Halloween from the Other Side by Gregg Sapp

Author:Gregg Sapp
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: halloween, humor in fiction, satire in fiction, best contemporary literary fiction, holidays, humorous and satirical fiction
Publisher: Evolved Publishing LLC
Published: 2019-09-09T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

Delphyne Shadow’s annual Nightmare Bash had become a much-anticipated social occasion in the greater Columbus metro area, on the scale of the Doo Dah Parade, the Obetz Zucchinifest, and Dime-A-Dog Night at the ballpark. Like Delphyne herself, the Bash emerged from the death-metal Goth scene and initially attracted a core of phreaks and fetishists who celebrated Halloween as validation of their lifestyle. Delphyne crafted her persona as an embodiment of the macabre weirdness of the Goths, albeit with her own infectious charisma, hints of delight and wickedness, and an eerie sexuality that was so over the top—baby-doll bride of Frankenstein, cave woman as a Playboy bunny, etc.—that it passed for PG-13. During those early years, she held the Bash in the rented gymnasium of the old Bellows Avenue Elementary School, where guests had to sign liability waivers as a condition of entrance. Soon the Bash outgrew that venue and moved to the Outland Club on Liberty Avenue. There, she introduced the Guilty Pleasures Phantasmagoria stage show, which, billed as an “Immorality Play,” local media reviewed as “can’t miss” and “like nothing you’ve ever seen in this life, or any life.” By the mid 1990s, the Bash had transcended its cult origins to become a gala mainstream event that attracted the elite of central Ohio’s society and beyond, from as far as Dayton, Toledo, and Wheeling. Even though the admission fee started at $100, many curious, hopeful, and upwardly mobile folks gladly paid that price in the hopes some of the magic might rub off on them and that they, too, might become a part of the story.

Delphyne bragged that she could fill Ohio Stadium to its eighty-thousand-plus capacity for the Bash, but she preferred to keep it at a manageable size to guarantee an intense and animated, but not overwhelming, experience for all. And so that she could guarantee every guest that they would have a chance to take a photo with her for a nominal fee—starting at $250 and going up to $1000 for a shot of her kissing a cheek.

It was thus a stunner to Delphyne’s legion of fans when she announced that she was hosting the Nightmare Bash at an ordinary Halloween shop in a shoddy mall in a lower middle-class neighborhood on the north side of Columbus. Why? What was she thinking? Delphyne marketed the All Hallows’ Eve Shoppe as “the most haunted place in town,” and promised a night “worthy of eternal damnation.” If anything, the peculiar choice of venue generated even greater publicity.

The advance work for the Bash was more complicated than Solomon had imagined. The Y2K-inspired theme for the 1999 Gala Millennium Nightmare Bash of Debauchery at the All Hallows’ Eve Shoppe was “Dancing at the Apocalypse.” For the first time, Delphyne had struck a deal with a local cable channel to televise the entire event live and unfiltered. Although Delphyne handled all business negotiations personally, she involved Solomon to the degree that she needed him to sign off on various permits and to hash out details with contractors.

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