LET THE JACK-O'-LANTERNS LIGHT YOUR WAY BACK
Dr Francis Tallow had been treating Bobby Fitch for a year
and the boy’s version of the events of that night hadn’t changed once. One year
ago, on Halloween night, the then-eight year old child had been found wandering
the streets of his neighbourhood with his baby sister. When a concerned family
out trick or treating had asked him where his parents were, he had directed
them to a house that should have been empty. Instead, it contained the bloodied,
mangled remains of Mr and Mrs Fitch. They had been torn to pieces by God knows
what. When he had arrived on the scene Sheriff Abbott had taken one look
inside and told Bobby that he and his sister should go with him to the station.
Bobby had cheerily agreed. Abbott had given him a cup of hot chocolate and
asked if he knew what had happened to his parents, Bobby had said yes. He told
him the monsters did it.
In the year since the respected, even revered, Dr Tallow had
made no progress in breaking through the wall that Bobby’s psyche had set up to
protect itself. In most respects, Bobby had seemed to be a remarkably balanced
little boy. He’d never shown any of the usual reactions a child displays to
witnessing such horrendous trauma. The only evidence that he even needed
regular psychiatric treatment was in this fiction that Bobby had created for
himself. He claimed that he had come across his parents committing a terrible act,
and that five of his neighbours had arrived to rescue him. The five neighbours had
been two well-dressed British vampires (“Barbara and Peter”) and three witches
(“Rebecca, and the twins Emily and Katharine”), two of whom had naturally been
twins. These five supernatural beings had rescued him and his baby sister from
the monsters that had been his parents.
Elements of the boy’s story had since been substantiated.
The bodies of three murdered children had been found in the house’s basement, and
it didn’t take the police long to prove that Bobby’s parents had indeed been
the culprits. Subsequent investigation that had used the two as suspects had
shown that they were behind many cases of missing children in the area. Bodies
were found in the house they had lived in with their children, while those of
other victims remained undiscovered. There was little doubt that the boy’s
parents had been monsters in the truest sense, some of the worst criminals in
the history of the country, let alone Illinois. However, the houses on Maple
Lane that Bobby claimed had been inhabited by these witches and vampires
had been unoccupied for months and there had been no indication that anybody
had been there since. Precisely what had killed Bobby’s parents had remained a
mystery. The popular theory was that one of their victims had fought back and
disappeared but Tallow didn’t care to hazard a guess.
The child psychologist was impressed at how much they had
managed to keep from Bobby. He claimed to have enjoyed a very happy childhood
and that he had only discovered the truth on that fateful night one year ago. His
teachers had all told him that he was a happy, well-adjusted boy. Then again,
these were the same teachers who told him that Bobby’s parents seemed like a
lovely friendly couple.
But while Bobby had appeared to be remarkably balanced, all
this had changed one week ago with the boy complaining of terrifying nightmares
that he believed were premonitions. Dr Tallow supposed he really should have
seen it coming. The one year anniversary of the terrible incident would of
course bring up some unpleasant memories. But there was a conviction to the
boy’s fears that unsettled him. He told his doctor that his parents were
returning from the grave to claim him and his sister. His foster family, a kind
elderly couple who had looked after Bobby and Baby Lauren for nearly eight
months now, had contacted Tallow seven days ago to say that they couldn’t wait
for the bi-weekly check-up. He’d seen Bobby every day this week and he was only
getting worse.
It was the end of a crisp, clear Halloween afternoon. Tallow sat
opposite the nine year old patient. His blonde hair was longer than he’d
sometimes seen it, but he’d never been heavier than skinny. However, Bobby was
clearly suffering from a lack of sleep. His fingers worried at the sleeves of
his bright red jumper, and his eyes kept glancing at the clock on the wall.
Tallow leaned back in his chair.
“How are you feeling today, Bobby?”
“OK,” came the non-committal response.
“Mr and Mrs Stowe tell me that you didn’t sleep a wink last
night. Is that true?” Bobby nodded without looking at his doctor. “Bobby, I’m
sure you don’t need me to tell you this but lack of sleep is only going to make
these fears of yours worse. Now, these dreams you’ve been having, I know you
know that they’re not real. I understand that they’re frightening but they’re
impossible.”
“They’re coming back,” said Bobby. “They’re coming back
tonight, for me and Lauren.” Tallow
sighed.
“Bobby, listen to me. Your parents are not coming back for
you. I want you to remember everything we’ve talked about in our sessions. I
want you to remember that nothing that happened that night was your fault. Your
parents were bad people but that does not mean you are too. You have people who
care about you, who are worried about you. And they’re worried about the way
that you’re acting.”
Bobby turned away from the window to look at Tallow, the
beginnings of tears forming in his eyes. “I know that Mr and Mrs Stowe care
about me. But it won’t make any difference. Because they’re coming back and
they’re going to take us.”
Tallow stood up and walked around to place a hand on his
patient’s shoulder. “No they’re not. Because they are dead and there is no
coming back from that. I know it’s Halloween but there are no monsters out
there tonight. It’s all make-believe, Bobby. You must understand that.”
Bobby shook his head, his blonde hair waving from side to
side. “The people who helped me last year were monsters. They killed my parents
and they saved me and Lauren. If they exist, my parents can too.”
Tallow fought to keep his temper. A year had passed and he
had not been able to dent the boy’s conviction in the slightest. If he couldn’t
convince Bobby that he hadn’t been rescued by monsters, how could he convince
him that monsters weren’t coming to get him? He was an old man now. He’d seen
his fair share of patients and he knew when he was losing them. He took a deep
breath and restored calm to his voice. “Look, just listen to me. It’s not real,
Bobby. I don’t know who saved you that night but they weren’t monsters. There
is no such thing. And this is why you will be safe tonight. Because the dead
cannot rise from the damn grave.”
He walked back round to his side of the table. He hated that
he had nearly lost his temper but he had to get through to this child. Robert
Fitch had been through so much already. He went to the window and watched the
setting sun through the autumn leaves. It was such a lovely time of year and it
was a source of great joy for so many. He hoped that one day Bobby would be
able to enjoy it. “So, Bobby, will you be going trick or treating this
evening?”
Before he got an answer the door was opened and a young male
orderly hurried in, out of breath but determined to speak.
“Doctor Tallow, there’s a telephone call for you. It’s
urgent.”
Tallow switched his phone off as a matter of principle during
his sessions. He followed the orderly down the hall to the nurses’ station
where he found a gaggle of grave-looking hospital staff standing around the
telephone. “Yes, alright, everyone, I’m here now,” he told them as he picked up
the receiver. “Doctor Tallow speaking.”
“Tallow,” came the cracked voice from the other end of the
line. “Finally. This is Sheriff Abbott. For God’s sake, Tallow, I’ve been
trying…I’m over at the Stowe place. It’s a mess over here, Tallow. Is the boy
with you?”
Tallow struggled to keep up with the Sheriff. “Yes, Robert’s
here. Sheriff, what’s going on?”
There was a pause on the end of the line. “Doc, the Stowes
are dead. Listen, we could barely tell it’s them. It’s taken some time to make
sure but Lauren is gone. Whoever did this took the kid with them. Are you sure
you’ve got Robert safe?”
Tallow stood stunned for a moment. Then he understood that
he was needed. “Hang on; I’ll call you on my cell. I’m going to check on the
boy now.”
He hung up and ran back as fast as he could. He could have
cried when he saw that Bobby was sitting where he had left him. “Bobby’s, thank
God. Right, we’re going to have to stay here for a little while, is that OK?”
Bobby nodded and Tallow smiled. He turned his cell phone on and dialled the
number for Abbott. “Sheriff, Robert’s fine. What…what are we going to do?”
“Alright, you stay with him. We’re heading over to the
hospital now. Don’t let him out of your sight. I’ve alerted the security staff there
but for now the most important thing is that we get Bobby someplace safe.”
“OK. I understand.” Tallow took a seat next to Bobby and did
his best to keep the fear out of his voice. “Sorry about this, Bobby. The Sheriff
is coming over and he’s going to take you to the police station for Halloween,
he’s got something fun planned for you.”
Bobby stared up at him. “This is what they said would
happen, in my dream. Mom and Dad told me that they’d get Lauren first, then
they’d come find me. They said the police would try and stop them but it
wouldn’t do any good.” There was no fear, no excitement in his voice. This was
just something that he knew would happen.
The room suddenly seemed a lot darker to Tallow. The sun had
set and he went over to switch the light on. “No one is coming to find you,
Bobby,” he told him as he crossed the room. “The only person who’s coming for
you is the Sheriff, because he wants to help look after you. We’re all going to
go down the station together. There’s nothing to worry about.”
“Mr and Mrs Stowe are dead, aren’t they?” asked Bobby and
for a moment Tallow couldn’t think of an answer. He flicked the light switch,
filling the room with a cold fluorescent glow. But only for a moment. The lights
went out. Not just in that room, but the hallway too. Tallow opened the door
and looked down the corridor. Pitch black.
“Don’t worry, Bobby, I’m sure this is just a temporary…”
Tallow began, before there was a squawk of the PA system being turned on. Then
the sound of a woman crying came over the intercom.
“Bobby…” said the woman’s voice. Tallow recognised it as
Nurse Freemont, the head nurse. She was the toughest member of staff in the
entire hospital, she’d seen more than anyone. But her voice was choked through
her tears. “Bobby, your mom and dad want you to know that they love you very
much. They want you to know that they’re here now. They’ve come to pick you up.
They’ve…”
The words stopped with a brief cry and gruesome snapping
sound. Then another voice came on, barely a voice at all. A low gurgle. “Hi,
baby. Mommy and Daddy have been in the waiting area. But now we’re coming to
find you.” There were a few seconds of guttural laughter and another screech of
feedback as the PA cut off. Tallow dialled the Sheriff’s number again.
“Abbott, where the hell are you?” he hissed.
“Five minutes away, what’s going on?” barked the Sheriff
over the sound of the sirens.
Tallow felt his gut drop. “You’ll be too late.”
“Yes, they will,” said a woman’s voice from behind him.
Tallow dropped the phone and span round. A man and woman stood in the doorway,
concealed by the darkness. Tallow backed away towards Bobby. Good god, he
thought, this isn’t possible. He heard the sound of a scraping chair as Bobby
leapt to his feet.
“Barbara!” he cried and ran over to greet them.
“Hello, sweetheart. It’s time to go.” The couple stepped
into the room and in the moonlight Tallow could see that they were immaculately
dressed in beautiful Halloween costumes. Both had black hair, his combed neatly
back and hers hanging down to near her waist. Tall, skinny, and beautiful, they
could have been models. Models dressed up like…were those fangs? “Who’s this?”
asked the woman, in an accent that Tallow could have sworn was British.
“This is my friend, Dr Tallow,” Bobby replied.
“Dr Tallow,” said the man, stepping forward with an
outstretched hand. Stunned, Tallow shook it. The man frowned as he looked
around the room. “My name is Peter, this is my wife Barbara. I assume Bobby has
told you what we are. Now, you have a choice. You can either wait here for
Bobby’s parents to arrive, or you can leave via the window with us.”
“We’re five stories up,” said Tallow. Peter grinned.
“We have our ways. What’s the answer?”
A scream came from the other end of the corridor accompanied
by a wet noise that Tallow didn’t want to think too much about. “Window,” he
answered.
“Excellent choice. Come on, everyone.” Barbara swept Bobby
up in her arms and Peter took Tallow into a fierce bear hug. “Trust me,” he
told him, and leapt through the window, taking Tallow with him in a shower of
broken glass. For a moment the doctor felt the cold wind rushing past his face
and then he was simply standing in the hospital car park. Before he could
attempt to fathom it Peter took his arm and dragged him over to a grey van a
few feet away. The van’s side door was opened from the inside and Tallow was
pushed in.
Sitting opposite him were three dark-haired women. He would
have guessed that two identical twins were in their early twenties, while the
third was in her late fifties. The eldest grinned at him. Barbara helped Bobby
in beside Tallow as Peter clambered in the front and turned the keys in the
ignition.
“These are the witches, Dr Tallow,” said Bobby, who could
only smile politely. “Where are we going, Barbara?”
Barbara had climbed into the front to ride shotgun by her
husband. She looked up at the rear-view mirror and Tallow felt giddy when he
realised that he couldn’t see her in it. “We have to take you back to the house
Bobby. We need to go back to where it happened, I’m afraid. They’re vulnerable
in that spot. Outside of that house, nothing could kill them. I’m sure the
security staff at the hospital wasted a few bullets figuring that out. But
inside, we’ve got a good chance of sending them back.”
“I’m sure you’ve got a lot of questions, Doctor, but it’s
actually fairly simple,” said the eldest witch flaunting that grin. “We killed
Bobby’s parents a year ago. We thought we’d purged the evil. Well, that
particular evil, anyway. But there’s always a risk when you send away something
bad on Halloween that it’ll come right back again. Lots of closed doors find a
way to open; lots of things that should be chained up find a way to get free. It’s
their night after all.”
“Luckily for Bobby,” said Barbara, turning back with a grin,
“it’s our night too.”
Tallow glanced at the boy. He looked more relaxed than Tallow
had seen him in the entire year that he had been treating him; indeed, he
looked up with a grin.
“I told you they were real, Doctor. I told you that the
witches and the vampires saved me.”
A ripple of laughter went around the van.
“You can’t blame the doctor for not believing you, Bobby,”
said Peter as he slowed the van for a traffic light. “You’re a very lucky boy,
you came across us and you’re still alive. There aren’t many people like you,
not in the whole world. We’re not exactly known for being friendly.”
“Why…why did you spare Bobby?” asked Tallow. The twins,
Emily and Katharine, he remembered their names were, looked up at him; their
expressions worryingly close to angry.
“Because we like him. He’s adorable. It’s not his fault his
parents are monsters.” They spoke in unison, which Tallow found deeply
unnerving but somehow not surprising.
“But aren’t you all…?” he asked, not wanting to finish his
sentence and offend them further.
“Well, yes,” said Barbara. “But there are monsters and there
are monsters.”
“That’s what you told my parents last year!” said Bobby,
giggling. Tallow decided that perhaps it would be best to just stay quiet.
It wasn’t long at all before the van was stopped and
everyone piled out into the street. Tallow realised where they were. Maple Lane.
This was where Sheriff Abbott had found Bobby and Baby Lauren, dazed but
miraculously unharmed. Jack-o’-lanterns had lined the street that night and
people in fancy dress had crowded the crime scene, desperate for a glimpse at
what had happened. Now, one year later, and the street was empty. Nobody would
dare to trick or treat here. Tallow watched as his companions took their bags
from the van and walked up to the house. Once inside, the witches immediately
started unpacking while the vampires directed Bobby to the sofa.
“What’s the plan then? Are you going to, what, drink their
blood?” asked Tallow.
“Not an option, I’m afraid,” said Barbara gravely. “We can’t
drink the blood of reanimated corpses and even if we could drain them, it
wouldn’t make a blind bit of difference. They’re driven by something stronger
than blood, hard though that might be to believe. We have two options available
to us and we’re going to try both. The witches will attempt to remove the souls
from the bodies, before sending the souls back to wherever it is that they came
from. My husband and I will be taking a more direct approach: dismemberment.”
Rebecca, the elder witch looked up from the symbol she was
drawing in chalk on the floor. “Dismembering them won’t achieve anything in the
long run. There’s no guarantee that they won’t come back. Even if you burn the
pieces.”
“Yes well, we can think about the long run once we get rid
of them, can’t we?” said Peter, who reached into the cupboard under the stairs
and produced a large axe, which he began to wield decisively. The witches
clucked their tongues and got on with unpacking.
“Can I do anything to help?” asked Tallow. He wasn’t sure if
he wanted to but felt that it was only right to ask.
“Look after the child,” said the younger witches without
looking up from their work. Tallow sat down on the sofa next to Bobby. It did
look as though the young boy was starting to lose some of the confidence he’d
found. When he looked up at Tallow the doctor could see the fear in his eyes
and sympathised.
“Do you think they’ll bring Lauren with them, when they
come?” he asked quietly. Tallow didn’t have an answer for him but he knew he
had to produce one.
“I don’t know, Bobby. I don’t think they’d hurt Lauren. She’s
still their daughter. I think we just need to wait and let your friends do
their thing.”
Bobby nodded and the two of them sat there, watching the
monsters in front of them prepare themselves. The three witches had created
some kind of pentagram on the floor and huddled over it, muttering words in a
language that Tallow didn’t know. The vampire Peter had found another axe somewhere
and had given it to Barbara, and now the two of them were testing the blades
and practising strokes. After a minute or two everything went quiet It seemed that the monsters were ready.
When silence fell nobody broke it. It was as if everyone
agreed that quiet was important. Tallow wondered if they were scared. It seemed
like an awful lot of trouble to go to if they were confident.
There was a thud at the front door followed by a squelching
sound. Peter nodded at Barbara and carefully walked around the witches’ symbol
to open the door. “It’s a pumpkin,” he called back to the company. “Oh…and here
they are now.” Peter walked slowly back into the room, lifting the axe in
readiness. Tallow could hear the horrible laughter from outside.
“Trick or treat, trick or treat, give us something good to
eat.” The voices outside sang in unison, before the man spoke up. “We remember
you. You must remember us. You tore us to bloody chunks; you took us away from
our children. Well, we’ve come back.” There was something so ridiculous about
their words that a part of Tallow’s brain fought to ignore it. It was
impossible. All of this was impossible.
“Bobby’s in there with you, isn’t he?” The woman’s voice
this time. Bobby shrank against Tallow. “Bobby, sweetie, it’s Mommy and Daddy!
Come on out, that’s a good boy!” Tallow could feel Bobby trembling but he
didn’t move. After a moment of silence from outside a groan was clearly audible.
“Fine. We’ll just have to come in and get you then.”
There was a collective intake of breath from the room as
everyone prepared. Tallow felt his jaw drop as he saw what entered the house.
The naked, shredded corpses of Bobby’s parents had been reassembled.
There didn’t seem to be anything holding them together except perhaps whatever
force had brought them back in the first place. Hunks of flesh jostled against
each other and some dangled perilously. Teeth hung from their gums by roots
gone brown. Eyeballs wobbled loosely in their sockets. The stink of rotted
flesh filled the room. These two nightmares looked at Tallow and the boy next
to him, and Tallow stifled the scream that came to his throat.
“It’s time to come home, son,” said Bobby’s father, stretching
a ravaged arm out towards his boy. As he did so three voices began to chant.
The ghouls turned to face the source and saw the witches sat on the floor,
holding hands, eyes closed. They started to laugh and move towards the women
before stopping abruptly.
“What…Is this magic?” asked Bobby’s mother. She pushed hard
against whatever was holding her back. “Won’t last,” she laughed. “We’re magic
too, now. I can feel it in my pieces. Let’s see who’s stronger.” Indeed, it
appeared that the parents were making headway as they struggled. Tallow saw the
elder witch open one eye and a jolt of fear flash across her face. He realised
it would only be a matter of moments before the creatures got through.
“Enough, ladies,” said Barbara, and the chanting stopped. As
it did, the two vampires raised their axes and brought them down cleanly. Two
severed heads dropped to the floor, followed by the rest of the bodies. “I told
you our way would be more effective,” she told the witches.
“Oh, Jesus, look,” muttered Tallow, pointing at the heads.
The eyes were still moving. Their jaws flapped. Somehow, they were trying to
talk.
“Smaller pieces needed, clearly,” said Peter. He raised his
left foot and brought it down on the father’s head. The head collapsed under
the weight, creating a gory mush under his shoe.
“For God’s sake, Peter, wait!” cried Barbara. “We need to
know where Bobby’s sister is!” Peter looked up guiltily, muttering apologies
about how he’d got carried away. The remaining head smiled as the jaw moved up
and down like it was trying to laugh. “Don’t worry,” Barbara said to Bobby.
“The head might not be able to talk but our friends here have ways of finding
out what they want to know.”
The witches picked up Bobby’s mother’s severed head and took
it into the kitchen, as Barbara and Peter set to work rendering the rest of the
father’s body into a paste which could surely never reconstruct itself. After a
few minutes, the witches returned without the head. “You can start work on the
mother,” said Rebecca. “Lauren is outside in the bushes. They’d planned to grab
Bobby too, then…well, not in front of the boy.”
“We found out just in time,” said Emily and Katharine. “The
head started to liquidise. It was disgusting.”
Bobby ran outside and Tallow followed. And praise be, there
she was. Under the bushes sat two-year-old Lauren, looking furious that she had
been forgotten. Barbara came out to join them. “I think it’s best if you and
Doctor Tallow leave now, Bobby. We’ll take care of the rest of this. And if you
need our help again, we’ll come back.”
Tallow looked back up at the house and saw Peter, Rebecca,
Emily and Katharine standing in the doorway looking out at him. “Look after
Robert and Lauren, Doctor,” said Barbara. “We’ll see you soon.” The doctor
nodded as he took Lauren in his arms and put a hand on Bobby’s shoulder. “Oh,
and Doctor Tallow? Happy Halloween.”
And with that, Tallow, Bobby and Lauren walked down Maple
Lane towards the approaching sirens.
------
Hello again, thanks for reading this year's Halloween tale, I really hope you enjoyed it. This one's a bit bigger and madder than last year's but I hope you think it's fun. It kind of gets a bit madcap in the second half but I wanted the monsters to come back and rescue Bobby and the only solemn way I could think to do that would be basically a repeat of last year's ending. And it's a Halloween story, there's room for silliness. Well, I hope you agree. And yeah, Dr Tallow is basically Dr Loomis under a different name. Last year's story was heavily influenced by the film Trick 'r Treat, and this year I put a bit of Halloween in there too.
The next story on the blog will be....well, I'm not sure yet but there's a strong chance it will be Slide Left, if the idea I have for it works out.
Happy Halloween!
