Haunted Halloween 2011: Guest Post - Marianna Baer + A Giveaway!

It wasn't Halloween. It was July, in Tokyo, and my best friend and I had split away from our 8th grade tour group and were making our way through the crowded streets of a shopping district not entirely unlike Times Square. We were probably looking for cheap Walkmen or watches. The streets were narrow, giving the area a claustrophobic feel, and the scene was all the more chaotic because although we spoke a tiny bit of Japanese, the chatter and signage around us were mostly an unintelligible blur.

We turned a corner into an outdoor mall area -- no cars on the street, just pedestrians. I noticed a change in the air, a hushed electricity. Then the crowd parted, people moving to the sides. And I saw him.

He (it took me a moment to figure out it was a he) strode down the middle of the street. He wore a wig -- long blond hair in two messy side braids, and a schoolgirl's uniform -- short, pleated skirt, white short-sleeved blouse, suspenders, knee socks. Exaggerated makeup painted his face -- round circles of pink on his cheeks, a slash of red across his mouth, wide and uneven. He was grinning. 

And in his hands, he held two large machine guns.

He was walking through the crowd, occasionally scanning faces, grinning that horrible grin and holding the guns so that they pointed just a little bit forward. I didn't know if the guns were real. I didn't know if he was seriously deranged, as he looked, or just playing some bizarre dress up game. All I knew was that my body felt like it didn't have blood in it anymore. My friend and I were frozen in place, watching him, like most of the people in the crowd. Waiting. 

As he approached, he began swinging the guns back and forth, obviously enjoying the power they were giving him. Where were the police? I wondered. Why wasn't anyone doing anything? But we all just waited, a collective mass of speeding pulses and sweaty palms. The closer he came the sicker he looked -- the bits of his own black hair sticking out under the wig, that sloppy makeup, his reddish, bare knees visible between socks and skirt. 

I don't think I breathed at all when he passed us. And as soon as he did pass, my friend and I came unfrozen and started hurrying in the other direction, pushing past people, first walking then running, trying to get back to our tour group, waiting to hear shots. Which never came, thank god. At least, not that we heard.

This happened over 20 years ago, and I still wonder who that man was. I shudder when I remember the deranged look on his face, his jaunty walk, and those guns. Sometimes, in my nightmares, he points one of them at me.

 Currently available from Balzer & Bray!

Synopsis: Leena Thomas’s senior year at boarding school begins with a shock: Frost House, her cozy dorm of close friends, has been assigned an unexpected roommate: confrontational, eccentric Celeste Lazar. But while Leena’s anxiety about a threat to her sanctuary proves valid, it becomes less and less clear whether the threat lies with her new roommate, within Leena’s own mind, or within the very nature of Frost House itself. Mysterious happenings in the dorm, an intense triangle between Leena, Celeste, and Celeste’s brother, and the reawakening of childhood fears, all push Leena to take increasingly desperate measures to feel safe. Frost is the story of a haunting. As to whether the demons are supernatural or psychological . . . well, which answer would let you sleep at night?

Order Frost Online:

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Enter to win a SIGNED Copy of FROST!

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Giveaway ends: November 5th, 2011

Don't forget to stop by and check out who Jessica is featuring today for Haunted Halloween!

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Marianna, thank you so much for being part of this years Halloween event and thank you so much for sharing such a chilling story. Also, thank  you for offering the copy of Frost for this giveaway, it was amazing of you to do.

*I am not compensated at all for any of the links within this page.