Pumpkin in search of brains

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It felt good to be back home for Halloween. I’d just made some crazy Jack o’lanterns with my dad and had a pumpkin risotto and pie for dessert. As was a tradition in my family, we named the biggest Jack O’ lantern, Barnie. I had drawn his grin to be lopsided as if he was mocking humans and their traditions. The effect made him look comical rather than evil. Anyway, who’s afraid of Jack o’lanterns?

Before going to sleep, I went to check up on old Barnie. The little sea of orange with flickering lights was eerily beautiful. As I walked into the darkness and got close to Barnie, I saw that his smile had changed from the lopsided grin to a sneer. There was intensity in his eyes that had nothing to do with the candles. Maybe I ate too much pumpkin. I shook my head and went to bed.

Sometime around 11, I heard a thud coming from my parents room. When I reached the room, the sight that awaited me was astounding. My parents bodies lay prostrate on the floor. Their intestines had been gouged out by the scooper we’d used earlier to make the Jack o’lanterns. Their head had been busted open and the brains were missing. I looked up at Barnie, he held the scooper in his hand and took of his pumpkin hat in a mock bow to show his newly acquired brains. I ran outside to the neighbours and tried to throw up in their garden.

As I looked up I saw my neighbours. They were being dragged out by their own Jack o’lanterns. Before I could turn away the jack o’lanterns started attacking them viciously. I ran again. I started hitting myself, hoping it was a bad dream. A derisive voice from behind me spoke

“I don’t want his brains, he doesn’t look like he has good ones.”

I did not wait to hear the reply and ran again. This time I hid myself on top of the water tower. From there I could get an unobstructed view of the town but they couldn’t see me. I was trying to get my bearings. What was happening? I could understand that the jack o’lanterns were doing the same things to humans as were done to them but they were also taking over human brains. It made sense but seemed nonsensical at the same time.

Soon, there were no Jack o’ lanterns decorating the houses. Instead human cadavers were hung outside, with a single candle where the brain used to be. The intestines were hung like fairy lights. I felt sick. I slept for a few hours and woke up to find the sky still touched by black ink. There would be no morning to this nightmare.

I was thinking of an idea, maybe use weed killers for the pumpkins, when I heard a loud rumble. One of the cadavers was walking, moving with it’s arms outstretched. There was an orbit of flies hovering around it’s rotting body. Zombies.

The zombie advanced towards the pumpkin, and reached for the brain. The pumpkin shot out branches that enveloped the zombie’s throat. But the dead never die. It continued like this with the zombies in search of brains and squashing the pumpkins. Before I could understand what was happening a zombie army had risen.

I’d given up. I was waiting for my brain to be ripped out mercilessly when I saw the swarm of zombies stop near the tower. Their leader walked towards me and then through me.

Barnie had killed me too. That’s when I realized that in a world of zombies, a ghost is king.

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This was written for @Mctiller's contest. Please check it out here