Talk to Me

flash fiction (horror)

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Matt started this group (Halloween Prank Chat)

Matt added Sylvie (@Sylv) Oliver G (@lord.of.oliver) Jake (@jakes1)

Jake renamed this group (Trickses before Treats)

Matt

Ok guys you know what to do

Sylvie

God no enough with the toilet paper

Oliver

There is never enough TP

hey is Derek coming?

Matt added Derek (@cddanforth)

Jake

So I heard the Andersens are giving out caramel apples this year

but Mrs. Skinner isn’t giving out any candy

So you guys wanna tp her garden gnomes or what

Derek

TP is so outmoded Jake

Jake

Outmoded is outmoded Derek

you got a better idea?

Matt

ok ok settle down

Oliver has the tp, flamingos and tomatoes

Ive got a few severed limbs

Derek

Wow Matthieu

Plastic or real?

Matt

It’s Matt

and no, plastic you ghoul

Also they were on special what can I say

So we have supplies if anyone needs em. But stock up on candy too

Oliver

And keep anything with pb away from Jake cause he might die

Jake

Probably not but my mom would def kill you

Matt

max damage you’re allowed is tp & tomatoes guys

Ok we ready?

Oliver

Let’s gooo

Sylvie

Hey guys Lily’s parents have cookies

Oliver

I am so there

Jake

Anyone want to head over to Skinner’s now

I have some of Matt’s tomatoes

Derek

Let’s do it

Oliver

eyyy Derek give us a good play-by-play

Like Dickens maybe

Sylvie

Yeah give us lots of words Derek

Derek renamed this group (All Hallows)

Derek

Clouds scudded across the sky like fitful spirits, unavenged and weary, dragged apart by the merciless wind. That same wind drove the drifting leaves from their trees and down the lonely streets, rattling like unclaimed bones, and all about the town men shivered and thanked kind Providence for the warmth and silence of their own dwellings.

A few desiccated jack-o’-lanterns lit the way for the two boys as they crept up the weed-encrusted path

Srsly Jake stop opening chocolates she’ll hear

Jake

Want one?

Oliver

ok Sylvie and I flamingo-ed Trevor’s lawn

Matt did you bring an extra pillowcase

Matt

Where r u i’ll give it to you

Derek

Plastic pumpkin lanterns on strings bobbed sadly overhead. The shrieks of disappointed children pierced the air at intervals, accompanied by the opening and shutting of doors, the greetings of neighbours, the jeers of rival mischief-bent bands, all the while the dead leaves stirred, and darkness and cold settled a little deeper on the roads.

Surprisingly silent for their age and occupation, the boys crept between the shadows, shuddering with laughter, scattering tomatoes and chocolate bar wrappers. They wound long sheets of white paper around lampposts and railings, bedecked statuary with judiciously placed tomatoes, and planted plastic severed limbs in bare garden beds like undreamt-of perennials.

Sylvie

Nice

Jake

Ok Skinner and Askins done

how bout the Baileys gate cause they’re gone?

Oliver

Yeah sure I have lots of stuff left

Lets throw some limbs in there too

Matt

Robertsons are doing apple-bobbing anyone wanna try?

Derek

All Hallow’s Eve! Who could fathom the layers of shadows, the strata of ghosts, the dread that laces the air like smoke? We mock death and yet fear it; we see our own faces in the crudest of jack-o’-lanterns, and picture the candle in our brains: melting away, burning down, the flame so hot and so fragile. We are all younger on that night; our fears become those of our forebears, and we shrink from the cold and the dark.

Sylvie

Wow that’s dramatic

Jake

Guys I have so much candy

Matt

Ok guys good work. Lets wrap it up

yes Oliver pun intended

Sylvie

My curfew’s 11 I gotta go anyway

Matt

We can go through the woods its faster that way

Jake

It’s cold in here

Oliver

I said u needed your winter coat

also you sound like an elephant

Sylvie

I lost my flashlight

Matt

We’ll get it tomorrow just use your phone

Derek

With the wind dying and the hour close upon eleven they entered the woods, darting between the black skeleton-like trees, listening for one another’s footsteps in the sudden silence…

Jake

Did you guys hear something

Sylvie

Prob just that wind Derek keeps talking about

It’s picked up again

Jake

I heard it again

Oliver

Naw it’s nothing

Derek

No I heard something too

Sylvie

Like what?

Derek

Big, animal

clumsy

Oliver

Maybe a deer?

Jake

Guys I saw it

Matt

Was it a deer?

Jake

Maybe

I saw antlers

there it is

Guys I don’t think that’s a deer

Sylvie

Why?

Jake

too tall, looks like a person

I saw antlers though

Matt

Ok I’m on the other side now

Where are you Sylvie?

Sylvie

Here

I’m through now too and I see Oliver

Jake where you at?

Jake

Still in here

guys I saw it again and it’s def not a deer

I’m gonna check it out

Matt

not now Jake

it’s too late

Sylvie

Where’s Derek?

Matt

Derek?

talk to me Derek where are u?

Derek

In the woods there lies a king

And at his side some other – thing –

All the world is found beneath

his kindly eyes and tearing teeth

Oliver

Derek that’s not funny

is Jake with you?

Derek

I know not

Matt

Derek srsly stop it, can you come out

Jake where are you?

Jake

I can almost see it

Derek you there?

Derek

Yes

Oh

I see it

Sylvie

guys I don’t care what you think you’re seeing it’s probably dangerous

come out for gods sake

Derek

I see it

The king he wears a crown he is man and beast both, the fears of neither and the desires of both, the desire to be what he is above all

As the two of them approached the hollow in the woods a mist appeared before their eyes, as if to take their sight; yet it cleared, and the place where they stood was light as day, and between the trees there lay a path down to the stream. They followed

Jake

Guys it’s a person

With antlers on his head

Like a crown I dunno

Matt

Jake get out

now

this is not good

Derek you too

Jake

Wow he’s tall

This is weird guys

Derek

He pierces and points the way, he is beginning and end

They approached him and said enough, it is enough

He is time out of time he has no voice it is not needed he was not meant to be you must not look him in the eye for he will blind you

Oliver

enough Derek you idiot stop it

get out

Jake

I can’t see

Sylvie

I don’t like this Jake drag him out if you have to

ugh that wind’s awful

Derek

The wind rose again, sending bare branches dancing and creaking. They advanced on the place where he had lain, and it seemed to them that the bier was all of silver, composed of the moon itself. He raised the knife and the scythe and they saw that in them were imprisoned several stars untimely ripped from the heavens

Jake

Guys I can’t see

Guys I

Derek

The wind howled and died

There are no words

nothing no words left

Gone

Matt

Jake?

You okay?

Sylvie

You still lost?

Matt

Jake check your phone

Missed call

3 missed calls

Derek

I can’t get out can’t get out

can’t see

can hear him though he’s coming

Oliver

Jake is?

Derek

o no no no

not Jake

Oliver

Where’s Jake?

Derek

Gone

he’s coming you should go

can’t get out can’t get out

Sylvie

Derek get out

Derek

Can’t.

all gone

The rest is silence

Matt

Derek? Where are you

What the hell does that mean

Derek

Derek?

talk to me

Missed call

Missed call

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This was an entry in the Macabre Monday Halloween Writing Contest. Thanks to those who hosted, as well as all the guest judges!

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