2013-10-06 10:00:18One of my most vivi
d childhood memories was of a haunted house in the neighborhood when I was young. It was the artificial variety. The guys who ran it where most likely high school students—certainly way older than me and my friends. These guys went all out. They had grave stones in the yard. Some dead guy hanging from a tree (and he was active, meaning he moved), lightning, and spooky music. It worked. It was really scary, at least to a little kid. Oh, did I mention the monster that reached out from the bushes and grabbed your feet? You could hear the girls screaming from a block away when that monster was out. And if you survived the gauntlet, you had to go up on the porch. They’d replaced the regular door with one with an opening for some creepy hand with claws. And that’s how you got your candy.
I don’t know how long this had been going on. I do know that I was on my first trick or treat with my friends and no more parents and we were free to venture beyond the block we lived on. All the kids we ran into were talking about this cool haunted house. I made it about halfway up the sidewalk. Then the lightning flashed, and the monster reached out and tried to grab me and I was off. The dead guy hanging from the tree made a grab for me as I tore past him. It’s a wonder I didn’t knock over one of the tombstones. My recollection was about half the kids were fleeing without any candy.
So, I found myself alone out on the street. My friends had all gone up and gotten their candy. I was surely going to be labeled a fraidy cat. I gathered my remaining courage and went back up to the house, staying well clear of the monster in the bushes. I got my candy and rejoined my friends. Wow, I’d done it. It was all we talked about until we had to go home.
And, the next year, we all boasted how we were going to the haunted house first. And it was there, or the house was anyway. But there was nothing haunted about it. Just a nice lady handing out candy. “What happened to the haunted house?” she was asked by every group, including ours.
“The boys have moved on,” was the only reply. Whatever that meant.
So, I don’t know who these guys were, but they showed me how much fun Halloween could be. I still think of that haunted house every year about this time.
TODAY’S GIVEAWAY: David is offering one free print copy of Gunslingers & Ghost Stories and one free print copy of Steampunk Trails, which he publishes and which made its debut on October 1.
Giveaway Rules: Enter for the prize by posting in the comments section. Winners will be chosen at random and notified by e-mail. You may enter once for each giveaway, and all entrants may be considered for other giveaways if they don’t win on the day they post. If you would like to comment without being entered for the giveaway, include “Not a Giveaway Entry” at the end of your post. You may also enter by e-mailing memoutreach@horror.org and putting HH CONTEST ENTRY in the header.
DAVID B. RILEY is a Colorado based author and editor. He has written over 100 short stories that have appeared in various anthologies and magazines. He is the editor of four western horror anthologies. The most recent one is Gunslingers & Ghost Stories. His blog is http://sftrails.blogspot.com/ and many of his stories are available from his Amazon page http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B002BLR3SI.
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