The Night After Hallowe'en: Part One

The Night After Hallowe'en: Part One

01st Nov 2010

By Mark B. Oliver

Louie Rollins and Millie Peterson were giggling away in the playground as they left school for the day.

'And when Dad saw you with...' Millie couldn't complete her sentence she was laughing so hard. Louie, too, was laughing hysterically, as they remembered the Hallowe'en party the night before.

'Oh, I wish it was Hallowe'en every Sunday night,' he exclaimed. Not only were Millie and Louie best friends but they were cousins too, not that you could tell by looking at them. Louie was tall and thin with straight blonde hair, while Millie was shorter with a mop of curly black hair. They had been born within a few days of each other ten years ago and were always together, partners-in-crime.

Millie lived close to the school, but Louie's home was on the other side of town. Louie waved cheerfully at his best friend who waved back and he clambered onto his bike. Louie was in a good mood, Monday was his least favorite day in school but it was over now and he was off home to see his newborn sister.

Checking his lights were working properly, he rode away, waving to Millie one last time. The road ahead was being dug up, so rather than go his usual route, he decided to turn right early and cycle through the industrial park. It was actually a shortcut, but a bit steeper, so it wasn't really out of his way.

Panting for breath a little as he cycled, Louie raised himself out of the seat to make it easier going uphill. Suddenly his back tyre started to wobble and he nearly fell off. He managed to brake and put one foot on the ground. Looking back he saw his rear tyre was flat.

'I don't believe it!' he exclaimed. There was no way he could cycle home like this and he didn't have his puncture repair kit with him. Glancing around he could see that he was surrounded by warehouses, but most of them were dark and look deserted. But light was escaping onto the street from one just up ahead, its large metal door ajar. Louie propped his bike against the wall and called inside.

'Hello, hello, is anyone there?' Nobody answered but he could hear somebody moving around inside. He tried to push the sliding door open further but it wouldn't budge. So turning sideways he squeezed through the gap into the building.

It was huge and in the roof high above were some very dirty skylights, but they weren't letting much light in as it was getting dark outside. In the gloom he couldn't see anyone or anything clearly, just strange shapes, leaving long shadows on the concrete floor. He heard that same noise again, someone was definitely in here.

'Hello? Can you help me? My bike has a puncture, I need to call my mum!' But there was no reply. Dejected, he stood there for a minute or two before squeezing through the door once more. It was really getting dark now.

'The clocks went back last night, that's why it's getting dark so early,' Louie realized. He didn't want to walk the several miles home and besides, he needed to get a message to his mum. Unclipping the light from the front of his bike, Louie went back inside, and shone the light around.

'Wow.' As he moved the beam of light around the room he could see this was a warehouse full of Hallowe'en paraphernalia; cauldrons, jack-o'-lanterns, broomsticks, toy spiders, even a grandfather clock. Not only were there hundreds of these items laying out, but there were rows and rows of boxes, stacked high in aisles, making it impossible to see very far.

Louie went over to the closest group of items. Touching a cauldron he realized it was stone, not plastic like you saw in the supermarket, and the broomstick was made of a real branch and twigs. He heard a scuffling noise, which made him jump. Shining his light around he couldn't see anyone and no one answered his calls for help.

'If I can just find a phone, it's only a local call...' But his train of thought was interrupted by that sound again, closer now. Tentatively, he made his way deeper into the warehouse towards the noise. In the beam of light he noticed a trail on the dusty floor; it looked as though a large box had been dragged along. Following the markings in the dust, he turned a corner and at the end of the aisle he could just make out a man crouched over a box, seemingly oblivious to his presence.

'Excuse me, can you help? I need to call home, do you have a phone I can use?' The man didn't respond or acknowledge his presence. Maybe he was hard of hearing Louie reasoned as he walked closer. Surely though he should have seen him? He was close now, the man was wearing a coat with the hood up; Louie shone the light directly on him and the figure turned towards him. Louie screamed.

The man's face was horribly disfigured, his skin gray and peeling away and his eyes blank, lifeless. Louie stood there petrified, unable to move, when he felt someone tap him on the shoulder. Louie nearly jumped out of his skin. A tall thin man was standing beside him. He was wearing a tweed jacket like his granddad wore, braces and a bow tie. The man had one finger pressed up against his lips and with his other hand, he beckoned Louie to follow him.

Despite scaring him witless, there was something about the newcomer that made Louie instinctively trust him. Slowly and quietly they backed away from the disfigured man, who turned his attention back to the box.

'You can stop holding your breath now. Natural I know when you get a fright like that, but counterproductive in the end.' The man was smiling. 'I'm the Doctor', he said, shaking Louie's hand vigorously. 'Umm, the breathing thing...' Louie suddenly realized he had been holding his breath the whole time and he gasped for air as the man, the Doctor, patted him on the back.

'There you go,' beamed the Doctor.

Still trying to catch his breath, Louie looked up at the stranger. 'I got a puncture, I came in here looking for help, I'm Louie,' he explained.

'Yes well, probably not the best place to come for help, Louie, but I'm here now.'

'What are you doing here?'

'I came to help you.'

'Really?'

'No, well, when I say I came to help you, I don't mean you specifically, more of mankind in general, but you're human, yes? Yes. So yes to help you.'

'Okay... I need to call my mum, she'll be worried.' The Doctor fished around in his pockets and pulled out a mobile phone.

'I don't usually carry one of these but Amy insisted, 'If you are going to leave Rory and me on a planet, on its honeymoon no less, while you swan off to goodness knows where, the least you can do is keep in touch!' She can be so bossy,' ruminated the Doctor.

'Girls can be like that,' nodded Louie. Taking the mobile Louie dialed his mum, explaining he'd got a puncture and the Doctor was walking him home. He thought it best to leave out the bit about the creepy warehouse and the dead-eyed man. Louie's mum was initially alarmed, but assuming the Doctor was a teacher at Louie's school, she said she's keep his dinner warm and to hurry home.

'Let's get you back to your family,' said the Doctor and finding a torch in his pocket, the duo made their way back to the door. As they approached the entrance, the grandfather clock started to tick, the noise echoing around the warehouse.

'Oh yes, very clever! It won't work,' yelled the Doctor loudly. Grabbing Louie's hand the Doctor started running towards the door, it was creaking and grinding, slowly sliding shut of its own accord. With a loud thud the door slammed shut before them. The Doctor hammered on it.

'Or maybe it will. Oh come on, what will locking him in achieve?' The Doctor was pacing up and down furiously. Louie was about to ask the Doctor what was going on when a raspy chuckle echoed around the chamber.

'It was Hallowe'en last night,' exclaimed Louie, 'why is this happening tonight?'

'It's, well, complicated,' muttered the Doctor his attention drawn to the Hallowe'en items stacked around them.

'Why hide here?' mused the Doctor, as he rummaged through a box, pulling out a crystal skull.

'Who are you talking about? That man with the terrible face?'

'Oh no, not him,' replied the Doctor distractedly as he studied the skull. 'He's just being animated. I'm afraid our poor friend back there died some time ago. Several days, at least.'

Louie's blood ran cold. 'Dead? But, he was moving.'

'He's like a puppet, someone is pulling his strings, that's all.'

Louie thought he was going to be sick. 'That's disgusting.' The Doctor looked up and reassuringly put his hand on Louie's shoulder.

'Well it's a good thing we're here to stop this then.' There was something about the Doctor's gaze that calmed Louie's fears but then something brushed passed him. Louie leapt back instinctively.

'Something just ran over my foot...'

The Doctor slowly raised his torch and Louie his light. There were large spiders everywhere. On top of the boxes, in the aisles, climbing on the grandfather clock. And all were facing them, twitching, ready to pounce.

'But they're just toys,' Louie protested.

'I don't think anybody has told them that.'

Unseen, one of the spiders had climbed the wall behind them. It scuttled across the crumbling brickwork, exposed its fangs and leapt...

Don't forget to come back on Wednesday for The Night After Hallowe'en: Part Two.