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“Okay,” Lila says as she pushes the shopping cart towards the registers, her little skeleton riding in the basket, “let’s make sure we have everything for tonight’s dinner. Thirty-two ounces of angel hair pasta.”
“Two packs of zombie brains!” Skid shouts, checking it off the grocery list from Lila’s phone.
“One pack of blue cheese.”
“Rotting moldy cheese!”
“One butternut squash.”
“One haunted gourd!”
“And the bacon.”
“The flesh carved from… Mom, look! Look look look!”
“What is it, sweetie?” Lila asks, watching her son jump around in his seat, pointing at the vegetable aisle, where a young man was putting more carrots under the mister and…
Lila feels her stomach twist itself in knots, realizing her son was screaming, laughing, and pointing at a young man that was missing an arm. What was worse, everyone was watching. Even the young employee.
“Hahaha, Skid,” Lila says, waving and trying to not make a scene, “what have we talked about not pointing at people who…”
“It’s the vampire!” Skid shouts, trying to get out of the cart. “The vampire from the haunted house! He’s a real vampire mom! He had fangs and a cape! And when he stood in front of a mirror, he was gone!”
Lila breathes the biggest sigh of relief she had in a while. Good, she thought, her son wasn’t picking on a stranger for looking different. Everyone gets back to their business as well, and even the employee looks calmer.
“Oh, you recognize him from Halloween,” Lila laughs as she wipes the nervous sweat from her brow. “That’s nice sweetie, but I don’t think he’s a real…”
“Do I hear the laughter of a delicious child?!” a voice shouts behind Lila. She nearly beats whoever it is with a can of chunky style soup, only to see it’s the shelf stocker, with two carrots shoved in his mouth to look like fangs. His one arm up as if he was baring claws for an attack.
Skid goes wild seeing this vampire the same way most would if they saw Santa. He’s jumping all around the cart, and Lila is quick to pull him out before he smashes all the food before they can eat it.
“What’s it like living in the castle? It is true bats can only see by screaming? Do you want to know what a sunrise looks like?”
Skid just fires these questions as if he were a minigun, shaking in Lila’s arms until she drops him on his face. Thankfully he was too excited to do anything else other than get back up and ask even more questions. Lila and the boy looked at each other, not sure if they should be mortified or laughing.
“Easy now little fellow,” the young man says, kneeling to get on Skid’s eye level. “So, you were at my haunted house, were you? Tell me, did it scare you?”
“Yeah!” Skid shouts, jumping up and down. “There were pirates, and werewolves, and ghosts! And when we left, we saw you with your arm ripped off!”
Lila gasps in shock. She watches the way the clerk freezes, still smiling, but his eyes glazing over. She sees him tremble as he laughs, a whine in his voice as he tries not to cry.
Halloween. She understands. This poor boy…
“Hey, wait a minute,” Skid says, rubbing his chin with a gloved hand. “Where is your arm? Pump said it was an effect…”
“Ah, my arm, yes, haha. Yes, you see my little fellow… you see…”
“It was a vampire hunter!” Lila spurts out, her son and this young man looking up at her. “Vampire hunters always go out on Halloween. Because… that’s the one night the vampires let their guards down.”
“Uuuuuh…” the boy goes, nodding to Lila before looking at Skid and getting back into character. “UuuuuoooOOhhhh! That’s right. An evil vampire hunter targeted the house that night. Luckily I chased him away, protecting you and my legion of wicked warriors. Alas, he stole my arm. But I will be ready for him come next Halloween!”
“A vampire hunter?!” Skid says, shocked, eyes wide and mouth slack. “I knew something was going on! Don’t worry, me and Pump will get the hunter! No one threatens Spooky Month and gets away with it!”
“I know you will hun,” Lila says, patting her son on the head. “Say, why don’t you go and get some Count Chocula. I’m sure the hero would love to sign it for you.”
“Yeah!” he shouts, jumping and running towards to cereal aisle. Once he’s out of sight, they both breathe a deep sigh of relief.
“Man, that was close,” the stocker says. “I really owe you one there ma’am. I was really this close to…”
“It was Bob, wasn’t it?” Lila asks, making the boy freeze again. “Halloween night, he did that to your arm.”
The boy just sighs, slumping. He looks very tired as he pulls the carrots out of his mouth and shoves them into his shirt pocket.
“Yeah,” he says, not looking her in the eye. “Your son and his friend were at the house when it happened. They thought it was fake and left.”
Lila puts a hand to her mouth. This makes him panic and raise his remaining hand. “Look, I’m not mad at them or anything,” he says. “He’s still young, he couldn’t imagine something like… this, really happening.”
“I know,” Lila says. “Bob was trying to kill him and his friend too. He’s actually tried to kill me a couple of times.”
Lila looks at the kid, in shock to hear that. He doesn’t know what to say, and Lila thinks that is for the best.
“He didn’t understand what was happening when Bob was after him. It makes things easy sometimes. Really hard other times. He’s just a kid who loves spooky things. But one day he’ll realize that the world isn’t spooky, it’s scary. And then I’m afraid he’ll lose the thing that he loves.”
The silence is thick enough to cut with a butcher’s knife. The two just stand there, unsure. Just waiting to see who speaks first. And it’s the boy.
“Does it… get easier? Does it ever feel like I’m not waiting for it to happen again?”
Lila sighs. “I can’t say it gets easier. But, in the end, you’ll know who you can trust no matter what. And next time you imagine something happening, you'll know you won't have to face it alone.”
The boy just nods. “My boyfriend has been a lot of help since I got back from the hospital. He acts like a grump all the time, and I mean all the time, but he’s got the biggest heart.”
“See, you’re already off to a great start! I’m Lila by the way.” She holds out her hand for a shake.
“Streber,” the boy says, lifting his arm… the missing one. They both stare. “Uh, I think you’ll need to switch hands since, you know…” He flaps his stump arm, the fabric shaking slightly. He can’t help but chuckle as she panics and shakes him vigorously with a handshake. And she can’t either.
“It’s great to meet you, Streber. Do you still want to sign my son’s cereal box? It would make his week.”
“I’d love to,” he says, pulling the carrots out of his pocket and shoving them back in his mouth. He hisses and Lila can’t help but smile. “Where is he anyway? The cereal aisle is only three over.”
“DIE, VAMPIRE HUNTER!” Skid shouts, followed by the sound of breaking glass.
“What is wrong with you!” a man shouts back, running with his cart.
Skid is right behind him wielding a potato masher and a bottle of hot sauce. “Nobody needs that much garlic salad dressing! You will pay, enemy of the night!”
“I should take care of that,” Lila says, shaking Streber’s hand one last time before running off after her son.
Streber just laughs, munching on one of his fangs before heading back to work, thinking about how monster hunters could be a great theme for next year’s haunted house.