A Collection of Short Stories

Headless Halloween

    It was a cold Halloween night and the wind was wailing loudly, tree branches roughly smacking against buildings and each other. The rain could be heard over the numerous cars and constant ringing of doorbells. It was a little after ten, most of the children were finishing their rounds of trick or treating and heading on home for school the next day. For Joe and his friends, the night was just beginning. They were seniors in high school and had taken a job for the weekend, one they loved the chance to have.

    Ten-thirty came around and the building grew dark. Evil cackles and the sound of saws, the sharpening of knives, and screams of terror filled the air. It was Joe's dream to work in a haunted house and now the job was his. Young couples from school began pouring in one group at a time. They were usually too busy vandalizing the place or paying attention to each other to notice things, but Joe had a plan this time around. As the first couple walked past, he jumped out, a pretend axe in his head as he spewed fake blood all over the couple. This scared several of the girls who came through, and as it got darker a few of the guys too.

    Eleven o' clock rolled around and a trio of friends came in. They seemed to be the last group so Joe decided to make this scare extra special. At the front of the group was a couple and behind them a third female friend who was on her phone. This was his chance, as the first two passed Joe pulled a string and a door suddenly appeared in front of the last girl. She was too busy on her phone to notice and walked right into it, dropping her phone as she fell. Joe jumped out, fake blood spewing all over the girl and floor as he flailed a set of fake knives aimlessly to scare her. It worked and the girl tried to crawl away screaming when suddenly the lights went out and everything went silent.

    All was silent for several minutes before the lights came back on. Quickly all of Joe's coworkers had gathered around him, followed by the boss himself. "Well, what the hell's going on in here." The boss shouted as he pushed through the crowd of people. He seemed in a good mood, like always. Everyone pointed over to where the girl had been and Joe's gaze soon followed. Where once sat the terrified girl was now her headless body laying up against the wall. Joe felt his stomach drop as the boss looked around the room slowly at everyone.

    "Well, what happened? I've been running this show for thirty years and never had an incident like this. This is purely outrageous and if I find out one of you did it you better hope the police find you first!" His face had turned as red as a tomato while he shouted at us. He gave one final angered groan before storming off to his office. The police arrived shortly after and began to question everyone.

    Joe couldn't believe what had happened, it was like something from a horror film. The only thing he was sure of was that no one who worked in the show was fast enough to cut the power, commit murder, clean themselves and then turn the power back on. Joe had been questioned last, having been the last one to see the girl alive. By the time they let him leave it was after midnight. Joe hurried home, confused and scared of what had happened. 

    The next morning Joe decided to do some research. He showered quickly, before grabbing an apple to eat and settling at his computer. He had to know if this was something that happened at haunted houses often or it was simply a random occurrence. 

    After several long hours of research he learned that every year around Halloween someone had been killed in a haunted house. The thing that caught his eye most, however, was that all the victims were killed and left the same way, decapitated and laying against a wall. The earliest finding mentioned had been twenty years prior to the murder last night. Joe sent all his findings to his boss before shutting his computer down for the night. He was shaken by what he had found, and worried that one of his fellow actors were in danger somehow.

     That night Joe got ready for work early, just as he finished setting up the props for the fake blood the phone began to ring. He quickly answered in case it was either his parents or the police with more questions. To his surprise it was our special effects girl, Samantha. 

    "Joe, you better get down here fast. The boss is talking with the police and the place is locked down. The rest of the crew is getting kind of restless." She sounded worried and a little scared. "I'll be right there." Joe hung up, heading to his car and quickly driving to the field where the haunted house had been set up.

    "Well, look who's right on time for the cops tearing the place apart." A bigger fellow named Billy bellowed out. Billy played the killer clown every year, and was usually very level headed. "Shut it Billy." Joe heard the boss chime in from the front of the crowd. He sounded angry, but looked relieved the whole crew was okay and hadn't quit on him. For an older, and usually angry fellow the boss still had everyone else's safety in mind.

    Samantha suddenly walked over to Joe and handed him an envelope. "The boss asked me to give this to you...new boss." She smiled at Joe as everyone else's jaw dropped. They all looked at the boss like he was insane, giving the haunted house to a kid just finishing school.

    "The ell's going on here boss?" Billy looked over at the boss, confused. "Well, I was reviewing the tapes with the police." The boss said, "And well, aside from now knowing Joe isn't the killer I saw the creativity he had trying to scare some of those people. He was quite brilliant." Everyone looked at Joe, but they all knew the boss could smell talent from a mile away so there were no objections. "So, where do we go from here then? Seasons over after all." Billy let out a sigh, and the rest of the crew looked upset that they didn't really get to do their jobs on the last night either.

    Joe looked around before smiling, "Well, we all do our own makeup and graphic designs. I'm sure we could put that to use in the off season, don't you?' The crew looked amongst themselves and murmured back and forth a bit before agreeing. "Maybe do our own merchandising in that time. You know, set up a shop for hats and t-shirts. We're good enough at scaring people, but imagine seeing them wear our stuff too." The group perked up a bit, quite pleased with the idea.

    The crew and Joe had set up shop within the week, having opened a sewing shop where they would make and sell their own merchandise as well as mend clothing for the people in town. The old boss, who Joe now knew as Johnny, took to it quickly. The whole crew chipped in to paint the place and decided even helped set up a fundraiser for the family of the girl who had been killed. 

    Months passed and there was still no word of the killer being captured, but Joe would never forget what had happened and it would haunt him forever.