banana fish || short stories

halloween

Before Ash knew it, the colors of the leaves had changed to crimson, and Halloween had rolled around the corner. From his bedroom window he watched the neighboring houses slowly become more and more decorated with spiderwebs made from cheap string, plastic gravestones, and carved pumpkins. He had sighed and closed his blinds each time he caught a glimpse of another tacky piece of decoration being assembled by one of his neighbors.

On this particular night, Ash's silhouette could be seen through the blinds of his well-lit room, pacing back and forth across a small space on his bedroom floor. The day he dreaded each year had come. A few of his neighborhood friends were scheduled to come pick him up for trick-or-treating any minute.

He was nervous. He, a self-proclaimed tough kid and soon-to-be teenager, was nervous on Halloween. Did he really have a good reason to be? No. Of course not. Ash knew it was silly and felt quite embarrassed, but nothing could get rid of the chills he felt whenever he saw a jack-o-lantern.

Ash peeked out of his window expectedly to see kids running around in sheets and goblin masks with flashlights and pillowcases in their hands. When the doorbell rang he let out a final sigh and brushed the blonde hair from his face, closing the blinds once more.

His parents shooed him out the door, saying enthusiastic (and hopeful) things to encourage him to spend the whole time set for trick-or-treating actually outside instead of running back home.

Ash opened the door, half anxious and half annoyed, to see his best purple-haired friend waiting for him with a few others.

"Ash! You ready yet?" the boy said, showing off his teeth in a wide grin. He was dressed in a normal t-shirt and zip up jacket, but had two big bolts coming out the sides of his head, assumedly attached to a headband. Drawn-on stiches could be seen from under his mess of hair.

He forced a quick smile and a small "mhm" before grabbing his pillowcase and closing the front door behind him.

Shorter excitedly went on, "Hey, we gotta hit Ms. Abbott's house this year. I saw Bones a few minutes before getting you and he said he got some huuuge candy bars from her place! And, and over there, I think they're handing out homemade stuff..."

Ash slowly lost focus from Shorter's voice, preoccupied by his surroundings. The older teens' costumes seemed a lot scarier up close, and with most of his neighbors' front lights turned off, it was especially dark. He took comfort in the little light given off by the moon and children's flashlights scanning the ground.

For the next hour or so, Shorter dragged Ash around the neighborhood, stopping at the "best" houses. With each driveway he walked up he grew a little more anxious. It was darker in the area that they found themselves in now. Less houses could be seen, the trees surrounding them were thicker, and the moon was covered by tuffs of grey clouds.

With an embarrassingly sickening feeling in his gut, he and the other boys walked up to larger house at the end of a cul-de-sac. It was lit poorly; some candles were placed outside the intimidating front door and that was it.

The blonde boy was pushed to the front of the group, hesitantly reaching towards the doorbell. He shivered as he cautiously touched the button, the bad feeling only growing, until-

"AHHH!"

The door swung open before Ash could even press it. A tall, towering man yelled aggressively, standing over the kids with a knife in his hands (Ash swore it looked as real as any, no matter how many times the others reassured him later it was clearly only plastic) and an expressionless,  bloody mask on his face. A few kids let out startled shouts as Ash jumped, stood in panic for a few seconds, and stumbled away as fast as he could.