Fangs for letting me in...

The leaves were already starting to fall, covering the small, sleepy town in an orange blanket. Neighbours setting up their front yards with their annual decorations fit for a movie scene. Halloween was near; in fact, it was tonight. Stacy packed the trunk with her belongings and climbed into the driver’s seat, ready to embark on her way to the scariest part of it all; the gym. Reversing out of the driveway, she took one last look at her warm, cosy house, sighed, and drove off.

After a short journey, the gym was in sight. Sitting patiently on the horizon, watching those come and go; the ever-influx of people. She grabbed her bag from the trunk when suddenly a man approached her, startling her tremendously.

While looking at him, she couldn’t help but notice a slight sad tinge to his skin; it was pale and grey and looked like a poorly-painted human mask. It was off-putting. His eyes were sunken, and they twitched; not too visibly, but enough to make Stacy begin to feel nauseous. “May I help you?” she asked, albeit with a shake to her voice. “Why yes, you might” he retorted. “I wonder if I might tell you a joke”. Stacy chuckled; “is this man being serious?” she thought to herself. However, she dared not ask this question out-loud; the man’s repulsiveness was enough to make Stacy hope this was a speedy joke, and one which she could leave for the sanctity of the gym soon. So, despite what might be her real answer, “yes” she replied. The monstrous man seemed overjoyed by this short answer. Had Stacy made a mistake? Had she really answered something else she wondered, as fear filled her veins.”

The man began, “Knock Knock”. Stacy sighed. Is this man really asking a child’s joke? But regardless, she complied. “Who’s there?”. The man’s thin, dry lips began to curl at one end, as if lifeless and pulled by an invisible string. Stacy waited impatiently for his answer. “Fangs”. Stacy felt a horrendous chill run down her spine, like a warning sign from her gut. The air around the two abruptly fell still. It was suddenly just the two of them around. Stacy began to panic. “Fangs who?” she answered. The man’s smirk now was undeniable; it made her stomach flip, and twist, and turn. A detestable stench arose, the air around sickening. Stacy gagged and gasped for some clean air to breathe. “Fangs for letting me in…” Stacy couldn’t help it any longer. She faked a chuckle, thanked the man and ran to the gym. She could not be in this man’s presence, if he even was a man, any longer. She needed the safety of this gym more than ever before. Luckily, she made it. Unluckily, behind her, the man shouted ‘I’ll see you later, yes?” Stacy didn’t answer.

10pm soon came about and Stacy was forced to leave the gym’s comfort to allow it to close. She hurried back to her car and sped home, frantically forcing the keys into the lock and pushing open the door. At last, she was home. Not wanting to step foot outside before she had to, Stacy hadn’t bought any food for dinner on her way home, so she compromised and made herself a noodle cup meal. At least it’s warm she thought to herself. As the night rolled in, and trick-or-treaters lined the streets, Stacy’s fear began to subside and she settled. She lay in front of the television watching films for what felt like hours, occasionally getting up to pour some sweets into the pumpkin buckets and witch bags of the young children.

It was 00:34 now, Halloween officially over although of course still being celebrated. A large crash exploded from the glass back door in the kitchen, startling Stacy. Memories of the afternoon previous began to flood back in as she braced herself, getting up from the sofa and creeping towards the dark, foreboding kitchen. She turned on the light to see a plant pot laying on its side, insides spilling out, as if it was taking its last breath before walking towards the light. Was someone outside? She hurried over towards the back door to make sure it was locked. The idea of the gruesome man coming back for her made her skin crawl like a thousand ants were covering her. Defeatedly, she trailed back to the sofa, waiting for the next commotion.

And she did not have to wait long. Upstairs, there was a sudden gust of wind accompanied by another loud crash. This time, it seemed intentional. Stacy’s blood ran cold. Her heart almost pumping outside of her chest. And her breathing panicked. She bravely climbed the stairs which felt like ascending a mountain of doom and terror, and even death. Reaching the top, it was clear the wind was coming from Stacy’s bedroom. She pushed open the door, creaking slowly, to reveal her bedroom window wide open and her books, originally on her window sill, now scattered around her bedroom floor. One of the books was Dracula. Before Stacy could even process this, another huge gust of wind swam through the house from the guest bedroom; she ran towards it blindly. Again, the window was wide open. There was no one there though. Stacy began to panic now; someone was doing this purposefully. This thought brought back the afternoon’s nausea. “Why would someone be doing this to me?” she said out loud to herself. Almost replying, the doorbell rang. Stacy’s blood ran cold. Again.

She slowly eased her way down the stairs, each step feeling closer and closer to her imminent death. Finally, she had reached the front door, towering over her. She gripped the door handle and, with all her force, pushed it down. Now, there was only one step left - open the door. Trembling, she began to pull it, the light from the porch flooding into the pitch black house. The open door revealed two small children, one dressed as a skeleton and the other as a vampire, both holding half-full pumpkin buckets asking for more candy. Stacy sighed a sigh of relief and laughed. The children shouted “Trick of Treat” and Stacy obliged, delighted at the guests on her front porch. She went back to the sofa after, relieved, and forgetting the prior events. The doorbell rang again. Without thinking, she got up from her safety on the sofa, grabbed the bowl of Halloween candy, and strolled over to the door. She pulled it open. She dropped the bowl.

Stood before her, were not trick-or-treaters. It was a ghastly, nightmarish, and despicable figure. His skin was pale and looked dead. It was tightly stretched around his face, like a mask, although it had come loose near to his left eye, and the skin drooped, more affected by gravity than everything else surrounding it. It appeared like he was wearing a mask of a human face, but poorly crafted and poorly up-kept. It was sickening and revolting. Stacy gasped. The man was maybe six-foot tall, wearing oddly nice and clean clothes considering the monster standing within them. His breath was foul; smelling rotten. His left hand twitched eagerly, as if the monster or man was anticipating something exciting to happen, and definitely not candy! The outside world seemed to pause around him; children could not be heard collecting candy, birds fell silent, the trees even daren't sway behind him. It was like he carried with him a stench of death, one which nature did not even wish to interfere with. 

Stacy knew this man. This was the man from outside the gym. She could feel herself getting light-headed, as if she was about to pass out. A “Knock Knock”, however, spun her back to reality. Aware of the knife, and of the repulsiveness of the man on her front porch, she replied, “Who’s there?”. “Fangs”. Stacy gagged. “Fa-Fangs W-Who?” she shakily retorted. The man once again smirked, but this time it was even more disgusting and evil than before. The skin mask seemed to pry open, revealing two long thin purple lips and that same awful stench. His grin let out a laugh, one of pure evil. 

“Fangs for letting me in.”

His lips opened more while he spoke this, allowing Stacy to see two sharp-looking teeth in place of his canines. Stacy realised what she had done - she had invited him into her house. He was a vampire! She backed away from the door, trying to get a head start to run away. But she remembered she had locked the back door and would need to start running now to have time to unlock it. But it was too late. The man, creature, monster, vampire lunged forward, only needing to take two large steps into the dark house, and he grabbed her by her shoulders. Stacy began to cry for help, but her heart beat too fast to be able to make a coordinated scream for assistance. The monster covered her mouth with his hands, which looked like claws, anyways. Her skin began to sweat with fear, yet was stone-cold to touch, also from fear. She felt dizzy, and her breathing laboured.

The man looked into her eyes, almost like someone admiring the plate in front of them at a restaurant before diving in to devour it. Stacy knew it was hopeless. This was her fate now. She closed her eyes in anticipation as the man forced her head upwards to reveal her clean neck. Red hot pain flooded her neck. It felt like her whole body was on fire. She opened her eyes to see the man had pierced her with his fangs. He was drinking her blood. Shock overcame her and she fell limp. The man continued to drink.

When he had finished and was satisfied with his meal, he let go of her body, which collapsed to the ground. He backed away. The darkness of the house swallowed her up. The loathsome creature walked towards the porch, his footsteps dragging. He turned around one last time to look at her, lying there spiritless. The man, remembering his joke from earlier, gave out one last tremendous cackle, causing the birds sitting silent on the trees to scramble away in fear. He found himself so hilarious. And with that, he sped off into the dark streets, blending in with the trick-or-treaters in costumes, who had seemingly come back to life.

The joke, however, was not funny nor hilarious to Stacy, who was lying by her open front door unconscious, and with two ominous holes left in her neck. The man, or the creature rather, had taken his joke, absolutely too far.

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