(HSSC2) The pumpkin people

I noticed that Autum had started. The trees had begun raining their
melencholic colors all down my street. Crunching beneath my feat,
the leaves turn to dust and are taken by the wind. I had had been
drifting through time, locked away in my suburban refuge, working
on my next literary offering. A horror novel.

+

Summer had passed as I existed in near hybernation. My skin was ghostly pale, and the
chill of winter rolling in had really hit me. How could a year of me life pass so
quickly? I had not made many friends in lowland. A sleepy suburb, outside of the
bustle and smog of the city, this place had seemed awash with a certain unease since I
first arrived. An unease I had not quite put my finger on. My name is Max by the way and
I had not made any freinds here. The local bar I had ocassionaly visited was filled with strange characters, the white picket fences don't
surround everybody here. But I had not seen much, I had moved here for precisesly that reason:
my work. There was nothing and nobody for me here, I had only one thing to ocupy my
attention in this almost ghostly place. I had no choice but to be alone. Now I was done,
my work was finished and was ready to go to the publisher. The story was about a man,
not that unlike my self, who discovers that a secret society in his town are
plotting to their unleash pagan Gods through ritual sacrifice to gain supernatural powers.
Spooky huh? If the book is as successful as the last then it would be my ticket out of this place.

+

I continued my walk. I almost got lost, every house with the same outset, and the same
in the driveway. it was holloween. I had arrived here not long after this day last year,
I remember settling into my cheap, 3 room sanctuary on a cold November morning. The decorations hadn't
even come down as I recall. These people really liked halloween it seemed. I had made it to main St, I
went stepped into the store to get a pack of ciggerettes.

"Hi, Camels please."

The guy handed over the carton without any niceties. As he handed over the cash I
suddenly began to notice the unusual merchandise being sold in the store: Large candles, digging tools,
rope, bags of lime. I had been ordering the bare essentials from an internet order sevice, I had
never noticed how odd this place actually was. Tonight I had come to celebrate the start of my
holiday from work, I was gunna hit the largly limited nightlife that lowland had to offer.
As I left the shop a kid on a bike levelled up with me on the pavement. His jeans where dirty
and I could see he socks poking from his shoes. Yet his bike, a model I had never seen, shined
as if it where fresh out of the factory. I looked up.

"You got a smoke?" He said sheepishly.

"Arn't you a little young cowboy?" I replied with a grin. I flicked a cigarette from the packet
and held it out to the boy, who couldn't have been older than fifteen.

"Take it, I wont tell."

"I know, thanks."

+


Two hours later I was drunk. I looked around me through my beergoggles and noticed how empty
the place was. I Slammed down a ten on the bar and stepped up to door. The barman was rubbing glasses,
he looked towards me as I rose and headed into a back room. I reached up for the door handle,
"Ah shoot," I muttered to myself, I had left my wallet on the bar. I turned from the door to return to me
stool, but the wallet was gone. "Hey...HEY!" I began to shout out towards to filthy, swing door that led
into the back area. There was no reply. I stumbled back to the front door to see if I could get round
back....but it was locked. The halloween decorations; skeletons witches, they all stared at me
with haunting malace. What the hell was going on here? I hopped over the bar and headed through the back
room, grabbing a pool que as I did, and slowly pushed open the door that the barman had left through.
It's funny how quickly the mind can be sobered by fear, I had broken into a cold sweat. The light bulb
inside flickered inside flickered like a strobe. I did not get to hear the door swing shut behind
me. A loud thud, then darkness.

+

Faces. Images of ghosts and demons. Pumpkins and scythes haunted my dreams. At least I thought they
had.

When I awoke I was not in the bar. I was not on main street. Stained glass surrounded me and what
looked like a halloween party was occuring all around. Men and women of all ages singing, dancing and
having a good time. I was on my back. I shuffled myself up onto my elbows, wincing in agony. Nothing like
a blunt object to the back of the head to ruin your Halloween. Was I in a church? Looking to the left with blurry
vision I could make out candles, and religious objects..and pumpkins lots of pumpkins. People
had started to notice my movement and one by one they began to stare. I looked around me. It seemed
the whole town was here: the guy from the store, the barman, familiar faces all with the same
expression. They weren't the only ones dressed up. For the frist time I became aware of the
red robe which covered me and the alter on which my passed out body had been left.

"IT IS TIME!" A voice boomed from all directions. "OUR GUEST OF HONOUR HAS AWOKEN!"

There were chuckles and whispers through the crowd.

"Max," The voice suddenly close, "I have been watching you for a long time." A figure emerged from
my left side, cloaked in a black robe, he held a red candle in he left hand. "When you arrived
in our town you believed you had arrived by your own accord, you were wrong. You are one
of few people in the world holy enough to speak to our lord of the sun."

"GARMAAH," The whole room erupted in unison as he finished his sentance.

"You were brought here by divine rite Max, and you will have the priviledge of sharing
our most holy day of the calender of the sun. The day of the Pumpkin." The figure turned
to reveal his face from behind the darkness of the hood that cloaked his head. My mouth hit the floor
in pure dsibelief at what I had just seen. This man was the figure of evil I had described in my book in
such detail. This man had been my obession for the last year, the focus of my work, a fictional
man createdin my head. How could be here now?

The figure chuckled. "How the blind are led Max. Or in your case the unwillingly enlightened.
You had no choice but to be here tonight you must realise. The time has come." My body sprung into action, and in an second I
had lept from the alter. My bound limbs soon brought an end to my jump for freedom, I had not noticed.
Two grim reapers, like death itself, stepped forward from the crowd and raised my up by the rope
round my legs with their scythes and place me once again on the alter.

"WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS, STOP IT , I HAVE DONE NOTHING!" I wailed.

"Husshhhh max, be stil, in death you will be united with the Sun."

+

The Heat began to lick my bruised body. Raised upon this alter in a church of evil I had been
brought up to be burned for this madness. Why, I could never know. I began to sob, I was bound
and could not escape. All around the town people chanted and prayed, the man it black leading
the ceremony. The sound disappeared, the end was close.

"Hey, you want a smoke?" The whsiper came from behind me. I choked in disbelief, it was the
boy on the bike. He crouched behind the alter, unseen through the now thick flames that surrounded the front of the alter.
"Here," he said as he quickly cut my boounded legs and arms with a swiss army knife, "there is a way out the back."
The chanted stopped quickly, I hurled a flaming pumpkin out into the audience as I ran.
I barely kept up with the kid as he ran through the winding maze which apparently led from this nightmarish location.
We reached outside, and the boy smiled. "Here, take my bike."

"But.." I wasn't quite sure what to make of this.

"You need to go now," he said coldly. I was in no situation not to take his advice.
I cycled until sunrise....I had made it.


+

Three years later

I never tried to understand how those people led me there and how they infected my thought. But I was alive
and my experiences in that place had made a better story anyway. My investigations into lowland had
gotten me nowhere, it was like that place never existed. I was happy now, I lived in the city, surrounded
by people and I felt safe. Things were good again....

+


* In other news today a man died in a mysterious fire which strangly only destroyed his single
apartment. Authorities are not ruling out foul play, however city police are believe this to
be suicide after a note and flammable materials where discovered in the victims car early this morning *


THE END









[edit on 12/10/2004 by earthtone]

Great Story, good setup.

Muchos gratias! Glad you enjoyed it.

oooh...quite a chilling story. excellent work

Cheers WW Nice of you to give a good critique on the whole event !

That was a scary one bone chilling. Freaked me out.

Excellent....muahahaha...erm....thanks for the comments, glad you liked it

earthtone,

You got a freaky imagination dude! I give it a double thumbs up! Freaky! oOOOooooOOooh!

Good one! I had this Lovecraftian imagery in my head the whole time.

Originally posted by Jonna
Lovecraftian imagery

Thanks for the compliment. Appreciate the comments guys