It was Halloween, just one year since a boy she hardly knew had died.
Tommy Jones, a boy she hardly knew, had been teasing her all evening. Trying to grab hold of her and kiss her, and she was horrified at the thought of all that blood coloured face paint ending up all over her face. She had pushed him away, conscious that everyone was looking at them. He had lost his balance and fallen into the road, straight under the wheels of a passing lorry. As he lay dying, he tried even then to touch her, his fingers rough and unwelcome digging into her arm. ‘I will find you, you know…’
Tonight felt different somehow. The full moon cast eerie shadows everywhere, turning ordinary things into objects of terror. There was a damp smell in the air and an unearthly mist swirled around the streets.
Casey Lockwood was putting the finishing touches to her small brother’s skeleton face paint, ready to go trick or treating again. She idly wondered if Tommy would put in an appearance that night. She always thought of him at Halloween, remembering how he had died. The veil between the worlds was supposed to be at it thinnest on Halloween, allowing the dead to return, but she had no wish to see him again.
Out on the street, her brother tugged at her sleeve, trying to get her attention. There was so much to see. Everyone was in costume, and candle lit pumpkins, plastic skeletons and huge spiders hung from every available tree and lamppost. It was like walking into an amateur horror production.
Despite the chilly air and menacing atmosphere, everyone looked happy. Skeletons and corpses, zombies and demons, all grinning from ear to ear, as they rushed about with their sweet buckets. But none of them were Tommy. It was beginning to look as if she was off the hook where he was concerned and she relaxed. It was all just superstition, anyway.
Her brother tugged harder, wanting to cross the road to meet his friends, and as they stepped from the curb, Casey felt a hand on her back, shoving her forward. A truck appeared out of nowhere and mowed Casey down, leaving her mangled and bloody on the road.
As she felt herself begin to drift away, a ghostly hand grabbed her arm and the faint image of Tommy appeared beside her. ‘I said I would find you…’
© Anita Dawes 2016
Jaye Marie and Anita Dawes 
Leave a Reply