Halloween Story – 2005 – Ann Stolfa
It was a dark and stormy night (no
really, it was!). Kid and Heyes had been
riding for what seemed like hours, the cold rain drenching them to the bone,
the wind howling through the skeletal trees.
They both knew their horses, and they themselves, couldn’t take much
more. Heyes was in front, letting his
horse follow a faint track through some overhanging
trees. It wasn’t so much that Heyes knew
where he was going, it was just easier to let the horse go where it wanted than
to fight it along a different route. The
cold and dark were lulling Heyes and Kid both into an exhausted stupor.
Through the fog covering his brain,
Heyes realized that the horse had stopped.
A screeching sound followed by a loud bang startled him into full
wakefulness. In front of them was a
large structure that on closer inspection was an old barn. Heyes dismounted, motioning Kid to do the
same. They entered the barn cautiously,
making sure to grab the banging door so it didn’t spook the horses. Heyes pulled a match, thankfully and
miraculously dry, from his pocket, lit it and quickly surveyed the
surroundings. It wasn’t a large barn,
but it was snug against the storm. The
dust and cobwebs gave them the idea that it hadn’t been used in a long time, so
they decided to bed down the horses for the night – not that the horses or the
men had any intention or desire to go back out into the storm.
Kid looked out through the crack
between the doors, old habits making him check that no
one had followed them.
“Heyes, look at this…” He held the door open a bit more so Heyes
could see the outline of a large bulk of a house. They were both surprised they missed it as
they rode up, but chalked it up to exhaustion and the dark. There were no lights on in the house, but the
occasional flash of lightning lit up the surrounding area, giving the
two-storied, gabled house an eerie look.
“Guess we better make sure no one is
home.” Heyes grinned, the state of
disrepair of the barn telling them that no one had lived there for years.
“I don’t know Heyes; the barn is fine
with me.” Kid couldn’t explain the
uneasy feeling that the thought of going into that house gave him. Maybe it was too many of Heyes’ spooky
stories when they were children.
“Oh c’mon Kid, it’s got to be better
than sleeping on moldy old hay. I’m
going; you can stay here if you want to.”
Heyes headed back out into the storm, the wind grabbing the door and
slamming it back against the outside wall.
Kid sighed and followed, shaking his head.
They stepped up on the decrepit porch,
making sure to glance in the windows just in case they were wrong about no one
living there. The lightning lit up the
interior enough for them to get a glimpse of broken furniture and more cobwebs.
“Looks pretty deserted to me; I’m going
in.” Heyes reached for the doorknob,
which turned easily in his hand, but the door wouldn’t budge. “Give me a hand here Kid.” Kid thought about clapping, but common sense
won out and he went over and both men threw their weight against the door. It held against them for a few seconds, then flew open like it was pulled from the inside. Heyes landed on the floor first, Kid landing
on top of him, knocking the breath out of both men. They looked up sharply at the sound of a
match striking, and a raspy voice…
“It’s about time you got here; I’ve
been waiting for you.”
Kid rolled off Heyes and had
his gun out before anyone could blink. A
lamp flared to life, illuminating the figure and the dusty room.
“Oh dearie
me, that’s a large gun you have there sonny.”
The old lady held the lamp higher and squinted through the thick lenses
of her glasses to get a better look at Kid.
“I assure you, I’m not armed.” She cackled, although not in an unfriendly
way.
Kid slowly holstered his
gun, still a bit shaken. “Sorry ma’am; I didn’t mean to
frighten you, we didn’t know anyone was here.”
Heyes stood up and dusted
off his pants and coat. “What did you
mean you were waiting for us? Do we know
you?”
“Oh no, I saw you go into
the barn and I figured you’d make it around to the house eventually. Goodness, you must be chilled to the
bone. Let me get you some hot
chocolate.” She turned to go into the kitchen,
assuming they’d follow. In the
retreating lamplight, they looked at each other, shrugged, and followed after
her.
The kitchen was in the same
state of disrepair as the rest of the house and barn. They gingerly sat down on a couple of
rickety chairs as the woman busied herself at the stove. She chatted away like it was every day two
strange men burst into her house.
“I was just fixing myself a
pot of hot chocolate, I’ll just add some more.
You’re in luck – I just finished baking some cookies. Warm cookies and hot chocolate are just the thing for a blustery night like this. I always fixed them for my husband, Carl,
when he was alive. Poor dear, he died on
a night just like this one – went out to look for some cattle and just never
came back. I never have liked stormy
nights since. It sure is nice to have
some company. My boy and I don’t get
much company out here.”
The combination of the
relatively warm kitchen and their exhaustion had lulled Kid and Heyes into a
sleepy state, but at the mention of someone else, they perked up always on the
alert for danger.
“Your boy
ma’am? Is he around?” Heyes asked, trying to peer through the
darkened doorways leading out of the kitchen.
“Oh I expect he’s around
somewhere. That boy, always prowling
around, I don’t know what gets into him sometimes. He’ll be gone for days at a time. But, he’s a good boy; always takes care of
his mama.” She hummed a little tune as
she stirred the hot chocolate.
“Heyes, I don’t like
this.” Kid whispered.
“What’s not to like? Cookies, hot chocolate, a
shelter from the storm? I figured
you’d at least like the cookie part…”
“There’s just something not
right about that her.” Kid started to
say more, but the woman put two steaming mugs and a plate of cookies in front
of them.
“Thank you Mrs…?” Heyes said,
realizing the woman hadn’t introduced herself.
“Mrs. Perkins, Antonia
Perkins. And you are?”
“Smith, ma’am, Joshua Smith
and this is my partner Thaddeus Jones.”
“Well, Mr. Smith, Mr. Jones,
drink up before it gets cold.” She sat
down and smiled at them, obviously pleased to have company.
They both took a sip of
their hot chocolate. It was surprisingly
rich and creamy, and was just perfect to warm them up after being cold and wet
from the storm.
“Mmm,
that’s good, thank you.” Heyes took
another long drink while Kid started on the plate of cookies.
“Now that we’ve all been
properly introduced, I insist that you spend the night. There’s no sense in you getting back out into
the storm when I have perfectly good bedrooms upstairs.”
“Ah, no ma’am, we couldn’t
impose on your hospitality.” Kid said,
although he was starting to feel kind of woozy, and he couldn’t remember why he
didn’t want to stay in the warm kitchen.
He looked over at Heyes, who was looking quizzically down into his hot
chocolate, and starting to slump over.
“No really,” Mrs. Perkins
said, “I insist.” That was the last
thing either one of them heard before they slipped into unconsciousness.
Heyes awoke to a
‘drip…drip….drip’ sound right next to his ear.
He tried to stretch and realized that his arms and legs were bound with
stout ropes. His head was pounding and
his mouth felt like it was lined with cotton, but he painfully looked around,
his first thought being of Kid and whether he was ok. He breathed a small sigh of relief when he
saw Kid slumped over against the opposite wall, hands and legs tied as
well. He turned to survey the rest of
the room, which appeared to be a basement; weak light was coming from small
rectangular windows high up on two walls.
The dripping sound came from a pipe overhead, and there were bits of
rubble and old junk laying around, not to mention little scratching and
squeaking sounds that Heyes didn’t want to think too hard about what was making
them. The worst part was an unusual
number of rusty farm implements hanging from the ceiling – scythes, plow
blades, flails, you name it - if it cut something, it
was hanging from the ceiling. Heyes
suppressed a shudder and tried to rouse Kid.
“Kid” He rasped, his voice not more than a
whisper. He swallowed and tried
again. “Kid!” It was loud enough to get a groan from across
the room, and Heyes was pleased to see Kid stirring a bit, especially since
there were footsteps coming down the stairs.
“Oh it’s good to see you
boys are awake; I’ll have breakfast in a bit.” Mrs. Perkins’ smile didn’t quite
hide the psychotic look in her eyes.
“It’s so nice to have nice young men to cook for again. Not like my ungrateful husband and son.” She whipped the sheet off a mound in the
corner and revealed the petrified body of a person tied in the same manner as
Heyes and Kid. “Carl shouldn’t have
tried to get away. He was going to leave
me you know. Said I was crazy. I showed him though.” She patted the body sweetly on the head and
turned to go back up the stairs. “Oh, I
almost forgot,” she turned back for a moment. “my son
returned this morning; I’ll send him down to get acquainted with you.” She went back up the stairs, still humming a
happy, crazy tune.
Kid, fully awake now,
shuddered visibly at the thought of being at this crazy woman’s mercy. He pulled hard at the ropes, but they didn’t
give at all. “Heyes, I’m hoping you’ve
come up with a plan for getting out of this already…”
“I’m working on it; give me
some time.” Heyes laid his aching head
back against the cool stone wall, hoping for any idea at all to come to
him. He looked up at the rusty scythe hanging
from the ceiling above his head.
“Hey Kid,” he
whispered. “Remember the story that
fella Poe wrote, something about a pit and pendulum?”
“What? Heyes, are you out of your mind? Who cares about a story at a time like
this?”
“Now wait a minute Kid,
seems like that fella in the story had a sharp blade hanging over his head just
like this one,” he gestured up with his bound hands “but he figured out if he
had just a little patience, that worked for him. Sorta like
this…” Heyes laid flat on his back and
kicked the scythe, causing it to swing back and forth.
“Heyes, even for you, this
is a crazy plan.” Kid sighed.
Heyes gave him a sideways
look. “You got a better one?”
Kid just shook his head and
sat quietly as Heyes watched the blade swing back and forth, timing its
movement. He suddenly stuck his legs up
in the path of the blade, which sliced through the ropes, and a bit of Heyes
pants, with surprising ease. He did the
same thing with his hands, that being easier now that he could stand up. Kid let out a sigh of relief as Heyes stopped
the scythe from swinging and brought it over to cut Kid loose.
“You’re one lucky man
Heyes.” Kid teased.
“Luck has nothing to do with
it.” He gave Kid a grin and a wink. They both froze at the sound of footsteps
coming down the stairs. Heyes and Kid quickly
went back to their original positions, trying to make it look like they were
still tied. The shuffle,
THUMP sound of the footsteps were eerie, even with all the things they
had already encountered in this house.
The person slowly emerged
from the shadow of the stairwell. His misshapen body making Kid and Heyes recoil in horror. The face was a mass of scars, one eye sealed
nearly shut, the other bloodshot. His hunched back making him
seem small yet sinister, and one leg drug behind the other, making the
shuffling sound. He carried a
tray with two bowls of what they assumed was oatmeal, and two mugs of coffee.
He set the tray down on the
floor between Kid and Heyes. “Mother
says eat!” He growled in a deep, raspy voice, his one bloodshot eye glaring at
them.
“Can’t eat
with my hands tied.” Heyes gave Kid a meaningful look; Kid
returned a slight nod.
The man looked at him for a
minute, grunted, and turned towards Heyes, bending down to untie his
hands. Kid moved like lightning, jumping
on the man’s back as Heyes brought his fist up in a powerful punch. They were surprised to find the man did not
fight back; he curled up in a fetal position on the floor. They stood over him, puzzled.
“Oh please, don’t hit
me. Mother hits me. She hits me when I’m bad. What did I do that was bad? Please, no more hitting.” The man sobbed.
“Hey, look, we’re
sorry. We didn’t know…” Kid bent down
and awkwardly tried to comfort the man, who cringed away.
Heyes knelt down on the
other side. “We are sorry. Your mother
hurt us and we were afraid you were going to hurt us too.”
“Mother is good at
hurting. She hurt my dad and all he does
is sit there now. He was the only one
that was nice to me.” He sat up and glanced
sadly at the body in the corner.
Heyes patted him on his
shoulder. “I’m sorry about your
dad. We don’t want your mother to hurt
us anymore either. Will you help us get
out of here?”
“No! No!
Mother will hurt me if I let you go!”
He started sobbing again.
“Ok, ok, calm down. How about if we make it where your mother
won’t hurt you anymore?” Kid gave Heyes
a questioning look.
“Uh Heyes,” he whispered, “how do you plan on doing that?”
“Not sure yet Kid, but we
can’t leave him here. Maybe he can go
with us.”
Kid looked dubious, but he
knew Heyes was right. He wouldn’t have
felt right leaving this poor creature with that awful old woman.
The man looked up
hopefully. “You’ll take me with
you? Away from
mother?”
“Yeah, we’ll take you
away. We just have to figure out
how.” Heyes sat down on the floor next
to him.
“Oh, oh, I know!” The man bounced up and down excitedly,
startling Kid and Heyes. “Mother goes to
town on Tuesdays to get supplies. I think
it’s Tuesday, is it Tuesday?”
“Yeah, it’s Tuesday, that’s
great that you remembered that.” Kid
patted him on the back again. The man
looked pleased at the praise, then he jumped up. “Oh, mother will be waiting for me to hitch
the horses. I’ll come back when she
leaves.” He shuffled to the stairs.
“Hey, wait, what’s your
name?” Kid asked.
The man paused for a moment,
face screwed up in thought. “Well, mother just calls me ‘boy’ or bad names when
she’s mad. My dad called me ‘Norman’ so
I guess that’s my name.” He smiled as
much as his scarred face would allow and went up the stairs. The door at the top shut with a heavy bang
and the sound of a padlock clicking was loud in the silence.
As soon as they didn’t hear
footsteps upstairs, Kid and Heyes spent some time looking around the room,
checking the windows to see if maybe they were unlocked, and trying to find
anything that might help them escape. By
unspoken agreement, they avoided the corner where Mr. Perkins met his
unfortunate end.
After what seemed like
hours, they heard the “click” of the padlock being unlocked and heard
“Hey misters, mother is
gone, you can come up now.”
They made their way slowly
upstairs, trying to be quiet just in case.
The bright light in the kitchen blinded them for a minute after being in
the basement for so long. The kitchen
wasn’t in much better shape than they had seen last night; dirty dishes and
cookware strewn all over, something greasy bubbling on the hot stove. Kid and Heyes stood for a moment, blinking in
the light.
“I saddled your horses after
mother left. C’mon, let’s go.”
“That sounds like a good
idea to me.” Kid turned towards the door
leading through the living room and out the front door. The slamming of the back door made all of
them jump.
“I knew you’d be up to
mischief; good thing I came back to check.
You’re no good, just like your father.”
Mrs. Perkins pointed a shotgun at Kid and Heyes, and at the same time,
raised the buggy whip she held in the other hand and started beating
“Now look what you’ve caused
me to do! I’m going to have to kill
these young men and it’s all your fault!” She punctuated each word with a slash of the
whip across
“No mother
no! No more hurting!” In a show of courage, he grabbed the whip,
yanking it from her hand, startling her into dropping the shotgun. Before Kid and Heyes could react,
“Kid we have to go
now!” Heyes screamed over the roaring
flames.
“
“Oh mother, what have I
done, what have I done?”
“We should have been able to
do something to save him Heyes.” Kid
said in frustration.
“We tried, it was just too
hot. Something tragic was bound to
happen here Kid, well, more tragic than already did.” Heyes said sadly. “She was insane and she
ruined two people’s lives. We’re lucky
we weren’t the next ones.”
“Yeah, I know you’re right,
it still doesn’t make me feel better.
We’d better get going before the smoke attracts the attention of a
sheriff or something.”
They mounted their horses,
riding quickly away from the burning house, and the gathering storm clouds in
the distance.