Quickies for Halloween 06- Paco, Esmeralda, and La Sucia

Read Part 1.

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Using a flashlight in low setting, Paco was happily perusing the pictures inside an old Vogue magazine, when he heard his sister Esmeralda give a high-pitched scream. He jumped up on his bunk bed and hid the magazine under the mattress.

"What's wrong?" He asked his sister.

"La Sucia pulled my gown!" she said sobbing.

"Calm down," he told her and climbed onto the lower bunk, where his sister was cowering under a sheet.

He pointed the flashlight around and said, "see? There is no one there."

"But you told me she was going to pull my gown and someone pulled my gown when I was asleep. She's hiding under the bed!"

Paco leaned over the bed and searched under it with the flashlight. "There's nobody here."

The door opened. "What's all this noise?"

Esmeralda jumped out of bed and ran towards her grandma.

"She's scared of La Sucia," said Paco with a sheepish look on his face.

His grandma gave him a disapproving look and stroked Esmeralda's head. She bent down and spoke to the little girl with soothing words.

"I want to sleep in the other room with you," Esmeralda said.

"Of course, baby. Let's go." Then looking at Paco, she said, "turn out that light and go to bed."

After they left, Paco climbed back up onto his bed and fished out the Vogue magazine. He flipped through the worn pages, mouth agape at the sight of the models contorted in various poses and stages of undress.

Some time later, he fell asleep with flashlight in hand and dreamed of snow. Rolling down a blanketed hill, slipping and sliding, tumbling on, his entire body shaking. He woke up and realized that the entire frame of the bunk bed was shaking as if someone was trying to climb.

"Esmeralda, quit doing that."

There was silence. Then a dry croak beside his ear, "My love...my beloved."

Paco jumped up and fumbled with the flashlight. A sour stench reached his nostrils.

"My sweet sweet love."

He felt the urge to throw up but ended up pissing his pants instead. Turning on the light, he saw a dirty and disheveled old woman looking at him with bloodshot eyes.

The knot in his throat prevented him from screaming. The hag reached out towards him, but he kicked her in the face and knocked her down. Swiftly, he hopped over the side and ran towards the door.

He turned the handle. But the handle wouldn't turn.

The woman stood up and cracking her dislocated bones, she staggered towards him. She wore an old wedding dress that clung in pieces to her shriveled skin.

Paco ran across the room- barely escaping her clutches- and climbed onto the window.

"My sweet beloved. Come to me. I'll be with you 'till death do us part."

The boy jumped onto the tin roof and running across it, he reached the almond tree. Holding on to one of its branches, he managed to climb down and ran blindly across the backyard, barely aware of his surroundings and with no sense of direction. In total panic, he rushed into the bushes, where needles ripped his skin, but he managed to find a clear path that led deeper into the woods.

As he ran, he heard someone whistle. He stopped and saw a shadowy figure poking its head from behind a tree.

"This way," the figure said in a strange nasal voice.

Paco ran towards the figure, who was easily visible because of its tall pointed hat, and jumping over the gnarled roots, hid within a hole in the tree.

"Stay with me awhile in the dark. That malevolent witch won't ever find you here."