| Short Story |
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Halloween Hootenanny
By Adam p. Lewis
Jane, put the final decorating touches about the house. She lit generically
carved smiling pumpkins, hung orange and black streamers along the ceiling;
dropped apples into an old circular washtub filled with water, and dimmed the
lights. The Halloween party was almost ready to begin.
Her daughter, Stephanie, was in her bedroom getting dressed in her
costume, an old haggard witch. She dabbed a sponge in a small tub of pea
green special effects makeup and patted it across her face. A set of brown
painted rubber teeth with a black gap in the center sat on her vanity just large
enough to hide her own pearl white teeth. Behind her spread out on her bed
was her costume, a randomly torn black gown with a matching pointed hat
bent at the top.
“Hurry up Steph, your friends will be here soon!” Jane yelled upstairs to her
daughter.
“Almost done…can you play the Halloween CD I bought today?” Stephanie
yelled back.
Jane unwrapped the sound effects CD and read the title aloud, “Halloween
Hootenanny: Spook-tacular Halloween Party Effects and Music,” and giggled.
Not only did she chuckle at the title but more so at the cover. Cartoon
skeletons, with over sized heads, held hands with Pac-Man style ghosts while
dancing around silly grinned jack-o-lanterns glowing orange and yellow. In
the sky, bats flew over the dancing ghouls while crows perched in bare limbed
trees, which looked on the spooky fanfare with far from intimidating faces
drawn on their trunks. The CD titled was arched over a full moon in bright
green neon letters. It was badly drawn and pixilated, most likely printed off an
old bubble jet rather than a professional high dpi laser printer.
The CD tray slide out from with the housing. Jane placed the CD on the
tray, pressed play, and flipped over the CD and read the title to track one,
“Chainsaw Maniac and Girl”. Ten seconds into the playing track, only the
quick twirling sound of the motor spinning the CD could be heard. Figuring
the production CD was just as cheap as the dollar store it was bought in, Jane
turned the volume up hoping to hear some sort of faint sound effect.
Seconds later, footsteps faded in.
The footsteps clopped loudly over a wooden floor and then stopped. A loud
knock banged on thick sounding door with a three to four second pause
between each knock. During the silence, the knocks echoed and faded away
before the next rap on the door. The knocks were followed up with pathetic
acting. A frightened girl, acting as if she was not expecting a visitor,
squeaked out the phrase, “Who-who is the-the-there?”
Muffled, evil, and guttural laughter crackled and echoed answering the
frightened girl. A new sound played through the speakers. The quick dull
burbling of a small ripcord pull motor, burped quick resonations seconds
apart. Then the motor turned over and the fast nasally sound of a chainsaw
ruptured the air. The maniac behind the door, wielding the chainsaw, quickly
revved the motor making it sound like a high-pitched dirt bike revving its
engine before racing down a dirt track. Louder and more insane, the evil
laughter howled over the ripping chainsaw.
The girl behind the door let out a hair curling shriek and yelled for help,
“Please, somebody, help me!
Jane paused the CD. The screaming girl’s voice sounded familiar, like her
own daughters. She listened carefully for her daughter to make she was not
calling for her mother. Jane heard nothing. She shrugged her shoulders and
figured it was nothing more than the badly acted and timed sound effect CD
playing tricks with her mind. She pressed play and the track continued from
where it had been paused.
The terrorized girl screamed even louder as the chainsaw started cutting
into the door. The bogged down and high toned sound of the chainsaw motor
cutting wood drowned out the evil laughter. The girl however could still be
heard crying. Jane looked up at the CD player and watched the counter.
The chainsaw continued cutting for another thirty seconds as did the girl
screaming with no end in sight. Jane pressed the fast forward button and a
quick and choppy sound of chainsaws and screams skipped through the
speakers. She released the fast forward button and continued listening.
The chainsaw was now idling and the maniac was laughing. The girl on the
track was crying and pleading for her life. Then the maniac revved the motor
in another series of quick bursts until finally holding the gas trigger blaring the
chainsaw’s motor in full. The girl screamed, “NO…NO,” then spoke
through a cracked and crying voice, “please, get away from me. Get
away…help me!”
Laughter came from the chainsaw maniac as the sound of what resembled
an electric carving knife cutting into toughly cooked steak, gave the listener
the impression the maniac was carving up the girl. Wet sounding splatters
jumped from left speaker to right speaker as if blood was being strewn about
the girl’s room in all directions. The splatters sounded more like wet socks
squishing inside wet sneakers than blood violently plastering a wall.
The girl stopped screaming. Only burbles and groans were heard coming
from the mutilated girl and then, silence. The chainsaw stopped. The maniac
chuckled slowly, which ascended into quick and loud evil yet self-pleasurable
sounding laughter. The laughter diminished under the clopping of echoing
footsteps.
Jane stopped the CD and yelled to her daughter, “This sound effects CD is
terrible. Good thing you only paid a dollar for it.” Stephanie did not respond.
“Stephanie, did you hear me? This CD is terrible!”
Again receiving no response, Jane became worried and walked upstairs to
her daughter’s room. Upon reaching the top of the staircase, Jane screamed
in terror. Her daughter’s bedroom door was hacked part and reduced to
splinters. She ran into her daughter’s room and there, lying on the bed was
her daughter, Stephanie, cut into pieces. Her arms were roughly cut off at the
elbows and her legs severed at the knees. Her body was carved open from
her neck to her genitals with all organs removed. She was decapitated. Her
head was shoved inside where her intestines would have been with her heart
shoved into her mouth. The white bedspread was turned red from headboard
to footboard. Pieces of finely cut organs slide on the blood that dripped down
the walls to the floor. Small splatters of blood covered the ceiling like star
stickers that glow in the dark when the lights are out, only red.
Jane covered her screaming face and backed slowly out of the bedroom.
Shaking and crying she bowed her head and peeked through her intertwined
fingers to the floor. There, bloody footprints trailed from out of the bedroom
and down the hallway to her bedroom. She glanced at the back cover to the
CD and read the next two track titles, “Chainsaw Maniac and Man, Chainsaw
Maniac and Woman”. From behind a cut up door, half of which dangled and
swung from hinges, she could hear her husband screaming for help under a
loud revving chainsaw and maniacal laughter.
By Adam p. Lewis
Jane, put the final decorating touches about the house. She lit generically
carved smiling pumpkins, hung orange and black streamers along the ceiling;
dropped apples into an old circular washtub filled with water, and dimmed the
lights. The Halloween party was almost ready to begin.
Her daughter, Stephanie, was in her bedroom getting dressed in her
costume, an old haggard witch. She dabbed a sponge in a small tub of pea
green special effects makeup and patted it across her face. A set of brown
painted rubber teeth with a black gap in the center sat on her vanity just large
enough to hide her own pearl white teeth. Behind her spread out on her bed
was her costume, a randomly torn black gown with a matching pointed hat
bent at the top.
“Hurry up Steph, your friends will be here soon!” Jane yelled upstairs to her
daughter.
“Almost done…can you play the Halloween CD I bought today?” Stephanie
yelled back.
Jane unwrapped the sound effects CD and read the title aloud, “Halloween
Hootenanny: Spook-tacular Halloween Party Effects and Music,” and giggled.
Not only did she chuckle at the title but more so at the cover. Cartoon
skeletons, with over sized heads, held hands with Pac-Man style ghosts while
dancing around silly grinned jack-o-lanterns glowing orange and yellow. In
the sky, bats flew over the dancing ghouls while crows perched in bare limbed
trees, which looked on the spooky fanfare with far from intimidating faces
drawn on their trunks. The CD titled was arched over a full moon in bright
green neon letters. It was badly drawn and pixilated, most likely printed off an
old bubble jet rather than a professional high dpi laser printer.
The CD tray slide out from with the housing. Jane placed the CD on the
tray, pressed play, and flipped over the CD and read the title to track one,
“Chainsaw Maniac and Girl”. Ten seconds into the playing track, only the
quick twirling sound of the motor spinning the CD could be heard. Figuring
the production CD was just as cheap as the dollar store it was bought in, Jane
turned the volume up hoping to hear some sort of faint sound effect.
Seconds later, footsteps faded in.
The footsteps clopped loudly over a wooden floor and then stopped. A loud
knock banged on thick sounding door with a three to four second pause
between each knock. During the silence, the knocks echoed and faded away
before the next rap on the door. The knocks were followed up with pathetic
acting. A frightened girl, acting as if she was not expecting a visitor,
squeaked out the phrase, “Who-who is the-the-there?”
Muffled, evil, and guttural laughter crackled and echoed answering the
frightened girl. A new sound played through the speakers. The quick dull
burbling of a small ripcord pull motor, burped quick resonations seconds
apart. Then the motor turned over and the fast nasally sound of a chainsaw
ruptured the air. The maniac behind the door, wielding the chainsaw, quickly
revved the motor making it sound like a high-pitched dirt bike revving its
engine before racing down a dirt track. Louder and more insane, the evil
laughter howled over the ripping chainsaw.
The girl behind the door let out a hair curling shriek and yelled for help,
“Please, somebody, help me!
Jane paused the CD. The screaming girl’s voice sounded familiar, like her
own daughters. She listened carefully for her daughter to make she was not
calling for her mother. Jane heard nothing. She shrugged her shoulders and
figured it was nothing more than the badly acted and timed sound effect CD
playing tricks with her mind. She pressed play and the track continued from
where it had been paused.
The terrorized girl screamed even louder as the chainsaw started cutting
into the door. The bogged down and high toned sound of the chainsaw motor
cutting wood drowned out the evil laughter. The girl however could still be
heard crying. Jane looked up at the CD player and watched the counter.
The chainsaw continued cutting for another thirty seconds as did the girl
screaming with no end in sight. Jane pressed the fast forward button and a
quick and choppy sound of chainsaws and screams skipped through the
speakers. She released the fast forward button and continued listening.
The chainsaw was now idling and the maniac was laughing. The girl on the
track was crying and pleading for her life. Then the maniac revved the motor
in another series of quick bursts until finally holding the gas trigger blaring the
chainsaw’s motor in full. The girl screamed, “NO…NO,” then spoke
through a cracked and crying voice, “please, get away from me. Get
away…help me!”
Laughter came from the chainsaw maniac as the sound of what resembled
an electric carving knife cutting into toughly cooked steak, gave the listener
the impression the maniac was carving up the girl. Wet sounding splatters
jumped from left speaker to right speaker as if blood was being strewn about
the girl’s room in all directions. The splatters sounded more like wet socks
squishing inside wet sneakers than blood violently plastering a wall.
The girl stopped screaming. Only burbles and groans were heard coming
from the mutilated girl and then, silence. The chainsaw stopped. The maniac
chuckled slowly, which ascended into quick and loud evil yet self-pleasurable
sounding laughter. The laughter diminished under the clopping of echoing
footsteps.
Jane stopped the CD and yelled to her daughter, “This sound effects CD is
terrible. Good thing you only paid a dollar for it.” Stephanie did not respond.
“Stephanie, did you hear me? This CD is terrible!”
Again receiving no response, Jane became worried and walked upstairs to
her daughter’s room. Upon reaching the top of the staircase, Jane screamed
in terror. Her daughter’s bedroom door was hacked part and reduced to
splinters. She ran into her daughter’s room and there, lying on the bed was
her daughter, Stephanie, cut into pieces. Her arms were roughly cut off at the
elbows and her legs severed at the knees. Her body was carved open from
her neck to her genitals with all organs removed. She was decapitated. Her
head was shoved inside where her intestines would have been with her heart
shoved into her mouth. The white bedspread was turned red from headboard
to footboard. Pieces of finely cut organs slide on the blood that dripped down
the walls to the floor. Small splatters of blood covered the ceiling like star
stickers that glow in the dark when the lights are out, only red.
Jane covered her screaming face and backed slowly out of the bedroom.
Shaking and crying she bowed her head and peeked through her intertwined
fingers to the floor. There, bloody footprints trailed from out of the bedroom
and down the hallway to her bedroom. She glanced at the back cover to the
CD and read the next two track titles, “Chainsaw Maniac and Man, Chainsaw
Maniac and Woman”. From behind a cut up door, half of which dangled and
swung from hinges, she could hear her husband screaming for help under a
loud revving chainsaw and maniacal laughter.
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