Week 19: Halloween
Welcome back! This will be the last post for a while, since Alex and Garrett will be taking November off to do NaNoWriMo. Enjoy some spooooooky Halloween tales in the mean time!
Halloween Night
By Alex Davey
Second were the solstices and equinoxes. No Context Objects like boundaries, or something. Though he did have to admit that the problems on those days were a little more benign than usual.
Third were Friday the thirteenths. Somebody has explained the importance of thirteen as an occult number to him in training. The occult likes asymmetry, apparently, so it couldnât be an even number. In fact, it couldnât be divisible at all. So that left prime numbers. Three, five and seven were all too small and had their own significant meanings. Eleven had its own kind of symmetry, so that left thirteen, at least as a common number. Friday, again, a common boundary.
Finally was Halloween. It didnât used to be so bad, but since the rise of mass media, the idea had become tenacious. Now the entire month of October had everyone on high alert, at least in the Anglosphere West. Anything could happen anywhere at any time.
Like tonight. Janus was out in a car, watching the supposedly abandoned factory. His partner, Morgana, was inside, investigating. Which made it a surprise when she came running out at a dead run. Janus knew that was a signal to start the car.
Seconds after she ran into view, her pursuers rounded the corner as well. At first, it looked like a swarm of large rats. On closer inspection, they were human-shaped. They were dolls, living homicidal dolls. Morgana made it to the car, landing into the back seat. âGo.â
The car squealed and lurched forward, picking up speed. Morgana was counting down. When she reached one, she pressed the button of the device she was holding. The factory lit up, sending a fireball into the sky. Blackened dolls dropped onto the windscreen, writhing in pain.
Janus took a look to his side. âMorgana, we got runners.â Some of the more intact ones were on all fours, running like feral children. Their faces were unmoving, as were their knees and elbows, but still they moved. They jumped into the path of the car with demonic force, but only dented it.
âFantastic.â She opened the compartment under the back seat, reaching around for something. It was an extendable leash, not unlike the ones used by dog catchers. She carefully wound the window down, keeping her pistol handy to deter anything that tried their luck.
Picking her target, she leant out extending the leash to be in parallel with its neck. The ones behind them were gaining, but the car was out of jumping range from most of them. She looped the head through, then pulled the cord. The thing started shrieking as she pulled it in and wound the window back up.
Then is started to cry. To somebody unprepared, it would hit parental instincts honed over a billion years of evolution. Janus and Morgana were having none of it, so the doll went back to shrieking. Its lack of facial movements only made it more disturbing to look at. Morgana wrestled the doll into a lead-lined box behind the gear stick.
Overhead, helicopters flew towards the factory. The agents had done their job, now the rank and file would do the clean-up. Tomorrow, public relations would spin the story into faulty gas lines and everything would be right with the world.
Halloween Masks
By Garrett Brown
âLook tonight is perfect. Lots of people in the streets, everyone is dressed up in masks, and people will open their doors to anyone.â
âLook, I donât know how I feel about itâŚ. Like B&E is one thing but weâre talking about strong arming someone.â
âI mean itâs a risk. But thatâs the whole point. Besides, we donât have to carry real weapons. We can just grab some shit from the Dollar Tree and cover the orange tip with some spray paint. The average house wife wonât know the difference.â
âI still think a judge will try us as if the gun was real.â
âOnly if we get caught.â
âOkay so we go up to a house dressed as storm troopers, and then what? Say âTrick or Treat?â Just barge in?â
âHell yah. Just barge in and take whatever we want. And then we can just blend in with all the other costumed freaks walking around the neighborhood.â
âOkay so what costumes do we use?â
âWell I picked these ones up from Goodwill.â
âJack these are kid size costumes.â
âWell they need to be the same so people canât tell us apart!â
âItâs Waluigi.â
âI donât know-â
âYou bought fucking Mario costumes so we can rob houses. Everyone is going to know who we are. Not only does it not cover our faces it also looks ridiculous and stupid.â
â...... if you donât want to go through with it. Just say something.â













