Halloween Collection

Bloody Mary

It was Halloween night, and for the first time in as long as she could remember, Chloe had no plans. She'd just moved to Carmarthen, and she didn't know a single soul here. So, with nothing better to do, she decided to take a stroll around her new town.

She wandered aimlessly, taking in the sights, getting to know the place. After about half an hour of walking, she found herself downtown. She thought about going to see the castle. After all, what better time to visit a castle than on Halloween? A place like that was bound to have a good ghost story or two. She took out her phone and pulled up a map. Apparently, she was only about twenty minutes away.

Unfortunately, her map proved to be less than helpful. She found herself standing on the exact spot where the castle was supposed to be. It was the middle of a small town square, in front of a church. No castle in sight. Now, churches were fine, but it wasn't exactly what she was looking for tonight.

She turned down a few narrow, winding streets, trying to figure out where she'd gone wrong. After four or five of those, she was hopelessly lost. Even her map didn't seem to know what was going on. When she checked it, it insisted she was standing in the middle of an open field, which clearly wasn't true.

"Useless." she mumbled, shoving the phone back into her pocket.

Still, it wasn't a complete waste. She'd manage to end up right in front of an old bookstore that had been squished between two other buildings, almost as if it were an afterthought. Maybe she'd check it out. She could do with a nice, scary book on a night like tonight. Besides, Chloe never could resist a bookstore.

She stepped inside. The place wasn't exactly crawling with life. From what she could see, there was an old man, a woman with two young kids, and her. Not that it bothered Chloe. As far as she was concerned, it only meant that she wouldn't have to wait more than a few minutes to purchase anything. Chloe looked around the room vaguely, wondering where she should start her search for a nice, scary story.

There were rows and rows of books on piled up on shelves that towered over her head. The shop seemed to stretch out in impossibly long rows, and in the back, she was almost positive there was a spiral staircase. Funny, the place hadn't seemed that big from the outside.

Chloe walked down the aisles, fingers lightly touching the book spines as she went. She wondered what was upstairs; she hadn't noticed a second floor when she was standing in the square. When she got to the end of the row, she looked up the stairs, trying to see what was there. It looked reasonably well-lit, but she still couldn't shake her strange sense of foreboding.

"Do it." she heard someone say from behind her. It sounded like a child.

Chloe turned around. The two kids she'd seen running around earlier were now sitting next to the cashier's desk, staring at their reflections in the mirrored side. One was about ten or eleven and the other no more than eight. Clearly, they'd gotten tired of their mother's shopping and were finding new ways to entertain themselves. Chloe watched them a minute, wondering what they were up to.

"Say it." the older one said, nudging his little brother.

"No, you do it." the younger one insisted.

"What are you? Chicken?"

"No!" the younger one pouted.

"Fine. We'll do it together."

The two stared at each other for a minute, as if trying to see who would back out first.

"...Fine." the smaller one finally agreed, arms crossed over his chest. But he didn't sound happy about whatever they were planning. Chloe found herself leaning against a nearby column, watching.