Stranger Times

All The Myths Are True

"Same one. I kinda wish I'd come up with a new nightmare," Alma said, a harsh note to her voice that she didn't want there.

Her mother lip curled and her jaw clenched. Her gaze turned away and rested on an inconspicuous bit of the carpet.

"I'm sorry, mom. It's not what I meant," Alma said, slipping out of bed.

"Letting you slip out into the Yukon, in the winter, onto a derelict ship on a frozen lake wasn't our proudest moment as parents," she heard her dad say from somewhere in the hall. "Last thing you should be doing is apologizing to us."

"I'm okay, guys. Really," Alma insisted. "I mean, I have tickets to that Masquerade Ball, on Halloween night. Remembering an old nightmare is just a way to kick-off the evening."

"You know how creepy that sentence sounds, right?" Her mom asked. "You may as well have said 'I have a bad feeling about this' and shot your night in the foot."

"No, it's just..." Alma started saying, until her head caught up with her. "Okay, wow. That does sound creepy."

She laughed, only a little forced, as she slid out of her bed and started her day.

*****

She smiled as she spun once, in front of the mirror of her closet.

Her gown was the most elaborate thing she had ever worn. Glimmering satin that shone like silver, in a subtle pattern of leaves that took in the light in her room and threw it out like a disco ball. Even through the mirror, the effect was mesmerizing.

She tried another twirl, and laughed as she stumbled on her unfamiliar heels, barely keeping her balance.

She left in the evening, just before sunset, tickets safely secured in her purse and her stomach empty. She picked out a coat from the closet by the door, threw it on with a dramatic swirl, and grinned goofily as she stepped out into the evening.

The evening air was warm and still. Comforting even, as dry leaves swirled around her feet as she stepped through the walkway from her door. Her heels made a very satisfying click as she sauntered down the path.

She took her first step onto the street, stepping off the walkway of her house, and frosty air hit her like a bucket of water.

She stumbled sideways, catching herself, and pulled her coat close. The air felt bitter, cold, and smelled like fresh snow. The smell was distressingly familiar, as if it belonged to an old ache she couldn't quite place.

Ahead of her, a pair of men dressed as Vampires lingered at the end of the street. They conversed casually, but as she approached, they leered in her direction when they say her.

Alma was surprised at the attention to detail the two men had put into their costumes. Their faces were believably gaunt, their skin was the perfect colour of a pallid corpse, and whatever fake teeth they used as fangs looked convincingly like real teeth.

"Something comes to us unbidden. Wanderin' a blood moon during All Hallows' Eve is a poor place for virgin blood to a'wander." One of them said, in a speech that could have been ripped from Shakespeare in the Park. Alma cringed, and refused to slow her pace.

As she drew near, she heard the grating caw of a large bird above hear head. The sound startled her, and she turned to look up into the nearby tree.

On one of the lowest branches a raven perched, it's beady brown eyes fixed on the two men just ahead of her.

Alma was surprised when the two men stepped off the sidewalk. One of them gave a short bow, and said, "hope you'll be enjoyin yer night, lass."

Alma passed them without a word, huffing indignantly. She heard the raven cry out again, before its wings beat at the air and carried it off into the twilight.