A Halloween Tale - 1. A Witch's Pumpkins

Ceara McTeine walked slowly up the walkway to find the pumpkins by her gate had been smashed. She had spent several hours carving images of Sponge Bob, Ben Ten, Snoopy, and even The Simpsons for Halloween eve. With how cool it was outside she felt it was safe to put them out a few days early. She had etched the images into the pumpkins, carving and scooping till she could light the candles inside them and make them glow perfectly. She had hoped to win over the children in the neighborhood with the lively images and how they would dance with the candle set inside them. Now all her hard work lay in pieces at her feet.

“Red headed witch!”

Ceara turned to see the teenage boy running away down the street. She knew who he was even as he tried to hide by running behind the bushes. Erik Kruger was the local bully of the neighborhood. She knew his whole family, mainly due to his mother who couldn’t always afford to go to the doctor and came to Ceara for medicinal herbs and poultices. Mrs. Kruger was such a sweet woman, but Erik was her wild child and constant heartache. Seems he had decided that Ceara would make a safe target for his rage.

Ceara’s eyes narrowed. She shook her head; her dark red curls seemed to glow in the setting light of the sun as she marched up to her front door. It had been a bad enough day with her date canceling at the last minute, and now she had come home to this mess. She set her groceries down for a moment and dug in her bag, anger growing when she heard the creak of the gate behind. She twisted on her heels ready to blow up only to find Cindy Anderson standing there awkwardly holding a pie in her hand.

“Hi Ms. McTeine. Mom and I did some baking today and while we know it isn’t much we figured we should send this over as sort of a thank you.”

Ceara’s anger died as she nodded.

“Tisn’t a problem lass. Your Mam has always been a big help to me.” Ceara knew she was upset listening to the way her accent had slipped into her speech. It had been years since that had happened to her. Her parents had moved over from Ireland when she was twelve. It sure wasn’t hard to pick her out as Irish with her red hair. She had taken after her father who also had a terrible temper when he let it out. Granted Mollie McTeine didn’t look much like her daughter, they did have the same graceful figure, but that was where the similarities ended. Where Ceara had a deep red tone, her mother’s hair was an ocean of ebony waves that surrounded her peaches and cream skin tone. It was from her mother that she learned Herbology and the old ways. She was brought out of her reverie by Cindy’s anguished cry.

“Someone broke your pumpkins. How awful! Timmy was looking forward to seeing them. Mom won’t let him out of bed yet, but she told him he would be able to go out for a while on Halloween.”

Ceara nodded, knowing how sick Tim had been. That was the reason Mrs. Anderson had sent over the pie, although, of all her neighbors, it was Mrs. Anderson who was always the most friendly having invited her over numerous times, for various occasions. It was why she didn’t think twice about getting up and rushing right away when Mrs. Anderson had called, asking for help with her son last week.

“I’ll clean that up and try to get some new ones made up.”

“If you have a broom and a garbage can I’ll help you get this mess cleaned up. Mom would be so upset if she heard that someone broke them all. She said they were really good when she seen them this morning.”

Ceara smiled as Cindy came up the walk. She opened the door and Cindy followed her to the kitchen where she set down her groceries and pointed to where Cindy could set the pie. Then she opened up the cupboard, took out the broom and dustpan, and moved toward her kitchen garbage can.

“I got it. You put your stuff away Ms. McTeine. I’ll have that cleaned up in a moment or two.”

Ceara nearly laughed. Cindy was treating her as if she was an old lady. At barely thirty three she might be an old maid but she was far from ancient. Her long red hair ran like a fiery river down her back. It shown against her pale skin making her freckles stand out. She headed back down the hallway toward the front door when she caught her image in the hallway mirror. She liked the way jewel tones showed against her skin and the emerald green peasant’s blouse set off the emerald that hung around her neck. The rich black and green striped skirt stopped just above her ankles showing off the black boots she had found on sale last week.

“Damn, I would have looked so good for that date tonight too!”

She looked away and spotted Cindy just finishing the clean up job. She hurried through the front door to the porch and then caught Cindy’s attention.

“I think you’ve done enough to help me today, Cindy. Why don’t you go home now and I’ll finish up. Thanks so much for your help.”

“No problem, Ms. McTiene. If you need anything else just ask.”

“I will.”

Cindy turned and hurried diagonally across the street to her home. Ceara took a look at the houses on the block and carefully gathered up the garbage can that held the pieces of pumpkin in it. A small smile crossed her lips as she headed back inside her home.

Ceara wasn’t like most of her neighbors. She wasn’t one to put up a Christmas tree like the Anderson’s, or a Menorah like the Bromski’s. While her father was a strict Catholic, it was another religion that she subscribed to. Hers was a far older religion than either of those, but she respected both Christianity and Judaism. She wasn’t exactly a Wiccan as most of those today were. She did believe in the power of three and what you gave came back to you threefold. She was always careful to help and do good to people for it was easier to take three times the good than three times the bad. However, she was a strong believer in Aerten the Goddess of Fate.

Aerten was ancient Celtic goddess who most people prayed to when they wanted her favor in a battle. Traditionally there was a blood sacrifice to Aerten, one that included either the butchering of an animal or slicing the throat of an enemy, but that wasn’t how Ceara worked. She gathered together her herbs and mixtures for an offering. Instead of taking the life of anything she pricked her finger and added three drops of blood to her offering. There were three nights till Samhain and so she planned to make a nightly offering and see what Fate would do to alter Erik’s behavior in her favor.

On Halloween or Samhain as it was also known Ceara set out her newly carved pumpkins. This time instead of four pumpkins there were nine of them. These were not the happy ones she had made the first time. This time the pumpkins held ghouls, ghosts, and creatures that were from the darker sides of mankind’s imagination. Beside the freshly carved pumpkins now stood two large stone statues of gargoyles that appeared as if they were on guard duty. For a change, Ceara was not in her normal jewel tones or beautiful dresses. Instead she stood with a conical hat. The dress she wore was black and orange and showed off her figure. She knew the image she cut and nearly laughed out loud as the large black cat that belonged to her neighbor lumbered across her yard and sat at her feet.

Darkness began to creep across the lawn as the pumpkins glowed. The images etched into their orange skin seemed to come alive when the flames inside flickered. Ceara smiled and walked toward her house to await the trick or treater’s who would come to her door. Just inside the door she had a basket of candy and a broom that had little pumpkins tied to it.

The first children to bravely come through her gate were Cindy and Timmy. Cindy was dressed as a princess and Timmy was dressed as a cowboy.

“Wow, Cindy. Did you see those pumpkins? It looked like the creature was going to reach out and get me.”

“They are only things Ms. McTeine carved. Come on, you wanted to see all her pumpkins. The originals were all cartoons, but these are sort of scary and almost realistic.”

Timmy clung to his sister’s hand as they walked past the various ghouls and creatures. There was a large pumpkin that held the image of a goblin sitting on her stoop that they slowly made their way around as they knocked on the door.

“Trick or Treat!”

Ceara opened the door and smiled.

“Why, don’t you two look cute? Here is some candy. I hope my pumpkins didn’t scare you.”

“They were awesome, Ms. McTeine.” Timmy looked in awe as he glanced over his shoulder back at the pumpkins.

“I didn’t know anyone could carve something like that.” Cindy shivered but tried to hide it from her younger brother.

“It was a project I decided to try.” Ceara looked carefully at the young boy standing before her. “Timmy you don’t stay out too long. Tonight’s cold and damp and you don’t want to get sick again.”

Timmy nodded.

“Thank you Ms. McTeine,” the children chorused together and slipped back down her walk way.

Ceara smiled as she looked at the glowing pumpkins. They were serving so many functions tonight. The glowing candles that sat inside the pumpkins on both sides reminding her of the bonfires that were once used to cleanse people on this special night, when the lighter half of the year gave way to the darker half. She remembered the stories her mother had told her, about how in ancient times people and their animals would walk past the bonfires so that evil would be washed away. She was bringing those practices back tonight. The pumpkins were also going to be the tools of Fate for those who intended to keep doing harm.

The door was knocked on many times that night and Ceara greeted the children from various parents she knew. Many times the parents had come out with their children. All who knocked on her door were polite and all seemed to comment on the uneasiness of the scary pumpkins that lined her walkway.

***

It was nearly midnight when Erik decided to put in an appearance at Ceara’s house. He thought of her as the crazy older woman that his mom ran to for help instead of a doctor. He didn’t care that she had nursed him and most of his family when they had been ill. He thought of her as someone who didn’t fit into his idea of normal. She was the only woman he knew with red hair, fair skin, and that lived alone. Occasionally she even spoke funny. He had called her a witch and tonight he wanted to do as much damage to her yard as he could.

He was surprised to see she had put out new pumpkins after he had crushed the first ones. He had seen her leaving the other day all dressed up and it angered him. Once he knew she was gone he had tossed a rock at the pumpkin that had Snoopy carved on it until it broke. Seeing that nothing bad had happened, Erik soon entered the gate and began to smash them all. He had continued to stomp and slam them till they were little more than mush leaving smears across the front of her neatly trimmed yard. Tonight he planned to do that and more, much, much more!

As he crossed through her gate, a shiver ran through his body and Erik felt as though someone was watching him. A breeze seemed to come up and the leaves in the street made a rustling noise as they were suddenly scattered in every direction.

Erik was nervous and a trickle of sweat made its way down his back. It was late and all the little kids and their parents were now safely back in their houses with the porch lights out. Erik stood in the glow of the first two pumpkins and finally turned to see what Ceara had carved this time. He expected to see more idiotic cartoons but when he looked at the first pumpkin he seen what could only be described as a troll with sharp nails that could almost be knives reaching forward. Directly across from it was one of a ghost that seemed to be oozing something from its side. The carvings were unnerving but the way the candles sputtered inside them only made them seem alive. He could just make out what appeared to be two sets of stone grey eyes watching him just outside the light of the pumpkins. The figures themselves seemed dark and he couldn’t make out much but the eyes and that there was one on each side of the walkway.

“It’s all some sort of trick that the old witch created. I broke her damn pumpkins once and I’m going to do it again.” Erick mumbled to himself as he lifted his foot over the pumpkin closest to him.

“I wouldn’t do that.” It seemed that the voice was in stereo, deep and rich, coming from both his left and right.

Erik froze. He quickly dropped his foot back on the ground and looked around, but couldn’t see anyone.

“Who said that?”

There was only silence and the wind to answer him.

Erik pulled back his foot and kicked the pumpkin as hard as he could. Instead of his foot going through the image of the ghost, it hit the pumpkin and stopped. Erik cursed as his foot suddenly ached. It felt like he had kicked a brick wall instead of a stupid pumpkin.

“We did warn you.”

Erik set his aching foot on the ground and looked around carefully. He still couldn’t see anyone.

“Who said that?” Erik’s voice squeaked this time and he tried to stand up straight like he wasn’t scared.

The clouds slowly covered the pure white moon and the pumpkins seemed to glow a bit brighter in the darkness, but still there was no answer to his cry.

Erik walked with an uneven gait to the next pumpkin along the path. The pumpkin was smaller than the other two and looked to have some sort of strange lumpy character staring out of it. Figuring he just misjudged the first one, this time he reached down to lift it up, intending to smash the pumpkin, but before he could he caught a flash of gray and what sounded like heavy footsteps barreling toward him.

“This is your last warning boy.”

He paused with the pumpkin raised above his head and looked around. Still he could find no one there but he was sure he heard two voices intoning that stern warning to him.

A sneer marked his face as he slammed the pumpkin toward the concrete walkway. Suddenly there was a huge gray figure before him that dove toward the ground, and caught the pumpkin before it hit the grass. While he tried to figure out what was happening, another grey figure slammed into him from his left side. Before he could scream or say another word, he was pulled off his feet and a cold stony hand clamped over his mouth.

Erik shuttered at the cold clammy hand that had held him tight, suspending him off the ground, effortlessly transferred him to the lawn below pinning him in place. Having been in more than his share of fights he kept waiting to feel the muscles relax or the intake of breath that would let him know it was time to strike. Instead the arms that held him tight seemed to be carved from stone, forcing him to watch with growing panic as the light from each pumpkin began to take a three dimensional shape before him. One by one the images carved onto the pumpkins came to life and began to move toward him. Even the gruesome ghost that had been near the gate seemed to hover in the air adding another layer of dread to Erik’s growing fear.

The ghoul with the sharp claws lumbered up and stood before Erik. It smiled and he could see razor sharp teeth that glistened in the moonlight that the passing clouds let through. He watched as its huge claws raked the grass tearing a huge section up, almost accidently. A huge black and red serpent with fangs that dripped an acid like substance curled up inches from him and then slithered up between his legs. The venom it dripped burned a hole in his loose pants near his crotch. Erik’s mouth went dry and he stopped trying to get loose as he noticed that each creature slowly filled up the spaces around him. Some part of his mind couldn’t help but count the horrors that had come to surround him and he soon realized there were nine of them. There was one for each pumpkin that lined the way.

“Well he did call her a witch,” hissed the woman closest to his head. He found himself looking up at a serpentine body and well defined chest. As he stared he realized she looked like a Gorgon from his mythology book and she even had snakes that sprouted from her head. He refused to allow his eyes to search out her face.

Out of the darkness came another voice. “Yes, but it is all up to Aerten what we do tonight. He dislikes Ceara not because she has acted against him,” the slimy creature commented as its slicked web claw reached out and tore the shirt from Erik’s stomach. He realized that this creature in some ways reminded him of his sister’s favorite story, the little mermaid. Only instead of a beautiful face this creature held a dark sort of beauty, but her touch when she ran her slick claw over his exposed skin made him feel like he was the fish on her dinner plate. “But because of the kindness she shows everyone. Aerten is to decide what his fate will be tonight.”

“I say we gut him. He isn’t worth the time or effort to save. He is just full of anger. I can eat him up and be done with it.” The ghoul’s smile sent fear racing down Erik’s back. The ghoul raised its pointed finger and its incredibly sharp tongue seemed to wrap around his finger like a snake.

A small glittery creature came forward. Its eyes were black as coal, it had sharp claws instead of fingers, with black edged wings sprouting from its back, and it was barely the size of the smallest pumpkin. It floated to the front and where it touched Erik’s stomach, tendrils of ice cold reached down into his body and soul.

“Well we can see if he would continue this path of destruction he is on. I can taste his soul and see what his future holds.”

Erik wanted nothing to do with the dark glittering thing sitting on his stomach. He just wanted to run home and hide. He wanted nothing more than to forget this night ever happened. He figured in the future he would just find an easier target. He was tired of feeling like he didn’t fit in and was different. He had wanted to be normal, but as he grew to be larger than his classmates they drew away from him. Then one day, Tony, his best friend from kindergarten who he had always protected ran from him when he got angry and had punched a hole in the wall. Tony had been begging not to be hit by Erik. Erik was devastated. He had loved Tony and now the boy was afraid of him. His only friend he still had was now terrified of him, leaving Erik feeling even more alone. Erik couldn’t even tell anyone about how he felt. Instead, he became isolated and eventually became what everyone feared, the bully who was looking to work out his pain by inflicting it on others.

The fairy creature smiled from where it sat on his stomach and then Erik saw its tongue. It was long and serrated like a saw. It leaned its little head right up against his belly button and then pain exploded through him like he had never felt before. The stone hands holding him never loosened or showed him compassion.

When the little creature looked up it smiled wickedly and a drop of Erik’s crimson blood hung from the corner of its mouth. Its eyes glittered and its wings fluttered excitedly behind it.

“His soul is already dark. His mother has been very ill and he hates her for that. He has three other siblings but this boy doesn’t like the attention that goes to them. He feels the world owes him much. He barely passes his school work and he picks on the small and the weak. He hates himself and everyone else, plus he fears what his emotions tell him he might be.”

One of the creatures, a demon with horns on its head and a sharp pointed tail leaned forward. “He sounds like he belongs to me already. Let me have him to play with.” The moonlight seemed to caress the demon’s blood red skin and made his bright black eyes sparkle.

Again twin voices spoke from behind him. “Only Aerten makes the decision of what will happen to him. She was given her three nights of offerings for just this reason. She is to determine his fate.”

A small creature lumbered forward. It looked badly misshapen and frightful to see. It made an odd sort of bow at his feet.

“I know he has been tasted and found to be dark, but is there no light in him? Is there no chance of redemption?”

The demon looked at the lumpy creature with a look of pure hatred.

“Do you really want him saved, Changling?” The glittering fairy creature asked from Erik’s stomach still licking the last traces of the boy’s blood from its face.

“I think it unfair to say he is beyond redemption without first checking.”

“We agree,” came the voices behind him. Erik found he could no longer shake in horror. His body seemed to have reached a point where he was paralyzed with fear and could no longer be impacted by any new terror directed at him. Instead he seemed trapped by his own mind, unable to move even while he was forced to watch the actions around him.

The rustling noises in the grass caught his attention as a spider of humongous proportions ambled its way up from his left foot. Erik took one look at the giant mandibles that opened and closed before him and passed out.

“I can find out what his possible paths are.” The spider lowered itself and turned around. From its spinneret a fine thread descended and fell across Erik’s face where it seemed to split into different directions. This happened many times as the threads slowly reached his feet. When the webs settled the spider turned and faced Erik and the two gargoyles that held him. It bowed to the gargoyles and then carefully it flicked each of the five main threads that covered Erik’s body.

The first was short and showed Erik vanishing after this night. All the assembled knew what that meant. The second showed Erik growing to be an even larger bully, even frightening one poor boy into suicide rather than face him being beaten by Erik again. The third showed Erik helping his mother and growing to be a studious young man, but one who never seemed to be happy with himself. The fourth showed Erik again being a kind man but one who managed a home for those who were in trouble. While his work was noble and well appreciated again his own personal life was bereft of happiness. The final showed a moderate man who had finally come to terms with who he was and what that meant in the world. He still helped many people but now his personal life was as rich as his public life.

“See,”stated a beautiful vampire as she glided forward. She reached the unconscious body of Erik and tore off the remainder of his shirt before she licked the side of his neck. “His chances of happiness are rather slim. We can put him out of his misery right now if you let us have him.” Her fangs flashed in the darkness as she spoke but her eyes never left Erik’s neck.

The Changeling shook its head. “Even though in two possible futures he is unredeemable, in at least three, he places others before himself and in one of those visions he achieves true happiness. Doesn’t the boy deserve the chance to reach that fate?”

“You are far too soft,” hissed the snake as it glared at the misshapen Changeling. “You sympathize too much with them.”

The snake raised its head and prepared to strike Erik but was stopped by the voices of the Gargoyles.

“The choice has been made. We are to stay here as a reminder to the boy of what might be. He will not be allowed the options of the first two fates. He will have to work for and choose to be happy.”

“He should be ours,” came the deep rumbling voice of the ghoul.

“Aerten made her decision. If she had decided he was beyond redemption then he would be yours.” The gargoyle’s voices blended together as one.

There was some hissing and grumbling from most of the creatures but the gargoyles raised their claws and the creatures returned to the pumpkins from which they sprang. The gargoyles carried Erik up onto the porch and lay him before the door. They knocked once and returned to their places on Ceara’s lawn.