Milo - Spooky Month

The warehouse loomed in front of a heavy moon, casting a grey shadow towards the cobbled ground. The shadow stretched and formed into an amalgamation of the building beyond, shifting as the stars slowly made their arc across the sky. Milo had asked me to meet him at the distillery, a place I had not been for some time. Milo tended to sleep at my place instead of me at his. Mainly because I had a bed frame. Tonight, however, with the harvest moon hanging in sight, I complied, coming to find him at his old home.

The rolling door squeaked as it opened, echoing through the empty street. The lights were off, without even a candle to light the treacherous staircase that I knew was only a few feet in front of me. “Milo?” I called out. My hand reached out, looking for the comically large switch that would light up the entire distillery with watery fluorescent light.

“Don’t turn the lights on!”

I paused, hand hovering above the switch. “Why?”

Milo’s voice was coming somewhere from within the dark, leeching from the shadows like spilled ink. “I don’t need them to know I’m here.”

I felt my hand twitch. Part of me wanted to turn on the light, simply because I hated what his words implied. “I’m not coming down those stairs in the dark. I’ll break my leg.”

“Create a flame,” he hissed.

“Create a– oh. Yeah.” I brought my hand back to my chest, cupping it towards my other hand. Slowly, a small ball of light began to form. It was filled with soft lantern light and hovered between my palms. It didn’t cast much of a glow, but it was enough to monitor my steps. One by one, I began to take the stairs down, the creaking of each step a slice against the otherwise quiet.

“Where are you?” I asked, hushing my voice a bit. I didn’t know why, but fear began to trickle down my back. I normally wasn’t scared of the dark. I had been born in the dark. But the fact that Milo was hiding didn’t sit well with me.

“If I don’t want them to know where I am, why would I tell you?”

“Milo, knock it off. I don’t even know who they are.” Plus, he was scaring me. Really scaring me. I didn’t want to wander around this warehouse with a glob of light and hope to stumble across my boyfriend. “Milo,” I called out again. “I’ll leave. I swear to you, I will. I’m not playing this game.”

I screamed as hands settled on my shoulders, my hands coming apart as the light fell away into nothing. Warm hands held me firm, pulling me back towards a firm chest. “Shh,” he whispered into my ear. My heart was pounding, and my head was swimming, and if I hadn’t wanted to take safety in the circle of Milo’s arms, I might have elbowed him.

“You’ve got to stay quiet. Come on.” He half dragged and half carried me through the warehouse, my feet stumbling to keep up. 

When he dropped his hand from my mouth, I turned around, smacking his arm. “What the hell, Milo?”

He pressed his forehead against mine, breathing in my space. “We are going to get out of here, alright? I promise you that you’re going to be okay.”

“What are you even talking about?” My fingers dug into his arms.

There was a loud bang behind me. The clang of a pipe and then a hiss of steam. I jumped, opening my eyes wide as I tried to peer through the dark. There were flecks of light streaming in from the open window, but even that seemed to be lost in the dark.

“We need to get out of here,” I told him.

“We can’t. We’re trapped. We just have to wait until first light.”

“First light? What do you mean first light? We live in the dark.”

Another bang, this one closer. Footsteps began to travel across the concrete floor, the sound of breathing echoing around us. I could hear the slight little puffs, ragged and wheezing. A flash of something out of the corner of my eye had me spinning. I couldn’t tell if someone was on the stairs or if something loomed around us. I was disoriented, not sure which part of the distillery I was in.

“What is it?” I asked, feeling the blood rush in my ears.

“A spirit," he whispered. “A vengeful one. They say once a year the spirits are allowed to roam, affecting those who have wronged them. They creep into your nightmares first. Spindly fingers wriggling around in your brain. Then, they take root. They are the thing you hear in the dark. The shadow you can’t be sure you’ve seen out of the corner of your eye.”

There was a sharp intake of breath that sounded like a scream. I grabbed Milo’s wrist without thinking and began to run. I didn’t care if we were supposed to wait until first light, whatever that actually meant. We were going to get out of here now.

“We can’t,” he protested. “It will only follow.”

“Then let it follow us out into the lantern light, where we can fight it.” I wasn’t trying to keep my voice quiet this time. I would beat this thing down and light it on fire if I needed to. Except, I couldn’t see. I ran right into a wall, trapping us in a corner. I couldn’t tell where the stairs were. There was no other emergency exit in this deathtrap of a building. And whatever was chasing us was beginning to make its way through the dark. Coming closer and closer. Milky eyes began to glow through the bleak as a red mouth ripped open in a twisted amalgamation of a smile. Their teeth were pointed and shining in the light as the rags it bore dragged around with a sluicing sound across the floor.

“Stay back!” I yelled.

“This is it,” Milo said, terror coloring his tone. “I love you. I’ll see you in the next life.”

The thing got closer and closer.

“Stay back!” 

Still it continued, tipping its head to the side, tendrils of greasy hair falling over their shoulder as they began to cackle.

With a scream, I released my light. It burst through the room like a sun orb, lighting each candle that was half burnt around the warehouse but popping the lights overhead. I could see, however. I could face what was coming to us.

I could also hear Milo’s laughter twisting around the laughter of our attacker. Our attacker, who was clearly Ever.

“Got you!” she giggled.

My heart was racing, barely calming as I stared at the girl. She shrugged off a large cloak and stepped down from the stilts she had been walking on. Her face was covered in a mask of watery paint, and she wore bright red lipstick to mimic blood. Behind me, Milo wrapped his arms around me.

“She’s a fierce ghost tonight, yeah?”

“You two planned this?”

Ever nodded. “It’s great, right? It was Milo’s idea. He said you liked to be scared.”

I twisted, looking over my shoulder at Milo with a narrowed gaze. He greeted me with a kiss, trying to cover any irritation I might have thrown his way. “I’m babysitting tonight,” he said against my lips. “Have to keep her entertained.”

“This was not the way,” I growled.

“Nighty,” Ever came bounding over, “that was so much fun. You think we could get Belladonna next? Or the Warden. We tried to scare Mal, but he took one look in the dark and told Milo he was going to die alone.”

My heart was starting to calm as I breathed in and out through my nose. Ever was happy. It was something to remember. It was brother sister bonding time and she was reveling in it.

“I think,” I said slowly, “we should get Milo next.”

Her eyes lit up.

“Jokes on you two,” Milo laughed. “I can’t be scared.”

Turning in his arms, I brushed the curls out of his eyes. “Okay,” I said simply. It was that simple. The anticipation. Because the fear was already seeping into his gaze. “Ever, want to go get cookies?”

“Yes!”

Walking forward, I took Ever’s hand. “Milo’s not invited. That way we can talk.” 

“Perfect,” she said excitedly. Deviously. She really was his little sister.

Milo stared at us. “What are you two going to talk about? Darlin’, what are you two going to talk about?” We were walking way, neither of looking back as we headed out of the distillery. “What are you two going to talk about?” he yelled out again.

“Bye, brother! See you soon!” Ever called out. I tickled her side to get her cackling again. The last thing I saw as I closed the distillery door was Milo’s pale face and the dread of what was to come.