Middle school recess in the heat, in a dumpster of a town. Teachers with their heads buried too deep in gossip with one another. It left the vulnerable as easy pickings for the bullies. Paige, Krissy, and me, Jess. We swarmed Phil every chance we got. And I felt horrible for my behavior; I was just trying to fit in. I had found my friend group. Unfortunately, they were the worst girls you could encounter.
I stuck gum in Phil’s hair more times than I should admit. And he wasn’t an unfriendly kid. He was simply an outcast. We were mean to him constantly. The worst though, was the day we carved pumpkins. After picking some pumpkins from the patch during a field trip, we hauled them back to school and plopped them on the picnic tables. With teacher supervision, we got to carving. After we finished—as we carried our pumpkins back inside—Paige pushed Phil from behind. He dropped his pumpkin. He whined for a moment, but the pumpkin was still intact, only slightly bruised. But then Paige and Krissy stomped on his pumpkin, squishing it while the teachers were not looking. I joined them in the nauseating laughter as I always did. Phil cried and sulked for the rest of the week.
It was roughly ten years later when we got a text from Phil about a Halloween party that he was planning on throwing at his parent’s house. It had been years since we’d heard from him.
“Oh my god. This guy must be loaded. Check out this place,” Paige said, while the three of us approached his front door.
The music was blasting, as a dozen or so people inside danced. Phil spotted us immediately.
“You made it! I didn’t think you would show. I mean, after all that we’ve been through,” he said.
“Nice costume,” Krissy said jokingly.
Phil was dressed as a pumpkin, but the fabric looked cheap and lame.
“Hey Phil, I wanted to just apologize for the way the three of us treated you back in school. It was so wrong of us to treat you the way we did. To be honest, we were a little surprised you even invited us,” I said, hoping Phil would forgive us.
“I’m going to get some more beer from the garage fridge. Why don’t the three of you just… do whatever you do at parties. Just no gum in anyone’s hair tonight, okay?” Phil grinned mockingly and retreated to the garage.
For the next hour or so, the three of us mingled, but there came a point where Paige went to the bathroom and never returned. We called and texted her, but she did not pick up or respond. We figured she might have just called an uber home.
When Krissy and I went to check on Paige at her apartment the next day, we noticed the door was unlocked. When we searched for her inside, we stumbled upon a horrific display. Paige’s lifeless body was on the ground next to her bed. A huge chunk of flesh had been removed from her stomach and placed inside a carved pumpkin sitting atop her bed.
A chill crawled up and down my spine. Krissy called the authorities, and when they went to search Phil’s parents’ house, they discovered it was not actually their home. A different couple lived there but had been out of town the night of the party.
I was on edge from that day forward. I just knew Phil was seeking revenge. It had to be him. I was sure of it. And my gut feeling was unfortunately confirmed when I went to visit Krissy one evening. A similar display burned my eyes. Krissy’s face and scalp had been sliced off and stuffed inside a carved pumpkin. There was a piece of chewed gum attached to her scalp.
By this point, I was in a frenzy, always looking over my shoulder. One Monday evening, I was on my way out of my apartment to go buy some groceries. When I opened the front door, Phil stood before me in that same pumpkin costume from the party. He was holding a large, serrated knife. Drool drizzled from his lips. I dove at him, knocking him to his knees. I ran down the stairs and to my car, where I got in quickly. When I turned on the engine, Phil was standing in front of the car. I honked over and over as he banged on the hood. I reversed and bumped into another car. Phil ran over to the driver-side window and punched at it repeatedly. Before I could get my car out of the spot, he smashed the glass and grabbed my hair. He leaned in and removed my seatbelt. I flailed around and screamed, desperately trying to get the attention of anyone nearby.
A man jogging around the neighborhood must have heard me because he came just when I needed him most. He grabbed Phil and pulled him to the ground. I called the police while the man restrained Phil. Phil was eventually put in prison for the two murders he committed. I was lucky to survive the ordeal. But deep down, I keep getting this sickening feeling that it all could have been prevented, had we not been such awful bullies to him back in school.