I bought the cheap piece of shit to make everyone happy. My wife had always loved Halloween and I guess she instilled that into our daughters.
They were sitting in the cart, it felt like we had been at the department store for hours.
As soon as we rounded the corner and saw the Halloween decorations the girls began to squeal and jump around “daddy, daddy, DADDY, can we have it?” I groaned and looked up.
I saw a man at the other end of the aisle, in a similar situation, his son was pulling all of the costumes off the shelf and begging.We smiled at each other.
It was our subtle way of communicating ‘shoot me now’.
We had to get out of here.
My head was killing me, so I gave in. We loaded the 8-foot skeleton in the cart.
We got to the register and of course there was an issue. I tapped my foot impatiently and began to rub my head.
The cashier was sympathetic.
She apologized “Sir, I’m so sorry, it’s just that it doesn’t have a tag and I haven’t seen it around here before”.
The line behind me was backing up. She took pity on me.“Ya know what, let’s just call it $19.99, alright?” She said as she looked down at my wild children in the cart and winked at me.“Perfect” I replied.
We got it home. This thing was unwieldy and huge. I couldn’t get it to stand up straight. The kids didn’t want to help. Daddy could do it, of course he could.
God, I hate Halloween.
I propped it up in the entryway and backed away to take a good look at it.
It was creepier than I remembered. Something about the eyes, and the mouth.Oh well, the job was done.
The kids were happy. I was going to bed.
I woke up at 4am to a loud crash. Startled, I sat up in the bed and turned the on the bedside lamp. I didn’t see anything, so I walked into the living room.
Goddammit the skeleton had fallen to the ground.
I turned on the entry light and went to prop it up again but as I moved its head into position the eye sockets glowed red.
WHAT THE FUCK? I backed up a bit and the head fell over on me.
I took a deep breath and stood it up again.
Nothing, normal.
Man, I have to get away for a while. Stacey will understand, she has to.
October just isn’t for me.
The skeleton was secured. It wasn’t coming loose this time. I used duct tape and fishing wire.
The kids woke up, ate breakfast, played with the skeleton arms and laughed, and then hopped the bus.
The next night it was storming and I tossed and turned trying to get to sleep. I finally pulled the pillow over my head and passed out. I had a nightmare. The most terrifying one I’ve ever had. I don’t have nightmares. Not before this…
I dreamed that the skeleton came loose and it was standing over the bed. I couldn’t move. I wanted to sit up, to scream, to swat at it. But I was frozen in place. Only my eyes could move. I woke up covered in sweat. “What the fuck was that?” I wanted to wake Stacey and tell her but I looked at the clock, it was 11am.
She must have gotten the kids ready for school and left without waking me.The first thing I did was go straight to the skeleton.
I knew it was a dream but I had to see for sure. It was tied up tight, just as it had been the night before. No glow in the eye. I kicked at it, no change. Then I bent in a bit closer. It looked like the tape had been cut and then pushed back together.
Huh? I needed some coffee, and I had a massive headache.
The next few days went by uneventfully. I started to feel like my old self again.
But every time I looked at that skeleton I shuddered.
I left for a solo camping trip on the 26th. On the way out the door I hesitated. I dropped the camping gear outside and went back in for one more look at the skeleton. It was as it had always been. Maybe I was the one who tore the duct tape when I was propping it up initially. I chuckled at the dream I’d had.
Stacey ran outside with a 6-pack and gave me a kiss on the cheek. I told her I’d be back on November 1st.
It happened on Saturday, October 30.
I wasn’t there for my wife. I wasn’t there for my children.
I got the call from the police.
I rushed home. It was too late.
They were found mutilated, in the bed, the three of them together.
The police said it looked like they had settled in to watch a horror movie for the night and fell asleep. Someone must have broken in.
I was numb. This just wasn’t real.
I wailed and crumpled down to the floor.
There, on the floor, I was eye to eye with the skeleton. I looked into its eyes and I didn’t see anything. Just the cheap black paint to darken the eye sockets.
“You shouldn’t be alone tonight; do you have anyone we can call? Anyone you can stay with?”“NO, no, no…I want to stay here. I have to stay here” I said as they carried the bodies out of the house.
The policeman had another call, he had to leave. I was alone.
The room was closed off.
I opened up the pill cabinet and took a triple dose of my sleeping medication, I didn’t know if I would wake up or not. I didn’t care.
This was a dream. It had to be a dream.
Sweat.
Fear.
I saw the skeleton. I saw myself leaving the house. I tried to shout, to get my own attention, to stop me from leaving for that fatal trip.
Immediately, my eyes were locked on the skeleton. I saw its bony fingers grow sharp and cut the ties that bind it. I followed it into the bedroom. The bedroom where my babies were sleeping. And Stacey was there, she had fallen asleep with her arms around the girls.
I felt something pass through me. It was the skeleton. It walked up to the bed. It stroked the girls’ hair with it’s talons. I lunged forward and shouted ‘NOOOO’.
Nothing, I couldn’t do anything at all.
It WAS a dream.
I screamed as loud as I could but I couldn’t stop it.
The skeleton bent over slowly.
The jaw unhinged. A mouth full of unnatural teeth appeared. Sharp and jagged.
Before it bit into her it looked at me, it smiled with that horrifying smile.
It devoured her.
Crunching the bones.
Swallowing the body whole. Growing more invigorated from the screams and the cries.
It was strong, preternaturally so.
I saw the teeth grow larger. Like knives they extended from the bone. It slashed and slashed.
Stacey was screaming.
Suddenly I woke up, this time in a panic.
I ran, tripping over the coffee table, to the bedroom. I pushed through the caution tape to the bedroom.
They were coming to clean up the blood tomorrow, I didn’t care.
I went straight to the skeleton and I jerked it up.
At first nothing happened. It had the same dead-eyed stare and black paint in the eye sockets. I shook it a bit and wailed. I began to beat its head against the wall and that’s when I saw it.
That sickening smile.
The teeth grew, the jaw cracked open. There was blood on it, everywhere. It snapped at me and I jumped back.
But it wasn’t there to hurt me. It was there to taunt me.
To leave me with the memory of the last moments of my screaming wife and children.
A knock on the door jolted me.
I answered.
It was the police.“Listen, Mister, we know this has been hard for you, but we just a have a few questions. Standard questions, nothing out of the ordinary. You see, it’s just not looking like anyone could have broken in, ya know?
The windows and the doors were sealed. Where did you say you were again, on the night of October 31th?”