Halloween Collection

New Moon

They walked through the trees in silence. The further into the forest they went, the more Sarah started to wonder if this was really such a good idea, especially tonight.

Before the sun had even gone down, people throughout the village were boarding their windows and locking their doors. It was their town's own macabre tradition, and every year on All Hallow's Eve the entire village did it without fail. Sarah had helped her family board up their own house, then told them she'd be spending the evening with Emily's family. Jane told her parents the same thing. Emily said she'd be at Sarah's.

Sarah had waited patiently in the shed in the back garden for it to get dark. She scanned the tools there, partially out of boredom, but also wondering if she should take something with her for protection. Her father's ax would probably be her best bet, but it was far too heavy to lug all the way out to the woods. She passed just as quickly over the rakes, shovels, and shears – none of those would be practical. Finally, she settled on a pruning saw with a seven-inch blade.

As soon as the sun slipped below the houses, she set off down the street. She tried to keep out of the streetlights, but she wasn't particularly worried about being caught. Now that it was dark, no one was going to be looking out of their windows tonight; even from the safety of their homes, no one wanted to meet the beast's glowing eyes. Rumors swirled around town that seeing it was a surefire way to attract it into your home.

She slipped into the forest only a few feet, mostly to get out of sight of the village as she waited for her friends to meet her. It seemed like forever before she heard the crunching of leaves underfoot.

"Hello?" Sarah called out quietly. She knew it was almost definitely one of her friends; she wasn't far enough into the woods for it to be the beast. At least, that's what she hoped.

"Sarah? Where are you?" Emily asked.

"Over here." Sarah replied, letting out a sigh of relief.

"Sorry I'm late." Emily said. "Turned out we didn't have enough boards for all the upstairs windows. Had to borrow some from the Wilsons."

"Don't worry – I just got here myself." Sarah told her; she hadn't been waiting that long.

"You think we're really going to see it tonight?" Emily sounded worried.

"I hope not." Sara knew the whole point in coming out here was to rid the village of the forest-dwelling monster, but that didn't mean she actually wanted to see it.

"Really? Then why are you here?" Jane asked, coming up to them. She sounded surprised that anyone wouldn't want to see a monster.

For the last hundred years, the town had been cursed. Sarah never could get the complete story about what had started it, but she definitely knew what the consequences were.

Every month since the town was founded, once the sun went down and the moon rose, the beast would leave the forest. It would wander through the streets of town, snatching children and ripping adults to shreds. It came into houses, too. Each month, in the light of the new day, there'd be someone found either strangled to death or with their throat slashed open.

Sometimes, in particularly unlucky years, the crops would fail and the beast would make an appearance on All Hallow's Eve, too. The harvest had been especially bad this year.

"Are you sure you know where the lair is?" Emily asked, pulling Sarah from her own thoughts. 

"Positive. I saw the footprints myself." Jane promised yet again. Jane loved the idea of monsters and claimed to have been tracking the beast ever since it took the Allen boy last All Hallow's Eve.