It was very late and most of the patrons were so drunk,
they barely even knew where they were. Today, Julia was dancing in this bar for
the first time. Her knees were still shaking a little, but she didn’t let it
show. Wantonly, she expertly entwined she shapely legs around the pole. Most of
the people in the hall clamoured in excitement and whistled with delight.
“Strip!” some of them slurred. Julia swallowed. She wasn’t comfortable with
this and suddenly felt as though she was going to be sick. Then she couldn’t
take it any longer! Her anxiety was too strong. She ran into her dressing room
as fast as she could. Loud booing could be heard, but she didn’t care. She just
wanted to get away. She closed the door behind her and sank onto the stool in
front of the large mirror. “How could you even think you’d be able to strip in
front of all those people?” she berated her reflection as she took off her
make-up. Julia could still hear the patrons booing. Suddenly, someone threw
open her dressing room door.
“How dare you storm off the stage?” Archie
came charging at her, grabbed her arm and ripped her from the stool. “How dare
you?” he repeated his question and stared at her angrily. Julia’s entire body
shook.
“I’m
sorry. Really! But I simply can’t do it!” she spluttered, looking at him
anxiously.
“You! You begged me to give you a job here!
You told me you would do anything!” Julia nodded silently and her eyes filled
with tears. “Forget it, princess! I should have known better. You’re not cut
out for this sort of work!” he smiled at her. “Come to my office at 10am tomorrow
morning. I’ll have something else for you”, he surveyed her well-built body,
which was shrouded in a short robe. “Shame!”
he said.
“What kind of job is it?” Julia enquired
cautiously.
“We’ll discuss everything in my office
tomorrow”, he winked at her. He left her dressing room just as violently as
he’d entered it, with the words, “Don’t be late!”
Julia sighed. “Finally, he’s gone!” She
thought about what kind of work it could be while she was getting dressed. He
had said to her he had no other positions available.
An uneasy feeling came over her once more.
Archie was not the kind of man you could be fond of. He was quick-tempered and
domineering. If Julia had any other choice, she would pack up all of her seven
belongings and leave the city. But where could she go? She didn’t want to go
back home. She wanted to start a new life here, in this city. She had already
made a few friends, one of whom was Marie, who she had got to know recently.
The two women hit it off right away and became acquainted very quickly.
“Marie, I’ve found work. In a bar”, she had
happily explained to her. Marie was sceptical from the beginning about what was
involved in this role and tried to talk her out of it.
“What will she say if I tell her she was right
again?” she heard herself say. Julia took her phone out of her bag and went
outside to her car. She dialled her friend’s number to tell her about what had
happened this evening. “Marie, I know you were right, but I can start another
job tomorrow. I still don’t know what it is! Hang on a minute, Marie. I think
someone’s there”, Julia whispered into the phone and looked around anxiously. She had heard footsteps, which had now fallen
silent again in the darkness. She listened, but it remained silent. “I think it
was just a cat, or some other animal. Yes, don’t worry. Ok, I’ll report to you
in the morning, I promise!” Julia ended the call and climbed into her old Mini.
She suddenly heard the footsteps again and
ragged breathing. It came closer and closer and then disappeared again. Julia’s
heart pounded with fear and something very cold grabbed her by the arm, pulling
her from the car, just as she had wanted to close the door. Julia screamed as
loud as she could. Panicked, she kicked out with her legs.
“Help
me! Help me!” she cried. She tried to identify her attackers, but all she saw
were red hats.
“You won’t escape us!” said a croaking
voice.
Julia kept screaming and tried to kick the
figures away from her. Then she felt a heavy blow to her head and something
warm running over her face. She closed her eyes.
Marie put her phone back in her bag.
“Is everything ok?” Gray enquired.
“Yes, everything’s
fine”, Marie lied. But Gray seemed to notice and looked at her more
insistently. Marie took a big gulp of her cola and smiled at him. “It’s really
nothing. I‘m just a little worried about a friend. But it shouldn’t ruin our
evening!” Julia knew by now, however, that Gray wouldn’t accept this answer.
He stared at her insistently and raised
an eyebrow questioningly. Marie snorted. “Ok, fine. You won’t let it go
otherwise. She had a fight with her boyfriend. He’s terribly jealous and blah
blah!”, she lied, made a blasé hand gesture and rolled her eyes as best as she
could. Gray’s facial expression told her that he didn’t believe her. He
laughed.
“You can roll your eyes all you like!”, he
cleared his throat. “It doesn’t do any good to lie to me, you know, Marie.
Firstly, I can sense that you’re lying and secondly”, he paused and looked at
the table as though he had to consider whether to tell her. “And secondly?”
Marie wanted to know. “And secondly, you have to know that I’m not doing this
deliberately, it just happens”, Gray hesitated again.
“What is it, Gray? You can tell me anything,
you know that!” Marie was now getting a bit impatient.
Gray reached for her hand and looked at
her earnestly. “Marie, I can read your thoughts!”
“Well, of course. You can read thoughts!”
she smirked a little. Gray remained serious, though, and nodded affirmatively
at her.
“It’s true!”
“Hmm”, said Marie and looked around the
restaurant in which they were sitting. Marie noticed an old married couple at
the next table. The man shovelled in his food greedily and the woman scolded
him constantly as though she were his nanny. “Then please tell me what that
woman is thinking.” she nodded towards the couple.
Gray looked bored. “She’s thinking she
should have left him when she was still young. And she had a secret affair”,
Gray winked at Marie. “Is that proof enough?”
“Oh, come on, you made that up!” argued
Marie.
“Oh,
really?” Gray smirked cheekily at her. “Then why are you thinking that it makes
me more interesting? And that you’d hit me with a pan if I were to eat like
that.” Gray took a gulp of his beer without taking his eyes off Marie. Marie
had to swallow, because she had thought exactly that. Was it a coincidence? If
he wasn’t so...oh gosh, if he wasn’t so...
“What? If I wasn’t so? If I wasn’t so
extremely likeable?” Gray voiced Marie’s thoughts boldly. Marie felt her face
redden.
“I definitely didn’t think that!” Marie
simply couldn’t admit that she had.
“You did!” Gray laughed and leaned over to
her. “But I think you’re also very likeable!”
Oh great, thought Marie, now I’m getting
even redder. Her phone rang just as Gray reached for her hand. She reached for
it reflexively. It was Jack, who needed them at the base straight away.
“You have to come immediately. Red alert!”
he said concisely and hung up.
Something smelled strange. Like old cheese, or something
going mouldy. Julia slowly opened her eyes and was immediately terrified. She
realised that she was lying in a glass box and she could no longer move her
arms and legs. Tubes hung everywhere. Some had even been fed into her arms. She
panicked and began to scream. Nobody was interested. The people, who were now
standing in front of her, looked down at her, made notes and talked about
something she couldn’t understand. Outside her ‘prison’ there was a monitor
which showed her vitals. A gaunt man nodded contentedly and went away again,
without giving Julia so much as a second glance!
Julia felt panic spreading through her.
Tears ran down her face. Slowly, she became tired and it was an effort to keep
her eyes open. She compelled herself to hold on. She didn’t want to die. Not
now and not like this! She recalled a pleasant moment from her life in order to
remain conscious and held onto it tightly. She resolved to get out of this
cage. She wanted to survive and relive the moment from her memories. To sail
out to sea once more. Just once more! Softly, Julia sang the song: “I
am sailing, I am sailing. Home again across the sea. I am sailing stormy
waters, to be near you, to be free…”
She sang the song over and over and
imagined she was at sea. She felt it give her strength and hope that she would
get out of this. Suddenly, somebody
ripped the top off her box and freed her from her tubes. It was Archie.
“You? You’ve come to rescue me?” she said,
using the last of her strength. But she got no answer. He smiled at her
wordlessly and lifted her out of the box. Julia was too weak to stand. Her
knees felt as though they were made of butter. She collapsed. Archie caught her
and carried her in his arms. He took her out of the large hangar, where Julia
could see indistinctly there were a great many of these boxes. Small people ran
around and they wore peculiar headgear.
Then she was alone with Archie in an
office. He let her fall into a soft leather chair and passed her a glass of
water.
“Here, drink this; it’ll make you feel
better.” He smoothed her long blond hair lovingly to one side. Julia would have
liked to have said that she didn’t want it, but she was too weak. Besides, she
was also thankful to him for rescuing her. She took several substantial gulps
and felt it give her energy back. Archie leaned against a monstrous old writing
desk and grinned contemptuously at her.
“Thank you for rescuing me”, said Julia, but
she knew at the same moment that she shouldn’t have said it.
“Yes, I did”, he threw his head back
arrogantly. “Let’s get straight to the point, love. You have an agreement to
fulfil. You’re a terrible dancer, which is a shame with that body, but I think
I can use you elsewhere!”
Julia swallowed and held the glass tightly
between her hands. “And, and...what kind of j-job is it?”, she stammered
quietly.
“You’ll soon see”, Archie took the glass
from her, grabbed her roughly by the arm and led her into another large hangar.
Julia noticed that larger containers
stood in here. They were kind of like pipes lined up close together. Tubes led
into these too, like they had into her. Monitors checked the vital signs of
what was inside them. Archie dragged
her over to one of the pipes, stepped behind her and held on tightly to her
shoulders.
Julia jumped in fright when she realised
what was in front of her. In the tube there was a figure, which very much
resembled a person, but the head was shaped like a pumpkin and had also taken
on the same colour. The eyes burned like glowing coals and there was a dark
hole where the nose should be.
“Either you do what I tell you, or I’ll put
you back in the box. Then you’ll become one of them!” Archie laughed
maliciously.
“What, what do I have to do?” Julia didn’t
want to become such a monster by any means. She wanted to do what was asked of
her because she finally had a dream.
“It’s quite simple. It’s not difficult. Even
you can manage it!” The light flickered and went out. It was pitch black. “Stay
calm. It will be back. One of the monsters has damaged the cables”, Archie
explained to Julia.
“D-does that happen often?” she searched for
Archie’s hand in fear.
“Now and then. It’s important to stay very quiet.
Because these beasts react quickly to panic, if you’re loud or made sudden
movements. It can make them lose their heads!”
Archie remained completely cold.
Julia’s entire body trembled. What she
wanted most was to run away, but it was as though she was paralysed. The light came back on for a couple of seconds
and Julia jumped in shock, because in front of her stood one of these monsters
and it was holding her hand.
A blood-curdling scream echoed through the
hangar. Then everything was deathly still.
Cheerfully, Marie and Gray entered the Torchwood
headquarters.
“Give over, you cheeky devil!” laughed Gray,
as Marie nudged him in the side. Marie had to admit that his smile made her
weak at the knees. She loved watching him out of the corner of her eye.
“Oh no, I hope he isn’t reading my thoughts
again”, thought Marie and she felt her face redden again. Gray didn’t seem to
notice, though. He came abruptly to a halt and signalled to Marie with a hand
gesture that she shouldn’t move.
“Psst”, hissed Gray. “Something isn’t right
here”, he whispered to her. Marie could sense a foreign energy. It was as
though someone was blowing on her neck.
“Can you feel that?” she asked Gray. He
nodded.
“Absolutely! And I don’t like it at all!” He
took her hand and they went slowly further. They looked around themselves.
Marie jumped with fright because she heard
loud ragged breathing, which seemed to come from the back. “Gray, I’m sensing
foreign energies here and they aren’t good ones!” Marie swallowed. Although she
had now become used to it since she had met Jack and Gray, it had always been
an oppressive feeling which spread though her. All at once, something small shot quickly
towards her, angrily swinging an axe.
“I’m going to get you!” croaked the small
figure. Gray shoved Marie aside somewhat rudely to protect her from the
creature. Quick as a flash, he grabbed for the swinging axe and stole it from
the figure.
“Oh yes, let’s see who gets who here!” Marie
was very impressed by Gray’s reaction and she blushed again. How she hated
that, but as much as she tried to fight against it, she didn’t succeed. Marie
didn’t have time to think about that now; Gray needed her help. More of these
small figures now came running towards them from all corners of the
headquarters. They wore small pointed caps on their heads, each in a different
colour and they were no taller than 90cm. Some of them used their braces as
catapults and shot small pellets at them. They breathed heavily and swore –
words that are better left unmentioned!
“Marie, come on already!” she heard Gray
shout. She knew she could do it and she wanted to do it. Marie actually managed
to produce a kind of protective bubble around them using only the power of her
mind.
“I did it. Look, I did it”, she rejoiced and
jumped gleefully into Gray’s arms.
“Of course you did it”, it felt so good to
hear him say that.
“Could you two lovebirds maybe postpone this
until later? There are still a few angry garden gnomes here trying to finish us
off!” someone interrupted the moment. Jack was having great difficulty keeping
the garden gnomes at bay. Marie let the protective bubble fall with a hand
gesture.
“If I can create protective bubbles with the
power of thought, maybe I can...” thought Marie.
“Try it. I’m sure you can do it!” Gray
encouraged her. And she actually managed it. One gnome after another echoed off
the walls, the walls of the headquarters and they shattered into little pieces.
The two men stopped fighting and Marie enjoyed their approving gazes.
“I think that’s all of them”, said Marie casually.
The men looked at each other questioningly and then at Marie. “What? You told
me to believe in myself! That’s exactly what I did! And you know what? It was
an awesome feeling!” Marie grinned from ear to ear because she was very proud
of herself.
Marie, Jack and Gray discussed the incident over a coffee.
Marie stared into her cup. It was as though she’d had an image before her eyes;
some kind of vision. “Marie. Marie, are you listening?” she was ripped from her
thoughts. “Is everything ok?” Gray asked again. Marie shook her head, but
Gray’s expression told her it would be pointless to hide anything from him. So
she told him and Jack about the vision.
“I
thought I saw my friend Julia. She was crying and staring at a pumpkin!” Jack
wanted to know more.
“What else did you see?”
“Nothing!” was her answer.
“I don’t believe you. What did you see?” his
voice sounded more insistent and Marie didn’t like it. “Leave her alone, Jack! Can’t you see she’s
still confused?” Gray defended her.
“No,
forget it. It’s fine. I really saw nothing, Jack. By nothing, I mean: nothing
at all! It was like a deep dark hole. So endless and it felt big and cold!” It
had again felt to Marie as though someone had been blowing on her neck. But she
didn’t want to mention that.
“Ok, that’s what I wanted to hear”, he
smiled at Marie, satisfied. Gray took Marie’s hand in his. “What was that just now? I mean those
gnomes? And does my vision mean something?” Marie wanted to know.
“It’s
Halloween. On that day a portal is opened to another dimension. And in many
places, things that aren’t alive come to life. The evil joins together. We
should think ourselves lucky that it’s just one day. These creatures mostly
disappear, or change back. And that thing with your friend, well, I think you
should call her. I think it must mean something that you’ve had a vision! It
always does!” He put his hands in the trouser pockets and looked at Marie,
concerned. It was almost as if he knew exactly what was going on inside her.
Marie set down her coffee and dialled
Julia’s number. She had already been trying to reach her for hours. Marie
rolled her eyes with every ‘ring’. Just as she was about to hang up, her friend
answered at the other end.
“Julia, finally! What is it? Where?
But...oh, no...we’re coming now!” Marie hung up. Her hands were shaking. “Julia’s
been abducted to a hangar by her boss, where he’s creating human-pumpkin
monsters!” Marie couldn’t hold back her tears any longer.
Marie, Jack and Gray were able to get into facility Julia
had described unnoticed. It smelled like musty old things and something else
you couldn’t quite put your finger on.
“It smells almost as bad as my special
mixture!”, joked Gray and prodded Marie in the side.
“Well, nothing can surpass the stink of your
mixture!”, quipped Jack. Marie looked at them both angrily. She was certainly
not in the mood to joke around.
“Are you nuts? My friend’s life is in danger
and you’re making stupid jokes!”
“She’s not really in danger, Marie. I
explained to you that everything will change back on the stroke of midnight!”
That wasn’t a good enough answer. Marie
stomped away angrily towards the pipes, which stood at the back. She heard Gray
and Jack following her silently. They now stood in front of the pipes and none
of them wanted to believe what they saw there. A human-sized figure with a big
pumpkin for a head. The creature’s eyes glowed angrily at them.
“So this is what you call not being in danger?”
she glared at Jack as angrily as she could. She got no answer, though. Jack
just looked at her. Gray went over to the monitor and pulled out the tube which
led into the container. Jack went to help him and approached the other pipes,
in which similar creatures could be found.
A loud hissing and groaning could be
heard. Marie and the two men took a couple of steps back from the pipes. Gray
and Jack shot at them. The glass splintered and the creatures were free. They
walked heavily towards the three of them, huffing and puffing.
“Have you completely lost your minds?” asked
Marie irritably.
“Yes,
I don’t think that was a good idea!” agreed Gray.
“Run!”, cried Jack and began to run
immediately. Gray and Marie followed him. Behind them, the cries of the
creatures silenced. Breathless, they ended up in a long corridor, which seemed
to lead into a large dark nothingness.
Suddenly, someone grabbed Marie’s shoulder
from behind. She turned around, startled, and was relieved to discover it was
her friend Julia.
“Julia!” Marie cried with joy and they both
fell into each other’s arms.
Julia led the small team into the hangar, where people
were prepared for stage 2.
“I
pulled the tubes out of them and could have saved them, but Archie is after me.
And the beastly little dwarves too! I also know that there’s an exit to the
outside somewhere in this hangar, but I haven’t been able to find the door!”
she explained to them.
“And where are the others?” Jack enquired.
“They’re
wandering around here somewhere!” Julia seemed very uneasy and frightened. Continuous loud cries and moans could be
heard from somewhere. Marie grew cold. She sensed the dead energy in this
hangar and she moved closer to Gray. He seemed to sense her fears once more and
he reached for her hand.
“Everything’s going to be ok, Marie!”
In the meantime, Jack discovered a door
which led into a small neighbouring room. “Get in here quickly!” It was very
dark in the room. The only light came from a bulb which hung from the ceiling.
The light flickered. Jack pulled the door quickly shut behind them. Just in
time. Several pumpkin monsters had just found them. They scraped and hammered
with their fists against the door.
“Let me in!” a voice croaked. Marie looked
at the others questioningly. But they all shook their heads. This time, even
Gray seemed a little uneasy. The two men found some bookshelves, which they now
shoved in front of the door.
“Now what? I mean, what do we do now?” asked
Marie.
“Wait”, replied Jack. The four of them sat
down on the cold ground. Marie rested her head on Gray’s shoulder. He put his
arms lovingly around her.
“What are you going to do when we get out of
here and this whole nightmare is over?” he asked the others.
“I don’t know. Perhaps I’ll try to find out
what else I have in me”, said Marie.
“If this ever comes to an end, I’d like to
sail out to sea. Enjoy the freedom. And, above all, the peace and quiet”, Julia
daydreamed. The moaning and shouting behind the door became steadily louder.
“Let me in, let me in!” cried some of them,
as they hammered constantly against the door with their fists.
“What if they’re really people?” Marie asked.
“I mean, we can’t just abandon them to their fate!” She leapt up and tried to
push the bookshelves away from the door with all her might. “We have to help
them!”
But Gray grabbed her by the arm and shook
his head. “Stop!”, he said quickly. “No, Marie!”
Now Jack got involved
too.
“They are people. At least, they will be
again. I hope! But if you open that door now, we’re all done for in here!”
Marie shook her head.
“I
don’t believe that. If they’re going to change back, then nothing bad will
happen to us! Right, Jack? Nothing will happen to us, right?” Marie’s voice
shook.
“I don’t know!” replied Jack.
“If you open that door, the creatures will
turn you all into Halloween ghosts!” a tinny voice suddenly came out of
nowhere.
The four of them looked around, but there
was nothing there. But Marie could sense where the voice had come from and she
went towards it.
“Who are you?” she asked gently.
“I am a ghost from a past Halloween. You
should not open that door. They will bite you and suck out your life force. The
creatures will change back on the stroke of midnight, which will be quite
disgusting, but those who are bitten can never go back to their old life. They
become ghosts. Doomed to haunt every year on Halloween”, the ghost explained.
Jack and Gray pushed the bookshelves
firmly back against the door again and leaned against them. Marie smirked.
“Are you scared, or something?”
The two men gazed at her and shook their
heads simultaneously. “Us? We’re not scared!” they both protested. Julia and
Marie laughed. Even the ghost had to chuckle.
“There are only a couple of minutes left.
Then it will be midnight and a new day will begin!” Marie sensed that the ghost
was extremely close to her.
“Why won’t you show yourself?” she asked.
Then he stood before
her. A young man with blond hair and very old-fashioned clothes. Marie guessed
that in life he had been a stable boy; his clothes at least gave away that
much.
“You’re not scared!” the ghost noticed.
Marie shook her head.
“No.
I can sense that I have nothing to fear from you. How old are you? What’s your
name?” Marie had now become very curious. After all, you don’t meet a ghost
every day.
Gray, Jack and Julia
also want to find out more about him.
“What’s it like being a ghost?” Jack wanted
to know. Gray only wanted to know what it’s like to disappear through walls.
“I bet it’s fun!”
“Can ghosts touch people?” that’s what Julia
wanted to know.
The moaning and groaning
from the other side of the door lessened, but other muffled noises could now be
heard. The ghost floated abruptly out of the room and came back again a few
seconds later.
“You can leave the room now. But, I’m
warning you, it’s quite disgusting and unpleasant! Going through walls
definitely has its advantages. We can’t really touch the living, but there are
people who can sense our energy. Like Marie. Incidentally, I’m very sorry if I
startled you earlier. I just wanted you to notice me”, the ghost patiently
answered their questions. “I was 18 years old when I was changed. I must have
been haunting now for at least 100 years. I don’t know. I think they called me
Leroy. And Jack, you are not destined to be a ghost. You have a mission!”
A chime sounded from a grandfather clock,
which seemed to be somewhere. It had already chimed 10 times.
“I will have to leave you now. But be
careful of the gnomes, my dear friends. They change back a little later than
the pumpkin monsters. They could pull you into their world. That is to say, if
they are touching you while they are changing, make sure you free yourselves
quickly or it will be too late!”
With this final warning and the twelfth
chime from the grandfather clock, Leroy disappeared.
Jack and Gray cautiously
moved the bookshelves away from the door. With hammering hearts, they opened
the door. They couldn’t see anything. Nothing other than loads of pumpkin
sludge and bemused-looking people, who were standing in the middle of it. Some
remained on their feet with the last of their strength and others sat
immediately down on the ground.
“Oh my God, that’s horrible!” remarked
Julia.
The others nodded in agreement. One of the
creatures, which had not yet changed back, came storming towards Marie from a
corner, grabbing her by the arm. Marie tried to defend herself, but she
couldn’t free herself from its grip. Gray intervened, dealing the monster a
heavy blow, and it collapsed. A large orange-coloured puddle spread beneath
Marie’s feet.
“How revolting!” Marie was appalled. “I
think I’ll take a bath when we get home!” Gray winked at her, grinning.
“Me too!” He looked down at her. Their
clothes now resembled the outside of a pumpkin.
Jack found the exit at the other end of
the hangar and gestured towards it.
“Come on. Let’s finally go home”. Everyone
fully agreed and followed him. But it wasn’t going to be that easy to go home.
Someone was waiting for them outside. A
human-sized garden gnome stood before them, smiling maliciously.
“Did you think you could escape from me that
easily? Nobody escapes from me. I have the power, I have the knowledge, I will
rule the world. I, Archie, will be the most powerful man in the world! All must
submit to me!”
“You! You make me so angry!” Julia erupted. Fists
balled, she wanted to charge at him, but Marie held her tightly. “Think about
the warning, Julia!”
They took a step backwards, because nobody
wanted to turn into a garden gnome. Gray
and Jack reached for their weapons, when suddenly an axe hurled from out of
nowhere towards Archie’s mutated form and struck him in the head.
“No one dares attack me; Archie! Revenge
will be mine and I...” He couldn’t finish the sentence because he shattered
into lots of tiny pieces.
“That probably wasn’t in his plan for world
domination!” laughed Jack.
“See you soon, my dear friends!” someone
yelled to the small Torchwood team from the distance.
“I told you everything changes back when a
new day begins!” Jack said, turning to Marie and the others. At that moment, a
small figure in a red cap darted into the nearby bushes.
“Is it really true that everything changes
back?” asked Marie, as she and the other glanced over at the shrubbery.
The End
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