31 Nights of Halloween Fright + Part One of THE SNOW GLOBE
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One of my favorite indie authors Andrew Van Wey has put together a massive month of giveaways for indie horror—just look at the line up! It’s absolutely incredible. This is a great chance to check out some new authors.
Join the Facebook group here to sign up for each individual giveaway. There will be one a day, and mine lands on the 7th!
Without Further Ado… THE SNOW GLOBE!
Ten-year-old Briana had a secret: she had a snow globe in her room, and inside it was the Devil.
The thrift store item had been an impulse buy she’d begged her mother for. The base was a simple, hand-carved wood the color of rich mahogany. Leaves and smiling faces were carefully etched into it, smoothing out at the top before meeting the clear glass of the globe itself.
The world inside that bubble was small but glorious. A beautiful house sat on a hill, each detail placed with the sort of finesse that she couldn’t begin to grasp at her young age. The black siding was cracked with age. She was sure that if she looked at it close enough, she’d see carefully painted smudges on its many intricate windows—the ones that weren’t shuttered, that was. When she’d turned it over in her hand, the first thing she’d seen was the tiny rocker on the back porch. With each movement of her hand, it tilted back and forth. It had struck her as peculiar that there were no flakes or little balls of snow that floated around the liquid in the globe, but she didn’t think too hard on it.
Giggling with glee, she’d run off to find her mother. After a solid minute of pleading and upon seeing the low price on the tag, her mother had relented.
Now, she lay awake staring at the large globe in her hands. A warm yellow light fell from the windows, illuminating the small world in her palms, and in that glow stood the Devil.
He wasn’t what she would have expected. There was no pitchfork, no horns, no snake-like tongue—he didn’t even wear a red cape. This Devil was dressed in a form fitting black t-shirt and blue jeans that were almost skin tight, the ends of which were tucked into black combat boots. His hair was long and styled, making him look like someone from one of her mother’s album covers. What had she called them? Hair metal. The only way she knew who his identity was because he introduced himself as such, with a grin and a swoop of the hair.
“You’re the Devil?”
“Not quite what you’d expect, huh?”
Briana felt fidgety at his words, and her pajamas were making her itch. “I… I… uh… I’m not supposed to talk to strangers.”
It felt like an incredibly stupid thing to say, but it was all she could think of. And besides—that was the truth. Her mother and father had been explicit on that, drilling it into her like the Pledge of Allegiance at school.
“Ah. That’s a good policy, Briana. Very good.”
“When did I tell you my name?” She asked, her voice timid and afraid.
“You didn’t,” the Devil said, flashing that same smile. “But I’ve been listening since you brought me home—it’s what your mom calls you, so I would assume it’s your name, right?”
“Yeah…” Briana said, her hands shaking.
“Woah!” The Devil called out, throwing his hands out and spreading his feet wider to keep his balance. “Watch the shakes, sister!”
“Oh… I’m sorry,” she muttered, looking toward her door. Any minute, her father or mother would knock and peek in, asking who she was talking to. She wasn’t quite sure how she’d respond to the question, but at least it would give her an out.
“Don’t worry about it!” The Devil said good-naturedly. “How about this? Put me on the bed and I’ll just grab a seat here, Indian style.”
“Mom says you aren’t supposed to call it that. She said it’s insensitive.”
The Devil chuckled, dropping to the ground and crossing his legs under him. “I’ve never thought much about offending people, Briana.”
As Briana looked at him, she realized he had a peach-fuzz mustache. The color of it was much lighter than his hair.
“Do you dye your hair?”
He looked at her for a long moment, and she was sure she’d offended him. While he might not care about hurting other people’s feelings, she figured he wouldn’t be happy to be disrespected. What were the consequences of offending the Devil? She could only imagine that eternal damnation in Hell was the minimum.
Finally, he let out a loud, gut-wrenching laugh and fell backwards. Laying in the carefully painted green grass, he rolled back and forth as his hysterics played out. After about a minute, he pulled himself back upright and wiped his eyes. The joy she saw there did little alleviate the intense anxiety she was feeling.
Briana was in what she’d call “a pickle.” Firstly: she wasn’t allowed to have boys in her room. Secondly: she was fairly positive that the Devil was worse than boys.
“Thank you, I needed that,” he said, grinning ear to ear. To her surprise, she noticed that his teeth were uneven. “Yeah, I do. I like the look.”
“Why?”
“Why do I like the look?”
“Why do you care? If you’re the Devil, I mean.”
The man in the globe seemed to contemplate what she had said. “I don’t know. I guess I just do.”
Another realization hit Briana. “How can I see your face so clearly? You’re so small.”
“Magic,”the Devil crooned, twiddling his fingers like a witch standing over a cauldron.
“Magic isn’t real,” Briana said matter-of-factly. But the Devil isn’t either.
“Not in the way you think of it,” he admitted. “It’s not all Harry Potter and magic wands, for sure.”
“So do a trick.”
The grin on his face fell for a moment before resuming its manically happy composure. There was a new, sharper glint in his eyes, though. The kind joy was gone, replaced with something she didn’t know the word for. Mean didn’t cover it. When she thought about the fact that it was Devil she’d peeved off—her mother’s phrase—she suddenly wished she’d kept her mouth shut.
“Would you like me to pull something out of a hat?”
Briana shook her head slowly. “I’m sorry for being mean, Mister.”
“No—don’t be. It’s children’s nature to be inquisitive, and even demanding.” That unfaltering expression never waivered, but still didn’t reach his now cold eyes. “I’m afraid I couldn’t even if I wanted to, though.”
“Why’s that?”
“Because I’m trapped in here, darling. The glass prevents me from using any of my powers unfortunately.”
“Who trapped you in there?” Briana asked, leaning forward. With a sudden wave of nausea, she realized that no matter how close she got to the glass, the image of the man remained the same size. It was as if she were looking through a telescope that was adjusting based on her proximity.
“Some people who didn’t like me very much,” the Devil said with a sigh. His face fell, and the hard, terrifying look in his eyes went with it. “They didn’t like what I had to say.
Because he’s the Devil, Briana. He’s not friendly, and he’s not your friend.
“What did you say?”
He seemed to think for a moment, and even at her age it made her uncomfortable. “I didn’t agree that people have free will. Do you know what free will is, Briana?”
“No,” she said. “But my Dad says nothing is ever free.”
A smirk crossed the Devil’s face, widening as he thought about what she said. Finally, he nodded and looked at her warmly.
“Your Dad’s got that right. But free will isn’t an actual thing, like a bike or book or a video game. It’s the idea that you have the freedom to make choices.”
“Oh,” Briana exclaimed. “I get it.”
“I don’t believe in it—I believe people have the illusion of it, but that the choices are already made for them.” The Devil spoke with reverence, as if he was speaking of something sacred. “I think that when Miss Little Briana goes to the store, it’s already been decided what she’s going to get.”
“But I get to choose. We go to the toy aisle and…”
The Devil was shaking his head. “See, I don’t think that’s how it works. I believe you’re made to believe it is, but the truth is that you were always going to choose that specific toy.”
Briana’s head was spinning. She was grasping what he was saying—she thought so, at least—but it didn’t seem right. If she didn’t get to pick out what she was getting, what the point of it all?
Suddenly, a thought occurred to her.
“What about the snow globe? If I don’t get to pick, why would someone want me to by something with the Dev—with you in it?”
“Ah, smart girl,” The Devil said, clapping his hands. “This might be the only truly free choice you get. To tell you the truth, I can’t say for sure why the globe is an exception to the rule—only that it is. Maybe because it was never meant to exist? Or possibly because of my presence within it.”
“That doesn’t make a lot of sense.”
“Nothing much does,” The Devil agreed. “Listen, as much fun as this has been—I have to ask you a favor. Friends do favors for friends, right?”
He’s not your friend. “Yeah, I guess.”
The Devil leaned forward, once again sitting cross-legged in the globe. “I need you to break the glass, Briana.”
Alarm bells went off in her head. Instinct and common sense alike aligned and warned her that to free the man in the globe would be a mistake of grand proportion. She imagined the man appearing in her room amidst the broken glass and liquid of the globe, but he no longer looked the same. The Devil had taken on a more traditional appearance, and he would lick his lips with his snake tongue before coming after her.
“I don’t think so, Mister,” she said unsteadily.
True concern spread over the Devil’s face. “Are you okay, Briana? You sound afraid.”
“Yeah… I… I just… I don’t know…”
“I know it’s scary. The Devil is asking me to free him, oh my,” he said, his voice taking on an exaggerated tone at the end. “But trust me, I will never hurt you. All I care about is proving them wrong, okay?”
“Who wrong?”
“My family,” he muttered, his voice full of spite. “It’s not fair that your people are judged based on decisions that aren’t even really theirs, right?”
“I guess not.” Despite the good points he was trying to make, Briana was no closer to freeing him from his glass prison. “I just don’t think it’s a good idea.”
“I understand.” He sounded defeated, but not angry. “There’s just one more thing—and this one isn’t a big deal, okay? I promise.”
“What is it?”
“Just put me by the window tonight, okay? That way I can have a view.”
Briana figured it was a relatively harmless request, and decided she could at least do that for him. With a title like the Devil, he’d been surprisingly kind to her thus far.
Picking up the globe, she started across the room. Briana was about to set it down when she felt something move beneath her fingers. Too scared to look, she felt the desire to throw the globe at the wall and run away screaming.
That’s what he wants.
Instead, she went straight for the window and set it down. As she did so, she felt a sharp prick on the pad of her thumb. She pulled her hand away with a small cry and looked at it to see a small, round bead of blood there. Looking back at the globe, she watched with dismay as one of the carved strands of ivy seemed to move ever so slightly. The end of it was dark with her blood, and she let out a whimper as the wood soaked up the blood. Within seconds, the only sign that it had ever been there was a small stain in the wood.
“You okay, Briana?”
“Yeah,” she said, wiping her finger on her pajamas. “Something just poked me.”
“Weird,” the Devil said nonchalantly. His image was zooming out, returning to the size she had expected. “Do you need a band aid or something? Not that I could get it for you, but… yeah.”
“I’m fine.” With that, she turned away from the globe and laid down on her bed with her back to the window. She decided then and there that she would get rid of her new friend in the morning—she figured it wouldn’t take long to bury something the size of the globe.
Sleep came blessedly quick, and soon she was dreaming.Ten-year-old Briana had a secret: she had a snow globe in her room, and inside it was the Devil.
The thrift store item had been an impulse buy she’d begged her mother for. The base was a simple, hand-carved wood the color of rich mahogany. Leaves and smiling faces were carefully etched into it, smoothing out at the top before meeting the clear glass of the globe itself.
The world inside that bubble was small but glorious. A beautiful house sat on a hill, each detail placed with the sort of finesse that she couldn’t begin to grasp at her young age. The black siding was cracked with age. She was sure that if she looked at it close enough, she’d see carefully painted smudges on its many intricate windows—the ones that weren’t shuttered, that was. When she’d turned it over in her hand, the first thing she’d seen was the tiny rocker on the back porch. With each movement of her hand, it tilted back and forth. It had struck her as peculiar that there were no flakes or little balls of snow that floated around the liquid in the globe, but she didn’t think too hard on it.
Giggling with glee, she’d run off to find her mother. After a solid minute of pleading and upon seeing the low price on the tag, her mother had relented.
Now, she lay awake staring at the large globe in her hands. A warm yellow light fell from the windows, illuminating the small world in her palms, and in that glow stood the Devil.
He wasn’t what she would have expected. There was no pitchfork, no horns, no snake-like tongue—he didn’t even wear a red cape. This Devil was dressed in a form fitting black t-shirt and blue jeans that were almost skin tight, the ends of which were tucked into black combat boots. His hair was long and styled, making him look like someone from one of her mother’s album covers. What had she called them? Hair metal. The only way she knew who his identity was because he introduced himself as such, with a grin and a swoop of the hair.
“You’re the Devil?”
“Not quite what you’d expect, huh?”
Briana felt fidgety at his words, and her pajamas were making her itch. “I… I… uh… I’m not supposed to talk to strangers.”
It felt like an incredibly stupid thing to say, but it was all she could think of. And besides—that was the truth. Her mother and father had been explicit on that, drilling it into her like the Pledge of Allegiance at school.
“Ah. That’s a good policy, Briana. Very good.”
“When did I tell you my name?” She asked, her voice timid and afraid.
“You didn’t,” the Devil said, flashing that same smile. “But I’ve been listening since you brought me home—it’s what your mom calls you, so I would assume it’s your name, right?”
“Yeah…” Briana said, her hands shaking.
“Woah!” The Devil called out, throwing his hands out and spreading his feet wider to keep his balance. “Watch the shakes, sister!”
“Oh… I’m sorry,” she muttered, looking toward her door. Any minute, her father or mother would knock and peek in, asking who she was talking to. She wasn’t quite sure how she’d respond to the question, but at least it would give her an out.
“Don’t worry about it!” The Devil said good-naturedly. “How about this? Put me on the bed and I’ll just grab a seat here, Indian style.”
“Mom says you aren’t supposed to call it that. She said it’s insensitive.”
The Devil chuckled, dropping to the ground and crossing his legs under him. “I’ve never thought much about offending people, Briana.”
As Briana looked at him, she realized he had a peach-fuzz mustache. The color of it was much lighter than his hair.
“Do you dye your hair?”
He looked at her for a long moment, and she was sure she’d offended him. While he might not care about hurting other people’s feelings, she figured he wouldn’t be happy to be disrespected. What were the consequences of offending the Devil? She could only imagine that eternal damnation in Hell was the minimum.
Finally, he let out a loud, gut-wrenching laugh and fell backwards. Laying in the carefully painted green grass, he rolled back and forth as his hysterics played out. After about a minute, he pulled himself back upright and wiped his eyes. The joy she saw there did little alleviate the intense anxiety she was feeling.
Briana was in what she’d call “a pickle.” Firstly: she wasn’t allowed to have boys in her room. Secondly: she was fairly positive that the Devil was worse than boys.
“Thank you, I needed that,” he said, grinning ear to ear. To her surprise, she noticed that his teeth were uneven. “Yeah, I do. I like the look.”
“Why?”
“Why do I like the look?”
“Why do you care? If you’re the Devil, I mean.”
The man in the globe seemed to contemplate what she had said. “I don’t know. I guess I just do.”
Another realization hit Briana. “How can I see your face so clearly? You’re so small.”
“Magic,”the Devil crooned, twiddling his fingers like a witch standing over a cauldron.
“Magic isn’t real,” Briana said matter-of-factly. But the Devil isn’t either.
“Not in the way you think of it,” he admitted. “It’s not all Harry Potter and magic wands, for sure.”
“So do a trick.”
The grin on his face fell for a moment before resuming its manically happy composure. There was a new, sharper glint in his eyes, though. The kind joy was gone, replaced with something she didn’t know the word for. Mean didn’t cover it. When she thought about the fact that it was Devil she’d peeved off—her mother’s phrase—she suddenly wished she’d kept her mouth shut.
“Would you like me to pull something out of a hat?”
Briana shook her head slowly. “I’m sorry for being mean, Mister.”
“No—don’t be. It’s children’s nature to be inquisitive, and even demanding.” That unfaltering expression never waivered, but still didn’t reach his now cold eyes. “I’m afraid I couldn’t even if I wanted to, though.”
“Why’s that?”
“Because I’m trapped in here, darling. The glass prevents me from using any of my powers unfortunately.”
“Who trapped you in there?” Briana asked, leaning forward. With a sudden wave of nausea, she realized that no matter how close she got to the glass, the image of the man remained the same size. It was as if she were looking through a telescope that was adjusting based on her proximity.
“Some people who didn’t like me very much,” the Devil said with a sigh. His face fell, and the hard, terrifying look in his eyes went with it. “They didn’t like what I had to say.
Because he’s the Devil, Briana. He’s not friendly, and he’s not your friend.
“What did you say?”
He seemed to think for a moment, and even at her age it made her uncomfortable. “I didn’t agree that people have free will. Do you know what free will is, Briana?”
“No,” she said. “But my Dad says nothing is ever free.”
A smirk crossed the Devil’s face, widening as he thought about what she said. Finally, he nodded and looked at her warmly.
“Your Dad’s got that right. But free will isn’t an actual thing, like a bike or book or a video game. It’s the idea that you have the freedom to make choices.”
“Oh,” Briana exclaimed. “I get it.”
“I don’t believe in it—I believe people have the illusion of it, but that the choices are already made for them.” The Devil spoke with reverence, as if he was speaking of something sacred. “I think that when Miss Little Briana goes to the store, it’s already been decided what she’s going to get.”
“But I get to choose. We go to the toy aisle and…”
The Devil was shaking his head. “See, I don’t think that’s how it works. I believe you’re made to believe it is, but the truth is that you were always going to choose that specific toy.”
Briana’s head was spinning. She was grasping what he was saying—she thought so, at least—but it didn’t seem right. If she didn’t get to pick out what she was getting, what the point of it all?
Suddenly, a thought occurred to her.
“What about the snow globe? If I don’t get to pick, why would someone want me to by something with the Dev—with you in it?”
“Ah, smart girl,” The Devil said, clapping his hands. “This might be the only truly free choice you get. To tell you the truth, I can’t say for sure why the globe is an exception to the rule—only that it is. Maybe because it was never meant to exist? Or possibly because of my presence within it.”
“That doesn’t make a lot of sense.”
“Nothing much does,” The Devil agreed. “Listen, as much fun as this has been—I have to ask you a favor. Friends do favors for friends, right?”
He’s not your friend. “Yeah, I guess.”
The Devil leaned forward, once again sitting cross-legged in the globe. “I need you to break the glass, Briana.”
Alarm bells went off in her head. Instinct and common sense alike aligned and warned her that to free the man in the globe would be a mistake of grand proportion. She imagined the man appearing in her room amidst the broken glass and liquid of the globe, but he no longer looked the same. The Devil had taken on a more traditional appearance, and he would lick his lips with his snake tongue before coming after her.
“I don’t think so, Mister,” she said unsteadily.
True concern spread over the Devil’s face. “Are you okay, Briana? You sound afraid.”
“Yeah… I… I just… I don’t know…”
“I know it’s scary. The Devil is asking me to free him, oh my,” he said, his voice taking on an exaggerated tone at the end. “But trust me, I will never hurt you. All I care about is proving them wrong, okay?”
“Who wrong?”
“My family,” he muttered, his voice full of spite. “It’s not fair that your people are judged based on decisions that aren’t even really theirs, right?”
“I guess not.” Despite the good points he was trying to make, Briana was no closer to freeing him from his glass prison. “I just don’t think it’s a good idea.”
“I understand.” He sounded defeated, but not angry. “There’s just one more thing—and this one isn’t a big deal, okay? I promise.”
“What is it?”
“Just put me by the window tonight, okay? That way I can have a view.”
Briana figured it was a relatively harmless request, and decided she could at least do that for him. With a title like the Devil, he’d been surprisingly kind to her thus far.
Picking up the globe, she started across the room. Briana was about to set it down when she felt something move beneath her fingers. Too scared to look, she felt the desire to throw the globe at the wall and run away screaming.
That’s what he wants.
Instead, she went straight for the window and set it down. As she did so, she felt a sharp prick on the pad of her thumb. She pulled her hand away with a small cry and looked at it to see a small, round bead of blood there. Looking back at the globe, she watched with dismay as one of the carved strands of ivy seemed to move ever so slightly. The end of it was dark with her blood, and she let out a whimper as the wood soaked up the blood. Within seconds, the only sign that it had ever been there was a small stain in the wood.
“You okay, Briana?”
“Yeah,” she said, wiping her finger on her pajamas. “Something just poked me.”
“Weird,” the Devil said nonchalantly. His image was zooming out, returning to the size she had expected. “Do you need a band aid or something? Not that I could get it for you, but… yeah.”
“I’m fine.” With that, she turned away from the globe and laid down on her bed with her back to the window. She decided then and there that she would get rid of her new friend in the morning—she figured it wouldn’t take long to bury something the size of the globe.
Sleep came blessedly quick, and soon she was dreaming.
***
In the next part, Briana finds herself trapped inside the snow globe as the Devil closes in. To read on and to check out other short fiction (including my BoH Anthology selection HIGHWAY HYPNOSIS), subscribe to the NEW HORRORS tier here.
Violet Update
She’s doing great! She’s started laughing and smiling at certain things, and I’ve found the one thing that soothes her most of all—reading! She loves when I read to her, and I’ve started turning on audiobooks to help her take her naps. Currently, her favorite seems to be Alice in Wonderland, which is actually featured in Part Three of The Snow Globe.
Until next,
William F. Gray