When I was 8 my parents always went overboard with Halloween decorations. They'd pretend to be scarecrows and then jump out at kids that walked past, we always bought those huge expensive displays that looked so realistic you'd almost call the police because you thought they were actual people, and of course we had fog machines everywhere. I loved it all and quickly Halloween became my favorite holiday.

When I was 8 though, we went all out. Gore became out new big thing. I'm not talking about severed heads or a few fingers laying on the ground in a pool of ketchup, it was more along the lines of this, and this. Like I said, we always went all out. My parents were acting a bit strange though, even for the time of year. Their visits to get more "props" became more frequent and less lengthy. What they brought back was more realistic than anything I had ever seen before. Eventually we were hanging parts that smelt horrible and dripped fluids from these huge metal meat hooks. We received a few complaints from the neighbors, but my parents always just snapped "Get into the Halloween spirit!" at them. My two brothers got a bit frightened by these, but I always just assured them "They're just props, you don't have to worry about them." One of the last props they bought really pushed the limits between fake and reality. Right before I went to bed my parents said they were going prop shopping again and probably wouldn't be back until the morning. I was tired so I didn't really question how strange this was. They kissed me goodbye and told me they loved me. I woke up the next morning and got ready to go to school. As a walked outside I saw the newest addition to our house of horrors. A head was mounted on a spike, soaked in blood with the eyes removed and the mouth sewed shut. The thick red blood dripped onto the ground making a large puddle underneath. My parents came up behind me and said "Don't you love it? We're going to have an even better surprise when you get home from school."

I nodded in fear of what I was going to see upon my return, as my parents new obsession with ultra realistic props was starting to frighten me. I asked my friends at school if I could stay at their house, but they all said their parents weren't letting anyone come over. At this point I pondered whether or not I should just run away, however life on the streets doesn't really work for an eight year old, so I decided to go home. I opened my front door and my house was eerily silent. Since my brothers aren't old enough to go to school yet my house was usually filled with the noise of them playing. I called out for my parents and they stepped out of the garage. With long smiles they told me to follow them into the garage for my surprise. It was dark when I stepped in, and as I felt around for the light switch I bumped into something swaying. I fumbled around a bit more and eventually hit the light switch and I was greeted to see both of my little brothers hanging in front of me with their tongues cut out. The lights cut out as I heard my parents whisper from behind me "Don't you love it?" I ran and I screamed as fast as I could through the dark as I heard my parents footsteps closing in behind me. I made it to the door leading out of the garage before them and slammed it shut. I burst through the front door and ran to my neighbors house sobbing.

I told him what happened and the police rushed to my house. My parents were nowhere to be found. As it turns out the "props" that my parents were buying weren't props at all. They would hunt isolated individuals, torture them, kill them, then make their bodies into Halloween decorations. While I was at school they cut out my brothers' tongues so they couldn't scream then killed them by hanging. I was given to a loving foster family which I now call my real parents. This incident occurred when I was 8, and I'm 25 now. After years of therapy I was able to block out most of what happened until recently. I opened my front door to go to work and I found my cat dead and butchered on my doorstep. On its tongue was a note saying "Don't you love it?" I moved states 3 years ago.