One Hell of a Halloween Costume

It was Halloween, and little Jimmy Mulligan could hardly contain himself. He skipped past jack-o-lanterns up to an old stone house, playfully twirling his pillowcase full of candy around like it was a yo-yo.

He stopped for a moment, inspecting his white-and-silver astronaut costume; through his living room television, he had witnessed men step on the moon for the first time earlier that year and had been obsessed with space ever since. Once he assured himself that he looked ready for takeoff, he knocked on the wooden door loudly.

No one answered.

He scrunched up his little face impatiently and knocked again, harder this time.

A man in a brown suit came to the door. Half his face was concealed under the rim of a bowler hat, but Jimmy could see the man had goatlike eyes on his chin, and a long, winding smile.

“Wow!” Jimmy said, his eyes wide with astonishment, “Are you dressed up like the Gooweny-Ein?”

The man cocked his head from side to side, regarding the boy with perplexed curiosity.
“Oh, you know the story!” Jimmy said, waiving his hand as if batting away the notion that it was possible anyone could be unaware of the tale, “If you see him once, he follows you. If you see him again, he crawls inside your body.” Jimmy wiggled his fingers in front of his face, imagining a campfire lighting him from below.

The man nodded, as if this description had jarred his memory.
“Is that what you’re dressed as, Mr.?” Jimmy asked again.

The man nodded solemnly.
“Nifty!” Jimmy said, bouncing up and down with enthusiasm. He didn’t think he’d ever seen a costume like this before. “How’d you make it look so realistic?” He asked.

The man ignored the question as he gave Jimmy some candy from a bowl and patted him on the head before waving goodbye. Jimmy shrugged and skipped off down the driveway to rejoin his mother. He had a lot of houses to visit that night and didn’t have time to waste talking to a man who refused to answer. Maybe he’s just really in character, Jimmy thought. Maybe he’s an actor! That would explain why his costume is so good!

…

Mrs. Mulligan was watching her son Jimmy run up to the thirteenth and final house of the night when she felt a light tap on her shoulder. She turned around to see a fair woman in a baby-blue coat standing next to an equally fair little girl in a ballerina costume. “Hi Ruth!” the woman said, holding out her arms for a hug.

“Agnes!” Mrs. Mulligan replied with equal enthusiasm. “I haven’t seen you in ages!”
“Well, Polly here keeps me busy,” Agnes replied, gesturing for her daughter to go get her candy and leave the moms to chat. As soon as Polly was out of earshot, Agnes whispered, “Did you hear that Mrs. Patterson found razor blades in Freddy’s candy earlier?”

“No!” Mrs. Mulligan exclaimed, clasping her pearl necklace. “Oh, who would do such a thing?”
“There are some strange people out there,” Agnes said, shaking her head in disapproval as if the deranged individuals were before her, awaiting her judgment. “I’ve heard those hippies put all sorts of drugs in candy too…”

Just then, they heard a sound that sent a chill down both their spines. It was Polly’s blood-curdling shriek: a cry of pure pain and fear.

“Polly!” Agnes yelled, rushing off toward her child. Moments later, she, too, let out a low, howling yell, this time of despair and horror.

Mrs. Mulligan stood frozen with fear. “Jimmy?” she called out tentatively, praying he was unharmed.

She let out a big sigh of relief when she saw her son walking toward her. “Oh, Jimmy, I’m so glad you’re alright,” she said as she rushed toward him.
Then she stopped. There was a red line down his astronaut suit – no, not a line, a cut, and not into his suit, into his chest. Tears were streaming down his face. She could now see that he was holding a little wooden stake used to secure Halloween decorations into the ground. The tip was covered in something red.
She took a few steps closer. “Jimmy?” She said again, unsure how to make sense of what she was seeing.

The last thing she heard was her son whispering, “Mommy, please help me. He won’t let me stop.”