Writing Collab #6 – They Call It Halloween

Today’s Entry comes from Bulbul – and is the second Halloween Entry. 

“How do I look?” she asked again, trying to see her reflection in the muddy pool of water in the graveyard. The moonlight was not helping much. 

“Huh…” was all she got as a response from her partner. Bones was busy cleaning up the last bit of racoon that he had found, pleased with his knack for discovering midnight snacks; he had forgotten his job at hand.

Irritated with his lack of interest she picked up a thick piece of wood and walked up to him.

Smack. Smack.

“Ouchy! Batty, it hurts.”

“Seriously Bones you need to pay attention or else”, she said, clearly not in any mood for any more shenanigans. Her eyes told him that she meant business.

“Ok, but you are trying faces and bodysuits from last five hours. Why are you so stressed?” 

“Oh come on Bones, you know it’s the annual ‘Unmask Day’. It is the only day we get to celebrate in a year and I got to look my best.” 

Tired, she removed the matching face she was trying and sat down on the slippery ground. Her one eyeball popped out, dangling where her cheeks should have been and the dirty moss-green face with patchwork of skin and bone fragments was clearly visible.  

“You are so stupid”, said bones and moved to sit beside her.

“Maybe you are stupid.” The fiery look was back. She stood up, stripped down the bodysuit and moved on to select a new skin-suit from the fresh pile to try on. 

“Let me explain. You know tomorrow is the only day we get to mingle with the world. The day is called ‘Unmask’ for a reason; everyone unmasks their inner wild side out even the humans, they just don’t realise it.”

“What are you saying? We mingle all the time. Your frequent roadside midnight snacks are making you idiot night after night.”

“Shut up and let me complete. We mingle alright but not without our skin-suits and matching faces. So this is a great opportunity for us to celebrate who we are. We shouldn’t forget and plus it has been a while since I have seen you in all your glory; I must say you don’t look a day old from the day you died, still gorgeous as ever. I am a really lucky bastard.” He snickered.

She stopped looking for a new skin-suit and slowly plodded to his place of sitting, smiling. Her black lips stretched over crooked muddy brown teeth and eye ball dangling along with the guts. The red loose guts complemented her pale green skin nicely.

“Flattery will get you nowhere”, she said and sat on the grave diagonally in front of him.

“It’s the truth and besides think of all the perks of not dressing up this time. We can scare those humans without them suspecting anything; remember how much fun it is. We can walk with our guts hanging out and visible bones; make a date out of it! Imagine us sitting on the porch with our favourite brains and bloody drink, cool breeze touching our insides under the moonlight. It will be so romantic! Later on I can show you my wild side and we don’t have to be quite, not tomorrow. All the weird noises are a celebration tomorrow.” He winked and smiled suggestively. 

“Now when you put it like that it sounds tempting. It has been so long and I really do hate keeping quite. You sure know how to cheer me up and turn everything around. I am impressed.”

“It’s a good thing that we didn’t add ‘…till death do us apart’ in our vows, otherwise no one knows who you’d have gotten stuck with in your afterlife.”     

She laughed and his not-beating heart almost skipped a beat. He couldn’t stop himself and kissed her hungrily. She responded in equal fervour but stopped him before it could lead to something unstoppable. 

“It’s not ‘Unmask Day’ yet. By the way, what do the humans call it?” she asked curiously.

They stood up, wore their bodysuits and matching faces. Walking hand in hand, they left the graveyard. 

“They call it Halloween.”

About Bulbul An avid reader and a passionate writer from India, who is prone to unhealthy overthinking .She is an evolutionary biologist who has currently shifted to humanities to explore her interests further. She is fascinated by literature, wildlife conservation, social issues, cooking, and travelling. Her website is Bulbulsbubble and can be found on Facebook

Walking down the street bones-a-rattling in the cold and musky late October air, Batty and Bones huddled close to each other as children paraded shaking buckets of sweets and howling ghostly screams. 

“So, what do we do while we’re out here?” asked Bones looking around with disinterest. 

“Whatever you want, you are free to be yourself after all” 

“I forget how lifeless the real world is. I’m bored already!” 

“Come on Bones, you can do better than that. Why don’t you try trick-or-treating? The kids here love frightening people in exchange for sweets”. 

Bones turned around to watch a group of small ghouls and vampires knocking on a nearby door. The door opened and a lady immediately started handing out sweets while pretending to be scared.  

“Okay, could be fun!” said Bones as he rattled toward the now closed door passing the kids. 

With a hollow tap, he knocked and then stood back and waited with a grin across his skull. The door swung open and the lady screamed. Not a fake scream this time. She was not trying to humour anyone. She dropped the bag of sweets onto the floor and went white as a sheet.

“Trick or treat?” Bones croaked, but before he could finish she had slammed the door leaving the sweets on the porch.  Bones picked the bag up. 

“Easy work!” he said stuffing a handful of sticky sweets in his mouth.

“I’m not convinced that went so well, she seemed to be very scared of you” 

Before she could stop him, Bones was running toward the next door and had already knocked and assumed his position. 

“Trick or Treat!!”

This time it was an old man who answered. He rubbed his eyes and looked Bones up and down scrutinizing him. 

“Are you not a bit old to be doing this trick or treating malarkey?” The old man grunted before turning around and picking up a packet of sweets. Immediately he threw the sweets towards Bones but without the time to react the shot straight through his exposed ribcage. 

In a panic, Bones grabbed the sweets and turned to run. But it was too late, the old man had picked up his walking cane and had fiercely tapped against Bones’ left tibia. Bones came tumbling straight to the ground like a pile of skittles. 

“Bloody skelingtons” the old man muttered as he picked up the sweets and walked back inside shaking his head. 

Three days later, Batty had finally managed to piece of Bones’ 206 pieces back together although neither of them was sure if they were all the right way around. 

As his jawbone was finally realigned they both looked at each other and both said sighing in unison. 

“Let’s just stay home next Halloween, shall we?”

Image by Ruth Archer from Pixabay