Pyhäinmiestenpäivän yön tarinoita

 Short stories from All Saint's Days Night

Count & Countess

The Count and Countess lived in the Penthouse Manor, just in the middle of everything, but still above all the ordinary. Their favorite activity for spending their long and privileges days, were sitting in their Winter Garden drinking the Count's Finest Sherry, all the while they could watch the common people walking in the wet snow down below. On the garden table they had a little bell, which they used, when they needed something. Usually it was more sherry. Their servant and housekeeper, Julio, had been with them for many years and took care of their every need. Countess had took this a bit more far and made Julio her personal lover. There was nothing wrong with the love life between Count and Countess and she was enjoying it a lot. But maybe it had been the exotic Mexican accent or the dark red hair with the skin color of fine cafe latte, that had been too tempting for Countess.

This exceptionally cold and freezing All Saint's Day's morning Countess was feeling little bit distressed. She could sens something was off. Julio had not taken the laundry and the duster was still hanging by the chandelier. She poured herself a morning coffee, bit annoyed, that she had to do it by herself and walked bare footed to the winter garden. They would have a big ball at the evening and she needed to have some time in peace to organize her thoughts. When she opened the door for Winter Garden, she almost stumbled on something. It was a human body. Quick glaze around the garden told, that there was empty Sherry bottle, note on the old yellow piece of paper, an axe with a lot of blood and in the middle of everything was laying Julio's body. The Countess rolled her eyes. She turned around and went for waking up the Count. He was just like this. When ever he did something, did he clean after himself? No! Never! Everything was left always lying around there, where he had used the things. Clothes were on the floor there where he happened to decide to undress  himself. The Countess needed to constantly ask Julio to clean after the Count. And now the Count had left Julio lying around. He was so going to have to clean after himself this time. And he was also going to find them a new housekeeper. An young and pleasant looking one, obviously.

The Family Dinner

It had been pouring rain for several days. We had agreed to go for a family dinner at my husbands parents house. They were nice and warm people and I really liked them. It had been snowing last week and I had already been happy to have a white Halloween. But by the day came, all the white snow had melted in to a dark grey slush and the black roads were eating all the little light the growing kaamos had to offer.

The dinner looked great. My mother in-law was proud to tell me all about the family recipes they had in the family. There was meat stew, pastries, caramelized onions and blood pancakes with lingonberry jam and some fresh salad. Everything was so tasteful and I complimented the skills of the mother. She was delighted and told us how hard work it had been to prepare everything from the beginning. The amount of blood had been at least 20 litres in total, she said. The father murmured agreeing, yes it was two large bucked of blood they had got. Yes, and we needed to bottle it all, she continued. Surely we could have bought the blood and the meat from the store, but you never know how old it would be. The fresh taste's so much better! Of course you need to be careful with the warm blood. There might be hairs and everything, so you need to bottle it through a strainer, the mother went on. I started to feel myself little uncomfortable. I glazed my husband, but he didn't look disturbed at all about the turn, that the conversation had taken. Silently I spit the last piece of meat from my mouth to my napkin and tried to act normal.

The Plague

We took rock-paper-scissors. I lost again. Damned. I watch out of the window. The night had just started to give away for the daylight. The sky and the air was red. But not like those clear burning red sunrises I remembered from the childhood, but this dusty and dull red. Like the color would not be only on the sky, but on the air too. I took a deep breath and start to dress up to our one and only heavy overalls and mask. That we had only one overall for us both, wasn't the only reason we took turns. It wasn't safe outside, so it wasn't smart for us both to risk our lives. Te other one would have a lookout from the high window of our hideout place, which we had built on the highest floor of the block building. We tried to go outdoors as less as we could, but at some point it was necessary to get more supplies. This why we had chosen the mornings. There would be less people on the streets and in the grocery store. He kissed me goodbye before I vanished behind the heavy mask. The way wasn't long, but I didn't want to spend more time outdoors than had to. It was impossible to run in the overalls and the mask, but I walked as swiftly as I could. The roads were empty. I glazed the sky. It was still red and as the humidity of the air made the air moist and heavy, everything was covered with this dull shining red. 

By the entrance of the store was lying on the ground disposable masks and overalls. I tried to walk around them. No one still knew exactly how the plague was spreading, but they said it traveled through the air and even the lightest touch could be lethal. I did my shopping as quickly and efficient as possible. I showed my credit card for the payment terminal, which was operated by cashier lady behind a heavy glass. No interaction, no smile, no nothing. On the narrow hallway by the door leading out of the store was old ladies chatting. Their shopping charts blocking the way. They yelled to each other as they couldn't hear one and another's speak though the masks. I tried to yell over them and ask some space, but they didn't hear me or didn't want to hear me. I hated these situations. No one knew if the overalls and the masks where actually keeping you safe, but it definitely lowered the risk to get the plague. I inched myself between the wall and the other lady and was finally out of the store. I rushed home with my heavy backpack. I wanted to have a long shower and scrub myself clean before it would be too late.