—This Is Halloween
Soundtrack #4: Otherworldy Diaries
Well, I’m not lost. At least I think. I mean, I’m pretty sure the stars don’t randomly change positions. Tonight, the veil between the living and the dead is at its thinnest. While costumed little ones trot from house to house, amassing boulder-sized piles of sweet treats along the way, I’m roaming the inky and obscure backwoods of Louisiana. Tonight is Samhain — All Hallow’s Eve. If I knew then what a sacrosanct ritual, what wicked doings, what haunting chants and bloody sacrifice await in the clearing over yon, perhaps I would have quickened my pace. The silky night air fills my lungs, and I take another step. The mossy ground, a swamp in those airless, tenebrous areas over there, doesn’t just sit still in these parts; it climbs the towering sycamores and the spidery mangroves, as if reaching for the succulent fruit of the stars themselves. The pouty moon is both full and spectacular, casting a palpable mysticism over the evening’s affairs. I would say you could cut the tension with a knife, but I think a dagger is more appropriate. In fact, there’s one in the burlap satchel glued to my side, along with its other companions: sage, salt, graveyard dirt, chalk, and everything else. Tonight, the disembodied spirits that linger the metaphysical plane come out to play.
For a brief instant, a small deer jumps in my path. I freeze, and our gazes meet. She’s just a tiny doe, spotted white, with thin legs and a shimmering coat. Perhaps this is kismet, a moment of pure unadulterated providence. In this moment, with our eyes locked, I see glimpse of divinity. Deus ex machina.
“It is better you should rush upon this blade, then enter the circle with fear in your heart. How do you enter?” the cloaked witch says, holding the tip of a blade to my throat.
“With perfect love and perfect trust.”
