The Thing ThatLives in the Dark

Tessie stood, defiant and enraged before her murdering, traitorousparents. Her heart beat so hard inside of her small chest she wasnearly deafened by the booming thunder in her ears. Her little fistswere drawn into hard round knots of fury that shook at her sides.And her clear green eyes were turning cloudy and dark as the tempestraged within her.

"Tippy is gone, Tessie." Said her mother.

"What do you mean Tippy is gone, where is he? I want my dog!"She screamed.

"Don't yell at your mother, Tess. You'll wake the baby." Said herfather.

"You killed my dog! You killed him because he peed on the floor.

You know he couldn't help it. He didn't mean to!"

"Tessie, we didn't KILL Tippy." Said her mother. "Tippy was oldand way too much trouble to take care of anymore. The doctor gavehim a shot and he just went to sleep, that's all."

"You're a liar! You were afraid the baby might get sick from themess. That's all you care about anymore is the stupid baby! Who willguard me at night from the thing that lives in the dark? I need Tippy.I need him!"

"Go to your room Tess!" Ordered her father. "I'm tired of havingto warn you about waking the baby and I'm sick to death of this thingthat lives in the dark. Now go on."

Tessie looked from her mother, to her father, then back at hermother. Her trembling mouth drew down, her jaw jutted out and hereyes crept long and narrow, "You'll be sorry." was all she said.

As Tess stormed down the hall to her bedroom she heard herfather say, "She's got to get over these ridiculous outbursts. I'm sickof it! And all over a dumb old dog!"

The baby's room was lit with a softly glowing night light that casteerie shadows across the dark walls. Tessie could still remember thenight her father had come into her room and yanked the night lightfrom the wall socket beside her bed. She'd cried and begged him notto take the light away. But he had yelled and told her she was too oldfor such foolishness. The blackness had eaten at her every night sincethen. Like some malignant tumor that grows and grows. Tippy hadprotected her from the thing that lives in the dark. He had protectedthem all. His presence was what had kept them safe at night. Not thelight. She knew that now as she stood staring into the baby's decidedlydangerous room. Listening to the quiet sounds of the thing that livesin the dark.

The next morning Tessie woke to the high pitched wailing onecan only associate with absolute horror. As she ran down the halltoward the sounds of her parents desperate screams, she knew thatthey were coming from the baby's room.

Tessie stood in the doorway watching her father sob into the cupof his hands as her mother cradled the lifeless baby in the pale crookof her arm. Tears streamed down her mother's quivering, pained faceand pooled inside of the baby's dead, glassy eyes.

"The baby's gone, Tessie." Said her mother.

Tessie felt the tight curl of her lips and realized that she wassmiling. "I told you you'd be sorry." said the thing that lives in thedark.

THE END

A Gatheringof Goblins

Today is Halloween. And for a young boy named Andrew that meanshis favorite holiday has finally arrived. He is so excited about tonightthat he can hardly wait until it gets dark so that he can slip into hisNinja costume and go trick-or treating with his best friend, Ricky.They were both Ninjas last year and it was totally cool because eventhe bigger kids thought they looked the part.

Andrew has noticed that it is unusually chilly outside even forlate October. A fierce wind whips the branches of the trees withsuch violent force that all up and down the street you can hear themscreaming as if in horrible pain. The sound of the hollering treeshas given Andrew goose bumps. His body is tingling all over. Hereminds himself that Halloween wouldn't be any fun at all if theworld weren't filled with frightening screams. Besides, it's just thewind. And Andrew now knows that he has much bigger things toworry about than spooky sounds.

This morning on the way to school Ricky's sister, Amie, toldthem that Halloween is not the harmless kids holiday everybodythinks it is. She said that Halloween is the one and only night of theyear when the spirits of the dead are able to take the form of humansand walk among us here on earth. And no one knows that they areGoblins because they look just like all the other kids in their scarymasks. But the Goblins aren't wearing any masks. And if you takethe time to notice you'd see that they aren't laughing and jokingaround like normal kids. They're quiet and creepy. And they keep tothemselves.

Amie knows a lot about such things. She's part of a group of girlsthat even the Goth kids are afraid of. They call themselves The GirlsOf Five. One girl for each point on the pentagram. A five sided starused in witchy rituals. The pentagram is drawn on the ground beforeThe Girls Of Five begin trying to connect with someone on the OtherSide. Tonight, Amie, Laurrie, Angela, Kristy and Kim are going tohold a séance inside Glendale's Forest Lawn Cemetery where all thecelebrities go after they die. Angela wants to speak with MichaelJackson. She's a psychic and has taught the others to read tarot cardsand all kinds of mystical stuff. She even predicted a major earthquakeonce. And she always knows what color underware you're wearing.And whether they're boxers or briefs. Either way she KNOWS. Sheis TOTALLY psychic.

Andrew and Ricky were poking each other in the ribs andlaughing, trying to act like what they were hearing didn't botherthem. Then Tiffany, who was walking with them and who happensto be the smartest girl in school by far, told them her own story. Andit got harder for Andrew and Ricky to pretend they weren't gettingscared. Tiffany said that three years ago on Halloween she contactedher grandma, Lula on an Ouija board. "At first it was really cool." shesaid. "But then things changed. And things got real scary. Scared meso bad I broke the board in half and threw it in the trash." she said.Suspense hung in the air between the four of them for what felt likeforever until Andrew couldn't take it anymore. He finally blurted out,"What happened, Tiff? What was so scary that it freaked you out sobad?" Tiffany cleared her throat and said, "Well, it was real creepy.She started calling me, Emily. Then she'd go back to calling me,Tiffany, then Emily, back and forth like that. I have never known anEmily and as far as I know neither did my grandma. But that doesn'tmean she didn't once know an Emily in her past, you know?" Heraudience, held captive, shook their heads in understanding. "I startedto get the feeling that maybe there was someone else interrupting mygrandma and I. The seeker of Emily."

Amie said, "Nice choice of words, Tiff. The seeker. I love it."

"Right. Well, I finally asked this SEEKER what it wanted withthe mysterious, Emily and my grandma answered."

"There was no seeker?" asked Amie.

"Well, I thought I was wrong about there being an interloper.Another spirit invading our conversation. Wrong about the SEEKER.My grandma said that I'd remember all about Emily very soon. That Ihad buried the memory deep in my subconscious because it broughtup other, more painful memories I have chosen not to think aboutfor a very long time. But not to worry because she loved me and wasalways watching over me. And I was like, oh, grandma I love you tooand I miss you. But ... Turns out I was right."

"About what?" asked Ricky.

"Yeah. Right about what? asked Andrew.

Tiffany sighed and her eyes shone with the beginning of tears.She said, "I knew something was way off after that. Out of nowhereshe started swearing and calling me all kinds of bad names and saidshe wanted to kill me." She rubbed her arms in a brisk manner as ifto relieve the chills creeping up her spine. "I finally worked up thecourage to ask who I was speaking with and the reply I got was notgood."

Andrew and Ricky had stopped joking around and were bustingwith curiosity. Andrew said, "Well, what did it say? Who were youtalking to?"

"The seeker." Said Amie.

"Right." Said Tiffany. "the SEEKER was a demon."

The boys both said, "Woah!"

"A demon seeker. Oh my god, Tiff!" said a surprised Amie.

"Yeah. He said his name was Abatu. That he was an earthboundform of destructive energy and the chief of death and humansacrifice."

The boys looked at each other and rolled their eyes. Ricky startedmaking ghostly boo sounds but shut up fast when his sister, Amiespoke up. She said, "Oh no! Emily. Emily Herron! The high schoolcheerleader that was raped and killed like five years ago!"

"Right." said Tiffany. "We were all so young back then I guess Ihad completely forgot about it. Forgot HER. And what had happenedto her. But the demon, Abatu, MADE me remember."

All three of the others said in unison, "What did he do?"

A pent up tear broke free of Tiffany's eye and she quickly wipedit away with the back of her hand.

"It said, don't you remember the day you heard about the murderof the pretty high school girl named Emily? And what you did themoment you first heard?"

Tiffany had started to walk at a much slower pace. Her heartwas heavy with the burden of remembering. The others had slowedas well, as if they knew they were about to be forced to help carry theweight of whatever it was that their friend was about to reveal.

"I remembered then. In an instant." Said Tiffany. "First thing Idid was run to tell my grandma, Lula. She was living with us then.Her bedroom door was closed and normally I would've knockedbefore going in. But not that day. That day I was scared and all I knewwas that I NEEDED my grandma. So I threw opened her door andthat's when I found her."

"You found her ..." Amie was coaxing her friend to the conclusionof this increasingly dire and painful revelation.

They had all stopped in their leaden tracks and waited forwhatever it was that was coming. "I found her dead."

There was a mutual gasp from the other three kids. "She wasn'tjust laying there dead in her bed though. That would've been badenough."

Amie had wrapped her arm around her friend and held hertrembling hand in her own. "She was sitting up in bed gripping thephone as if she were trying to call for help. Her mouth was frozenwide in a silent scream. Her heart pills were on the floor near thebedside table. She'd been having a heart attack and knocked hermedication to the floor in her panic and there was no one there tohelp. Instead of being there to save her I was outside playing until theneighbor kid told me about the death of Emily."

The anguished girl was crying now. No more holding back. "Itwas me." said Tiffany.

"I wasn't there when she needed me. I killed my own grandma,"she sobbed.

Andrew took her other hand and said, "No, Tiff. It wasn't yourfault. You were just a kid."

"I know" said tiffany. "But her eyes were open. Big and round.And in her glazed stare I saw the truth. The disappointment anddisbelief. She died screaming for me."

Amie said," Wait Tiff, you don't know that—"

"Let me finish" said Tiffany. "I had let her down. It's true. BecauseI HAD heard her calling my name. She called for me and I just keptright on doing what I was doing 'cause I thought she was just gonnaask me to make her something else to eat and I'd just made her agrilled cheese." The sobbing girl squeezed both Amie's and Andrew'shands tight as if tethering herself to this world before her seekercame for her in wrath and injustice at her behavior on that awful dayin the past.

"The doctor told us to cut back on her favorite foods because hercholesterol was so high. So I IGNORED her. And she died."

There was nothing more to be said. Her friends took turnshugging her and she finally calmed down. She began walking againand the others followed suit.

They didn't pick up their usual pace until Amie said somethingthat scared the crap out of them.

"Someone in this neighborhood is going to die tonight." shesaid. "I can feel it. And Angela told me so last night. She is psychic,remember." She shivered.

They all did.

They walked the rest of the way to school in an uncomfortable,determined silence. The bright autumn morning had turned. Thesky pushed down, oppressive and troublesome. Dark, low flyingclouds morphed swift from one fright to another as if the kids werebeing escorted by a flock of shape-shifting tricksters full of harmfulintent.

Birds of prey.

Home from school now Andrew stands on the sidewalk in frontof his house listening to the wind whisper in the trees one minute thenscream the next. Andrew was feeling an unusual, akward anxiety.Tiffany's telling of her grandma's corpse sitting up in bed, wide eyedwith a scream caught in her throat and Tiffany's name plastered onher lips, demons pretending to be your loved one from the afterlife,saying terrible things and threatening to kill you. Amie's and Angela'smorbid prediction that someone was going to die right here in thisneighborhood tonight. ANGELA, the totally psychic girl with theuncanny ability to predict ALL things. Not just the color of yourunderware. But most of all: The terrible learning of the dead kidswalking the streets come Halloween night. The dead coming out toPLAY. Stinking of the ground they were buried in.

Way creepy.

You can bet I'm gonna be watching out for the Goblins, Andrewdecides. Now that he knows they'll be out there tonight lurkingabout, trying to pass themselves off as normal kids, when in realitythey are none other than the walking dead, real ZOMBIES, he feelshe will be better off. Safe even.

With his hands tucked in the pockets of his Levis Andrew standsand appreciates the cool props his neighbors have decorated theiryards with. On the south corner of the street where the Dexter'slive there are ghosts suspended high in the branches of an enormousCalifornia Palm. A wicked witch on her broomstick is in pursuit ofthree white gossamer ghosts as if rounding them up for a late nightexcursion. Where the Haile's live there is a huge, hairy spider withsharp, deadly fangs perched atop a cheery purple and blue Hydrangeabush. Across from their house the Lombardo's have displayed a partyof grinning skulls hovering inside the many lit windows. They looklike long dead dinner guests that never managed to find their wayout.

Directly across the street from Andrew's house is where weirdMr. Reeper lives. Sometime today he has placed a carved pumpkin inthe small window beside the front door. It stares hatefully at Andrewwith a wicked, toothy grin and evil looking eyes. As if it were daringAndrew to enter the strange old house. Like that's ever gonna happen!He thinks. Andrew doesn't like the sinister pumpkin anymore thanhe likes the spooky old house. It's different than all the other houses inthe neighborhood. The other homes are fresh with paint, have prettygreen lawns, bright colorful flowers in shapely beds of rich fertilizedsoil where palm trees of all kinds grow big, lush and beautiful beneaththe perpetual southern California sunshine.

Mr. Reeper's house is dark and gloomy. There are no spectacularpalms swaying in the wind in his yard. Mr. Reeper's spooky treeshave shed their dead leaves where they lay decaying in big piles.They remind Andrew of grave sites. And the bare trees look likehard, white bone, their branches like skeletal fingers grasping at thesky. As Andrew shudders at this morbid thought it dawns on himhow strange it is that the only time he's ever aware of the old man'spresence inside the ruined house is on Halloween. Every year there isa pumpkin glowing fiendishly from inside of that filthy window. Therest of the time the tattered and faded curtains are drawn shut andthere is no sign of life whatsoever inside of Mr. Reeper's house.

Very strange.

That night after dinner Andrew ran to his room and put hisNinja costume on and waited for Ricky to show up in his matchingoutfit. Ten minutes later as Andrew sat in front of the TV, watchingFreddy Krueger turn dreams into nightmares Ricky called. Andthings got weird.

Fast.

Ricky told Andrew that he got hurt real bad. "Like totally messedup blood dripping bad." said Ricky. Andrew said, "Whoa, dude. Areyou okay? What happened?" Several seconds passed before Rickyanswered. "I can't make it tonight, Andrew. I'm sorry." For the secondtime a worried Andrew asked his friend, "Ricky, what happened?"Again there was a very long, eerie pause before Ricky spoke. Hisvoice had changed. It dropped real low. And in a raspy whisper thatsounded more like a hiss he said, "I'm better now, Andrew. It doesn'thurt anymore. And I've almost stopped bleeding."

Then the line went dead.