It was a shaping up to be a very lonely Halloween. Jeremy was flopped on the living room couch watching the "reimagined" version of
Nightmare on Elm Street. His costume lay in a pile on the floor as Alberto had gotten a stomach flu and Alberto's girlfriend, April,
would not go trick-or-treating alone with Jeremy and leave Alberto alone sick in bed. His parents had left for their own Halloween
party dressed as Frank Sinatra and Marilyn Monroe, and he was left with Netflix.
His phone vibrated in his pocket with a text. He flipped it open and saw a text from Neil, the kid who sometimes sat at his lunch
table: "Trick-or-treat mate?"
Neil's father worked for a British airline, and Neil had been raised in London, Cape Town, Cairo, Bangkok and Sydney. Neil's mother,
an American, had enough of seeing the world and had brought Neil to the states while his father finished out the last three years of
his tenure and his sister went off to Cambridge for university studies.
Neil was, frankly, awkward. He'd started at Jeremy's school in September and he had ended up sitting at Jeremy's lunch table only
because none of Jeremy's friends had 5th period lunch. Neil's accent was a mix of his childhood British and Australian from the last 3
years of living in Sydney. He always kept prattling on about all the things he'd seen around the world and Jeremy, having been raised
to be polite, listened with half a heart and a facade of full attention.
Neil didn't talk about girls, sports, video games, anime, manga or even cars. Neil could care less which girl walked by the table or
which game Jeremy had just gotten. He talked about exploring these different cities, finding ruins of old buildings and reading books
you'd never find on Amazon.com that he bought from little stalls in open air markets in foreign countries. He wasn't a bad guy,
Jeremy always mused, just "different".
Jeremy texted back: "Where r u? TorT ok."
The reply came back quickly: "My house- in basement- come in when u get here"
Jeremy sighed, picked up his Iron Man costume and shrugged it on. Walking 6 blocks, crossing the main drag and then another 2
blocks brought him to Neil's house. The driveway was empty, and the suburban cookie-cutter house, that was not at all unlike
Jeremy's, was dark. Jeremy walked up to the unadorned front door and opened it. Knowing the layout, he silently made his way
through a living room filled with antique furniture, dark tapestries and some strange carved masks hanging on the walls to the back
hall where the stairs to the basement were.
He opened the door and the dim light of an unfinished basement lit by bare bulbs greeted him.
"Neil?"
"Aw right, then, mate! That was a might hasty. I wasn't expecting you for at least another ten! C'mon down, I'm getting ready to
change for the night out."
Jeremy made his way down the wood stairs carefully, remembering how shallow the steps were in his house and realizing these were
built the same cheap way.
The back half of the basement by the furnace and hot water heater was dark as the bulb there was not working. Neil stood in the
dark portion, wearing what Jeremy could only interpret as some kind of Asian robe that was red with white characters sewn into
it. His feet were bare, which made Jeremy wonder if he was naked under the robe. On one side of him was a plastic bin with a lid on
it.
"Got a winner of a costume for this year's festivities, Jer. You'll be the first to see it! I bought it in Thailand a few years ago and have
been studying how it works for a few years."
Jeremy gave him a doubtful look, "Doesn't look like anyone I've seen before, unless it's a white guy who just got it on with a geisha
and then borrowed her robe to go out and get the morning paper."
Neil laughed for the first time since Jeremy had known him, "Oh, mate, that's priceless. I see what you're saying, I do. Yeah, see, I
knew you were the smart one in the bunch, I did. That's why I always talk to you."
Jeremy did not feel any more reassured by Neil's laughter, "So, let's get this show on the road. What are you going to be? What's left
to get you ready?"
Neil smiled in what was more of a grin, "Oh, you're just in time for the final step. I already read the incantations."
"Incantations? Dude, are you a witch?"
"No, mate, no. This is something I picked up from a dark market in Bangkok. I'm going to go as a Thai deity."
"Really, you think anyone'll get that?"
"Mate, there will be no doubts. Watch."
Neil reached in the bin, which caused some splashing sounds and then started to drag out some odd clingy, stringy material that
looked like randomly woven netting. He threw it over, covering himself in the material.
"Veins of a deity. Pulled from tombs in Thailand, they say, the body was preserved by some weird embalming process. I've been
rehydrating them for months down here."
"Those are real veins?"
"Yep, and if I did this right, this next step'll do it." Something silver flashed and Jeremy realized that Neil had a knife in his hand and
that he had cut one wrist and then the other. Grimacing, Neil took different ends of the veiny mess and stuck them into his bloody
wrists. Jeremy took step back.
"Any second now," Neil said with a pained look, "any second now"
Then it happened. Jeremy could see the web of veins start to pulse as if they were in synch with Neil's heart. He wanted to be sick, he
wanted to be anywhere else but here, but Neil's growing smile of seeming glee made Jeremy stand and watch in wonderment.
When the veins starting eating through Neil's flesh, leaving a bloody web of red lines all over his skin, Jeremy turned and bolted for
the stairs. He forgot about how short the risers were, miscalculated and his foot caught the next riser. Jeremy went face down on the
steps and slid back down to the floor. He had almost managed to catch himself, but had banged his nose a little bit and he sat
holding it. He could see Neil and the dark half of the room through the spaces between the open-back stair risers.
Neil was hunched forward on this hands and knees now, grunting like he was being twisted and his voice started to squeak from the
pressure. Jeremy could see Neil's sandy hair turn dark and begin to grow longer and cover his face. All that was visible of Neil now
was his hair and his arms, which seemed to tint darker a bit and get thinner. The tight robe hung looser, it seemed, and Neil's
twisting cries were higher in pitch. Suddenly the cries ended in a "Yessss...".
Jeremy felt blood trickling down his face from his nose and watched as Neil floated upright back onto his feet. He stopped breathing
for a second when Neil's new long hair parted and Jeremy saw the face of most beautiful Asian woman imaginable. It was then he
realized the red robe was looser, but the shape within more feminine.
"Jeremiah." Her voice was soothing and sultry, yet light and pure. As she spoke, Jeremy felt the trickle of blood from his nose
stop. He pulled himself up and walked around the stairs to get a better look.
"You are named for the prophet who was sent to warn those who worshiped false idols, and so you shall fulfill that destiny again. You
shall be my prophet on this night of my return to mortality."
"I.. uh.." Jeremy was captivated by her almond eyes, "who..."
"Tap Tun, your goddess, Jeremiah. I am the energy within men. I am their lust, their passion and," she cocked her head slightly to
one side, "their impotence if I so choose. Now that I have flesh again, we begin to return the earth to its true balance between
women and men."
Fixated by her exotic features, by her eyes that seemed to hold something greater, Jeremy began to feel a burden lifted from him. A
life of devotion and prophecy would be far better than just killing people and stealing cars in Grand Theft Auto and fantasizing at
night about what it would be like to have Selena Gomez cuddled up in bed with him.
Tap Tun smiled at him, "Release yourself to me, Jeremiah," She raised her arms out, he went to her and let himself be enfolded in
her embrace. "You shall be my right hand and live a life where you will be envied by all men who have felt my power. I chose you
because you had a spark, and so you shall be my guiding light out in this night of this strange new land. And on this night where your
people open their doors to strangers, we shall go and spread the news of my rebirth.
His head buried in her robe, Jeremiah the prophet could only muster one answer.
"Yes, my Goddess, yes."