Billy Carver

by Jason Mueller and Christy Lynn Foster ©2012

Billy watched the scene play out before his eyes in the low light. Halloween was his favorite holiday of the year. He loved costumes, candy, and being scared. His parents had told him he couldn’t go trick-or-treating this year because he was fourteen now and “too old” they said. “How could you be too old for fun?” he thought. He decided a Halloween movie could be fun. Despite what his parents said he was going to enjoy tonight.  

The doorbell rang. He stopped watching the grisly murder-in-progress and stalked to the door, he yanked the door open and there stood a princess in all her splendor.

“Trick or treat,” she chirped.

“Oh look, a beautiful princess!” Billy exclaimed with well-practiced fake happiness, dumping a handful of Tootsie Rolls into the bag she held up to him. Her crown sliding forward on her head causing her to jerk the bag around spilling the chocolate treats on the porch. Annoyed, but still polite, like any good boy should be, he helped her pick them up and shoved them into her bag.

“Umm, nice costume. You look really scary.” she said as he slammed the door ending the disturbance while she muttered her thanks.

“I don’t even have a costume on! Stupid little kids always trying to kiss an older kid’s ass. Lame.” he thought nearly speaking aloud to the empty room out of pure aggravation. How dare she interrupt his Halloween movie?

The gruesome scene was immediately unpaused as he stepped back into the living room. The killer wielded a butcher knife and went back to finishing off his victims. Billy watched in utter fascination as the killer did his work slashing and cutting, sending blood splatters in crazy patterns. The folks on CSI would just give up in confusion or make a case-study out of his work if they saw it. He carved their faces, turning them into human jack o'lanterns, the killer was going to make sure they celebrated Halloween, too.

“Looks like they get a trick and the killer gets a treat,” Billy thought to himself with a chuckle.

Billy watched in silent awe as the killer, who he could never quite see due to the first-person angle, drug the bodies to the dining room and placed them at the table. The father in his chair at the end, the mother next to him, and another young woman who was completely unwilling to sit straight in her chair. Billy could feel the killer’s frustration in that. Useless victims.

Billy wondered if the young woman had a brother and if she treated him the same way his sick bitch of a sister always did him. Walking around half-naked, taunting him with comments like “What are you looking at, perv?” when flashing him, sneaking her boyfriends into the house, and breaking all the rules. When mom and dad were out at the Knights of Columbus, she would screw them anywhere from the couch, kitchen, and even Billy’s own room. She would tease him and treat him with such disdain. The poster child of perfection to her folks, always going to confession and pretending to be their angel but took every chance she could to walk in on him in the bathroom or randomly touch him in ways a sister should not touch her baby brother. He was never any trouble, but always treated like the bad one. He wondered how the killer would deal with a sister like that.

The killer finally had his human jack o'lanterns in place and went rummaging through the house trying to find candles. After what seemed like forever to Billy, the candles were lit and glowing on top of the heads of the killer’s creation. Something just wasn’t right with his creation! The killer screamed and cursed waving the knife like a conductor of a twisted symphony.

He left the family in place and came back with an assortment of tools. In true festive pumpkin-carving technique, the killer hummed happily as he cut a section of scalp off the top of the father’s head exposing the skull. Then, using a small saw he attempted to cut the top off the skull but the stupid head flopped back and forth. There is nothing duct tape can’t fix! The exasperated killer taped the father’s head to the chair to steady it and went back to work with the skull. Layers of bone seemed to disappear in seconds with the handy saw.

The killer then used a spoon straight from the kitchen to scoop out the insides of the skull. Instead of pumpkin seeds, pulp, and slimy fibrous strands, it was brain matter, blood, and nerves. What once served the family spaghetti or whatever else they shared, now served up daddy’s brains. To complete the job properly, the killer also removed the father’s eyes. With a sickening splat, they hit the hardwood floor, bounced slightly, and half-rolled under the table.

Once that part was complete, the killer placed the candle inside the hollowed out cranium and stood back to admire his handy-work. Yes, much better. Now the light showed through like a true jack o’lantern. The killer moved next to the mother, leaving the young woman to be the finale of his collection of Halloween-themed trophies.

Diiiiiiiiiing Doooooooooooooooong!

Dammit!! Another sudden ring of the unwelcomed doorbell disgusted Billy. He had purposely shut off the porch light when the first beggar went away in the hopes of being left alone for the rest of the night. Why couldn’t these stupid trick-or-treaters just go away? Didn’t they realize they were ruining Billy’s Halloween movie?

He stalked angrily to the door and flung it open and there on the porch stood Andrew, one of his sisters many conquests. “Hey douche bag, where’s your sister?” he asked with his usual look of lazy contempt. He didn’t care about anything or anyone. Pathetic loser.  

“She’s kinda busy right now, but you can wait for her if you want.” Billy said stepping back to allow Andrew to enter. Andrew strutted in, the typical jock with his “I’m-better-than-you” mentality.

“Why are all the lights off in here, it’s dark and you don’t even have the TV on. What were you doing sittin’ the dark? Pullin’ your pud?” The idiot mocked.

“No I was just watching a movie.”

“You don’t even have the TV on dumbass.” Andrew sneered. Billy just wanted Andrew to leave.

The killer and the blade danced through the darkness wildly at Andrew hoping to add to the collection in the dining room. The killer jumped onto Andrews back slashing away in a rage but the brute strength of the football player was too much for him. In a rush of pain and adrenaline, Andrew flipped the killer sprawling to on the floor.

“What the hell!” Andrew screamed at the silent figure on the floor. He staggered to the wall, fumbling in the darkness for the light switch. Light flooded the room, causing him momentary blindness. Once his eyes began to work again, he slowly approached the body on the floor.

“Billy? My God, BILLY?!” With a quivering blood covered arm, he nudged Billy’s shoulder, but there was no movement. Then he noticed the tip of the knife sticking out of Billy’s side.

“Oh shit! Billy, I’m sorry!” Andrew sobbed as he turned the body over and gasped at the horrible damage the knife had done when Billy fell on it, it wasn’t nice and neat like on TV or in the movies. The knife had penetrated Billy’s limp body. The force of the impact caused the blade to slash sideways cutting through heart, lung, and arteries. Billy was a bloody mess and his empty eyes stared straight at Andrew.

Freaking out he called for Billy’s sister. “Amy!” he shouted over and over.

He staggered upstairs finding nothing but a bloody mess on her bed. Horrified, he made his way back downstairs and headed to the kitchen. When he entered the dining room he found Amy and her parents sitting at the table with mutilated faces and a candle burning in their father’s skull in a macabre tribute to the night of tricks or treats.

Andrew pissed his designer jeans and ran from the house screaming incoherently into the darkness. He tripped and fell onto the lawn. Little trick-or-treaters gathered around watching him lay in the yard sobbing and screaming. A miniature Iron Man silently walked up to the older boy, he looked down with vacant eyes behind the plastic mask, with all his might kicked Andrew in the face. Then a little girl dressed as Hannah Montana joined in with tiny swift kicks. Then Batman, Spongebob, the princess, a zombie, and many others descended on the boy. Within minutes, the crowd finished their attack and dispersed, skipping back off to their night of trick-or-treating, ringing bells, and happily shouting, “Trick or treat!”

Andrew lay dead on the grass. Another gruesome Halloween decoration.