature slowly began to raise its arms. Its eyes started glowing even brighter red than before. Sally covered her face in fear as the creature rose its head toward the sky and began howling unmercifully -- a howl that could wake the dead! Buddy whimpered and tucked his tail between his legs.
“Please, please go away!” Sally cried helplessly as the “thing” continued to howl. She uncovered her face and reached for Buddy. Just then, the moon took on a dim, yellowish glow. The wind became deathly quiet and still. The trees were pulling their branches inward, as if even they were shrinking from fear of this frightening creature. The river suddenly stopped flowing and stood still without a ripple. The clouds stopped drifting and appeared pasted in the sky. A bat hung in a frozen silhouette against the moonlight!
A fresh surge of fear washed over Sally. She frantically scrambled to her feet and ran wildly past the monsterous beast toward the swinging bridge from which it had first appeared. Buddy caught up with her just as she managed to grab hold of the ropes that anchored the bridge to the bank of the river. She quickly looked back as she clambered onto the bridge. It was chasing her, its howls growing louder and louder! The noise was deafening. She covered her ears with her hands but could hardly block out its savage, beastly wails. Just when she thought her head would surely split open, the howling stopped. Frightened, she turned to look back at the figure. As she did so, a bright, bold flash of blue light penetrated the sky. With a whip cracking sound, an orange ball of fire loomed up from the earth and snatched the strange form within it, hurling it high into the sky! As it slowly vanished from sight, it appeared to glare down upon Sally. Its eyes glowed so brightly it lit up the entire forest!
All that had ceased minutes before suddenly came vigorously to life again! The wind blew fiercely. Sally grabbed tightly to the hand ropes running along the bridge as the wind recklessly tossed it about. The river abruptly began to flow again, its currents swirling and foaming wildly. The water rose and spewed forth so high that it covered the bridge, completely soaking Sally, forcing her to gasp for air. All at once the earth violently began to rumble and quake. Frightened to the core, she forced herself to continue across the bridge. When she finally got to the other side the ground opened up beneath her, exposing a deep, dark pit. She stumbled and frantically grabbed for the ropes on the bridge but they were so wet and slippery she couldn’t hold on to them. She lost her balance and began to tumble down into the vast blackness of the deep hole!
Desperately she screamed and called out to Buddy. She kept her eyes tightly closed and continued screaming as she spiraled downward-- downward. She thought she would never reach bottom when all at once she realized she was no longer falling but instead felt like she was lying on soft hey. She lay there for a moment and then, with some hesitation, she slowly sat upright. She cautiously opened her eyes to see what new horror lie before her, but could not believe what she saw!
As she blinked and looked around her, she realized she was in her own bed, in her own room at home! She wiped the sweat from her forehead and after a minute or two, she giggled nervously as she thought of the terrible nightmare she had just had. Looking around, she spotted Buddy lying on his rug beside her bed. She softly called him up to her and ran her fingers through his warm, soft coat as he snuggled on the blanket next to her.
“Boy, Halloween can sure bring out an overactive imagination. It seemed for sure we were about to be eaten by an ugly, vicious monster, Buddy. Thank goodness, though, it was all just a dream… just a dream.” She sighed deeply and snuggled back down under the covers, relieved now from the nightmare she had just experienced. Buddy snuggled in alongside her, his head sharing her pillow and tail wagging from the pleasure of getting to sleep upon the bed. She put her arms around him and smiled.
Within minutes, Sally and Buddy both fell into a deep sleep, neither of them aware of the dark furry, grotesque looking creature just outside the bedroom window. With long, spiky fingers it softly scratched on the windowpane, its sharp fangs gleaming in the moonlight as it peered in at them--------
through a pair of large, glowing, fiery RED EYES!
