Carve Knock Life

“Man, that grimace just gives me the chills. Do you think you could, like… not?”

“You ain’t seen the things I seen, boy. If you had, you’d know better than to say that to me.”

“Sure, old man. And what haven’t I seen?”

“They strung orange paper streamers all over the walls.”

“Oh, that’s nothing. They did that at my house too.”

“Then they put in fake webs and spiders.”

“Hm… I’ll admit that’s a bit eccentric.”

“It’ll come to your house, too. It wasn’t long after that that they hung replicas of their own dead all over their house, inside and out.”

“Whoa, what? That’s sick! Who does that?”

“The elders tell me they all do. Their race do dark things, boy.”

“No, no, the ones at my house aren’t like that.”

“Yet. It’ll come soon. It’s all part of the ritual.”

“Ritual? You’re just screwing with me, aren’t you?”

“Nope. After the corpses, they get these disguises together. I don’t quite see why; it’s not like it made me think they was someone else.”

“They were probably just trying to scare each other.”

“I think that’s part of it. But then they got the knives. They cut these deep grimace marks into my face. My brother’s too.”

“Wait, what?! Whoa, whoa, whoa. They did that to you? That’s disgusting! They’re sick!”

“What do you mean? I ain’t never been more proud to show my face!”

“You’re mad!”

“It’s all part of the season. They call it Halloween. They want everything to be scary. I’ve always thought that dark stuff was fun. The decorations bring warmth to this old pumpkin’s seeds.”

“What’s wrong with you?”

“Oh, don’t be such a downer, boy.”

“A downer? You’re okay with them cutting your face, and I’m the downer? Oh my god, they aren’t going to do the same to me?”

“I don’t think you’ve got nothing to worry about. They ain’t gonna cut your face.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I overheard them say you’re going into a pie.”