Icon #31 Halloween (The Film)

#31

Benjamin watched his mother from the shadows. She’d been slipping out at night, leaving his father drunk and asleep in his chair with the TV blaring sports or static, depending on how late it was. Benjy’s window overlooked the back yard, and he’d seen her. At first he paid no attention. She was his mom, and if she was leaving in the middle of the night, she had a reason. He thought about his sleeping dad and knew he could think of at least one good one.

Then Tim Thompson was killed. They’d found him cut to ribbons under an old oak tree.

The night Tim died, Benjy’s mom had gone out. Late.

Susie Davis was next, taken in her sleep and flayed alive, cut up like a pot roast the other kids had said. Benjy’s mom cut pot roast all the time. She’d been gone that night too, and when Benjy checked the kitchen drawer, he’d found they were one knife short.

So this time, when he heard the back door open and close quietly, he rose and slipped into his sneakers. He’d slept in his clothes.

He slipped down the hall, careful to tiptoe past his grandmother’s room. If she woke, she’d get the whole house up and screaming. He got down the stairs and out the back door just as his mom slipped out of sight. He headed for the neighbor’s fence. There was a gate, and he knew she had to have gone through it. There were no other ways out of the yard.

He lost her as she rounded the corner, and he slowed his steps. On the next block there was a park – the same one where she had always taken him to play on the swings. He wondered if she could be headed there. He walked slowly, and when he reached the corner, she was long gone. He didn’t know what to do. He knew he should just go back to bed, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. He saw the park, and the swings. He glanced around a final time and then headed for the swing set.

He took his favorite swing, and started it with a quick press of his legs into the soft dirt. She had to come back this way – she had to pass the park to return home. He’d wait, and he’d see what he could find out. He’d talk to her. She would understand that he was worried -that he wanted to help.

He kicked out with his legs, arched his back to gain some height, and as he swung back the blade sliced cleanly across his throat, cutting so deeply that his head hung back, and his neck opened like a second smile, gaping at the moon.

Down the street, his mother returned. She caught motion out of the corner of her eye, and stared as a shadow hobbled away from the swings. She needed to get home, but something made her follow. She could be quiet when she wanted to, and something told her this was the time for it. She had been seeing someone for weeks, and sneaking around was becoming second nature. If it weren’t for Benjy, she’d just leave. Her husband would certainly never notice.

The shadowy figure had an odd, slow gait that was somehow familiar. When it turned into the back yard of her neighbor’s home and moved toward her gate, something clicked. She started to run. She caught up as they neared her back porch and called out softly.

“Mother?”

The old woman turned, smiling…the blade glittered in the moonlight, and something dark ran in a slow trail down from the hilt.