Read Online Halloween Is For Lovers by Nate Gubin - Free Book Online Page A

he came face to face with a love he could have had, now forever beyond his grasp. With a springing leap, he snatched Hugh's application out of Jerry's hand and stamped over the rejections with a crisp green approval.
    "Approved!" He smiled at Hugh.
    "Really?"
    "Approved, approved, approved."
    Hugh reached for it but Crain didn't let go. He leaned into him and cemented him in a tense stare.
    "But heed my warning. If you see the morning sun of the day after Samhain ..." He dramatically pointed to the floor. "Down the vent."
    The room crescendoed with a rabble of frightened whispers.
    "The vent ... Down the vent ..."
    "The horrible vent." Crain's eyes smiled as he stared at his prey.
    He shook from his bloodlust with a clap of his hands. "Hey, everybody, whaddaya say we take a break and do a quick little field trip to the rim of the horrible vent. Come on!" Crain marched out of the room and everyone followed.
    Patrick caught up to Hugh in the processional. Before he could say anything, Hugh spouted with a smile. "I'm going," he beamed, showing Patrick his pass, "I'm really going."
    Patrick nodded with worry and tried to squeeze his sour lips into a grin.

The Horrible Vent
     
    Led by Crain, the council ministers dragged their robe tails along an ancient path of crumbling pavers. A ragtag group of ghosts followed, still whispering about the horrors of the vent.
    "You fall forever ... demons waiting to bite you ... burning, nonstop burning ..."
    Hugh and Patrick walked side by side. "You need to think this through, man,” Patrick said. “Redo your risk-reward equation. You're not even betting on a long shot, you're betting everything on the myth of a long shot. Don’t go."
    "I'd risk anything to be with her again, and besides, it's love, it's true love. That's the only thing that really matters. It's a sure bet,” Hugh said.
    Crain posed on a rocky ledge just a few dozen yards from the Kingdom's gate. Below him was a smoking chasm of undulating despair. Sheer rock walls plunged straight down into a screaming, rancid hell.
    "The horrible vent!" Crain threw his hands toward it in a grand gesture. "Nobody knows for sure what it's like down there because nobody has ever returned." He stared down into the infinite falling. "We're under the impression that it's very, very bad." Crain perked up, hands on his hips. "Given the fetid smell, searing heat, the screams of sorrow and pain that waft up out of it now and then, I think it's safe to assume ..." He paused for dramatic effect, his voice dark and low, "whatever awaits down there ... can't be good."
    The gathering of ghosts swallowed hard and shrank a half step away from the baritone vibrations shaking the scalding rim of the abyss.
    Jerry stepped out and revealed a notebook full of his dark scribblings. His voice preached, "Doom, doom down the horrible vent. Down, down, down forever falling, forever afraid of the sharp hard bottom that never arrives. An eternity of screaming sorrow. Your fondest memories torn from you, blink by blink, until all that's left is regret and despair ..."
    He paused a little too long and everyone thought he was done. They nodded and turned, ready to head back down the path.
    "But wait!" Jerry called them back. "It gets worse. Visions of your loved ones, trembling in agony as their loving memories of you are ripped from their souls. A front-row seat to the tears and the heartbreak as you are forever forgotten ..."
    Once again Jerry took too long of a dramatic pause and the audience began to leave.
    "Your body is tortured, your mind is tormented and finally ... finally ... Wait! There is no finally. Your soul has been offered up to suffer for eternity. So just when you think you're finished, that the bottom is near, you fall, fall, fall over and over again, fall, fall, fall ..."
    Crain hunched his shoulders. "Is that it? Are you fin—"
    "Over and over again, forever!" Jerry took another pause and then bowed dramatically. "Thank you. Thank you, please