“Such a pretty little girl,” he said, blocking the door. He pulled one greasy hand through my ponytail. I looked away from his pustulent face.

“Leave me alone.”

Happy screams sounded from the playscape outside.

When his rotten face brushed my lips, I gagged.

I chose the window, and fell.

Paper towels. Check. A bowl for seeds. Check. Assorted knives. Check. 

I felt the searing pain with the first cut that split my skull across the top. My brains were tossed into the bowl. 

"How do you like it?" sneered the pumpkin, as it hollowed out my right eye socket.

I reach for mama's hand, but it is not hers. It's too big and too cold and it grips mine too hard.

His eyes are wild with fire and he tells me to shut the fuck up. All I can do is nothing. 

The van smells. I want mama.  

She stalked me for too long. 

Her heart poisoned with lustful love. 

I told her I never wanted to see her again.

A few days later I went to visit my girlfriend

Only to find the lovesick stalker there.

Dressed in her clothes.

Wearing her face like a Halloween mask.

Woke from a scream in the street, 

Heard a siren in the distance.

Felt the floor shaking beneath my bed

Felt someone knocking on my walls

Heard a scream from beneath my bed.

Woke from a premonition of my death.

Felt the dirt falling upon my body.

alone, alone.

A friend of mine asked my little girl how old she was. She sweetly held up three fingers. 

We were both horrified because we had no idea where she got them! She wasn’t missing 

any!

I awake to an amorphous smoke figure at the foot of my bed. Its burning-leaves aroma opens my sinuses, my pores. Something wants in. 

In the darkness of my thoughts:  a pale demon with no features. Blue lightning jolts me into paralysis. 

It speaks, booming and savage:  "We are one."  

Matilda skips rope.

Stranger walks in through front gate.

"Where's your parents little girl?"

"Gone..."

"Gone?" Stranger slowly crouches.

Hand in predatory hand walking to the back of little girl's yard.

Stranger opens woodshed door.

"They said I couldn't keep it...and it's hungry again..."

Matilda changes clothes and skips rope.