Stardust

The Veil Between the Worlds

Stardust: The Veil Between the Worlds

Jake Gallagher

I couldn't help but to feel like I was in the middle of a monster soiree in some Scooby Doo Halloween special. I was waiting for the Mystery Machine to come barreling down the hall, and Fred to whisk me away in all of his ascot-wearing glory... but that wouldn't happen because, despite how imaginative my head may be, Fred did not exist and I highly doubted that some van doused in wild graffiti would crash through the wall of my high school. Nonetheless, the halls were like a smorgasbord of nightmarish creatures and terrifying faces straight out of the Scooby Doo chronicles. Every student chit chatting in the halls was dressed in some different type of ghoulish costume, from snarling werewolves to sultry temptresses that really had no business showing that much skin at school. I thought this was utterly ridiculous. The only reason I even decided to wear a hockey mask as homage to the killer Jason was because the teachers were writing down everyone who dressed up and those students wouldn't have homework for the rest of the week. Considering i was only Wednesday, I would be more than happy not to have work for the weekend.

Every corridor of my high school felt like a tunnel of Halloween madness.  By the main entrance, there was a machine with a gypsy and crystal ball in it. Brennyn humored me by sticking a quarter in, and the animatronic fortune teller groaned, "You will receive a fortune cookie in the near future." I thought it was funny until Brennyn chased me through the halls. She only stopped once I reimbursed her quarter. While I was running from the zombie cheerleader, that being Brennyn, I couldn't help but notice all of the black and orange streamers strung on every inch of the walls, jars of eyeballs and other organs on top of all the lockers, and webs with giant spiders dangling from the ceiling. This girl from my Geometry class had an asthma attack when one of the spiders fell in her wig. A piece of a web went up my nose, but I was too mortified to get caught picking my nose in public, so I tried my best not to let the tingling sensation bother me.

Timed like clockwork, the "Monster Mash" started playing from the PA. The old secretary put on a different song between each class, and I swore I could hear her maniacal laughter beneath the music. She was dressed as a mental patient, but I wouldn't consider it a costume. It's actually the daily attire she'll wear upon admittance to the nearest asylum. She's a legitimate psycho.

I was walking down the hall to get to sixth hour when a howling pack of senior footballers came bum-rushing down the hall. They were all wearing hairy masks with their letterman jackets, so I guessed that they were jock werewolves. The quarterback, Aaron, snatched up a girl with bunny ears and pretended to bite her neck. The crimson blush of her cheeks showed that she enjoyed it more than she should have. Ugh, teens with all of their horny, gross hormones-

I was mid-thought when a shrill scream loud enough to break glass was heard, and, if I didn't know any better, I wouldn't have realized that the scream actually came from me.

"Ethan, you psychopath!" I wailed, swatting him away from me. He bit my shoulder... hard.

"Sorry, did that hurt?" Ethan asked, muffled by the faux vampire fangs in his mouth. Despite asking, there was no sincerity at all because that mocking chime in his voice was ever present. Before I could unload my frustration on him, he took off darting down the hall with his velvet cape trailing behind him. He looked like a knock-off Dracula.

I miraculously regained my composure even with people staring at me because of my embarrassing scream, and I found my way to Astronomy class without drawing even more attention to myself, though, I did almost get lost in the haze of orange, black, and spider webs.