One of the best parts of being a father is making holidays special for your children. We've all been there. Every kid loves Christmas, Easter, 4th of July, and Halloween. My favorite has always been Halloween. You get to dress up, go out after dark, and run around with dozens of other neighborhood kids trying to see who can get the most candy. I love everything about it, and I count down the days to Halloween every year. You can be sure that we had our first child in a little costume and were pulling him around in a wagon for that first Halloween. The second child came soon after, which just gave my wife and I more room to work with costume ideas.
All the fun is gone now. My wife and children are gone too. All that is left are the memories of last year's Halloween. I successfully drowned these memories out over the past year with the help of Jim Beam, but I can no longer hide from it, with signs of another Halloween everywhere I look. Each day I relive that night over and over until I pass out in a drunken stupor. Only to wake up again the next morning with the same images seared in my mind. I hope that writing this down will give me some closure, because God knows this past year has been a living hell.
Last year's Halloween started like any other. My children, Ross was six years old and Terry was eight, had decided to dress up as the minions from the film, Despicable Me. My wife, named Rachel, and I mandated that the children had to make their own costumes, obviously with some help from us. Half the fun of Halloween was getting the chance to make our own costume with whatever materials we could find. My wife and I found the materials, and Ross and Terry pretty much made the costumes without any assistance. I am not going to claim that they turned out perfect, but they were damn proud of them.
We recently moved to a new neighborhood. I received a promotion the year before, and Rachel and I decided that it was time to upgrade from our apartment to a single family home. The community seemed nice enough, and it was in one of the best school districts in our area. The neighbors welcomed us with open arms, and Halloween seemed like the perfect opportunity for Ross and Terry to make new friends and for Rachel and me to meet our new neighbors.
I noticed early on in the night that one or two of the fathers in our group were openly wearing firearms in holsters on their hips.
"You a cowboy this year?" I joked.
The normally friendly man glanced at his friend and then back to me and said curtly, "You can never be too careful around here."
Confused I said, "What do you mean? Doubt much crime is happening in this part of the county."
One of them whispered something, and the other man shrugged and said to me, "Yea, well, nothing to worry about tonight every father here is carrying and a few of the mothers too."
I should have picked up my kids and carried them home right at that moment. This was a rural area, but these were not the type of people you would expect to be gun nuts. They were legitimately afraid of something. I let it pass from my mind and congratulated Terry when he ran up to show the king sized snickers bar he had received.
The rest of the evening proceeded uneventfully. Ross tried to get me to carry his pillowcase full of candy home for him, but I told him that he needed to burn off some energy before he gorged on all of those kit kats, whoppers, and butterfingers. Terry was trailing far behind, and seemed to have made a few friends. We reached the house, and I informed Ross and Terry that we were not going to have a repeat of last year's Halloween when Terry vomited from eating too much candy. Ross agreed, and quickly ran into the house, but Terry lagged behind. He walked up the driveway slowly, and stopped a few feet from me.
I said, "Have fun tonight? looks like you made some friends."
He said nothing.
"What's the matter, where is your bag of candy?" I said.
I stepped forward and he took two steps back.
I started to say, "Terry stop playing ar..." but then paused when I realized Terry's wasn't wearing his shoes. I looked closer and saw gnarled, hairy feet poking out from under the minion costume.
I quickly stepped forward and ripped Terry's minion mask off. My heart sank, and pure terror washed over me. A stunted man, about five feet tall, grinned at me through a grizzled beard. An anguished cry escaped my lips as I wrapped my hands around the man's throat.
"What the fuck did you do with my son?" I screamed
Somehow the grin widened as my grip around his throat tightened. Rachel ran outside, alerted by the commotion, and began to scream. I felt a sharp pain in my stomach and looked down to see a large hunting knife protruding from my stomach. I released the stunted man and collapsed onto the ground. In the distance I could hear gunshots over the sound of Rachel screaming hysterically.
I woke up in a hospital the next day. I looked up, expecting to see Rachel by my side, but instead saw one of the neighbors I had spoken to the night of Halloween. He looked extremely tired, but I could sense an undercurrent of rage running through his body.
He spoke first, and said, "This was my fault. We should have warned your family when you first moved in. We thought they had stopped. The last incident was six years ago."
"What do you mean, 'They', where is my family?" I asked.
"Look, there is no easy way to say this. Terry is dead. Rachel took your other son back to the West Coast to live with her sister." He said quietly.
I started laughing, which quickly turn to sobs as I remembered the small man that had stabbed me. "W-where is he, Terry I mean. Who did this. Who stabbed me."
"A large, inbred family kicked out of West Virginia in the 19th century lays claim to the land our neighborhood was built on. They have terrorized us for the past thirty years. The local police department is terrified of them, and the state police and FBI refuse to get involved. These inbred hicks have kidnapped and sacrificed five children over the past fifteen years."
"So what happened to Terry?" I said softly.
He looked at me, sat up a little straighter, and said, "We found him about a mile from your house. It wasn't hard to find him. They burned him alive. I am so sorry."
I felt numb. I could not believe that this was happening to me. I kept on waiting for Rachel to wake me up and tell me that I was having a nightmare.
The man continued, "After the last kidnapping six years ago the neighborhood came together and decided to arm ourselves and fight back. We've killed a few of them for sure, which we thought had scared them off., but I guess they've adapted."
I was Terry's father. I should have protected him. I have not had the courage to contact my wife or Ross. I am a weakling and failure as a father. I am not going to let this happen to anyone again. I have my Glock .45 ready to go, and I'll be out there this Halloween making sure that this does not happen to anyone else. Keep your eyes open and stay safe everyone.
