I was going to try my hand at a scary story for spooky season, but what could be more terrifying than another term under the current Texas governor and his pet ghouls?
In honor of every survivor camp besieged by a hungry zombie horde, it’s time to fight back!
That’s right y’all. It’s Early Voting Season here in Texas. Time for last minute cramming for who and what’s on your local ballot like it’s your final exam before summer break. Don’t panic. I’m a librarian, and I’ve got you.
Check your local county government website as well for more specific voting information. And remember, you can always go to your local public library branch or chat with a librarian online if you need to find more information.
Prompt: A person finds new photos of themselves on their cell phone that they didn’t take.
The glow of my cellphone illuminated my face as I snuggled deeper into my couches nook. I had been scrolling my feed for the last twenty minutes, liking the perfectly curated pictures as they rolled up my screen when the notification popped up.
” We’ve made an album for you”
Without hesitation I selected the notification. I loved when my phone made cute little albums with my pictures.
As the album was loading my eyes flickered to the screen, one of my favorite episodes of Criminal Minds played as white noise in the background, and I watched as the BAU team solved the crime. Setting my phone down I went into the kitchen to check on my dinner. By the time I made it back to the couch, the album had loaded.
I sat down and scrolled through. After the fifth picture, I shook my head in confusion. I looked back at the half of the joint I left in the ashtray. How high was I?
I continued to scroll through the album. Not only could I not recall the night, I didn’t even recognize the location. I sat my phone down and laid back on the couch. My heart started to race. I wiped my hands back and forth on the couch. Simultaneously to remove the sweat from my palms and to ground myself to the present. I needed to think.
How could this happen? I thought through the process. The notification is linked to my cloud. My cloud is linked to the photos. The photos are backed up to the cloud from my phone. Those photos come from me. But, I didn’t take those photos. Or did I?
I turned on the lamp nearest the couch. Grabbing my phone I opened the album back up. Searching for the meta data, I found the date and location the photo was taken. I racked my mind. I had never been to this city. The time stamp showed 3:30 a.m. On a week night. There is no way I would have been anywhere at that time on a week night. I reported to work at 6 a.m. I went back to the photo and zoomed in. I broke down every aspect. Yes, those were my clothes.
That was the only thing I could recognize in the photo as my own. The people were strangers, and the place even stranger.
Scrolling through the rest of the album I came to a stop on the one selfie from that night. I stared back in my face. Yes, that was my face. I zoomed in closer. Closer. Closer. Until my right eye took up the whole screen.
Where was my birthmark?
The phone slipped from my hand as I slowly stood and walked to the full length mirror in my bedroom. Standing in silver of light that pierced through my bedroom window, I leaned in as I pried my right eye open. My lids fought to stay closed, as if I was afraid of what I would see there.
My eyeball darted left and right before making direct contact with its reflect.
Stunned, I dropped my hands. It was not there I thought just as a hand reach out of the mirror and grabbed my hand.
Author’s Note: Fellow biSKIT, Kathy, sent over some spooky prompts for October and this one stuck with me. I’ve always wanted to write a super spooky tale. I “pants” this prompt. Literally sat down and let whatever appeared on the page, be what it was.
I bought the candy too early in the month. That was my first mistake. By the time it was Halloween night, only a few mini Hershey bars were left. I shook the spider web basket hoping to materialize more candy in the process. No such luck. There’s nothing harder than having to leave the house after a long day of work. All I wanted to do was lay down on the couch wearing my pumpkin pajamas, but instead I walked out into the hot Texas sun that refused to acknowledge we were a month into fall.
I got into my bright red car and once it was on, the ghost story podcast I was listening to on the way home picked up where I left off. A story about a possibly haunted lake at a performing arts school blurted from my speakers as I headed for the Walgreens closest to my place, happy to see no trick or treaters were walking around just yet. It was still light out, but the sun began its descent leaving behind streaks of blue, red, and orange in its place. As I approached the only entrance and exit of my neighborhood, I habitually raised my left hand to wave to one of the security guards that is parked next to the community center. My wave was left unanswered as there was no one sitting in the running car. He may have just stepped away for a moment, I told myself. I looked in my rearview mirror to be sure I didn’t just miss him. Nope, I hadn’t missed him.
I drove until the end of the street, and looked to my left to make sure no cars were coming so I could make the right turn towards the Walgreens. I didn’t need to wait long. There were no cars from the left. I looked to the right and didn’t see any cars coming from that direction either. The only time Houston streets were this empty was during the early hours of a bank holiday or after a hurricane, and today wasn’t either of those. It was rush hour on a Monday. There should’ve been cars speeding from every direction desperate to get to their destinations. I drove slower than usual and looked in every direction. I saw cars parked, but didn’t see anyone in them. As I passed a gas station on my right, I saw cars at the pump but no one was pumping.
I made it to the store parking lot and pulled into an open spot closest to the entrance. I watched the automatic doors, hoping to see people walking out with their purchases, but the doors remained shut. The blue and red neon sign was lit and promised me the store was OPEN. I hesitated to turn off the car, though. Something inside – common sense – was telling me not to go in. To go home and pass out the little candy I had left, and then turn out the porch lights once the last Hershey bar was gone. Curiosity was telling me the opposite. She said to go inside and find people because shit was getting weird out here. She was very convincing.
I turned off the car and stepped out of it, looking in all directions hoping to see someone. Anyone. The lights at the nearest intersection kept flashing between green, yellow, and red for no one. I walked towards the automatic doors and they whined open. Immediately, I looked at the registers, my gaze begging to make eye contact with an employee, but there wasn’t anyone there. My walk past the aisles turned into a slow jog as I realized there was no one there. No shoppers. No employees. Not a soul.
Curiosity wasn’t that convincing. I ran my ass back through the doors and into my car. The streets were as empty as the new night sky. Not a star or a person in sight. My hands shook as I turned the key and shifted into reverse. That’s when I saw it in my rearview camera. A car. Driving.
I watched in awe as the red car parked in the spot to my left and turned off the motor. Gripping the steering wheel, my hands pleaded for me to pull away, but my foot ignored that smart idea and remained planted on the brake. The windows were too tinted to see who was inside the mystery car. All I could see was a blurry outline which was starting to exit through the driver side. The person stepped out and finally their head was visible above the car. They turned and the face staring back at me was far too familiar. It was me. My smiling face coming towards me was the last thing I saw before everything went black.
biSKITs & gravy 