Wednesday, 30 October 2013

Fans Fiction The Ghost of Halloween by Sandy Deck, translated by Alison Balmforth


     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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