They brought home 15 beautiful orange pumpkins from the farm up north of Seattle. One for each step down to their front walk way and several for the front porch. They loved Halloween and fall decorating. They were going to carve the pumpkins right before trick or treating so they wouldn’t rot and so the squirrels wouldn’t eat them. They didn’t know yet that one of the pumpkins was a little different than the rest.
The night before Halloween they laid out newspapers and scoopers and trays for the seeds and got some pencils to draw faces to carve. 15 was a lot of pumpkins to carve so they got to work. Some of the faces were simple. Others were more elaborate with slanted eyebrows and wild eyes and sharp teeth. They even did one of the dog just for fun. They were about halfway through the 15 pumpkins, seeds and guts everywhere starting to soak through the newspapers onto the table. They were drinking mulled wine and eating candy corn. It was good fun.
They had on a spooky tunes playlist in the background and Thriller had just come on. They were really into the carving now, each face getting a little sillier and more elaborate than the one before. Their hands and arms were sticky with guts and seeds. They were almost down to the last pumpkin. The special pumpkin.
One of them went to pick it up and it nearly rolled out of her arms onto the living room floor. “That’s strange” she said. “It felt like it moved.” She carried the rotund amber gourd to the dining table and set it down. She picked up a pencil to start drawing but before she could something strange started to happen. Lines started to appear on the front of the pumpkin. Shapes and patterns were slowly being traced and started to form the outline of a face. A face they didn’t know. They stared incredulously at the pumpkin as a slight chill crawled up their spines. Thriller continued to play loudly in the background.
Suddenly the shapes began shooting out of the pumpkin into the room one by one. Two eyes. A nose. A mouth. Forming a demonic visage from the table top. An eery greenish-yellow glow shining from behind the openings. Pumpkin seeds began to grow out of the top and bottom of the mouth forming a ghoulish and sinister smile.
The pumpkin began to rock and rattle shaking the entire wooden dining table. Seeds and juicy scraps spilling onto the floor in gloppy piles. It was a total mess but they were mesmerized by the reanimatory show unfolding before them.
At once wee bits of toughened straw poked violently through the sides and bottom of the pumpkin forming bony appendages. Covered in tattered Levi’s and faded red plaid manifested the shape of a tall and skinny man.
Suddenly, the burgeoning pumpkin-man flew from the table in a flash and landed in the middle of the living room rug. He was crouched down on all fours breathing slowly, deliberately. Waiting.
Disbelief and horror stung their faint hearts. They couldn’t believe their eyes. What was in that mulled wine!? This must be a nightmare.
Slowly the pumpkin man stood up and turned to face his innocent audience. His body turned first, rotating fully abreast while the head stayed in place. And with a creek and a crack the mellon-headed monster slowly twisted around to reveal a rakish smile. Sinewy guts hanging from the blackened squash-seed teeth. Their eyes grew wide in horror as the smile stretched the width of his face.
“Hi. I’m Jack” he said. He held his left arm behind his back like a child hiding dirty hands from a parent. With a flick his arm flew out from behind his back to reveal the butchers knife from the table clutched in his straw fingers. He paused. Then leapt toward the two ingenues as he bellowed a high pitched sinister cackle.
What happens next dear reader? In no more than four paragraphs write the ending to this tale and post it in the comments.
Happy Halloween. Mewahahahahaha!
