October Surprise
(1/31/09)

The doorbell rings. Startled, I look up at it as if by doing so it will reveal who is standing behind it. I get up and out of my seat and answer the door. It’s Lucky.

“Hey,” I greet him. I always like it when I get to see him.

“Great! You’re here. Let’s go.”

As I’m being dragged out the door, I question him, “What? Why?”

“A friend just got an opening, and we need to move quick.”

I look at him while closing the front door behind us. “Ok.”

We head down the driveway at a brisk pace with my legs hitting my khaki cargo shorts and my generic green shirt flapping in the light breeze we are creating. My sandals slap on the cement as I blink to adjust my eyes to the bright sunlight.

Before long a black cat crosses the road ahead of us. This draws my attention to an old manor on a hill outside of town. Nah, we couldn’t be going there. I turn to my friend, “So, who is this friend we are in a rush to go see?”

“Oh. Right. We are meeting Mr. Octorber. He’s been a friend of mine since I first got on Deviant Art. In fact, I think he was my first friend.”

“That’s cool.” I notice that we are nearing the edge of town and dark clouds are quickly assailing the sky. I shiver but not because of the cold wind blowing in. “What day is it?”

“February the thirteenth.”

“Right. And today’s Friday,” I say not really asking.

“Yeah.”

“So, that makes today Friday the thirteenth.” I look straight ahead at the house on the hill before us.

“So? It’s just a day …” A raindrop hits him causing him to stop. He continues, “a day like any other.”

“Sure,” I start nervously while being struck by more drops, “First there’s the cat. Then the date. And the old decrepit spooky house on the hill. And now the rain.”

Lucky stops startled, “That’s his house. But I’ve never seen it like this before.” He looks up into the full fledged rain and moves quickly again, “He’s a nice guy. This is all a freak coincidence.”

We finally reach the porch soaked to the bone. There leaning from one side of the porch to the roof on the other side is a ladder. Lucky rings the bell. A breeze picks up from behind us and the door slowly creaks open. CrrreeeEEEEaaaak! Just like in the horror movies. I look to Lucky with a ‘See?’ look.

“Well, he is expecting us. The door might have been left ajar.” He heads in ahead. I look at the address number. 13. Then I watch the ladder as I carefully pass under it to the open door.

I step into the darkened room. It is lit from the dim light from behind us and another door directly ahead. “Next, the door behind us is going to …” SLAM! I spin on heel to see what I expect. The front door is closed. I try the handle. It’s locked.

My eyes adjust to the dark and then I see the room has no furniture and a hole in the center. I watch Lucky move ahead and start to go around the hole. Then I see what I was hoping I wouldn’t see a tentacle creeps up out of the pit. “Oh, Crud,” I say backing up to the wall.

Lucky looks at me, “What?”

I turn my shaking hand to point at the slithering thing headed for him, “Tentacle.”

He looks down, “Oh! Hey Gizmo!” He reaches down to touch it. It quickly wraps around his arm. “Gizmo, it’s me, Lucky.” It lifts him above the center of its home. Frantic I continue sliding around the wall. “You remember me. I’m a friend.” It lowers him down. “No, Gizmo, No.” He disappears below the hole. I want to see what’s happening to him, but the tentacle things scare me. “Nooooooooooooooo,” Lucky cries until his voice is silenced.

I step, and a board creaks. The remaining tentacles freeze in mid air. I take another step and they head for me. I slide faster along the wall toward the only exit. They reach but fall just a little too short. Safe, I slide through the exit into the next room.

I turn and find myself in a stairwell. To my left is a set of stairs that go down and some stairs to my right that go up. I step forward to the railing and look up. I count the openings and count ten floors before I can’t distinguish anymore. “That’s odd. I swear this house wasn’t more than 3 stories from the outside.” I look down and see a floor with Lucky lying unconscious.

I race over to the down stairs and as my foot touches the first step they collapse into a slide. My momentum carries me forward and I fall onto the slick surface and fling forward. Just before I crash the wall opens up and swallows me.

I slow to a stop on my back in a dark room. This is one crazy place. Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! A bright light shines in my eyes. I reach to shield myself, but my arms are locked to my sides.

A voice that is feminine and yet also sounds like metal scrapping on metal chuckles, “Welcome to my Toy Factory. We’re going to have some fun.”

I don’t like the sound of that and I shiver from fear. My eyes would go wide if they weren’t squinting from the light keeping me from seeing who it is.

The voice scrapes again, “Prepare to be prepared.” A cold liquid pours on my chest. I involuntarily shiver from the temperature. The table lifts up and tilts forward into a standing position. I peer into darkness and see a strange silhouette with bouncy things on top and horizontal and vertical holes as if she is somehow put together with Slinkys.

But before I can do anything else I hear two sounds like someone popping their cheek. ThwaPOP! ThwaPOP! I scan the darkness straight ahead to see what made the noise. Two toilet plungers enter the light and smack me side by side in the chest.

I feel a sharp prick under the suction cups. I squirm and slide trying to remove them to no avail. That’s when I notice that the plungers don’t have wooden handles but rather clear tubes with green liquid in them. Bubbles occasionally travel the hose leading me to realize that the goo is headed into me.

“What’s happening to me,” I call out to the one behind all this.

A screech of metal makes me think that she is smiling before she answers, “Don’t worry, dear, you are just being prepared for the next part. Besides, I have been told not to harm the friend of Lucky.”

An odd sensation of my chest touching more and more of the inside of the plungers makes me nervous, but my namelessness gets the better of me, “I have a name, you know.”

“Of course you do, my toy.”

I sigh that things are just turning worse and worse, I look down and see … “I have breasts!” A metallic chuckle echoes in the vast room as they swell larger and larger. They start pushing back the pumps to make more room for the growth.

Once they reach the size of my torso, the voice speaks again, “Now, you are ready.” Then she laughs. The pumps pull away lifting my new assets up and me forward against my restraints. CLANK! Another restraint locks into place pulling me back to the table.

Then the most terrifying sound of all comes from my right. SSSHHHHHIIIIIINNNNNNKKKKKKK! I swear it sounds like a sword being pulled from a sheath. I look to my right. CLANK! My head is locked into that position. Another beam lights a giant ax that gleams its sharpness.

click. I almost don’t hear it. The hatchet swings in an arc toward me. Don’t hit. Don’t hurt. Don’t hit. Don’t hurt. Pain! And then I black out from the ache.

My head bumps a wall, and I wake with a start. My! But there is no soreness. I reach to check, but my arms are held in place around my belly. I look down and see that I’m in a straitjacket. I’m in a padded room!  “How did I get here? I was stuck to that table and then I blacked out. I bet that crazy lady dumped me here.”

“But then why would I be in an insane asylum? Does someone think I’m insane?”

“No,” I assure myself, “I’m not crazy, but whoever lives here is.”

I slow my pulse and try to figure out what’s going on. It’s then I notice the only other thing in the room besides the door. Suspended on a wall to my left is a mirror. I slide my back up the wall into a standing position.

I walk over to the oval mirror covered in carved designs. It’s just as I thought, a standard mirror. I move my head to one side and so does he. I move my head to the other and see a door behind him. I turn around to check the wall behind me for an exit. Something loosens behind me. I turn back and there I am and so is the door behind me. My arms droop to my sides. I lift my arms up in confusion while the extra long sleeves dangle. I look around for anything that could have freed me. The only possible solution is the mirror.

“Thank you,” I tell my reflection as he replies “You’re welcome?” And then he winks at me. I work myself free of the canvas confinement and head for the door. I bang loudly and after a moment the slat slides free to reveal a pair of eyes.

“Oh, there you are! The Master has been wondering where you were at.” The door unbolts. “Proceed down the hall and climb the stairs. Enter the first door on the right and wear the clothes laid out for you.”

As I exit the room as per the instructions, I realize that I’m only wearing my khaki shorts. I head down the hall and up the stairs. I head into the designated door and find a spacious, luxurious room. The room is red, a crimson red, with gold interwoven. The color and pattern continues to the floor and bed covering. Even the wood has a red tint to it. There on the bed neatly folded is a green t-shirt just like the one I lost and new sandals and socks.

Quickly I replace my outfit and start to feel normal again. A polite rap on the door brings me back to my location. “Come in,” I call.

The door opens to reveal a gentleman in a nice black three piece suit with white skull buttons. His black hair is mostly in control, but a few clumps have escaped to freedom. I look into his dark gray face and see his red eyes are gentle as he leans on his cane. This must be the butler to take me to where I am supposed to go.

He gestures out the door with his free hand, “Right this way.” I step out the door after him.

A little nervous, I stay a couple of steps behind. Trying to make a little small talk, “So, uhhh, you live here?”

“That is correct.”

My mind drifts back to all the rooms and people I just experienced, “So, what’s up with this crazy house?”

“I don’t understand your question. Could you elaborate?”

“Well, I just went through massive craziness. A tentacle monster that knocked out my friend, stairs that collapse under my weight, sliding through a house, a … Who has a padded room in their house?”

He stops inside the doorway ahead. I step in after him to find myself in a large living room. A roaring, crackling fireplace warms the room. Lamps of various shapes line the room and mantle. A nearly room sized throw rug covers the wood floor. A pair of sofas and an end table surround the fire. On one of them is a familiar black wolf with white hair. I take a step toward my friend but the deep voice behind me stops me in my tracks, “I do.”

I turn to find the butler from before with a large red stovetop hat on his head. It’s then that I see his large smile filled with sharp teeth. I shiver at the sight of them and the realization that I just insulted the man I was supposed to meet. “I’m so sorry. I had no idea.”

“It’s quite alright.” He pauses while I sweat. Then he looks directly into my eyes, “Were you frightened?”

Eyes wide, “Oh yes, this was the most scared I’ve been ever.” Lucky slides up next to me while rubbing his tail.

“Then I’m glad. That’s what I was hoping for.”

Lucky chimes in, “Oh right! He did some really terrifying things my first time here. Now he just finds new ways to startle me.” Lucky looks to the master of the house, “That’s why it took you so long to invite me back, isn’t it?”

Mr. Octorber smiles that creepy smile again, but this time it’s not so chilling. He looks more warm.

“You know what we should do,” Lucky suggests, “We need to head to the highest point of the house.”

“The highest …”

“A delightful plan, my friend. But, first, my gifts to you.” The dark skinned host steps out for a moment and returns with two packages. He hands the red one with black ribbon to me and the black one with a white ribbon to Lucky. My hand reaches for the bow, “However please wait to open them until you leave. We don’t want you burdened with them too early.”

We place our gifts on the sofa. “Let’s go!” Lucky and Mr. Octorber leave ahead of me. I stop to think about my adventure here in this house. I review it all in my mind from the new perspective and decide that it wouldn’t have been so bad if I had followed Lucky’s advice.

Gizmo didn’t hurt him. The slide would have been fun. The chest enlargement wouldn’t have been so bad, and the psycho ward might have been a strange challenge. All in all I made things worse for myself by my fears and supersti …

Mr. Octorber peers in, “Ben, are you coming?”

Broken out of my thoughts, I smile, “Yeah.” I join him in the hall. I see Lucky turn a corner ahead. I turn to my black skinned partner and find that I’m no longer afraid of him. This confirms and consolidates my thoughts, “Sir?”

“There’s no need to call me that.”

“Very well. Can we be friends?”

“Absolutely.” We turn a corner and start climbing stairs.

“Is this safe?”

“Do you need to ask?”

“No.” We reach a small room at the top of the stairs. A trap door is open, but Lucky is nowhere to be found.

“Woooo hoooooo,” his voice echoes from the hole in the floor.

My new friend gestures to the opening, “After you.”

I smile at him and jump in.


Epilogue

Lucky and I exit the house with presents in hand. I look up to the half moon and realize that there won’t be enough light to open our presents here. “Thanks for inviting me, Lucky.”

“You’re welcome. Now you see why I wanted you to come.”

“Yeah,” I agree. We walk in silence each in his own thoughts until we reach the overhead lights of the city. “Want to open them now?”

“Oh yeah.” We tear into the gifts and pull out our prizes. His is a bongo drum. Mine is a snare drum. We look at each other with bemused smiles. “Do you play drums?”

“No, you on bongos?”

He shakes his head, “Nope.”

We clean up our trash and continue toward my place. Thump! A strange hand touches my chest. I spin around startled. “Hey!” The touch leaves. There’s no one but Lucky and me. And he’s too far away. What’s going on? I hear the Lucky hit his bongo … I stop that thought, No …

I reach for my drum. Wap! I hit it with my thumb. “Yeeeeep!” Lucky jumps a bit forward while grabbing below his tail. He looks around and then his eyes settle on me and the drum. “What just happened?”

“I’m not sure. I just hit my drum.”

“Were you in Shocker’s Toy Factory, too?”

“Shocker? There was a time I was strapped to a table …”

“Yep, you met Shocker.” He thinks for a moment, “And these would be her toys. I take it you got a generous portion of your chest removed.” I nod mutely. “I got an expanded chuck of my tail detached.”

I follow his logic. I point to my drum, “So … this is your …” I point to the bongo, “And that is mine?”

“Yeah. You wanna trade?”

“Sure!” We exchange and laugh.

“I guess we bring new meaning to phrases ‘banging the drums’”

“And ‘playing the bongos’,” I finish.

“Akia’s going to get a kick from this. I’d better hide it from her.”

“Who?”