“The Folding Man” (2010) by Joe R. Lansdale
The Mammoth Book of Halloween Stories (2018) edited by Stephen Jones
Readers unfamiliar with The Mammoth Book of Halloween Stories may prefer to read these notes only after reading the anthology.
Jim and his friends encounter a terrifying entity on the lonely country roads of Halloween night. A headlong chase on roads and through woods begins.
In the center of the clearing they stopped and got their breath again, and William said, “My head feels like it’s going to explode … hey, I don’t hear it now.”
“It’s there. Whatever it is, I don’t think it gives up.”
“Oh, Jesus,” William said, and gasped deep once. “I don’t know how much I got left in me.”
“You got plenty. We got to have plenty.”
“What can it be, Jimbo? What in the hell can it be?”
Jim shook his head. “You know that old story about the black car?”
William shook his head.
“My grandmother used to tell me about a black car that roams the highways and the back-roads of the South. It isn’t in one area all the time, but it’s out there somewhere all the time. Halloween is its peak night. It’s always after somebody for whatever reason.”
“Bullshit.”
Jim, hands still on his knees, lifted his head. “You go down there and tell that clatter-clap thing it’s all bullshit. See where that gets you.”
“It just doesn’t make sense.”
“Grandma said before it was a black car, it was a black buggy, and before that a figure dressed in black on a black horse, and that before that, it was just a shadow that clicked and clacked and squeaked. There’s people go missing, she said, and it’s the black car, the black buggy, the thing on the horse, or the walkin’ shadow that gets them. But, it’s all the same thing, just a different appearance.”
“The nuns? What about them?”
Jim shook his head, stood up, tested his ability to breathe. “Those weren’t nuns. They were like … I don’t know … anti-nuns. This thing, if Grandma was right, can take a lot of different forms. Come on. We can’t stay here anymore.”
“Just another moment, I’m so tired. And I think we’ve lost it. I don’t hear it anymore.”
Setting: Rural backroads and woods on Halloween night.
Characters: Jim, William, and Harold, three friends; the Folding Man, a supernatural entity; junkyard owner Mr. Gordon, an old man; Chomps, his dog; “nuns.”
Halloween seen as: A night of terror and the supernatural, with a focus on folk legends and the power of fear.
Style: Horror, with elements of dark humor and action.
Point of view: Third person, primarily from Jim's perspective.
Jay