A Halloween story.

    Here is a short Halloween story I hope for your reading pleasure. 
   


    Don’t walk on the Grass
    Don Campbell

    It was halloween night and I was walking into the library to attend a public reading of stories people had written.  On the way from the parking lot I found someone's story were they had dropped it.  I carried it in thinking to return it.  But I could find no one who claimed it.  Curious I read it, now I think you should know about it.
    It starts:
    Jamie and I was out in the woods.  We was just goofing around.  We kept hearing this rumble coming from the ground.  And we kept lookin’ around for it.  We found this grassy place and there was this ordinary looking hole. 
    Well -- not ordinary. 
    It was plenty big enough to fall in.  But not like an old well.  It’s sides were dirt not bricks like wells are.  I knew there must be water down there ‘cuz I could see this swirly gray mist kinda hanging over the hole.  It didn’t even go away when the breeze blew hard.  It was funny, like it was almost solid, but it was mist.  So I figured it must be coming up a lot to not get blown away.
    Jamie said, “It’s a sink whole.  I saw all about them on TV.  Water carries dirt away so the hole falls in. 
    “It fallin’ –   that’s what made the rumbling.”  He got real close and said,  “I can hear water running.”
    I couldn’t hear any water and this hole was straight down, not the kind that caves in all broken like on the sides.  It looked like someone had dug it, but there weren’t no dirt on the grass.  And no sign of anyone walking or having a machine there. 
    That was weird.
    Jamie dropped a rock in.  We tried to hear it hit but it never did.
    He said, “Too small.  I need something bigger.”
    I didn’t like him doing that.  That hole didn’t look right.  When I looked in, deep down there was a flat blackness that pulled me like I was high up and getting dizzy.  Like the time I was way up in a tree and the wind blew and everything moved and swayed like I was dizzy but the movement was real, not me being dizzy.  It was like that.
    After that, I wouldn’t go next to the hole.
    I stayed away while Jamie went to look for a big rock.  He came waddling back with one bigger then he should carry.  He went right up and pitched it in.
    After a minute he said, “Damnit,” Jamie was always using cuss words, “Why can’t I hear it hit?”
    Well, I looked at that hole – and it looked like it had moved.  Not much.  But the flowers on the side looked further away.  I knew that couldn’t be.  It had to an optical illusion like you see in books.
    Jamie said,  “To hell with rocks,” and started for the woods.  Well I wasn’t going to stay by that hole so I sent along.      We  made a ball with dry moss and grass and birch bark.  Then he stuck a branch through it as a handle, then we went back.      I looked at that hole and it looked like it had moved again.  But there was still grass all around it so it couldn’t have moved because there weren’t no bare spot.  But thinking it had moved made me feel squirmy inside.
    I told Jamie.  “I’m not doing this, that hole is too weird.”
    He just laughed at me, “Bull.  Hold this while I light it.  I want it burning good.”  He put his lighter under it and I turned it so the whole thing was burning.
    Jamie said, “Go ahead drop it.”
    “Uh uh not me.  I don’t want to do this, it don’t feel right.”
    He called me chicken, and said “Gimme that.” And he grabbed it outta my hand.
    It was licking up flames and smoke and he pointed the stick down to let the flame ball slide off.  Only it didn’t.
    My eyes got stuck looking at the smoke, it was getting sucked into the mist.  Watching it was like seeing around a curve.  I mean – I was way back from the hole, but the way I could see the smoke .... It was like I was standing right over the hole watching.    
    Then the fire started to twist and spiral right down the center of the hole.  It was mixing with the mist that was going in not coming out.  I saw the smoke, flame, then stick and Jamie’s arm just seem to bend and stretch and look like things do when you feel dizzy.
    Jamie didn’t even yelp when he started to bend and twist.  He just flowed head first into that black hole and kept spinning and getting smaller and smaller until I couldn’t see him no more.
    I was so scared I peed all down my leg.  Then the hole burped and started to move toward me. 
    I ran like hell.
    They looked for Jamie for a week.  I couldn’t tell what I saw.  I said we were playing and he was hiding and I couldn’t find him so I thought he had gone home to play a trick on me.
    I’m older now.  I really want to tell someone cause when I feel the rumble in the ground I know what it is.  And I know why so many people are missing and why no one ever finds them.
    I can feel the hole looking for me ‘cuz I know once you’ve seen it, it keeps looking for you.
    I think somebody else knows too, that’s why they put up those don’t walk on the grass signs.  They’re warning you.
    I never ever walk on grass no more.
    I heard that rumble real close today. 
    I always stay on the pavement.  I hope that makes it ok.  But ...
    ***
    This ends there – the sentence unfinished. 
    But, I remember when I pulled in to park, there was this young fellow walking across the parking lot real quick and he was writing something.
    I thought it was strange that there was a mist around his feet like you see on the pavement after it rains.
    But I turned to pick up my things. 
    I remember a rumble like a truck had gone by. 
    When I looked back I didn’t see him.  I thought he had gone inside.  Then I found his story on the pavement.
    I'll telling you this because I want you to be careful.  Now that I have seen the mist, I can feel it’s pretty hungry and I don't think it minds pavement at all.