MicroHorror

As far as I could discern there was no other human being present at this Halloween party. There was a pack of werewolves, a couple of ghouls, ghosts galore, demons looking a bit bored, poltergeists which insisted on throwing food and drinks around in a most irritating and juvenile manner, and vampires, who persisted in trying to kiss anything with blood. I spotted some whitish wraiths and quite a few creatures I couldn’t put names to, a multicultural mix of horrors, I dare say.

I kept looking out for another human, thinking a companion for me would turn up any moment but as the evening wore on, I abandoned that hope. I mingled a bit, stuck to the more recognizable foods, had a dance with a rather eccentric troll. They seemed a friendly bunch on the whole, notwithstanding their eating habits and bloodthirsty tendencies. At length I caught sight of a human form at the back of the room, waved and caught him waving back. I made my way side-winding through the crush of hirsute bodies and abominable breath. They were good enough to make way for me.

When I at last reached the back of the hall, I was stricken with abhorrence at the appearance of the creature that now confronted me. The congealed and jellified skin oozed a loathsome pus. One eye had popped from its socket and trailed slimily onto the cheek, the other was bruised and shut. Hair had come away in strands that split to reveal patches of bare skull. The face was pulled downwards in a kind of gaping despair. Repugnance made me turn aside and he turned too. Only then did I overcome my revulsion and peer more closely at this wretched cadaver. Nothing I have read or imagined could have prepared me for that moment; to stand before something that used to be human and no longer is and then to realize that this mass of pustulating, necrotic tissue is the reflected image of yourself.