Speaking Bones

Bones ward off evil. That’s what my grandfather used to say. They were used by witches, yes, but they were first things of beauty. Of life, and of death. An unbreakable circle of inevitability. Bones craft the world, and the world is crafted around its bones. Circular reasoning? Yes. But, grandfather always believed that was the way of the world. Things that go around come around. Everything comes full circle in the end. A life spent on a tilt-a-whirl.

Bones are required for life. And bones are required for death. A bone is vital to a creature. Bones are vital to all creatures.

There are more than enough bones in the world.

More than enough.

I think it’s time I have some for myself.

Dead Show

I’m not sure when humanity became like this. When they obtained this need. This gnawing hole that constantly demanded more. More.

More.

I wasn’t sure where else to turn to. What else to do. My mediocre macabre and my average tricks weren’t doing the trick anymore. The crowds…they’d stopped coming.

What else was I supposed to do?

Humanity had reached that point again. That point where enough was no longer enough. Where the abnormal was so normal now that it didn’t matter. There were other things to see. Better things. More gruesome. More violent. More explicit things.

The circus didn’t matter anymore.

But I still had a show I wanted to put on. A job I wanted to do.

All I had to do was figure out how to get them back. How to get the fish biting again.

And, boy, did I succeed.

Dead Knock

“Hey, hurry up! Place your candle, we gotta get going. It’s going to be dark soon.”

Dad looked cautiously around us, as if the trees might reach down and smite him.

“Okay!” I replied.

I lit my candle and set it against the grave.

The grave of my brother.

“Lets go, Mom is probably worried by now,” Dad said, hurrying his way toward the exit of the graveyard.

Usually, Dad and I took our time. We actually paid respects to the dead. Took turns talking to my brother’s grave. Prayed for his spirit, all that good stuff. But today was different. Because today wasn’t an ordinary day.

Today was Halloween.

And we were on an island. No, actually. Not just an island.

THE island.

The Island of the Dead. 

Bonefish

If you’ve never been lost in the jungle with a guy who might actually be insane, then:

You’ve never known real fear.

I wasn’t sure how Chad talked me into this. Maybe he drugged me. But, regardless, I was here, in this jungle, following him. And what was Chad doing in this jungle? All I have is one word and it doesn’t make a lick of sense to me:

Bonefish.

Late Night Horrors

Finally.

Mom and Dad are asleep. And that means:

I can watch TV!

Usually, Mom and Dad don’t let me watch TV late at night. They say the shows aren’t for me. That they’re scary and bad and stuff.

But whatever.

I’m eight now. I can handle it.