The Flesh Costume

On the eve of Halloween of 2006, Katie Garth always loved this time of year to dress up and scaring people. She was a cute sixteen year old gothic girl who loved trick o’ treating also. However this year, she didn’t have a Halloween costume picked out and Halloween was tomorrow. She was running out of time if she wanted to go get some delicious candy from her local neighbors. As she was strolling down 5th street on her way home from school, she noticed a new local costume store that had just opened up.

In desperate need of a costume, she stopped by the store to have a look around to see if they had scary costumes. She wanted to buy the scariest costume they had to sell. She walked in and she thought that she had stepped into paradise, sort of speak. The scariest Halloween costumes, masks and other props were hanging on the walls and selves.

“Hello?” She called out. No one answered at first. Then when she wasn’t looking, the store’s manager popped up from behind the counter and scared her half to death.

“Hello. Can I help you little miss?” He was a fine dressed middle aged man with a scruffy beard and glasses. His name tag read ‘Tom Growther’. Katie told him that she was in desperate need of the scariest costume he had to offer. Tom acknowledged this and had just what she was looking for. He went in the back room to fetch the costume. He presented it to her. It was all stitched up looking like a rag doll. Large buttons were in place of the eyes holes and its mouth was sewn shut. White hair but appeared bald at the top. She was impressed of how real it looked.

“How did you make it look so real?” She asked.

“Well, it’s a secret that’s been passed down from generation of costume makers.”

“I’ll buy it.” She said. She could not wait to go home and try it on. She had paid the man for the costume and rushed home.

She got home and rushed upstairs to her room. She closed the door and pulled out the costume. She took one good look at it and thought to herself.

“This costume looks so creepy. I swear it looks almost real. Too real.” She put it on and took a look at herself in the mirror. She smiled. She took a propped bloody knife in her hand to try to scare her mom. Katie crept downstairs so her mom would not hear her coming. She took the toy knife in her hand and raised it near her face as if a psychopathic killer would do just like in the horror movies she loved watching.

As her mom was in the kitchen making dinner, Katie snuck up behind her. As the mom turned around, Katie jumped at her and laughed psychotically. Her mother would not stop screaming. She took a kitchen knife to defend herself.

“Whoa, whoa mom! It’s just me Katie.” As Katie took off the mask her mom put the kitchen knife down.

“You scared the Hell out of me!” Said the mom.

“That costume looks so real I really thought you were someone else. Where did you get that costume?” Katie explained to her where she had purchased the costume. Katie’s mom tried to talk her into bringing the costume back but Katie refused.

It was Halloween and Katie put on the costume.

“Bye mom. I’ll be back at eight.” She said before she left. But there was no answer. Katie didn’t think anything of it. She just left. Katie turned on the flashlight just before it got too dark. She was having the time of her life scaring people with her new costume. Until at last, a police officer came to her. The police officer thought her costume to have been quite suspicious. He had a flyer with him of a missing person who had been missing for weeks.

He had shown Katie the flyer. It was a picture of a man who appeared to be in his late fifties. Had a similar haircut and color that of Katie’s costume. Katie had informed the officer that she had gotten her costume at a new costume shop that had opened up on 5th street. The officer decided to check out this new costume shop she was talking about. Katie stepped inside the officer’s car and rode with him to the shop.

On 5th street, Katie and the police officer had stepped out of the car. They both took one good look at the shops sign. ‘The Spirit of Halloween’ it read. They had walked inside the shop. All was dark and quiet. All of the lights were off in the front of the store. The back room door was opened and light was shining through.

Katie peeked inside the cracked door and saw Tom reaching inside a freezer that was laying on the ground. The officer pulled out his gun and readied his firearm. Katie could see dried up blood on the side of the freezer. What she saw next was most disturbing. Tom had pulled out a suit of human skin out of the freezer and hung it up to dry as if it was fresh laundry.

Katie gasped and looked around at the other costumes. She then realized that these costumes were not traditional Halloween costumes at all. But Halloween costumes made out of real human flesh and other organs. She took off her mask and threw it on the ground as she was disgusted by the thought of putting on someone else’s face. Tom heard the thumping of the mask hitting the ground. He knew someone was out there and hid in the shadows of the room. The officer kicked the door wide opened and pointed his gun to the freezer. This gave Tom the element of surprise. Tom took a pair of wires and wrapped them around the officer’s neck, suffocating him.

Katie screamed at the top of her lungs at the horrifying sight. For the suit of flesh that Tom hung up was her mom’s skin. The officer, suffocating and struggling to breathe finally died. Tom turned his attention to the girl.

“I told you.” He said, sinisterly to her.

“You should not be back here. I told you that these costume materials was a family secret.” He said as he crept up to her, picking up a machete from the table. Katie ran for her life with Tom chasing her down. She tried to escape from the shop but the door was locked. Tom crept up to her. As Katie sat in the corner crying her eyes out, Tom lifted up his machete and all that was heard was a scream.

Tom reached in the freezer and pulled out a suit of flesh and hung it up on a close line. And the suit of flesh that was hanging on the clothes line was that of Katie Garth.