HaLlowEen StoRy Gage SOLOMON, 2021
You wake up on Saturday morning to find you’re alone in your bed. You get up and head downstairs where your wife and kids are already having breakfast. When they see you, they all start screaming and your wife calls the police. None of your family knows who you are. Almost instantly you remember what happened last night. You recall going to a Halloween party, and how weird everything was at the party. People were dressed up in all sorts of different costumes, ranging from a simple vampire costumes to more creepy costumes like a plague doctor from the older European times. Suddenly it hits you--not only did you not know any of these people at the party, but you also drank a lot of wine. Now that you think about it, you might have drank more than wine. You recall how shady everyone was acting. It suddenly hits you. You might have been intentionally drugged by someone who put something in your red solo cup. You recall your vision being more blurry than usual. Another flashback occurs. When you left the party someone jumped you outside. They grabbed your arm and pushed your whole body into a black SUV. Black. All you start to see is black. The lights inside the car turn on. There are two people in the car with you. The first person is in the back seat of the car. She is a blonde girl with duck tape stuck to her mouth. She looks terrified. Obviously this girl was kidnapped. She is crying and her eyes are screaming to you to get out before it’s too late. The other person is a middle-aged man. He is behind the driver’s wheel. He turns to you and hands you a very odd looking pill. He tells you this: “Pop this pill and you can go back to the party or go home, whatever you wish to. I must warn you, if you don’t take this drug, you must die. I like to call this pill the “changer.” Once you consume this, none of your family will recognize you nor will any of your life’s memories with people be remembered by others. Your life is essentially over now. So it is either take this pill or you die, your choice.” Immediately you squirm around the back of the car, screaming and trying to get out. The blonde girl turns to you and takes the duck tape off ever so easily. Her eyes are clear and she is fine, almost like she was not kidnapped. She smiles ever so slightly. She says to you, “This is the deal. Me and my partner here are required to either kill you, or erase you from existence. It was a prophecy from your wife to carry this deed out.” You take the pill accordingly and eventually get home. You climb into your bed, feeling way too different...like your body isn’t actually yours. The police arrive to your house while your wife is screaming in danger, hiding your children from you. Confused and scared, you run back upstairs to your bed and fall asleep. You never wake up again.
57 • ECHOES
