Chapter 13
Chapter
Thirteen
Halloween is the most magical day of the year.
I don’t care if it’s blazing hot, freezing cold, or there’s a torrential downpour.
No matter the weather, it is my favorite.
But today? Today is particularly fabulous.
The air is crisp but not too cold for costumes.
The azure blue sky is painted with fluffy clouds, perfect for finding shapes in.
And to top it all off, it's a full moon, so tonight will be a gorgeous night to celebrate BJ’s first Halloween.
All of my decorations are in place, and the treat bags are sorted for quick distribution.
Good thing we got them assembled early, because we spent all night in each other’s arms. We jumped each other’s bones over and over again, until I was a shaking mess and so filled with pumpkin spice cum I felt like a cream pie.
Even still, it was all I could do to hold back after I got him ready this morning. He looked more handsome than ever in the enormous pinstriped black suit, bat bowtie, and Jack mask.
I feel a little bad sneaking out tonight without telling my new friends, the Spooky Bitches, but I know BJ and I need a more secluded home where it can be just the two of us. No prying eyes, no chance of someone finding out about my Halloween miracle.
He has to be my priority. Not only from a sense of responsibility and to do what is best for him, but no bones about it, I am in love with a twelve-foot sentient skeleton. And he loves me, too.
Right before the street lights turn on, I take my seat, keeping the bags for my little trick or treaters close at hand. They usually come through first and then towards the end of the night I’ll swap their bucket for the big kids who like to come later.
I even have bags for the teenagers with a pillowcase and maybe a costume or not, but who still deserve to get in on the Halloween action. I’ve never understood people who make fun of them or won’t give them candy. It’s the very opposite of the spirit of Halloween.
Stars wink into existence in the creeping twilight, and I smile up at them. This is the perfect Halloween night to end the most amazing month of my life.
I turn my head to talk to BJ, but frown when I realize I’m sitting in the driveway and he’s posed for the night way over in the yard. It’s not just the fence separating us, but a whole world. What used to be my favorite thing dims in comparison to the joy I feel when I am with him.
I don’t want him over there, looking out at the world and pretending not to be a part of it. I want him here next to me, handing out the bags and pointing out the best costumes. Sneaking each other candy and kisses, holding hands, and then turning out the porch light when all the goodies are gone.
My smile fades as I realize that’s something we will never have.
“Trick or treat,” cries a group of kids in bright costumes, interrupting my thoughts.
As I pass the loot over I realize, no, BJ and I will never have what others would consider to be a normal relationship. But it will still be better than what most of the world has, and that’s okay, too. If kids can be witches and goblins, then surely I can be in love with a skeleton.
He may not be able to come sit over here next to me, but there’s nothing stopping me from going to sit next to him.
After all, Jack and Sally should be next to each other.
Before the next group of kids can come through, I open the side gate and quickly rearrange some decorations to lead the way and place my camp chair right next to him.
I let myself smile again and enjoy the night, reaching over to caress his leg bones and stealing glances up at him all night long. And although his head doesn’t move I feel his LED eyes searching me out when no one is looking.
After a constant parade of kids and parents, the bags are almost gone. A group of older teenagers walk up, and I get out the last of my stash.
“Trick or treat,” they say, and despite their older voices, I can see the excitement that never seems to fade with age shining through.
I hand them the last of the bags, and they can’t hold back the smiles when they see all the treats. They thank me multiple times as I walk them to the gate, ready to close up after another fantastic Halloween night and then ride off into the sunset with BJ in the truck bed.
Just as the teens get to the sidewalk, the sound of squealing tires splits the peaceful Autumn evening.
I spin to see what the racket is and my brain struggles to comprehend what my eyes are seeing. A car has pulled perpendicular to the road, headlights shining on my ‘zero days’ to Halloween sign.
“What the—” I start as I automatically walk towards the car, trying to figure out what is going on.
“Lois?” I call out, recognizing her white Lexus.
I’ve watched almost every horror movie there is. I’ve done all the haunted hayrides and spooky attractions. Been chased by zombies and ghouls and all kinds of scary creatures, scream-laughing the whole way.
But that’s all pretend. Nothing could have prepared me for the real-life fear flooding my veins like a torrent of ice water. Each rev of the engine is another bucket of freezing water thrown over me.
Lois doesn’t turn to look at me, even as I scream her name. Her eyes are wide, fixed straight ahead on her grim goal. When she tightens her grip on the steering wheel, I realize exactly what she is planning.
My feet fly into action, propelling me back through the gate and towards my skeleton boyfriend. The red yarn Sally wig goes flying off my head, but I barely even notice. There is only one thought in my mind right now, echoed with each beat of my heart—save BJ, save BJ, save BJ.
Since the tent was picked up earlier today, the only thing standing between BJ and Lois’s white rage of steel on wheels is my rickety old fence. He doesn’t stand a chance.
“Run, BJ. You have to run,” I scream as my feet pound the earth, my legs burning with the effort of reaching him while my feet slip over the grass in the heeled black costume boots.
The squeal of tires burning rubber on the pavement cuts through the air just as I reach him.
I shove as hard as I can against his leg bones, screaming again, “Run!”
A thunderous crash has me whirling around to see the fence panel explode into a million splintered pieces.
The headlights shoot up, shining off the white of the Jack mask over BJ’s face as her car bounces over my yard, and for a second I can see Lois’s face in the moonlight, a manic grin plastered on her face.
I’ve never seen her look so happy. It's terrifying.
Then the lights drop down, and I throw my arm up over my face to keep them from blinding me.
A voice splits the night like rumbling thunder, “Tori!”
The world crashes down around me, surrounding me in darkness and enveloping me in chaos. The noise is so loud it reverberates in my skull as my body takes turns being weightless, then crashing down, over and over, like I’m rolling in the belly of a storm tossed ship.
When stillness finally comes, it's louder and more abrupt than the crash.
I lay unmoving, trying to get my bearings and process what the hell just happened. Did Lois run me over with her car?
When I can’t see anything except black nothingness I panic, worried I have head trauma and I’ve lost my vision. Fear that I’ll never shoot another photo again is immediately eclipsed by a new horrible thought. What if I never see BJ again?
Frantically, I reach up to explore with my hands, but I can’t find any sore spots or wetness to indicate an injury. My side is a little sore, but overall I’m relatively okay. I pat down my arms and legs, but can’t find anything serious. Nothing broken or out of place.
My frantic breaths seem to echo in whatever space I’m in, matched only by the pounding drum of my heart.
Voices finally pierce the dark veil that surrounds me, then a shaft of bright light breaks the gloom.
“Tori?” I hear someone calling my name.
“Hello?” I call back, squinting and shielding my eyes.
The light grows brighter as hands reach in, pulling away at whatever is surrounding me. As more light pours in, I look around and realize where I am.
“No,” I gasp.
A loud crack and another piece is pulled away. My eyes wildly dart around in horror as I realize my safety cage was indeed a cage. A rib cage to be exact.
“Are you hurt? We’re going to get you out of there,” the voice comes again.
“No,” I cry, but they don’t understand. The “no” isn’t confirmation that I’m unharmed. It’s a protest. I don’t want to be pulled out. I want to stay exactly where I am.
Another crack of plastic and a police officer leans in, shining a flashlight at me.
“You sure are lucky that skeleton fell on you,” he says and gives a low whistle.
Hands pull me towards the opening they made as I scrabble backwards, trying to get away from them. Trying to stay with him.
“No,” I wail again. “Mr. Bonejangles! He saved me.”
I try and brace my legs against what's left of him, sweaty hands trying to hold on to the broken rib ends, but my rescuers are insistent. I’m sure they think they’re pulling me toward safety, but I know they’re pulling me toward heartbreak.
My hands slip over the splintered plastic, and once I’m in the outside world once more, my heart shatters to match all that is left of my Mr. Bonejangles. Both of us are left in nothing but jagged pieces.
Voices and flashing red lights swirl around me, but all I can see is the devastation piled in my yard.
“Tori,” someone calls, and this time, it breaks through because I know this voice.
It takes me a moment to recognize the familiar face under the Halloween makeup and costume, but when I do, relief floods me. Through tears, I choke out, “Dawn, he saved me.”
The police officer shines his flashlight back at my face again. “Ma’am, did you hit your head?”
Another officer leans in, and although he drops his voice, I still hear him say to his partner, “She’s hysterical. It's just a plastic skeleton.”
“He is not just a plastic skeleton,” I explode. I spin in a circle until I see Lois slumped over her steering wheel. I point an accusatory finger and scream, “She murdered him!”
Sirens wail in the distance, and although I wish they were for BJ, desperately wish that there was a magical hospital for twelve-foot sentient skeletons and broken hearts, I know they aren’t. I know there is nothing that can fix this.
The officers exchange a worried look, and Dawn slides her arms around me. “Tori, I’m so sorry.”
I let her pull me into a hug, but all I can see is the wreckage of BJ behind her. His arm and leg bones are still wrapped around the rib cage, broken and bent where they took the full force of the car.
Hot tears continue to track down my face, destroying my carefully applied makeup. But it doesn't matter. Sally is nothing without Jack.
I catalog each injury, each broken part where once there had been life and love. When my eyes drift upward, searching for the familiar glow of his LEDs, my stomach drops.
His head is gone. It’s fucking gone.
Panic surges through me as my gaze sweeps the yard. It catches first on the Jack mask smiling up at the moon from where it landed in the grass before racing onward.
There.
His skull has rolled halfway across the yard, lying on its side with the vampire teeth we had left in pointed toward me.
But it’s seeing his LED eyes, dark and lifeless, that breaks me.
A sob tears free of my throat, great heaving breaths that can't contain the pain threatening to splinter my own ribs wrack my frame. My knees buckle, and I sink to the ground.
Dawn follows me down, trying to gather me up against her, but I break away, crawling over the pieces of my shattered heart that lie like broken glass in the grass to the mess that is left.
I grab the closest bone fragment, but I can’t even tell which one it is anymore. It feels different in my hand now. No electric buzz, no vibrations of laughter, no trembling of desire. Nothing but cold, impersonal injection molded plastic meets my fingertips.
“Mr. Bonejangles?” I whisper to the shard cradled in my hand. My shaking voice sounds small even to my ears.
He’s gone.
I sit there, staring at the wreckage of Lois’s wrath, and try to understand why something so harmless to anyone could inspire so much hate.
Somewhere in the background, my brain clocks the sounds of Lois getting arrested.
I hear the murmur of the crowd that has gathered on the street.
In the distance, kids are still laughing.
I can picture them running home to empty their buckets, sorting through their piles to see what the magic of Halloween brought them this year.
I didn’t need to dump out a bucket to know that it had brought me the best magic of all. But maybe Halloween magic isn’t meant to last past this day. Maybe this is all I was meant to have. Just one magical month.
My hand tightens around the cold plastic in my hand until the sharp edges press into my skin.
A cold breeze ghosts over my skin, threatening the coming of November tomorrow, and with it, winter.
Which is just fine with me. I don’t know that I can survive another Fall night without him.
And although all I want to do is sit here in my grief, the world doesn’t stop turning around us.
My only relief is the sound of Dawn’s steady voice managing the disaster, because I don’t think I could string two coherent words together right now.
The insistent EMTs check me for injuries, but I can barely follow their directions. Everything seems so very far away.
Dawn promises them she will keep an eye on me when I absolutely refuse to go to the hospital, and they finally leave me alone.
I’m tired of the lights and the voices. All I want to do is crawl back inside that rib cage and fall apart while BJ holds me the only way he can now. The same way he saved me.
“Tori,” Dawn calls, probably not for the first time. “One of the last trick or treaters recorded everything on their phone. They said you were so nice to them, they wanted to help. We’ll prosecute the shit out of Lois, and then we can get you another skeleton.”
I finally force my eyes away from the visible remnants of not just my heart or my relationship, but of my whole world, to look at her. All I manage to whisper is, “No.”
Her eyes flick over the skeleton and then back to me. She gives me a tight smile and says, “I watched the video. It really is a miracle how that skeleton just happened to fall on top of you to save you from being hit by that car.”
I nod weakly, hot tears flooding my eyes once more.
“Especially since the ribcage appeared to fall perfectly around you and then the arms and legs folded in to protect you before the car ever even hit it,” she says, voice even.
I look up to meet her gaze and say, “Yeah. That is strange.”
“I’ve seen stranger,” she shrugs. Then her fierce face softens, and she lays a hand on my arm and says, “I’m so very sorry, Tori.”
“Me, too,” I whisper through a fresh wave of tears. “Me, too.”