"The Halloween Phantoms" by John R. Little
Cemetery Dance's A Halloween Short Story ebook series
Readers unfamiliar with "The Halloween Phantoms" by John R. Little may prefer to read these notes only after reading the story.
Greetings! We are the Halloween Phantoms, and you have just been BOO’d!!!
You now have until Halloween to fill three bags with candy, small toys, stickers . . . whatever you like, and distribute them in secret to three neighborhood homes. You’ll ring the doorbell and run away so they only have the bag and a copy of this note. If you don’t do this, you’ll suffer the wrath of the Phantom Curse!
Now that you’ve received your bag from the Halloween Phantoms, you must affix a note to your front door saying, “We’ve been BOO’d!!!” This way, nobody else can BOO you again.
Hurry with your bags! As time goes on, it’ll be harder and harder to find homes that haven’t already been BOO’d!
Be sure to leave a copy of this note with each bag you deliver.
Happy Halloween from the Halloween Phantoms!
After life on the West Coast, Ellen Weston never understood the ways of life in the isolated Minnesota community where she and husband Davey bought a farm. At the start of "The Halloween Phantoms" by John R. Little, Ellen is still reeling from Davey's recent lightning death. The message from the Halloween Phantoms, and the deadly serious way her neighbors take it, only add to her anger and confusion.
Are the phantoms her neighbors? Or something else?
Before the end of the story, left alone on the farm, she realizes "all that remained was a rotted mausoleum of bad memories." Nemesis, apparently, won't leave her and her young daughter in peace. An impersonal universal malevolence smothers everything.
A story told with skill, probity, and reserved emotion, "The Halloween Phantoms" is a powerful dose of nihilism.
Jay
