Of October

Skeletons

OCTOBER 31

8:59 P.M.

She'll freak out when she'll notice she's alone now, I thought with a grin. It's not that I didn't like Automne; she was nice and funny, but sometimes she was a bit intense and it got on my nerves. Plus, it was smarter to look for the pages on our own—it was also fair for Verano since he had a chance to catch one of us more easily now. I was pretty sure that was what he had waited for... and I secretly hoped that he would find me first.

Thinking about us two hidden inside his closet, I couldn't keep my body from reacting to the pleasant memory. His massage, our closeness, our kiss, our touching... Shit, I wanted to fuck him so bad.

Did I feel guilty? Yes. Automne was still my friend, and I hated to do that with her boyfriend behind her back. But it had been spontaneous, and we'd only kissed and touched anyway. Besides, it was clear between Verano and me that what happened in the closet would stay in the closet.

"Shit, where am I?" I was so distracted—and high on drugs—that I had completely lost track of where I was going. Somehow I had left the town and was now walking on some narrow road in the forest.

Wondering where this would lead me, I kept walking in the dark until I saw a blueish white light on top of a small hill. As I got closer and saw long shapes standing in rows on the other side of a fence, I understood two things: it was a graveyard, and there was someone in the graveyard.

I hid behind the brick wall on the left of the gate and peeked. Winter?

She stood with her flashlight among the tombstones. I could hear her speak. Who the hell was she talking to?

Squinting, I finally managed to see who she was talking to. There were two people facing her, each standing behind a stone. But they weren't Verano and Automne.

I almost called out her name, but something—fear?—stopped me. The scene was just too unreal. I had to watch longer to try and understand who she was talking to. And why in a graveyard, of all places?

Suddenly Winter started crying, so I decided to head over... and that was when I saw all the other people in the graveyard.

They were translucid. They were dead people. Ghosts. Or hallucinations created by my high brain, I didn't know for sure.

"Oh, shit." Fear got the best of me, and so I ran.

"Haru!" I heard her voice from somewhere far behind me but I kept running. That was too fucked up.

After a few minutes, I had to stop short: the road split in two, and I couldn't remember which way I had come from. I wasn't just high; I also had the shittiest sense of direction.

So I took right and jogged until I wounded up in an empty yard behind a very familiar architecture: the town's church. It looked like the one in Crowlake, but older and decrepit.

Taking ragged breaths, I slowed down and walked along its brick wall. For no reason, I looked through one of the windows—and immediately felt a shot of dread and adrenaline as a shadow flew past the window.

"Automne?" I wondered out loud, reaching the front of the church. Had she really been staying inside the whole time I was gone?

The heavy wooden door opened on a tall figure wearing a black cloak and a white, blank mask. Not Automne.

"Fuck." I quickly hid behind the building's corner and stood still, hating myself for having run so much. My breathing was quick and faintly audible, and there was nowhere I could hide if the faceless person decided to...

Come this way. Fuck. I was so terrified I didn't even wait for them to find me and ran behind the church and almost missed something: a back door. I opened it without thinking and it closed behind me as I descended the dark stairs. I could see a dim light below, so I carefully proceeded until my feet finally touched the concrete of the basement.

For a moment, I just stood there in uncertainty and disbelief. It was like an ancient temple you saw in movies, with arching ceilings and torches. It also smelled kind of weird...

"Fuck!" I jumped and almost pissed myself: a rotten skeleton sat against the wall. I looked around and noticed there were more of them here and there. Red flag.

As I explored the quiet and open rooms, there were more and more skeletons—tombs, too. I was in a fucking crypt, and it made me realize one thing.

"Everyone—the whole town is dead..." My low voice echoed off the walls; for a second, I worried that someone had heard me. But there was nobody down here, except me and, well, all the dead residents of the town. But wait: something didn't add up. And the smell was very weird.

I sat on the cold concrete and thought. If the town got both a cemetery and a crypt, which one was sheltering the residents' corpses? Were the skeletons actually the residents' ones? Had they been locked inside the crypt and starved to death? But then I pictured the ghosts I had seen in the graveyard. Unless I had made them up, ghosts usually hung around graveyards, most likely if their bodies rested there. Right? Why was I even thinking about this kind of thing anyway?

But my mind just wouldn't stop: there was definitely something shady going on. If the residents were buried in the graveyard, then the skeletons weren't theirs. I lifted my head and my eyes fell on a tomb facing me. Another old, brownish skeleton sat next to it.

Whose bodies are inside these tombs?

I decided to open one tomb at random, just to put my mind at ease. But it did the total opposite.

"WHAT THE FUCK!"

There was a girl. A naked girl, with skin and hair but no face. Just a wide, dark, bloody hole. And bugs, too. Just like the dead girl in the car.

A fly landed on my face. I screamed and fell on my ass and crawled the furthest I could, away from the tomb. My back bumped against something solid... and warm.

I slowly looked up and stared back at a blank face that leaned over me, still and silent. I felt the blood leave my face and warm urine flooding my pants as terror paralyzed me.

"That yours?" said a deep voice under the mask. Showed me something familiar in his gloved hand.

Screaming, I sprang to my feet and ran. My panic doubled when I realized I didn't know where to go—was there even a way out of the crypt? There were only pillars and skeletons and tombs and more pillars and walls and—

There! I turned right at the last second and ran down the long and straight tunnel, deeper and deeper into the darkness. But then I finally reached the end... and I was stuck.

There was a door. Locked. I banged my fists on it, cursing helplessly. Why wouldn't it open?!

I heard footsteps and swiftly turned around. All I could see was a shadow with a white face moving toward me. Before I could register what was happening, something hit me on the head. I collapsed, colorful dots swarming my vision. My head hurt, everything hurt.

Another blow struck me. The last thing I saw was the yellow golf ball rolling next to me, and then nothing.