Happy Halloween!

In honor of Halloween and Samhain, I thought I'd share a wee bit of Halloween-themed flash fiction with you.

What Becomes of Fear
By Damien Walters Grintalis

When the first group of trick or treaters approached the house, Jacob gave Ted a dark look. “Don’t screw this up,” he said before he retreated into the house.

Ted pulled a face at Jacob’s back but took his place, hidden behind the bushes. He waited until the kids stepped up on the porch, the weight of their anticipation heavy in the air. Maybe the gig wouldn’t be so bad. A girl dressed as a witch, her hands painted in streaks of grey and green, knocked on the door. Ted counted to three then leaped out, shrieking boo as he rattled a chain in one hand. The kids howled in unison, their voices swallowing up both the metallic clink and the sound of Ted’s voice, and ran away from the house, fear leaking from their pores.

The door swung open. The orange light over the porch gave Jacob’s features a grim, almost homicidal glow. His breath pushed out clouds of vapor reeking of cigarettes and beer. “That was awesome. Quick, get behind the bushes again. We’ve got more coming.”

The next group didn’t howl, they screamed. Ted felt a pang of regret. They were young, all dolled up as superheroes, fairies, and ballerinas, and the smallest one reminded him of his granddaughter.

But Jacob was footing the bill, after all.

After the last trick or treater had come and gone, smiling on the way in, yelling on the way out, with candy spilling out of his plastic pumpkin like organs from a zombie meal, Jacob flipped off his porch light and stepped outside, a cigarette tucked in the corner of his mouth.

“Why don’t you just turn your porch light off if you don’t want to give out candy?” Ted asked.

“Cause it’s more fun this way. Here,” he said, handing over a twenty--Ted’s tip; the bill had already been paid in advance. “You did a pretty good job.” And with that, he went back inside, locking the door behind him.

With his hands clasped behind his back, Ted waited by the curb. Soon enough, a white car with tinted windows pulled up.

“How did it go?” Melanie, his supervisor, asked after he slid into the back seat.

“Fine, he seemed happy enough.”

“Good. Hopefully he’ll use us again next year. I already have your next job lined up. There’s a guy in Towson who wants his ex-wife out of the house.”

Ted nodded and watched the houses pass by. He wasn’t fond of scaring kids on Halloween or frightening women out of their houses, but the job paid well, and he wanted his granddaughter to go to college.

Of course in his day, if you wanted to find a ghost, you had to go looking for one, not just call a rental outfit and hand over your credit card number. But times changed.

Sometimes for the better; sometimes for the worse.

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I also thought I'd share this video. 'Tis very, very cool. And no, this isn't my house. Unfortunately.