My Halloween Ideas

“Why are you quitting?” I asked Nat.

“I’ve been here long enough… I just want to rest,” she answered sadly. Natalie was the bookish type, short and thin, with thin glasses and her soft brown hair perpetually pulled into a loose bun. She mostly kept to herself, but she and I had really started to get along the last couple of days; I had taken a seasonal job at the Halloween store just outside of Albany, and Nat was showing me the ropes before she left. Her parents owned the place, but I’d never met them- it was always me and her, but I didn’t question it as long as the paychecks kept coming. Because she was helping her parents, she didn’t feel right about leaving until she had trained her replacement, but she made it clear that she’d be gone by the night before Halloween.

The fact that she wanted me to stay was also the reason, she told me, that she wouldn’t tell me ‘everything’ about her reasons for leaving. I didn’t like the mystery, but I figured that she was just keeping in the spirit of the season and I needed the money, so I stayed. She showed me how to check the inventory, ring up sales and organize the costumes that grubby kids would pull from the shelves and spread throughout the store. It wasn’t hard work, but each night when the doors were closed and the lights were off, was a little bit eerie and I was glad for her company. There was something about the dim rows of silent costumes and the eyeless masks that made me shiver as I hurried through my nightly tasks.

True to her word, Nat left a few days before Halloween. She didn’t even come in to say goodbye, but simply didn’t show up at opening one day. I knew that she had left, probably on to find that ‘bigger world’ that she used to dream aloud about. Maybe something in New York or Paris. It was a small matter, I knew she was leaving soon, but I missed her help in the expected pre-Halloween rush. Each night leading up to the event had become busier and busier, to the point where I was certain that we were exceeding the aged building’s maximum occupancy and hoped that the fire marshal didn’t show.

The popular costumes for the year were the first to go, followed by the second-string standbys, like vampires and reapers. Soon, the only ones left were the wildly unpopular sets and the ones that Nat had told me always remain year after year- a small collection in the back of the store; I was surprised that we sold them in the first place, although ‘sold’ was perhaps the wrong term. There were six hanging on the wall- no one ever bought them, or even looked too closely, instead ignoring them entirely. That was a surprise, because they were remarkably well made, the kind of quality that you would expect from a Hollywood movie. They were full body suits, nude and anatomically correct, but horribly disfigured and scarred, as though the skin was torn directly from its owners in a single piece.

Somehow, I made it through the day and locked up for the night. Tomorrow, we would start the sales for anyone that wanted to pick through the meager remains, but tonight I just wanted to load the cash from the register into the safe and get home to my empty-but-quiet apartment. The safe was in a small office in the back, accessible through a dim and impossibly long hallway which always left me with an unnamable sense of dread. Tonight would be the last late night, at least, since there was no reason to stay open late after Halloween.

I reached the safe and pulled the worn slip of paper from my pocket, working the combination lock until I felt the tumblers slide from their place, allowing me to pull the heavy metal door open. I stacked the money and receipts neatly inside. By the time I did this ritual tomorrow, the cash would be gone; most likely Nat’s parents came in early in the day to collect the take. As I stood to leave, I felt an icy air wash over me, chilling me through my heavy coat and stinging at my eyes. I noticed, briefly, my breath turn to fog when the lights cut out and the door slammed shut in front of me.

“Nat?” I called, hopeful but doubting that she’d answer. She didn’t. “I know it’s you, not funny!” I tried to sound braver than I was, as my mind spun to come up with a rational answer. But there was no answer, and there was no explanation that I could fool myself into believing. But the answer came directly to me, as if in answer to my fears. The answer was ‘Yes, you should be afraid’. The lights came back on, but instead of a clean white light, they were dim and blood red. The room blurred as my eyes struggled to adjust to the intrusion and I began to whimper as the room slowly came into focus. I wasn’t alone. The room was full of terrifying creatures- demons, if the descriptions were to be believed. They seemed to take a special delight in the fear that I felt as I backed into a wall, from the congregation.  My fear didn’t last long, in a strange sort of mercy, as I felt burning arms wrap around me and pull me to the ground. Once I was down, they each lunged upon me; I barely had time to feel the pain bursting against my mind before the world went dark.

“So why are you quitting? This seems like a cool place to work,” Steve asked Nat as she started running down the list of night-time responsibilities. Halloween was Steve’s favorite holiday, and working the night shift was exactly what he was looking to do to pass the time.

Natalie just smiled and showed him the rest of the store. She only briefly introduced him to the costumes hanging on the back wall of the store; they were fascinating, but he didn’t ask about them. This time, there were seven.

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