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Anna Wilkins has never, ever in her entire life, celebrated Halloween.
In fact, she never remotely believed in anything of the sort. Ghosts, monsters? They were merely myths that normal, or perhaps slightly schizophrenic humans came up with. Trick-or-treating, dumb and meaningless pranks that teenagers carrried out for the sake of scaring each other?
She had better things to do than that.
Unfortunately for Anna, she just so happened to live in a neighborhood where everyone was content with this celebration, or rather, its origin - the Samhain Festival.
Samhain was what people deemed as the father of Halloween.
Every year, souls of the dead would come back on the very last day of October and revisit their past homes. Family members of the deceased would be waiting at the dinner table with an empty place, where their loved ones would then be seated at, enjoying the big feast that was specifically prepared for them. Many people saw this as an opportunity to disguise themselves with costumes and go door-to-door in hopes of exchanging food.
With that, the act of trick-or-treating was born.
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Anna trudged along the cold, rough surface of the concrete sidewalk, inspecting those on the road with an unimpressed look. She was surrounded by myriad children dressed up in all sorts of costumes one could possibly imagine. They were running around the neighborhood in joy, knocking on every single door to make sure that they gathered all the sweets they could have. She was fully conscious of the scrutiny written all over her face, and even took it upon herself to voice her disapproval out loud.
"You losers know that Halloween is not real right?" She taunted, hoping for a reaction.
Much to her disappointment, no one spared her a single glance. Perhaps they were too caught up with counting their endless pit of Halloween candy, or maybe they were simply unbothered by her negativity. Seeing how her words had created no effect on the children upon the ecstatic, Anna moved on with her path back home.
While she continued walking down the streets, the sun slowly made its way behind the horizon. Through the windows, she quietly observed as her neighbors began to set up their dining tables as usual. The only difference was that this time, they did it with meticulous care.
It was obvious what all the extra attention was for. The Samhain Festival.
There was no doubt about it.
"I don't understand," Anna sighed, "This is nothing but a ridiculous myth."
It wasn't as though Anna had never lost a loved one before and truth be told, if she was given the opportunity to see them again, even just for once, she would grasp it without hesitation. Her issue with the Samhain Festival was the way people reacted to it. They had to be delusional if they truly believed that leaving an empty seat at the dinner table had the ability to summon the dead.
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Anna arrived at the front gate of her house at the eleventh hour, barely missing the mark for curfew. The loud noise of her stomach grumbling served as a reminder that it was time for dinner. As soon as she opened the door, Anna was immediately greeted by the aroma of her mother's cooking that was wafting through the autumn breeze.
"Dinner smells good, Mom." She commented, giving her mother a smile.
Anna watched in bewilderment as her mother continued with her cooking. She acted as if her daughter had not spoken at all. Despite being slightly baffled by the lack of response, she still decided that leaving her mother alone would be the best solution for now.
"I'll just let you get back to uh- all this," She said hastily.
Just as she was about to return to her room, she could not help but notice all the decorations around the house. Her family had never used to put effort in spicing up their living space for Halloween, or any sort of festive occasion as a matter of fact. Then, what was so special about this year?
Cornucopias and baskets galore could be seen all over the dining table, neatly placed around the centerpiece, which was none other than the jack-o-lantern. The splash of orange at the center was nothing but blinding to her eyes. She shifted her gaze to the dusty altar that rested in her living room, where the eerie sight of skulls and grave rubbings on top sent more than enough shivers down her spine.
Anna was done with the over the top decorations her parents had suddenly put up. Did they do this deliberately to mess with her? If that was their intention, it was not a very good joke.
She headed back to the dining room, ready to confront her parents, only to find them already seated at the table.
"Mom, what is up with all the decorations?" Anna questioned.
Rather than getting a response, she was greeted with complete and utter silence. Her mother, who was accompanied by her father this time, continued to pay no attention to her.
"Mom? Dad?" Anna demanded, starting to lose her patience.
"Is this some sort of punishment? What did I even do wrong?"
Anna's face was red with suppressed rage. It seemed like no matter what she did, her parents could not be bothered to give her a single response. Her fists began to clench, and her knuckles turned visibly white. The unbroken silence of her parents only fueled the fire that was burning inside of her. She could feel herself gradually submitting to her anger, losing grip on the last bit of patience that was left in her.
"Why won't you look at me?" Anna cried.
Suddenly, her mother let out a loud, piercing scream which was then followed by a deafening cry. Anna watched as her father wrapped his arm around his wife instinctively, placing a light kiss on her forehead in the process. It was obvious that they were both devastated, one of them more expressive than the other - she just didn't know why.
"My sweet Anna... you did not deserve this."
Her trial of thoughts was interrupted by her mother's words. Anna had never seen her mother like this - all broken and fragile. There was nothing but hollowness behind those tears. She was just about to retaliate when she realised that instead of looking at her daughter, her mother's gaze was set firmly on the empty seat across from her.
Then it hit her.
Everything suddenly made sense. Her parents ignoring her, the Halloween decorations – the explanation had been in front her eyes the entire time.
Through the alarming silence came a shriek that chilled her with horror. Her sudden realization was accompanied by a look of sheer terror. Anna froze on the spot, unable to let out any words. A lone tear escaped from the corner of her eye as she stared at the woman weeping in front of her. Her earlier frustration was replaced by an overwhelming surge of emotions and devastation that hurt nothing less than a gun shot.
"Eat up, sweetheart," her mother whispered, "I'll be waiting here for you next October."
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a/n:
hello humans! yes, I am very much alive. this story is actually both a school assignment and a submission for a compulsory writing contest my teacher is making us join. the theme of the contest is basically the title - "festival", because I was too lazy to come up with something else lol. anyways, I hope you enjoyed this short piece and I'll see you again when my brain juice flows back. x
