Page 9

ENDLESS ECLIPSE

N ext week is Halloween, the one time of year I can dress how I want. No one can judge me, and I can do what I’m best at with no questions asked, not to mention leave the house. Every year, I pick a new theme. This year, it's an abandoned carousel theme park.

We are known for throwing Halloween parties every year.

What people don’t know is that it’s a cover for what really goes on in the pits of the darkness.

I originally had a different plan. I was going to some sort of fancy-dress Halloween party, finding some guy, and then torturing him and ridding his soul to hell, but Jessie informed me it had been taken care of.

I didn’t question him as I wasn’t in the mood to go to some half-ass Halloween party where people were more scared of this holiday than to love it.

This is the one time of year I get to break my only rule.

I have one rule: I don't kill women unless the voices tell me, but today is the day I don’t need a reason.

I can kill one just because I feel like it.

I will find one female normally. It’s one who thinks she is so much better than everyone else in the group.

What that means is she is insecure, and most likely has a troubled home life, and while I sympathise with that, it doesn’t give someone a good reason to treat your friends like shit or manipulate them into doing things their way.

People like that shouldn’t get to live their lives, and I plan on ridding the world of one of them.

I stand in the abandoned theme park. Rust, dust, and mud are the three things that catch my eye as Sean, Tobias, Jessie, and I walk onto the muddy ground.

Our footsteps leave footprints as a trail for us to get back.

It’s getting dark, so we only have a few hours to set up until pitch dark.

The thought of being alone with the three of them is thrilling.

Every time we do something like this, we have to test the water out, and as always, it ends up with me breathless, my hair messy, and normally covered in mud or blood.

I’m drawn to the broken and well-used carousel a few feet away. I walk over; the others follow behind me.

“I want lights, music, and smoke when people enter. The abandoned house is going to be where we keep them until the end. I want all my gear to be there and all in order!”

I have so many ideas about how this night will go. There is one person I would like to attend: my father. The last time I saw him was the day I left that place. It's been a few years since I left, but I still have it burned into my brain.

To say I’m still mad at him after all those years is an understatement.

If I ever get the chance to find my father, I would put him through the same hell he put me through.

When I was younger, I never realised how toxic and unrealistic my parents’ relationship was.

I lost count of how many women went into his office for hours on end.

My younger self was convinced it was for work, and it very well could have been just not the work I was thinking about. Tobias and Jessie walk over to the abandoned building, not too far back, where the darkness of the woods lurks beneath me.

Sean and I walk over toward the run-down rides.

There are teacups and a carousel with horses.

Some have seen better days and are missing a leg or two.

Halloween was always something I spent with my mother and sisters until my mother passed away.

It was my job to take my sisters trick or treating, and now I spend the night hosting a fake party to find my next victims. I haven’t seen my sisters since I was about fifteen, give or take.

The night I planned to run away, just like my mother told me to, I had no bags packed, nothing, just me and the Annabelle doll my mother gave me.

That was a short-lived idea because I never made it. I was robbed of my soul.

Today is the anniversary of my mother's death, the worst day of my life, still to this day.

Sean and I set up the lights, hanging them from the rusty poles that used to be lit many years ago. After they’re hung, we both take our fake blood and spill it on the rides, making it look like a disaster, covering up what was going to happen here.

I would’ve liked to have used real blood, but my DNA is on most of the blood I have, and fibres pointing at me for countless murders over the years.

I enjoyed having them help me out before I was met with these. I was alone. I still threw killer parties, but with their help, I’m able to throw bigger ones, meaning I can lure more people.

When I say killer parties, I mean I would throw parties when I was much younger, in my teenage years, yet I still think they were pretty good.

I have had Sean and Tobias staking the place out for weeks, making sure no one is using it except some younger kids lurking around at night.

They were lurking around until Sean scared them off, and they haven’t been here since.

Jessie’s been working hard posting about the party and letting word of mouth do its thing.

He’s even been using social media, something I’m not so good with, and I don’t think I ever will be. I’m completely off-grid.

Only three people know I’m alive, and they stand with me. The only other people who could know I’m alive have either given up or are hunting me down.

I mean, sure, I have a phone, but I don't use it much. The only time I tend to use it is when I need to get in touch with the guys, which isn’t much considering they spend most of their time with me.

Because of those people, I make sure I’m unrecognisable.

This year, I’m dressing up as Annabelle. I'm wearing a white, old-ish dress with white and black tights. My hair will be in two buns on either side of my head, and I'll also be wearing a jet-black wig.

The guys are all going as some sort of masked man.

The thought of them all in masks has my breath hitching and my legs rubbing together from the hotness of my thoughts.

“I investigated what you asked, but nothing came up. Are you sure he’s alive or didn’t change his name?

” Sean walks in front of me, giving me the information I figured he would find.

I asked him to look up something for me as a secret, but it wasn't successful. I wasn’t confident it would be, but I wanted to check any leads I had.

So far, every lead or piece of information has done nothing and never led me any closer to what I’m looking for.

I should stay here and help them set up. It's only fair, but I’m itching to look up more information. I set myself a task and intend to finish it, no matter the consequences I’m given.

Hours later, I’m sitting on the couch blasting music on the TV. Paper covers the floor and the other half of the couch. I use Jessie's old laptop on my knee as I search for my father’s name.

Mark Anderson, my father, the man who sacrificed my mother’s life and left for a business trip but never made it back. He abandoned his children, leaving me to look after them until I couldn't and had no other choice but to try and leave. Try being vague.

I look at my siblings fast asleep in my bed after having the best Halloween.

“I’m sorry, Ash loves you, but it's too hard for me,” I whisper, my voice shaky.

Closing my bedroom door slowly and as quietly as possible so the hinges don't wake them up, I grab the bag over my shoulder and make my way downstairs into the kitchen. I do one last check of my bag, grabbing some food to keep me going. I can feel someone is here before I can turn around to check.

A cloth is over my mouth, taking me hostage. A firm pair of hands grabs me as my eyes gradually close. I’m taken to the pits of darkness…

The sound of two men speaking makes my eyes slowly open but my vision is still blurry.

My heart beats hard, I’m scared it might pop out,

I’m woken by the breeze of coldness on my body, my eyes heavy and hard to open. I can hear people talking. My first sense to kick in is smell. I wish it wasn’t, but essentially, all I can smell is dampness and strong Men’s aftershave. It's a musky, spiced smell making my nostrils flare.

“Fuck man, she wasn’t meant to get hurt.”

“I’m aware, but she wouldn’t stop fighting, so knocking her out was the only option.”

“Where’s the patient?” A rough voice brings me back to life. My eyes shoot open as a man wearing a white jacket opens a bag, draws a needle, and fills it with a clear liquid.

My fear of needles kicks in as the tip of the needle is placed in my arm.

I want to scream and kick. Anything but my body is unable to move, not because I’m in shackles on a table, but because what would screaming do?

Nothing, it would have zero difference to what is about to happen.

I wish I believed I could get out of whatever shit this is but I’m here and something tells me if I want to leave, it won’t be as the same unconcern person who was just trying to finish school. No, instead, I will be a monster.

I’m scared. So scared.

My mouth opens, but nothing comes out, no matter how much I want to scream stop, I’m frozen. My mouth closes as my body relaxes. I can either fight this or I can get it finished.

The sharpness of the needle is inserted into my arm. My eyes are weak, my brain goes silent as my eyes close, and I’m taken to the pits of darkness. Again.

What I can only imagine is hours, days, or maybe even weeks later.

I’m hooked up to an IV but not on a hospital bed and not in a hospital. Two men stand beside me, guns in their hands, and each one has a taser. Fuck.

I try to move, but my hands and legs are held hostage to the table. The very cold table; they couldn't get me a blanket?

I don't need to ask what’s going to happen. I'm going to be forced to do whatever they want.

I’m just a girl. We have no control over what we do, but men do what they want.

Keep your mouth shut and be a good girl, Ash. It will end quicker, I tell myself.