Halloween Tales
Published by Roy Hudson at Smashwords
Copyright 2011 Roy Hudson
Note: Several of the following tales were originally published on Facebook.
Table of Contents
Last Halloween
Poor Mortimer
Morrison… he’s going to be asked all kinds of questions to which
I won’t be able to help him answer. It’s really all my fault.
Then again… it’s actually Rick Dexter’s fault. And John Blake.
I remember it as if it were yesterday, rather than last Halloween…
Rick, Morty, and I had been really close through high school, and
up to our freshman year of college, which was last year. There were
even rumors that I had lost my virginity to Rick... which were purely
speculation and not true.
The prank was Rick’s idea. John Blake was supposedly a lovestruck nerd whose crush bordered on obsessive. We didn’t know how bad it was. I didn’t understand the attraction. Morty has always thought the object of John’s affection was beautiful, but I just didn’t see it.
The idea was simple. John would go to Rick’s Halloween party at the mansion on top of the cliff with Ruth Baxter, who would pretend to get drunk and pass out. Rick would then burst into the room and accuse John of rape, all the while Morty was in the closet with the video camera. That was the plan.
Unfortunately, Rick didn’t account for all the alcohol numbing his and Morty’s comprehension, so they both wound up in the closet with the camera and kind of forgot the whole point. And when John Blake pulled a knife on his date, the shit really hit the fan. I later found out from Morty what had happened.
When John decided not to take any chances on his date being too drunk to defend herself, Morty freaked out. He wanted to burst from the closet and play hero for real. Rick, on the other hand, was more worried about how they would explain the situation to the police.
“What would we say if the cops ask us what we were doing in the closet?” Rick asked.
Morty wasn’t worried about that. His concern for his good friend Ruth was overwhelming, so he jumped out of the closet with the intention of preventing the rape. Unfortunately, he was too late. His appearance surprised Blake, who slashed Morty’s belly without even pulling up his pants. His date, frustrated by the violation, took advantage of the distraction, and jumped on his back. They struggled for a few moments, until John and his date fell backwards through the window… over the cliff.
John’s pants around his ankles saved him from going completely through the window, as they snagged on a corner of the bed. Ruth wasn’t that lucky. She lost her grip of her rapist and fell screaming over the cliff and into the ocean. They never found her body.
It just wasn’t the same after that. I blamed Rick for the prank that cost an innocent girl her life, but I did not desert Morty. Rick moved out of the family mansion and got a ratty little apartment off-campus. Morty had to start therapy.
Fast-forward to last Saturday, October 24. Rick invited Morty over to his apartment, and I tagged along. Rick asked Morty, “Are you okay? You look shaken up.”
Morty replied, “I saw Ruth today… again. I think she’s pissed off at me for getting her killed.”
I said, “We both know that’s impossible,” but Rick shrugged it off.
He said, “We agreed to never talk about that again, which is an agreement I have to break. That’s why I invited you over.”
I asked, “What are you talking about?”
Rick said, “John Blake was released from the mental hospital this morning.”
Morty turned white as I asked, “How do you know that?”
“Someone taped the newspaper article to the windshield of my car. I’m not sure how they knew I was involved.”
Morty whispered, “It’s Ruth. She’s alive.”
Rick shook his head. “We’ve been over this, Morty. She’s dead.”
“Not necessarily,” I said.
Morty said, “Yeah, they never found her body.”
Rick frowned. “No one could survive that fall, Mort.”
I said, “Stranger things have happened.”
“No,” Rick replied. “Nothing would be stranger than a girl falling off a cliff into below-freezing water and surviving, without letting anyone know, only to come back almost a year later to tape a newspaper article to my windshield. That’s insane.”
“Don’t use that word,” Morty whimpered.
Rick sighed. “Look, just forget it. I just thought I should warn you since you’re the one he slashed before Ruth jumped on his back. As far as he’s concerned, you’re the reason his crush is dead.”
I snorted. “His crush? Don’t you mean his rape victim?”
“Shut up, okay? I feel just as bad about that as you do.”
Morty glared at him and asked, “Then why did you sneak out of the closet and not let anyone else know you were there?”
“It made you look like a hero, Morty.”
I scoffed, “And you took the camera with you. What the hell did you do that for?”
Rick gulped. “My dad would’ve killed me, okay?”
“What did you do with that tape, anyway? Do you use it to jerk off?”
Angry, Rick pointed to the door. “Get out,” he said.
Morty and I didn’t say anything else, we just left.
Morty wasn’t expecting to hear back from Rick so soon, but he came over to Morty’s place while I was there Sunday. “Remember the question about the tape?” he asked.
“I remember,” Morty said. “What about it?”
Rick lowered his voice. “Someone went through my boxes and found that tape. It was playing when I woke up this morning. It really scared the shit out of me.”
“Ruth,” Morty said.
“No,” Rick said. “It’s John Blake. It has to be.”
“That’s impossible,” I said.
Morty said, “How could he have known you were in the closet, and that the plan was your idea?”
“I did some research,” Rick said. “Blake’s doctor in the hospital was Dr. Frederick Jennings.”
Morty recoiled. “That’s my doctor.”
“Exactly,” Rick said. “You told him the truth about what happened last Halloween, didn’t you?”
Morty gulped. “Well… he’s my therapist. I had to.”
“Way to go, Morty,” Rick said. “Your shrink told Blake about it, and now he’s after me.”
“No,” I said, “there’s doctor-patient confidentiality. Dr. Jennings wouldn’t have told John anything like that, especially with him getting released from the hospital yesterday.”
Rick scowled and shook his head, saying, “Confidentiality, my ass. He thinks I deserve retribution for Ruth, and now Blake is after me.”
Maybe you do deserve retribution, I thought. But I said, “Don’t be silly. There has to be a logical explanation.”
“That is a logical explanation,” Rick shouted. “It’s the only one!”
Morty shivered. “No, it’s not. It could be Ruth. I sense her presence all the time. She’s alive.”
“Bullshit,” Rick spat.
I said, “If you’re so sure Blake is after you, why not do something about it?”
“I plan on it,” he said. “I found out where he’s staying. I’m going to check it out.”
“You mean spy on him,” I said.
“No, I mean check it out,” Rick replied.
“Be careful, Rick,” Morty said.
“I will,” he said. He then turned and left.
That Monday, I bought a Halloween mask. It looked like a haggard witch with golden eyes. The kind of thing Ruth Baxter would buy. I figured a prank was in order…
Tuesday, Rick came back to Morty’s place, ranting. “He’s going to kill me, Morty,” he said.
“What makes you say that?” I asked.
Panting between words, Rick replied, “He saw me at his place. I didn’t realize it while I was there, but when I went back to my car, there was a message on my window: ‘I know,’ along with a picture of someone wearing a mask. Just like in a slasher flick.”
I offered, “Maybe you are in a slasher flick.” Morty chuckled.
“It’s not funny,” Rick shouted.
Morty nodded. “Sorry.”
I offered, “Maybe you should tell the police you’re being stalked, and that you suspect someone who was just released from a mental hospital.”
“That may not be a bad idea,” Morty said.
“Uh, yeah it’s a bad idea,” Rick replied. “They’ll ask what I did to set him off.”
“So tell a partial truth,” Morty said. “Say you were friends with the girl he supposedly killed and that you suspect he’s after you.”
Rick sighed and said, “There are too many holes in that story.”
I shrugged and said, “Okay, but don’t say that option wasn’t suggested.”
Morty said, “I just hope this masked character doesn’t come after me.”
“You’re not the one he saw snooping on his property,” Rick muttered.
Morty shrank and asked, “But what if it’s not Blake? What if it’s Ruth, and she blames me?”
Rick said, “We both know that’s impossible. It has to be Blake, as he’s the one who is still alive.”
“We’ll see,” Morty replied.