Page 19 of The Girl on Hallow's Eve

A dark hood and inky gloves conceal everything but foreboding height. Far taller than Gloria. Far taller than the clerk. The size of the figure tells her it’s a man, but that’s all. He takes another step closer and pauses. Mindy feels held in place by the empty void beneath the hood. She wonders who it is, if she knows him. She knows a few of the kids they know from school also got invitations and brought along others. They wanted to meet up as a whole group, but tonight was about her and Gloria. Maybe they’d meet up with everybody later, but that was all the commitment they gave.

It could be one of the guys. They think they’re funny. They like to try to prank each other and scare the girls.

“Ryan, is that you?” Mindy asks.

The hooded head shakes slowly back and forth. He takes a step closer and Mindy feels her heart jump slightly.

“Trevor?” she asks.

The head shakes again and one of the gloved hands dips into the pocket at the front of his hooded sweatshirt.

“Okay. I’m not really in the mood to play a guessing game right now. Gloria’s been in the dressing room all night and I can’t find anybody to help me in this store. So,” she waves her hands around, mocking fear, “ooooh, you got me. I’m spooked. Is that what you wanted?”

The head nods and she lets out an aggravated sound, sitting down to start untying the laces twisting around her ankle and across her foot. She expects whomever it is behind the hood to get bored with her not giving him the kind of reaction he wants and push the hood back, telling her she isn’t any fun or laughing at her and running away. It would be like so many other days spent in the hallways of the high school. One thing Gloria and Mindy learned when Gloria made it into the upper echelons and then brought Mindy up with her is that the popular crowd really aren’t as smooth and sophisticated as they always envisioned themselves to be. Especially Gloria.

They believed those people to be the coolest, most worldly, and most mature of anyone. They had to be so far beyond their years, so much more than the average kids who existed around the middle of society, and definitely more than the outcasts down at the bottom. As it turns out, that really isn’t the case. Maybe they tend to have better clothes and take more time on their hair and makeup. Maybe they drive more expensive cars and have more freedom than most other kids. But that’s really about the families they come from rather than anything else.

When it comes right down to it, the boys are just as likely to play a stupid joke or flip a cheerleader’s skirt up in the hallway, and the girls are just as likely to jump through hoops to get attention when they aren’t getting it.

But the hooded figure doesn’t show his face or let out a cackle and run away. He moves his hand from inside his pocket and for the first time, Mindy sees the knife. It takes only the catch of her breath for her to process the glaze of red across the blade. She screams as she leaps out of the chair and tries to run. Wearing the single shoe throws her off-balance, but she didn’t loosen the ties enough to kick the shoe off. Instead, she tries to compensate as she rushes away from where he’s rapidly approaching.

As she passes tall, spinning displays of costume jewelry, Mindy slows down enough to shove them over, creating obstacles in his path. He’s close behind her. One of the displays hits him as it goes down, briefly knocking him back. It gives her a brief moment to run.

The display didn’t hit him hard enough to cause any real damage or even knock him to the ground. He’ll be after her again in a matter of seconds. She uses the time to duck down behind the nearest cash register counter. Instantly she knows why the clerk was no longer available to help.

The woman lies on her side on the gray carpeting, her eyes fixed ahead of her, a gaping hole in her chest no longer bleeding.

Mindy’s hand flies to her mouth to muffle the scream trying desperately to come out. She can’t let it. She can’t risk him hearing her. And she can’t stay there for much longer. The hiding spot is obvious. If he notices it, he’ll likely come to look behind it.

But she can’t move. Fear keeps her anchored right where she is. She feels like her lungs aren’t taking in any air and every inch of her body tingles with the rush of adrenaline and terror. The compulsion of childhood to squeeze her eyes closed and pretend nothing else exists and no one can see her washes over her. Mindy had always felt like she was invisible when she was younger. She’d never wanted to feel that way again more than she did in that moment.

Thoughts of Gloria flashing through her head get Mindy moving again. She has to find her. She can’t just leave her. Keeping her eyes diverted from the clerk and taking a deep breath to steady herself, Mindy darts out of her place behind the counter and runs at a diagonal deeper into the store, keeping herself low to the ground so she can stay as concealed as she can behind the racks of clothes. The dressing room is only a few more yards away.

It’s like the floor is stretching out as she runs, doubling with every step so she doesn’t get any closer to the dressing room entrance where she last heard Gloria’s voice. She can hear heavy footsteps reverberating around the store as he follows her. Mindy wants to look behind her to see where the hooded man is, but she can’t bring herself to do it. She has one goal. One intention. She has to get to Gloria.

She finally gets to the entrance and runs to duck behind the empty counter where an attendant would be if the store were formally open. Her body tenses as she disappears into the space, afraid of what she might find there, but there’s nothing except a rolling chair unlikely to ever get much use. The footsteps are coming closer. He’s going to reach the dressing room soon and it won’t be difficult to find her. She can’t change her mind now. She can’t leave the dressing room area now. Even if she was willing to leave Gloria behind, she would be in full view if she left.

Mindy notices a door at the front of the counter and pulls the handle. It opens a large, empty cabinet that will eventually hold supplies but still hasn’t been fully set up. But that’s exactly how she needs it to be. Climbing inside, she pulls the door closed and tucks herself as far back into the darkness as she can. She tries to control her breath so that he can’t hear her. Now she can close her eyes and let herself feel invisible as the footsteps come close and she hears the doors to each of the dressing room stalls open in turn.

Sherwood

Sam’s hand is in my lap the second I sit on the couch beside him. It would be far more scandalous if there wasn’t a massive bowl of popcorn there. He snags a handful and shoves as much of it in his mouth as will fit. Rather than going for just our usual melted butter and salt, I decided to lean into the fall flavors and drizzled it with homemade caramel instead. Sam nods appreciatively when he realizes the difference.

With the bowl of caramel corn in my lap and a cup of hot apple cider sitting on the table beside me, I look like I’m all prepared for another scary movie marathon with Dean and Xavier. But I’m actually just settling in to watch the live footage of the opening party. The rest of the news had been about upcoming harvest festivals and the massive corn maze opening soon in the next town over, getting me even more into the fall spirit and inspiring my snack choices.

I think about the farmers in the agricultural areas that take up most of the space around Sherwood that isn’t forest. For years now there’s been an unofficial competition among those farmers to produce the best pumpkins, make the most delicious apple cider, and, of course, create the most impressive Halloween corn maze in the area. The things they come up with are nothing short of astonishing, with each one of them advertising details about the theme, size, and navigation details of their mega-mazes weeks in advance each year to drum up interest and try to get ahead of the others in people planning their autumn evenings.

While I am not one who fills my calendar with all the different mazes and counts down the days until I can do them all, I have been known to venture into the stalks a time or two. One such afternoon adventure with Xavier in particular comes to mind. That maze featured large wooden signs with questions about Thanksgiving to help guide visitors to the right choice at each turn and fork. Unfortunately, what some people consider basic trivia, Xavier considers matters of debate, and what started as a pleasant afternoon diversion during a road trip turned into a multi-hour ordeal that included Xavier laying the historic smackdown on an unsuspecting maze supervisor and then ended with him lying on the ground in the middle of the maze because he got lost and was trying to use the sky to navigate himself. He got his completion prize of a tiny bag of candy corn when we finally made it out, but I don’t think we’re welcome back there anymore.

I have had better experiences, though, and I know several people who wait all summer for the mazes to open. The family of one of Sam’s friends from high school even runs one of the larger and more popular mazes. Much like Seth from the department, Gary Miller and his family aren’t big fans of the development company or the mall project, but they haven’t been involved in any of the protests and the last we heard, their maze is still set to open this season.

That’s more than can be said about several of the others. As the farms beyond Sherwood put the finishing touches on their harvest attractions, many of those in our area aren’t opening for the year. Pumpkin patches and apple orchards are still preparing for the season, but there are several once-beloved farms that claim the development of the mall ruined their ability to carry on with their businesses the way they have for generations.

The large road built through the fields has diminished the sense of old-fashioned peaceful country living that appeals to people wanting to come out and enjoy an afternoon of hayrides, corn mazes, and similar fun. Nobody wants to go to a maze only a few yards away from a busy highway or go out for a picnic where they’re going to be disturbed by the sound of cars and music pulsing from their open windows. For the sake of progress, they’re losing their heritage.

I wonder what the competing farms think about it. It would be unrealistic to think that some of them aren’t at least a little bit happy about the development. It’s a nice thought that people are really looking out for each other and want what’s best for other people. While we all want to live in a world populated by people like that instead of the people who revel in the pain and failure of others, it’s just not real.

The truth is, the vast majority of people on this Earth have at one point or another hoped for the failure of another person, or found a moment of pleasure in something bad happening to someone else when they believe it’s deserved. It might not be the most flattering and virtuous of character traits or habits, but it is part of human nature. People in general want what’s best for themselves and are glad when something happens that might directly or indirectly improve the chances of good things coming their way.

---