The In-Between - A Fictional Short Story About Halloween Spookiness

This is not a life story, it is only a brief recollection of the most recent events which led me to my current predicament. It all started on the night before Halloween. I had just gotten off of work at around 10 PM, and I didn't quite feel like going home. Feeling the Halloween spooky spirit a bit early, I decided to go out to a graveyard to just walk around in it. I didn't know why I thought of doing so; I had no idea at that time that my life was about to change forever. I arrived at the graveyard and everything was dark. Much darker than usual. You'd think that there'd be ample lighting, but there was only darkness. I had to use my phone's flashlight app just to see where I was walking. God forbid I walk over countless graves at a time when the veil is at its thinnest and the spirits become restless again.

Anyway, about half an hour into my walk through the dark, damp graveyard, I noticed a faint light in the distance, which looked like it was blinking in and out. Curiosity got the best of me and I proceeded in the direction of the blinking light. When I got to it, I realized that it was actually not a light at all, but a silver helmet reflecting light across the graveyard. The blinking, I came to find out through observation of the area, was a byproduct of the nearby trees blowing in the wind and swaying back and forth. Perplexed by this seemingly random silver helmet hanging on the edge of a tombstone, I leaned in closer to inspect it. I was in the process of grabbing the helmet to really get a better view of its other side, when suddenly, there was a blinding flash of light the moment my fingers touched its cold silver surface.

I looked around me, and somehow it was bright as day, and my surroundings were no longer the old musky tombstones and damp graves that had just encircled me moments earlier. Instead, I saw that I was in the middle of a vast forest, and no one was anywhere near me. Suddenly, a faint outline of a person appeared in front of me. I stood there, frozen, as I watched the figure begin to fill in and materialize before me. It turned into what I can only describe as the typical depiction of a medieval knight. Then I heard a voice in my head, calling out to me. Somehow, I immediately knew that it was coming from the being that had just appeared in front of me.

"You have been chosen, brave soul," the being said to me.

"Chosen? Chosen for what?" I asked.

"The veil is at its weakest now and for the next three days. Beings from my realm will be running rampant on your realm, causing all sorts of trouble and wreaking havoc on the innocent. You have been chosen to yield the Helmet of Light and be the sentry which guards the Doorway between dimensions. It will fall on you to hunt down the wayward spirits and send them back through the Doorway before they can cause too many disturbances."

"M--me? But why me? I'm no one special, I don't even believe in ghosts or spirits!"

"You are special, because you have been chosen. Only those who have been chosen by the Helmet can see it on the earthly plane. You answered its call, and now you must accept the responsibility that comes with it."

I shook my head in protest. "No, no, no! I don't want anything to do with any of that, I just want to go home now! Where am I? Where did the graveyard go? How did I end up in a forest?"

"You must accept the Helmet. You must accept the responsibility. It is your destiny!"

"No, I make my own destiny," I yelled as I began to run away from the ghastly figure before me. I kept on running through the forest, hoping to find a way out. Eventually, I could see what I thought was the edge of the forest, my way out of this hellish predicament. But even if I did get out of this forest, I had no idea where I was or how I was going to make my way home. Thoughts began to race through my mind at a million miles per hour as I kept running toward the opening in the tree line.

I eventually reached the edge of the forest, but because I was running too fast, I didn't realize that the edge of the forest was a cliff line and I couldn't stop myself in time. Next thing I know, I'm plummeting to my death, feeling the wind rushing past my cheeks as I started tumbling all the way down for what seemed like an eternity. Right as I was about to hit the ground, however, I awoke in my bed with a sudden jolt and sat straight up. I looked around and realized that I was in my room, and I was shrouded in darkness. Was it all just a dream? The only light I saw was a faint glow in the corner of my room, by my window. As my gaze fixated on that glow, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up and I froze in terror.

It was the helmet from the graveyard. The one that the otherworldly figure was trying to bestow unto me. But how? How could the Helmet of Light, as that odd knightly figure called it, have ended up in my room? Did that mean that I actually hadn't just dreamt that whole conversation up? If that was the case, though, how did I end up back in my room, on my bed? As I sat there, fixated on the helmet, it suddenly began to rise from the floor of my bedroom. I was frozen. I could do nothing but watch as the mysterious helmet floated its way over to my bed and began to rise and rotate itself. Next thing I know, it made a beeline straight for my head and secured itself to my body. I suddenly found myself fully clad in medieval armor, just like the one that the misty figure was wearing in the forest.

As soon as the armor had fully set onto my body, my bedroom suddenly illuminated with a bright flash of white light and everything took on a grayish hue. That's when I saw it. There was a door next to my window that wasn't there moments earlier, and something was coming out of it. I stood there and watched as the long, black, pointy fingers grasped the door from the other side and began to open it. As the door opened wider, the monster or spirit or whatever it was started to push its way into my bedroom. It was a writhing mass of blackness, as if its body were made of a million worms or snakes. As soon as it made its way through the doorway, it charged at me, and before I could move out of its way or do anything about it, I was once more surrounded by darkness.

"Hello?" I called out. "Where am I?"

A voice boomed. "You are in my domain now, Reginald. And I am going to devour your delicious bones tonight!"

I looked around, but all I could see was a black nothingness. I stood there in complete darkness for what seemed like an eternity. The longer I stood there, the more the despair set in. I began to lose any hope of escaping from wherever that place was. As the despair grew, I felt my body beginning to sink to the ground. It was like I was being crushed by the weight of my own despair.

"Yes, Reginald. Give in to the despair. Your bones will taste much more delicious when they're seasoned with resignation!"

I could feel my life force fading from my body the closer I got to the ground. I truly had lost all hope that I could survive. As soon as my head touched the ground, however, I felt a sudden rush of heat all over, as if the medieval armor I was wearing had suddenly been tossed into a fire. I felt my body beginning to rise once more, and the higher up I got, the hotter the armor got and the brighter it began to glow.

"What's this?" the voice asked. "No! Give in to despair!" Then, out of the darkness, that writhing black hand with its abnormally long and pointy fingers came straight for me.

[To Be Continued...?]

---

Once again, this is just another short little story that I came up with for this post, I'm not sure if I'll actually continue it, but I kept it open ended just in case I do decide to come back to it and continue the tale of the Helmet of Light. This is definitely not my best work, it's just something I threw together real quickly tonight. It's not even really a polished project, it's more like a rough draft. I hope you guys like it! As always, please feel free to leave feedback for me. I am always all ears on ways I can improve my writing! Thank you for reading!