You know, it took me a while to understand why the movie Halloween was called Halloween. It's about a murderer killing people and ostensibly could have occurred on any other night. Until I realized… only on Halloween could someone go around a suburban town dressed like a lunatic and not attract any unwanted attention, even if they were grotesquely out of the normal or covered in blood. I guess I should have taken that to heart.

Another problem with Halloween is what do you do when you’re a college kid? It's weird to dress up and go house to house asking for candy, but when you’re not the sort of person who goes to big parties you’re left with few options.

My friends and I decidedly weren’t the kind of people who go to big parties. We three were the quiet bunch. Sure, we’d go for a bit bad tasting drinks that make us feel good now and then like everyone, but not in the overblown huge parties that dotted the campus. We were comfy just keeping it between us. Well, mostly.

My other friends Martin and Grace also happened to be a couple, which occasionally made things awkward for me as their third wheel, but we seemed to manage okay.

On Halloween night we’d begun our normal route around downtown:

Get a free donut for being in costume.

Get a discounted burrito for being in costume.

Get free wings for being in costume.

Get a free cookie.

I supposed that was one of the perks of living in a college town. We got something akin to an adult trick or treat. Still, most of the others around us were either doing what we did but drunk off their ass or heading to bars, so they could become drunk off their ass.

 We had hit up just about every place that would give us free food and were finally tuckering out as we headed back to the parking lot.

“Look out!” Martin shouted as a squirrel ran across the street, making Grace and I jump.

“Jerk!” Grace said jokingly as she pulled closer to Martin. I was wishing I’d picked something a bit warmer than Peter Pan as my costume and could see why Grace had leveraged the moment to gain some warmth.

“Hey, can we just start the car and turn up the heat?” I asked Martin as we pulled up to his car.

He was dressed as Van Helsing which meant a nice heavy coat to protect him from the elements. Even Grace’s vampire outfit came with a flowy cape she could drape around her shoulders. I was stuck there with just an oversized green polo and tights.

“Yes Peter, of course, Peter,” Martin shot back, making his voice sound like the characters in that old peter pan movie.

I sat shivering in the back seat as we pulled out of the parking lot and made our way home. We lived on Riverbend Parkway, which as you can imagine follows the river right at its bend. Being third years we were happy to live off-campus, and being around nature was a nice relaxer for the three of us.

But Riverbend did have some windy roads, so it wasn’t that big a shock when we witnessed a wreck.

An older sedan flew by us with only its running lights on, and because it couldn’t see the upcoming turn smashed head-on into a tree only a few feet behind us.

“Shit!” the three of us exclaimed in unison. Martin put on the breaks and turned around with his hazards on and his brights, (didn’t want anyone else hitting us and making it worse).

I hopped out of the car and rushed over to the driver side. Steam was coming out of the front of the car, so I was pretty sure an explosion wasn’t imminent, but the crumple zones had most certainly crumpled, and I wanted to make sure everyone was okay.

The driver-side window was completely shattered so I was able to sort of poke my head in using the flashlight on my phone to see.

I was met with a very pale middle-aged man. He had wrinkles on his forehead that showed his age, but his skin was nonetheless taught. His black hair was giving way to grey but in that George Clooney sort of way. He was probably my dad’s age or slightly older.

“Sir, are you alright? Is everything okay?” I asked him, worried when he didn’t seem to be reacting to the light I was shining on him. Just as I was about to pull away and call for help his eyes shot open.

“Why do you always have to bring the lights so close?” the man remarked I guess to himself. He didn’t sound like a guy who had nearly died.

I went to pull the light away from his face, but as I was moving, he seemed to vanish. When I realized where he was next, I figured it was more like super speed as I felt the wind behind him. Then I felt a sharp pain on my neck.

“Fuck!” I screamed more shocked than anything as this man had just bitten my neck. But then I almost instantly started feeling light-headed. “Fuuuuuck…” I mumbled as I fell myself fall to the ground, unable to move.

This is one of those point of view shots in movies where the camera is on the ground at a sideways angle as the action plays out in front of it.

I somewhat remember a loud shriek from Grace, then a thump as I saw her hit the ground just within my field of view. Then I think Martin made something like a battle roar, there were some more whacks and at that point, I think I must have slipped out of consciousness.

blue98

Okay, I'm like really proud of the cover art I did for this one. So please give me love for it ?.