Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 69895 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 280(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69895 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 280(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
“Nice ghost.”
“Thanks.”
“What’s the law about claiming objects on your property in this state? Is the ghost mine now?”
Uncharacteristically, Zachary had not considered that.
“Do you want it?”
“Yeah! I’ll make it part of my Halloween display. Or did you forget about that part?” he mused exaggeratedly.
“Ha-ha.”
They stood staring at each other, huge inflatable ghost waving ghostily in the background. Zachary didn’t know what to say now. He had loved being the one to put that impish grin on Bram’s face. He knew that much.
“So, do you get the ideas for your award-winning decorations from horror movies?” Bram asked.
“Not directly. But certainly their aesthetics have influenced my own. A lot of people think horror is all dark alleys and red blood and, like, black leather torture implements. But there is a huge amount of variation within the genre—and subgenres—everything from super-saturated psychedelic color, to muted and desolate landscapes, to the sunny, bucolic scenes of folk horror.”
Bram was listening closely, blue eyes locked on Zachary.
“Which do you like the best?”
“I like all of them in their own ways, really. But do like the subtle and muted palettes. There’s something so beautiful and mournful about them. Like...like a field of wild grasses at the start of autumn. All different tones of green and brown and gray and gold.”
“Sounds beautiful,” Bram murmured. “But not very scary.”
“Well, that’s the thing about horror. Every scary thing is scary either because it’s alien to what we know or because it’s the same as what we know. So something could be scary because a field of lovely wild grass looks calm and bucolic and then BAM, a monster slinks out of it. But it could also be scary because the grass looks calm and bucolic and then slowly you realize that it’s razor sharp and can cut you to ribbons. Or it’s stealthily twining around your ankles to keep you in the field forever.”
Bram shuddered.
“Those are all terrifying. I honestly don’t understand how you can watch that stuff.”
“Well, those aren’t real examples. Although, Children of the Corn does take place in a corn field.”
“Yeah, I just can’t really understand choosing to be scared or anxious. No judgment, honestly, I’m just curious. Why do you like being scared?”
It was something everyone who didn’t like horror asked, and Zachary never had a satisfactory answer for them. Taste was just different. But Bram seemed to genuinely want to understand.
“Why do you watch a movie or read a book?”
“Er, I don’t that much, honestly. I know that’s not cool to admit, but...” He shrugged.
“It’s not really about wanting to be scared for me. Sure there are some people who watch horror movies like eating ghost peppers, to prove that they can take it, and the scarier the better. But that’s not me. I just... I accept that negative emotions are a part of life, I guess. And horror is a genre that also accepts that. So you get movies where the characters face extreme challenges or threats and are transformed by them, if they survive. People try to push away the bad things. That’s what we’re taught to do. Bury the dead far away from where we live, say you’re fine even if you’re having a horrible day, don’t think bad thoughts. It’s practically superstition. But I think the people who avoid seeing or thinking about scary stuff the most are actually the most affected by it. They believe that even thinking about it has the power to bring it into being. It’s almost worshipful.”
“I do that,” Bram said. “I never thought of it like that, but I totally try and shy away from bad thoughts whenever they come into my head.”
“I’m not saying we should like bathe in horrors or anything. But I do think refusing to even think of something gives it more power than it should have.”
Bram seemed to think about this for a minute, then screwed up his face.
“Seriously, though, don’t you get scared?! It’s just so...scary.”
Zachary smiled.
“So’s riding a motorcycle, isn’t it.”
“Well. I guess...yeah, at first.”
“But you like it.”
“It’s exhilarating. I feel free when I’m on it.”
“For me, the more horror I watch, the less scared I am. Like exposure therapy, maybe? My best friend, Wes, has a tarantula and snakes and lizards for pets. He loves them, thinks they’re adorable. But his boyfriend has always been terrified of tarantulas. So when they started dating, Adam would hardly even go inside Wes’ house when Bettie was around—that’s the tarantula. But Adam’s daughter, Gus, loved Bettie, and after a while, Adam was around her more and more and he started to feel differently.”
“He’s not scared anymore?”
“Well, it’s a work in progress. It hasn’t been that long. But he’s definitely less scared now than he used to be. Avoiding our fears just builds them up in our minds and invests them with more power.”