Halloween Story – 2005 – Beth Hinkle
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’d 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.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Reaching
for their guns as they jumped up in one fluid motion, they froze as the
cackling laugh died with a flash of lighting so bright it blinded them for a
desperate minute. Blinking their still watering eyes, they looked around in
wonder.
Gone were
the cobwebs and dust. What they saw now
was an elegant and
brightly lit drawing room.
“Come in
gentlemen, come in. We’ve held dinner
for you.”
Kid and Heyes did a quick
glance at each other and continued to look around the room. The older lady who had spoken to them was
sitting on her velvet
chair as if she were a Queen. Her black evening gown standing out from the red of the chair. The black beads on her
dress flashing like the multiple eyes of a spider in the lighting from the
ongoing storm.
The two
young women who stood behind her, were also wearing evening gowns, both gowns
were a blue so dark
they might as well be
black.
And all
three ladies were smiling. A smile you’d see on a cat that’s playing with a
mouse.
Heyes put his gun back in it’s holster and took off his hat. “Ma’am, I think there’s some kind of
mistake. My cousin and I were just on our
way through and got caught by the storm.”
“Yes, yes, no doubt.” The lady rose from her chair and began to
leave the room, “If you will come this way, we will eat now.”
Heyes turned to look at Kid,
who shrugged his shoulders. They
followed the three ladies, but they kept their gun belts on.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The dinning room was as
elegant as the drawing room. There were
5 place settings and enough food to feed an army. Or at least Kid, with some
left over for Heyes. By now the warmth
of the room and the smell of the food wore down most of their leery ness. The thought of a good meal and a few hours out
of the storm was too good to just walk away.
As they all took their places
and sat down, Heyes thought it was about time to find out just what was going
on. “I’d like to thank you for hold’en dinner for us Ma’am, we don’t often get a chance to
dine in style like this outside of
“ I do not believe that I have.”
Kid looked at the young lady
next to him and asked, “And you Miss, ever been to
“My daughters have always
stayed close to home, with me.”
“Well, your daughters are lovely, they surely get that from you, Ma’am.” Heyes smiled at each
of the young ladies. They never said a word, their smiles never changed, they didn’t .. even ..blink. In fact, now that he thought about it, he
hadn’t seen any of the ladies blink. Or eat. They were just moving the food
around on their plates.
Heyes glanced at Kid, alarm
creeping into his eyes. Kid sat up
straight, instantly
alert. Or so he thought as a waive of dizziness hit him. Heyes too felt himself sway in
his seat.
Heyes looked at the young
women, his vision blurred,
they faded into shadows.
He looked at their hostess, she too began to blur, wavering like a
mirage in the desert, glittering eyes the only thing left to be seen. The last thing he heard was a cracking laugh
and Kid yelling “HEYES!”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
His eyes flew open as he
jerked upright in his saddle. The flash of lighting a dimming halo across the
night and the rumble of thunder felt before it could
be heard.
“Heyes.” Kid
yelled. “Look, up a head. It looks like
a farm.”
Another flash of lighting
showed what looked like a large barn and two story, gabled house. The hair on
Heyes’ neck stood up.
“Lets keep on going Kid, the town’s not that
much further.”