"Halloween Hunt" (1987) by Richard Laymon
Readers unfamiliar with "Halloween Hunt" may prefer to read these notes only after reading the story.
Laymon’s fiction is the closest I have come to the prurient end of the horror fiction dial. Midnight’s Lair (1988), and Island (1991) I read with pleasure and admiration. Once Upon a Halloween (2000) was the sleek treatment of adolescent daydreaming I sought and never found in so many 1980s horror paperbacks.
"Halloween Hunt" (1987) is a short story I would immediately recommend to horror readers uncomfortable with Laymon's typical splatterings and objectifications.
Granted, the story opens with our twenty-something protagonist Linda pulling out her old cheerleader uniform after deciding last-minute to attend a friend's Halloween costume party.
She found it in the bottom drawer of her dresser, and spread it on her bed. She stared at the blue pleated skirt and the gold sweater with its big M for Monroe High School. As she did, memories rushed through her mind. She remembered all the tryouts and her excitement when she made the squad. The football games, with the team rushing by in their gleaming golden helmets, and the roar of pep rallies in the gym. Those were great times. In her cheerleader outfit, she had always felt special.
She sat on the bed and slipped into her white socks and tennis shoes. She almost believed she was getting ready for a Friday night football game. Her heart began to beat fast.
She stepped in front of the mirror. Six years had gone by since she last wore this sweater and skirt, but she looked no different.
Watching her reflection, Linda danced and clapped and flung her arms as she chanted, “V-A-R-S-I-T-Y! Varsity! Monroe High!” She leaped, throwing her arms high and kicking her feet up behind her.
“Dave should see me looking like this,” she thought.
At that moment, she knew she would be going to the party….
But that's as far as it goes, though Laymon is unmatched in implicating the reader in such Norman Bates-style voyeurism.
The party-goers are sent on a macabre nighttime scavenger hunt. Each of the three items on the list demands more of the players' nerves and stamina than the last.
One of the party, as well, is dressed as a sheeted ghost, and does not speak. Is he a friend of the host? Is he a revenant? Or perhaps new boyfriend material?
“Give me your knife,” Gary said.
A hand came out from under the sheet. “I’ll do the cutting.”
“Help yourself,” Dave said as he gave him the knife. “Better you than me. Ready?”
“Just a second. This has to be fast. I don’t want to trip over my sheet.”
He removed the chain necklace, pulled the sheet off, and handed the bundle to Dave….
"Halloween Haunts" is a tense romp, horrific but not excessively splattery. And in the end, this cluster of meddling twentysomethings come across a thing truly unnameable.
Jay
