Northern Exposure

It's said that All Hallows' Eve is one of the nights when the veil between the worlds is thin - and whether you believe in such things or not, those roaming spirits probably believe in you, or at least acknowledge your existence, considering that it used to be their own. Even the air feels different on Halloween, autumn-crisp and bright.

Erin Morgenstern

October 31st Somewhere in Northern Michigan, 2012

Audrey Burnett sat curled up in her blanket watching television as the autumn wind swirled outside her home. Beyond the enclosure of her small abode, the overly hilly countryside whispered softly as all Hollows Eve drew closer. Tonight, witches, goblins, ghouls, and banshees roamed freely, closing the gap between their world and hers. The voices of otherworldly specters shrieked out into the brisk autumn air, filling the atmosphere with an eeriness that no one could ever explain with words alone. Outside that little cottage home, something was amiss; something was at work. As the unseen came to pass, a storm rose from the north. The eye of it focused on the enclave within which sat Audrey's humble dwellings.

There were no street lights in this small corner of the world, nor were there neighbors for as far as the eye could see. It was only Audrey and the pair of golden eyes that belonged to a particularly fat black cat, called Lando. He was her only companion in the house and currently found himself curled comfortably at her feet, purring lazily in his slumber. As the swirling vortex of the autumn coils crashed against the home, the lights began to flicker off and on. Audrey was exceptionally thankful for him in those terrifying moments. In her self assuring way, she told herself that if Lando could remain calm in the face of a power outage, then so could she. The twenty four year old pulled the fleece blanket closer around her body, though she was already beginning to sweat. It had been a habit of hers ever since childhood; as long as she remained covered completely from head to foot, there was no chance any ill could befall her. It was Halloween, she couldn't be too careful.

Ever since the sun had fallen three hours prior, a strong sense of uncertainty had pooled in her body. While the storm outside grew to its peak, so did her apprehension…something wasn't sitting right. It was as if the thin veils of reality were being pulled from beneath her and a terrible trepidation gripped Audrey by the throat, crushing the life from within. Her burning flesh from under the blanket became like ice and her head began to throb. A feeling of nausea flooded over her senses but as she moved Lando from her lap for fear of purging, the sensation ceased to exist. Almost as if it had never occurred in the first place, which left Audrey feeling even more apprehensive than before; though less woozy. Again the lights in the home fluttered with the whirlwind raging outside. Finally the lighting blacked out all together.

At first the only thing Audrey could do was breathe. Foremost in, then out, in, and then out; her eyes were tightly closed. Every move that Lando made scampering about the wooden floors made her heart race with anticipation. Childishly in her head she conjured thoughts of all the things she had seen that night on television and relayed them over to her current incident. Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho slasher music played on repeat in her head, followed by the unmistakable noises of the extraterrestrial life forms from M. Night's Signs. Somewhere in the recesses of her overactive imagination, Audrey had even feared that if she opened her eyes, she may come face to face with a Wolfman who just might be keen on severing her head from her body. In short folks, she was a complete and total scaredy-cat. When Lando jumped back onto her lap, Audrey gasped in a terrified breath—following a rather over reactive scolding focused on her feline friend. At least now her eyes were open, already well adjusted to the dark. She needed to move. For the first time in hours Audrey stood from her couch, letting the blanket fall to the floor in a heap. Her surroundings were much colder once that extra layer had been shed, despite the fact she had been wearing a rather toasty navy-blue turtleneck. Audrey shivered, rubbing her shoulders to regain composure and warmth; she stepped over the blanket—bravely—and meandered over to the kitchen to find a flashlight.

Stepping closer into the dark abyss of her one-room home, Audrey had stuck her thumb in her mouth and bit down hard to keep from shouting at every gust of wind that hit the siding. In a short distance she had made it to the kitchen, refusing the look out the window above the dishwasher. An active imagination was something she prided herself in, but also deemed it her worst flaw. In that particular moment, the last thing she needed was to peer out into the night and see Bigfoot trellising closer towards her. The very thought had her fumbling rapidly for the Maglite that she had kept in the left drawer, just beneath the sink. After searching for what felt like forever, Audrey's shaking hands finally recognized the cold metal against her fingertips. Grabbing hold of it, she slammed the drawer shut and turned on the light. It took a whole other caliber of courage to turn back around. When she finally had, at her feet were the eyes of a rather indifferent Bombay cat, meowing in a way Audrey had deemed his way of mocking her.

"Stop looking at me like that, eh?" Her voice broke unevenly as a low roll of thunder rumbled in the distance. "Good God…I never would have survived in a time without electricity."

Spinning the flashlight in her palm and deciding it best to put on her slippers—feeling as though her naked feet needed protecting—Audrey then contemplated if she should even try going outside into the cellar to flip the breakers. For a moment she considered just leaving it be and going straight to her room; barricading herself in there until morning. Lando meowed again, taunting his petrified owner. Somehow Audrey doubted that if she chose to take the easy way out, Lando would let her live it down. So gathering all her courage, which was very little, Audrey clicked her tongue for the cat to follow and made her way to the front entry.

Hesitation is what kept Audrey from opening the door. All of her idiotic ideas set aside, something truly did not feel right. There was a presence she hadn't recognized and the more she watched that fat cat and the way his ears prickled forward, Audrey knew Lando had felt it too. Unlike her however, the feline was completely fueled by curiosity and wanted nothing more than to go outside and check it out for himself. Sickly, his owner considered telling him what killed the cat. She bit her tongue conversely and focused in on the possibility that someone may in fact, be outside her home.

It wasn't unlike the teenagers in the area to wreak havoc on the unexpected homeowners in the country; especially on Halloween. Last year Holly had been a victim of a rather nasty toilet papering and much to her displeasure—car egging. Last time despite the fact that, she had heard them and for all purposeful knowledge, she had also been with power. This year the weather was cold, dreary, and the storm would have kept all the hooligans inside. Never minding the fact that there literally had been no noise aside from the thunder and the wind…so why was there this nagging feeling that somewhere on her property, something had seriously gone amiss? Some people believe in the intuition of high power and its ability to give you premonitions of what lies ahead. For all her crazy hair-brained imageries, Audrey liked to think all of that to be a load of crock. She hardly took anything of the supernatural to be true—at least on a ghostly level. So she chalked up her nervousness to the scare of the storm and the time of the year. (Very noble of her indeed) She wasn't prepared to leave her house unarmed, however. So prior to unlocking her front door, Audrey reached over on the coat rack and unhitched the pepper-spray can from its holster, before slipping on a jacket. Wielding liquid death in one hand and a fairly heavy Maglite in the other, the twenty-four year old thrust open the door and watched as Lando happily and ignorantly skipped outside. Sucking in a deep breath she followed suit, out into the storm.

The rain had yet to start falling at any rapid rate, but as the lightning flashed across the sky, Audrey shrieked. Repeatedly she cursed herself for finding that small ounce of courage within; continually telling herself as soon as she found Lando it would be back inside for the both of them until morning. She wasn't even going to risk going down into a deep cellar—who knew what might be down there? She called out continuously for her cat, all while slowly trudging the perimeter of her small home. Audrey's trepidation returned with each corner she cut, fearing what could be lurking around any of them. Thunder blasted out in the air again, and this time she let a 'fuck' roar out of her lungs as she dropped her flashlight in fear. Rain began to pour down, which soon soaked her to the bone.

Sinking into the sodden ground, Audrey fumbled with her hands trying to find the flashlight, which had gone out when it fell. It was like a scene from a horror movie, which always ended in the girl being hacked into small pieces by the predator lurking in the shadows…

"God damn it," She seethed, "This would happen to me…where the fuck is that flashlight?"

Leaning further into the mud, her fingers brushed against metal and as her hand firmly gripped the handle of the light, her heart eased. That was until she heard Lando hissing and growling, not too far behind her. Part of Audrey was afraid to turn around, her initial fear of confronting Bigfoot popping into her head again. The last thing she wanted to do was fight off a hairy ape-man for her cat. Sickly she debated if the Bombay was even worth it…but when he hissed again, she knew she had to do something. Standing up, Audrey's grip on the light grew tighter. Convincing herself it was the right thing to do, she spun around—nearly falling down in the mud—only to freeze in fear from the looming shadowy figure she encountered.

In the darkness the creature appeared ominous, with great horns protruding from its head. The figure was tall, broad, and towering over Lando, whose haunches were on end. Like a hellish beast it reached out its arm only to prove that it wielded a blade that glistened against the hoary droplets and LED lighting of the flashlight. Audrey's eyes grew to the size of saucers, more afraid for her cat than for herself at that moment. When the being reached down to grab hold of Lando, his master lunged forward and scooped up the black fur ball before retreating back to where she had been standing. It was then that she had frozen in fear; unable to move. The shrouded creature took a step back, before holding out a hand and speaking in tongues. Audrey's knees grew weak. "St—stay back! I'm warning you! Just go away and leave me alone."

The creature with the horns stepped forward, outreaching his hand towards the two frightened beings before him. But before he could take hold of Audrey, she had dropped Lando to the ground and as he took off running, she positioned the pepper-spray where she could only hope her assailant's eyes would be and held down the trigger. A horrible painstaking scream confirmed her target had been hit and while defenselessly holding onto its eyes—having dropped its weapon—Audrey used her flashlight to drill it hard in its groin, smiling slightly with pride as it doubled over. "I don't know you! And that was my cat, asshole!"

For good measure she sprayed the can in its eyes again, before hauling butt back to her home. She locked the door as soon as she knew Lando was safe. Then running into her room—which she also locked, she tried the phone. When there was no dial tone, she cursed herself for not having charged her cell. It would have just been her luck to have some horn-wearing psycho outside her house, carrying a sword and she would be without a way to call for help. Barricading herself in, Audrey moved her dresser in front of her bedroom door and sat on the edge of her bed, waiting. After an hour or two of silence—having stripped off her wet clothes and in new warm pjs, Audrey found that sleep took her. She slept uncomfortably, fully knowing that when she woke, Audrey would have to deal with the demon outside her home. It was a notion that had her tossing and turning all night, afraid that the creature would break down her doors.