Halloween Hex Appeal by Reed Rosie

Author:Reed, Rosie [Reed, Rosie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rosie Reed
Published: 2021-05-03T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-One

The Long Barn’s name was also its description. It was a long, refurbished barn, with high ceilings and wooden floors, which held about two-hundred people. My late-mum Marilyn had often hired it out for wedding receptions, birthday parties, and other happy celebrations.

But tonight, on Halloween, something felt a bit... off. There was an edginess in the air – a dangerous excitement. Even the DJ’s mirror ball and strobe lights seemed to be taunting me. I could see vague shadows skirting around in the dark corners, and I prayed it was just a trick of the light – dreading what might be lurking there otherwise.

I swallowed my fear, steeled myself, and stood tall. This was my party, and I refused to be intimidated by... disco lights.

The venue looked great though, despite my own enhanced creepy feelings. I was so impressed with Leia’s decorations – the Long Barn looked amazing. She’d displayed the pumpkins, apples, and conkers on trestle tables around the room, and interspersed little cardboard ghosts, vampires, and witches that she’d made from toilet rolls, pipe cleaners, and scraps of material. Blue Peter would’ve been proud.

And the giant spider’s web she’d made from a football goal net looked really cool – especially the huge homemade hairy spider. The DJ had set up his smoke machine behind it, making the whole thing waft every now and again, and making the people nearby jump.

There was food and drink aplenty. Mrs McTreacle from the local confectioner’s had donated her traditional homemade bonfire toffee, along with an antique toffee-hammer. I was grateful for her generosity. However, I’d always felt that any confectionary that needed a wrought-iron hammer to break it into edible chunks, could only be bad news for my fillings.

I hadn’t really wanted to dress up, but Leia had insisted – so here I was surveying the Long Barn, dressed in a boilersuit and gripping a cardboard bazooka. I was supposed to be Ellen Ripley from Alien. But I probably looked like a trigger-happy plumber who’d wandered into the wrong room by mistake.

My excitement built as the time ticked by. Before I knew it, the place was heaving, and the large windows were steaming up like the shower scene in Psycho. There were about two-hundred guests here tonight, and I was delighted that they’d all made such an effort with their costumes. There were a few people dressed as characters from the Rocky Horror Show, wearing stilettoes and suspenders – all men, obviously. Some guests were dressed as your basic witch or wizard, whilst others had come as characters from horror films – such as the hockey-mask wearer in Halloween, the Scream mask guy, and a couple of Freddie Kruegers.

None of that would ordinarily scare me, but the lights were low and the music was loud, meaning two of my main senses were diminished. The air tasted metallic – a primitive mixture of fear and excitement. My very bones sensed trouble ahead. Not from the humans, but from the leather-clad supercool dudes who were now slouching casually against the walls of the Long Barn, like extras from The Wild One.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.