Navigation
A bit of much needed introduction
The small town I grew up in sat in the furthest corner of the bible belt. We were a tight knit community where every seemed to know each other, our own little slice of Mayberry, USA. Everything looks so perfect for anyone just passing by, but that's the way the town was built to function. Anything or anyone that clashed with it's strict Christian American slice of happiness would be forced to assimilate or be cast out in ostracization. We had an endless row of suburban hell, house after house looking like an old Mickey Mouse background with how generic and repetitive the houses looked. Outside of the suburban stretch stood a downtown area which looked as if you stepped back in time to the 1950s. A diner, candy store, rifles, fishing equipment, petshop, and a theater still playing movies like Ben-Hur.
As a kid, I loved fall and the Halloween season. The orange and brown leaves, smells of apple cider and caramel apples whisping through the chilly air, rubber bats and spiders, latex masks, plastic skeletons, horror movie marathons, pumpkins. I could go on, but we'd be here all day. The town hated it as much as loved it. We'd have pep rallies every October 1st on why Halloween was evil and "created by the devil". An "Ex-witch" (our librarian wearing a black veil and trying so hard to disguise her voice) would show up and talk about being involved on the sets of both classic and recent movies, music, and video games. After her spiel, a cop would get on stage and brag about "busting Halloween sacrifice rituals" and tell us that mad cultists would perform disgusting acts on women, children, and animals to appease Satan on Halloween night. After the presentation, we would be forced to come up and sign a pledge to "Not go out or participate on Halloween" before grabbing a pamphlet describing how Satanic witches put curses on masks and costumes and work behind the scenes of haunted houses to keep them scary, going as far to put real corpses in the attraction. This made me more attracted to the idea as an 8 year old.
10/98 - Visiting the haunted house
After constant begging and pleading to attend a haunted house, my parents finally relented despite their better judgement to put an end to the nonstop requests. My father quickly gathered me in his car and carefully looked over his shoulder as he peeled out of the driveway and headed down the road. He drove down the backroads in an attempt to avoid being spotted, his hands gripping as tight as he could despite the sweat from stress forming on his face and arms. As we left our quant little town, a black car began to follow just enough behind us to avoid suspicion, I didn't want my father stressed any more so I kept it to myself. We drove at least an hour until we reached a haunted house that was 2 towns over. He parked the car behind the building and gave me one glance before uttering "Don't tell anyone about this, this never happened." before handing me a $20 and ushering me on my way.
A pit had formed in my stomach, what if the pamphlet was true? No, it was all hogwash. The same pamphlet that implied Doom was Satanic propaganda and John Romero was a warlock who cast spells in the game to make kids violent. You begged your way here and if you back now, your dad and mom will be pissed. I swallowed my fear and walked to the entrance, where an old man greeted me. "You're a little young, where's your parents?". After telling him my dad was in the car, he begrudgingly let me in with a group of teenagers wearing shirts from the few bands that the "ex-witch" "worked" with, Slipknot, Megadeth, Pantera, Type O Negative. My young mind lit up from how cool the shirts looked before we were escorted into the haunt. Right before I entered, I swore I saw a suited man by the entrance holding a camera by the entrance, the old man must've caught wind because he stormed over causing the man to run off. The rooms were filled with goblins, vampires, witches, werewolves, and about every other generic horror monster you could find plus ones ripped directly from movies in a clear case of copyright violation. I exited the haunt and headed back to the car, hopping in the passenger seat.
The following school day, everything went normal until a teacher pulled me aside and grabbed by arm. She proceeded to drag me down the halls with a look of anger strewn on her face. I was shoved into a room where an officer, my principal, and the man from yesterday sat. Polaroid photos of my dad's car driving down the road, me exiting the car, and me in line were laid out on the table alongside my signed pledge. The principal's face turned beet red before he opened his mouth. "DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU DID? DID YOU KNOW WHAT YOU WERE BRINGING BACK IN THE COMMUNITY?". He grabbed my shirt, shaking me hard before throwing me down and slapping me on the left cheek. "Demons lurk in these places, halloween stores, haunted houses, horror movie showings. They latch on you and then invade our cheery nice town. I work hard to keep this town safe and by turning a blind eye to you bringing back demons, suddenly our town is full of drunks, druggies, homosexuals, and other filth from the gutter!" he said, more calmly but still with a pinch of anger. He pulled out a Bible from the bookcase "Stretch your hands across the desk and read the entire Book of Genesis." I read through it with my teacher striking on hands with a ruler for every chapter finished. By the time I got home, I caught my mother and father discussing something in the kitchen, my mother clearly being distraught and worried while my father tried to reassure her. I just walked to my room and stayed there.
10/05
After the incident, life seemed to get weirder; or I guess I just started to notice how crazy our town is. My parents became a lot stricter and more watchful. My room would get searched on occassion when I was at school or at work but they both denied having any involvement, it would range from simple stuff (an item in an area it wasn't previously) or just straight up my room being torn apart. Other people, teachers, classmates, etc began to get really cold towards me or ignore me outright. The strangest parts were the repetetive dreams I'd have of being stuck in a forest and the uneasy feeling I'd get interacting with sort of horror material. I began to see the man who photographed me in random public places, probably just my own paranoid imagination but it still gave me shivers. At age 15, I met Nathan and Jeff. They became my only friends and by default, my best friends. They introduced me to Dark Theater, a ""theater"" ran by a fat 35 year old man named Dan. Dark Theater was hardly a theater, the entrance barely lit with a fridge containing various sodas/beers and a freezer with loads of bulk mozzarella sticks, pizza, and other goods sat in the entrance behind the counter. A line of various liquors stood on a shelf just next to the fridge, and a whiteboard with poorly scribbled names and prices sat up on a wall. The actual theater area was just a bare room with fold out chairs and a projector connected to a laptop. It was here where I watched Wicked City, Sleepaway Camp, Carnival of Souls, Blood Feast.
I was sick on the 31st of October, so they went to go see Hack O Lantern without me. They must have messed up somewhere down the line because they got caught. The following week, I seldom saw them at school. By the end of first period, I was pulled into the office once again and interoggated by two officers. I denied everything and they had no real proof of my involvement so I was let go with a warning. My parents were pissed and just ignored me for at least a month. My two friends seemed shellshocked by something they never let on to, and I rarely saw them after this. After driving by again, I learned the theater had burned down while Dan was restocking. It sucked but he was a little pervy and gave underage kids beer. I kept trying message Nathan and Jeff on AIM to no response.
10/06
I attempted to throw one final Halloween party and planned for a big sneak out on the fateful day. I managed to convince Nathan to attend. I waited till the officer did his bi-hourly check at 6 PM before grabbing a small cooler full of pumpkin ales and hard cider. I opened my window and ran into the woods where we met at an old building that used to be a bathroom for campers. We set up a small fire and drank until we got tipsy. I decided it would be a good time to tell personal spooky stories and we went around circles telling each other our scariest moments. When it reached Nathan, he hesitated until he began blurting out "I-I-I saw it, he-" before he turned his head and stared. Standing across from us were a group of robed people walking through the woods. We stayed still and let them pass without making a noise before running back home. I graduated and moved out of there into a dorm a state away.