Fear the Strange

Chapter 1

I knew something was not right about that day as soon as I looked up at the sky. There was something off about it. It was telling enough that it was the day of Halloween and scary shit was bound to happen, but there something off about the sky. It was cloudy, the kind of cloudy that told you rain was coming without a doubt. But it wasn't just that it was cloudy. It was the clouds themselves; they were an angry thing, not the usual cloudy skies California get. They puffed here and they swirled there, an embodiment of furious patterns. The clouds were such dark shades of gray that they were almost black, a stark contrast from the usual cloudy skies. It seemed as if even the sun had no chance of penetrating those clouds as seen in how the town was blanketed in a gloomy hue. By the night, I knew for a fact that it would be raining and it looked like it would be for a while.

I guess it pretty much ruined the whole town's plans of Halloween festivities and raging parties.

I was just a few blocks from home when the rain came suddenly. The rain was expected, but what I did not expect was the relentlessness of it. The rain pounded down on me almost painfully. It pounded down on the pavement so hard that the water bounced from the ground back into the air, leaving a mist lingering just above the streets and the sidewalk. The rain was like that of a thick coat of fog, it was nearly impossible to see in front of me. In my attempt to hold it out, walking through the rain became unbearable. It made it no better that I didn't even have an umbrella.

To find shelter from the rain I stumbled, head ducked under my jacket, into the nearest place, which was among a line of boutiques and restaurants. Not knowing what the place was, I hurried in anyway and ran right into a curtain of life-sized skeleton decorations dangling from the ceiling. I pushed through them and found myself in a small, dimly-lit bar. Dripping wet as if I got out of a pool, I stopped at the entrance as water pooled at my feet. On the far end of the wall I was greeted with a sign that read, "Welcome to Pete's Bar & Grill". No wonder. The warm room and smell of booze was like a slap to my face, taking me by surprise. Walking into the bar was like walking into a different world. It wasn't only the smell. It was also the Halloween decorations, which were literally everywhere.

There were small glowing pumpkins at every table. There were fake spider webs and fake skulls, and even monsters with ghoulish faces all dangling from the ceiling. The fake spiderwebs even wrapped around the bar along the walls, with plastic spiders peaking from them. The place also had an orange glow to it coming from the line of neon lights plastered high up against the walls. Behind the bar the bartenders seemed to blend right in with the decorations. Some wore red devil ears on top of their heads and some wore heavy makeup looking like killer clowns and zombies. Besides the decorations, there was also an easiness in the atmosphere, a strange thing considering the uneasiness going on outside.

Amid the Halloween decorations, almost every table was filled in the room. I guess Halloween was a popular time to come to Pete's Bar & Grill, though I had never heard of the place. People were in seated around the tables, heads bent attentively toward each other in conversation. They all held easy smiles and light laughter, talking in low tones among one another. Like myself, they weren't prepared for the rain at all. There was a man wearing khaki shorts and a Hawaiian shirt. There was a woman wearing sunglasses. Another woman wearing a tank top. There were no raincoats, or umbrellas in sight; in fact, what I found most strange about them is that they paid no attention to the rain, despite the rain clearly leaving thick streams of water along the windows and the loud sound of the rain pounding against the building, breaking way through the low music playing from the speakers in the ceiling.

Dismissing the strangeness of everyone, I decided to find a table and with luck, I found one in the far corner of the bar. I took a seat facing away from everyone else. I sat down with my soaked clothes and all. No one seemed to care, anyways. I took out my phone to call my mom and tell her I wasn't going to be able to make it home on time, but it was dead and dripping wet. At least I hoped it was dead. I couldn't afford buying yet another phone this year.