Weird Halloween
DEN OF
FRANKENSTEIN

Autumn Rose
HELLO FRIENDS OF
THE ORANGE MOON

[First Published: October 29, 2021]

And good evenin’! I see y’all went and found your way back ’round to our neck of the woods. Well, I for one, your host, Autumn Rose, am happy as always to welcome ya back here again. And what a fun time it has been! See, I was just fixin’ to spin another tale by the light of the campfire here. So park yourself on down, because I best get started. Y'know, ’cause I sure hate to bring our little session to a dead halt.

Anyways, the one we got for y’all tonight is a little yarn what I like to call “Den of Frankenstein.”
* * *
First off, like to start out by sayin’ this ain’t no lie. And I know, I hardly wouldn’t believe it myself, if I were you. But all the same, every last word is the truth. Even if it don’t hardly seem that way. Believe me or not, it’s up to you. At the end of the day, there’s nothin’ one can do but tell a story and let the listener make up their own mind.

So, to begin, my family’s a bit weird, and I already understand that’s no way to start a story. But it is what it is, y’know? So my family’s weird, and I had this great uncle, went by the name of Clyde. Well, Clyde was a professor at one of the smaller universities upstate. And I never really got to know him real well, not at all, if I’m bein’ completely honest. But I did meet him a few times. But Uncle Clyde was so busy, y’see? Hardly gave time enough for us to speak.

Anyways, it was a couple of Summer’s ago, at his place, the whole family got together for Labor Day weekend. Uncle Clyde always had the biggest house out of everybody. So when the whole family got together, it was usually at his place.

Well, so we’re all there, aunts, uncles, grandma and grandpa, and all. That is when I get real curious, and I was young, y’see? So I start explorin’ the house, and when I tell you this thing was big, it was huge. What I’m sayin’ is the whole joint was just room, after room, after room. And I didn’t know no better. And I get to goin’ places I really wasn’t supposed to.

But, like to be fair, Uncle Clyde was a professor of biology, and he had the weirdest lookin’ stuff you ever did see. Like jars with eyes and organ stuff, like straight out of a science lab. Not the high school kind neither.

So, all was fun and games for a bit. Me and my folks were there for awhile, so I had plenty of time to explore and whatever. Sure beat hangin’ out with a bunch of adults gossipin’ about this and that and who said what to who and so on.

Now, one night after everyone had gone to sleep, I decided to go down to the den at the back end of the house. And I tell you, this was an area I hadn’t been before and not sure really why I felt like goin’ back there in the first place.

But there I was, and I spot this door with a little light shinin’ underneath. So, carefully, I shuffled a little closer and closer to the door to the point I could start to hear voices from inside.

They sounded mad. One was my Uncle Clyde, but the other one I couldn’t quite place it. Had like a smoker’s voice, or someone real sick maybe, with a strange, low sort of gravelly tone, real rough and hoarse.

Well, Uncle Clyde keeps shoutin’ at ’em explainin’, “Why did you come back! Leave! Leave now! It isn’t safe here!” But the other guy he was all like they need to go about finishin’ what they started.

I never did open that door, I just listened real close. But whoever it was Uncle Clyde was talkin’ too sounded big, like real big. I could just hear his footsteps just hitin’ the floor, hitin’ floor. And y’know somethin’? If the house weren’t so durn big, and that den so far in the back, well, I figure he might could have woken up everyone just by stompin’ around the way he did.

But then I hear the big guy talkin’, sayin’ somethin’ about needin’ repairs. Uncle Clyde, he, talked back sayin’ he hasn’t got the parts or the time. That’s when that big guy there got real mad, and I mean livid.

He yelled, sounded ’bout as loud as he could, “YOU—YOU FIX ME! FIX ME, NOW!” Then that was followed by a loud crash. Sound of glass and some metal rattlin’ all around and a lot of other things.

Although that wasn’t the half of it, I’ll never forget the sound the big guy made. The big guy, he, let out a roar or more like a long, loud wail. It’s weird, but it didn’t hardly even sound human none.

This was followed by his footsteps and another crash until I couldn’t here him no more, like he went out a back way or somethin’. Well, it got real quiet, and I get kind of worried ’cause I didn’t hear Uncle Clyde neither.

So I go run to my mom and dad’s room. And boy, if I hadn’t sounded so scared, they probably would’ve beat my britches for wakin’ them up, as late as it was.

Well, we get to the back of the house. My dad opens the doors, looks in, shouts for my mom to take me back and that someone better call an ambulance.

Now, I like to tell you what happened next but never got the chance to see for m’self. My mom hurried and sent me back to my room. I didn’t dare disobey. She sounded real serious.

Later, we hear that a support beam fell over and knocked Uncle Clyde out. Took part of the wall with it, too. But ain’t nobody make no mention of the other guy.

And usually this is the part of a story where you expect some dumb kid to start sayin’, “I saw this or that,” and nobody ever believes him. Well, not me, uh-uh, no way. I’ve seen too many movies. Fat chance, I keep my mouth shut about the whole thing, and nobody heard a word out of me for the rest of our stay.

However, towards the end there, as we were gettin’ to leave, and Uncle Clyde was back from the hospital, Uncle Clyde, pulls me to the side, tells me he knows that I probably heard more than I was lettin’ off, but he ain’t mad. So I ask him about the other guy and why he never said nothin’. Clyde says it’s sort of complicated and to keep it between me and him. But the big guy, he, went by “Old Frank” and, a long time ago, Uncle Clyde did some surgery for Old Frank, but off the books, ’cause like the government, they, were out lookin’ for him.

“He’s very old,” Uncle Clyde says, “He needs a new heart.” But Uncle Clyde he tells it like Old Frank had like two hearts or somethin’ like one was half man-made and half real. I can’t really remember. Uncle Clyde used a lot of big words I didn’t really understand. But the long and short of it was that there was nothin’ he could do. And that was it.

Uncle Clyde was pretty old, himself, and a few months later he passed away. Years down the road, the family was sellin’ Clyde’s old place. So we go there to pack up a few things. Dad said we needed to help out the movers, because Uncle Clyde had just way too much junk.

I didn’t right know why, but the first place I go is to the old den. I was a lot older at the time and never did get to see what was inside there before. Well, I go in there and look around. Wasn’t much to see, the hole was fixed and the beam put back up. Most of everything was already in boxes.

Then I see one of the movers on the floor, with his back to me, packin’ up some papers and things. But the funny thing, and I couldn’t put my finger on it, was that the guy, he, seemed sort of familiar.

So I says, “Hey man, do I know you from somewhere?”

And he stood up, turned around.


BOY, believe me when I say I nearly fell to my knees.


The guy was like eight feet tall with a weird complexion, didn’t look natural at all. His eyes were yellow, sort of watery lookin’, and his face hung low, full of like stitches and scars. Dark hair fell down from his brow in an unkempt manner. And his skin, why, you could see veins, like it was almost transparent.

He stands there for the longest minute of my life and looks at me, smiles a crooked smile, and in a low, gravely voice says, “Nope.”

Gently, he picks up the box, walks calmly out the door.

I never see him again.
* * *
By thunder! That sure was quite the tale there. Makes y’think, come to think of it. Guess you never really do know who ya might could run into in this life or the next.

Well, fire is gettin’ mighty low, so I guess that’s it for tonight. I do thank y’all for stoppin’ on by and hope to see ya back again real soon. And on that note, I’m Autumn Rose—
’Til we meet again—stay together... keep nigh unto the fire.
Copyright © 2021 Thrill Land

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