Photo by Blake Lisk on Unsplash
“I really have to pee, Dad!”
Thomas peeked at his son, 12-year-old Lucas, through the
rear-view mirror. It was easy to tell that the kid meant every word he said.
Just when he thought nothing could top getting lost in the dead
of night, far away from the nearest civilisation, this happened. How in
the world did things end up like this?
The GPS kept telling him to turn right at each turn as if it
was pre-programmed to do so. Not to mention he had nothing to rely on but this
stupid machine getting on his nerves.
There was no use in bringing a map, either. He wouldn’t be
able to read it. His generation was one of the first who got access to the
digital world, and by the time he reached adulthood and grew his own family,
all the things the generations before him learned by heart, got lost somewhere down
the thread of life.
“Dad! I can’t hold it in anymore!”
“Hang on, bud! We’re almost there! I promise!”
“You said that, like, an hour ago! I- I can’t keep it in!”
With bated breath, now visibly more antsy than moments
before, Thomas pulled the car to the side of the lane lined with towering trees
and thicket and hit the brakes. In the chaos, he forgot to turn off the engine
and dragged his son further into the woods.
“Do you feel better now?”
“Hmm! But Dad?”
“What is it?”
His son hesitated. “Remember that time I asked if I could
put on that pumpkin costume for Halloween? The one Mum brought?”
“I do. Why do you—”
“Mum didn’t buy it for me.”
“She didn’t?”
Lucas averted his gaze. “The thing is… I- I was going to
tell you! I really was! But he told me not to!”
“He?” Thomas couldn’t help but lean forwards upon hearing
the distress in his son’s voice. “Who are you talking about?”
“The man with the bunny mask! He said you’d be very angry if
I told you about him!”
“The- the man with the bunny mask?”
“Hmm! He said he’d prepare a gift for me if I kept my word!
And it worked! Dad, it really worked!”
“Hold on a sec!” he said, no longer able to hide the confusion
in his voice. “What- what do you mean? Lucas?” His voice trailed off as he
turned around to follow his son’s gaze. “What are you looking at, buddy?”
There was no one there save their car with the headlights
on.
“Lucas? Lucas, what are you looking at?”
Lucas’s voice fell to a whisper. “He brought Mum. Look! She’s
right there! In front of the car! Dad, can’t you see her? She’s…” His eyes grew
narrower. “But why’s Mum crying? She’s supposed to be happy!”
Thomas spun around in place. The harrowing cries came from
all directions. But it wasn’t a cry of despair or joy, it was one fraught with
horror.
The headlights switched off. Everything plunged into
darkness.
“Wait a minute! That’s not Mum! Dad, that’s not Mummy! He
lied to me!”
“Lucas? Son? Look at me. That’s right! What… No, don’t cry.
There you go… Let’s… let’s calm down and have a chat, okay? Lucas? You gotta answer
me.”
“Y- yes, Dad.”
“All right… Good boy. Now, tell me what’s going on. Who’s
the man in the bunny mask? What did you… did you promise him?”
“He- he said he’d bring Mum back! But he lied to me, Dad!”
“I know. I know… It’s okay. You didn’t know he’d lie, right?”
The screams grew louder.
“He’s- he’s
hurting her, Dad! We need to do something!”
Thomas seized him as he was about to return to the single-lane
road plunged into pitch-black darkness.
“We gotta stay here and not make a single sound, okay?”
“But- but—”
“Lucas, promise me. Hmm?”
He nodded. Thomas loosened his grip and placed a kiss on his
head before letting go.
“What did you promise the man in the bunny mask, Lucas?”
Lucas leaned in and pulled him by the ear. “He said Mummy’s
in pain and that she doesn’t like being cold. If I… if I only did as he told
me, he said he’d bring her back to us and that- and that we could become a
family again!”
“What did you do, Lucas?”
“I…”
“It’s okay, buddy. Everyone makes mistakes once in a while. I
certainly did when I was your age. You can tell me…”
“That pumpkin costume. He said Mummy’s cold and needs to
wear it. I- I knew you would be angry, so I didn’t tell you!”
“You… went to the graveyard? When? Lucas! When did you go to
the graveyard?”
“Are you upset with me?”
Thomas scratched the back of his head, trying to calm his
nerves and appear less agitated than he really was.
“No, no… I’m just… surprised.”
“Two days ago. I went there with the man with the bunny mask.”
“You did what?”
“I- I know I shouldn’t have and that you told me not to
speak to strangers. But Dad! He’s not a stranger! He said you knew him and that
you were good buddies! He even showed me a picture!”
“Picture…?”
Lucas nodded. “He said you’d remember him by his bunny mask!”
Thomas backed away as memories flooded his mind.
It was the 31st of October 2008.
He went trick-or-treating with his friends from school. They
were all roughly the same age. Jasper, Lee, and him. The three musketeers.
Everyone in their neighbourhood knew they were inseparable.
Lee was calmer in nature than both him and Jasper. He came
from a spiritual household and hated religion like a pest. He was also the
oldest of them – and the more pessimistic one – who always brought the mood
down with his scientific and overly realistic approach to everything.
Jasper, on the other hand, was wild. Literally. Nothing in
this world could control or slow him down. It was thanks to him they went on
the most absurd of adventures after school. He was an only child and his family
lived in the more affluent parts of their neighbourhood.
There was this kid everyone used to bully. Jasper called him
‘The Fatty’. No one knew his real name. Unlike the other kids in their
neighbourhood, The Fatty rarely went to school or played outside in the nearby
playground.
The Fatty and his family lived in a ramshackle house two
blocks from Lee. Whenever they visited Lee to call him outside to play, they
would pass by the crumpling building and get the heebie-jeebies.
That night, on Halloween night, Jasper suggested they all
dress up as cut-throat pigs and pull a prank on The Fatty. So, they went to the
crumpling house and knocked on the just as battered door.
None of them expected The Fatty to join them. The moment
Jasper asked if he wanted to come trick or treating with them, he replied ‘yes’
without wasting a second.
The poor thing had no costume to wear and was blatantly self-aware
of it as they went from house to house down the neighbourhood. That was why none
of the doors they knocked on gave him any sweets.
Lee saw the bunny mask first. It was caked in mud on the
pavement and had become soaking wet by the downpour. It was obvious that The
Fatty didn’t want to wear the bunny mask, but Jasper kept asking him to wear
it. Both Lee and Thomas knew that Jasper wouldn’t let The Fatty off the hook that
easily.
To commemorate the fateful night, they even took a picture
in front of Lee’s house and printed it out at Jasper’s place. What none of them
knew, as The Fatty went around with that hideous mask, was that it would be
anything but a plain night.
It was the day after Halloween night.
The school and most other institutions were on break, so
everyone was at home. His big sister, Kathy, was the first one who notice that
the neighbourhood the news talked about was theirs. She screamed her off
telling them to all hurry to the drawing room and watch the news.
His dad worked as a janitor and hadn’t been on a break the
entire year. When he left the kitchen, he told Kathy, ‘It’d better be worth my
time’. It was.
The Fatty had slaughtered his entire family and then called
the police afterwards. They found him wearing the bunny mask still and couldn’t
explain why he did what he did. Apparently, after having a chat with Jasper and
Lee, Thomas learnt that the poor kid said, ‘The mask made me do it’.
When the authorities brought him to the juvie and locked him
up for good, there was but one thing he kept repeating: ‘This is not the end.’
Thomas snapped back to reality. When the memories dispersed,
he realised that his son was no longer there. He turned around without knowing
why.
The Fatty forced the bunny mask over his son. As they met eyes
for the first time in many years, a wolfish grin appeared on The Fatty’s face.
It was no longer concealed behind the hideous mask.
As his son drew closer with a knife clutched tight, The
Fatty went up in smoke and disappeared. That was when he noticed something. The
woman lying on the ground, right in front of the switched-off headlights, it
was his wife.
The crooked knife… it was already plunged in crimson blood.
Now it all made sense.
That day, when he went out of town to tend to business in
the south, it wasn’t a robber who took her out and made him a widower. Just for
how long had his son been in contact with The Fatty? He’d probably never know.
Moreover, what had become of Lee and Jasper? Now that he
thought about it, he hadn’t heard from either of them ever since his wife
passed away.
What day was it, again? Right… It was Halloween night.
Just like it was today.
The End.