Boo.

It had been another lonely Halloween come and gone. Bloodcurdling screams feigned muffled quiet in the absence of a friend by my side. Tears streaked my eyes as I approached home early, the skeleton on my face a guise from the cruel world in. Gloved fingers grasped doorknob.
I could not get a decent grip on the brass.
It was only when I took off the bony glove that I saw the blood. My heart raced. For a second.
I wiped the knob off with my undershirt and as I walked in, turned to look for pranksters hiding out in the bushes, too proud to leave the scene of crime. Seeing nothing, I stuck my tongue out at any concealed hoodlums I might’ve missed before turning to the door and making my way in.
I blink.
It was trashed. Knives lay strewn across the floor and the chandelier in the center of the dining room had crashed to the ground, crushing a table under its weight. Couch fabric is shredded and padding litters the bloodied hardwood like a party popper of confetti. Only it isn’t happy at all. Where my feet stand are the origins of a long line of bloody footsteps many sizes too big. To the right of me is a wide trail of blood, still slick. The room smells like metal after a heavy rain.
My grandfather’s priceless mahogany throne has been minced to jagged splinters of wood.
Footsteps. Footsteps. One heavy thump after another followed by a sick squelching noise like the final inhale through bubbles of foamy blood. Moaning. I stay frozen to place, paralyzed. The footsteps get louder. Coming around the corner of the hallway. And then it stops all of a sudden just like
that.
And I’m sprinting for the corner, pumping my arms and legs like pistons and I’m gonna’ kill whoever the hell did all this. And as I’m running, midstride, and then launching myself into the air, the Thing appears from around the corner. And then before I can scream I’m crashing shoulder first into It and the stomach gives and It crashes and tumbles to the ground like any normal intruder would. But it’s not a normal intruder. It’s not.
It’s a monster, a zombie with no eyes at all, just deep black pits, and that’s the first and the last thing I see before we crash to the ground, me on top of It. And before I can think I’m beating It and I’m delivering rattling blows with both fists and the blood on Its disfigured face rubs off on my knuckles but It doesn’t move, belligerent in the least. And then I wind up and bring my left fist down into It’s already broken nose and there’s a pop and a spurt of blood as It’s face caves in. But the demonic smile remains. The crooked bloody nose and the mouth with no hole remain. The bald head with the stitches grasping wrinkled skin together remain. Is It dead?
I stand up onto my feet and look down at It. From the head down is decomposing flesh held together by inapt bones and gory tissue. The fetid stench of the deepest bowels of Hell writhes from every pore of Its lacerated skin. And as I watch, the nose straightens Itself; the broken ribs mend together, and looking back up at me is I swear the face of Hell. I collapse to the floor, the darkness enshrouding, the evil humid, palpable as nothing that came before. An intangible heat engulfs me but nothing comes of yet but from those pits that feed on my very soul. The sins of all in ever pass in the course of a single second. Betrayal Pain Death, Bastard Life. Omnipresent. Unforgiving. My skin turns before my eyes and suddenly breaths are a burden. And the Thing is changing too. It’s skin whiter, new and fresher. Tufts of black hair sprout from Its head so fast It bleeds. And I feel every moment of the pain. I am no longer.
Destiny a hoax
As the world Darkens in a blinding light around,
Reality,
Never to be


For never in sin is there innocence to carry.

Happy Halloween Readers.