The October Game

Welcome to October! For an explanation of what this is about, see my previous post "31 Days of Halloween."
This is Day One! Today I would like to share a Halloween-themed short story by Ray Bradbury.

"The October Game"

He  put  the  gun back into the bureau drawer and shut the drawer.
   No,  not  that  way.  Louise wouldn't suffer. It was very important
that   this   thing   have,   above  all  duration.  Duration  through
imagination. How to prolong the suffering? How, first of all, to bring
it about? Well.
   The  man  standing  before  the bedroom mirror carefully fitted his
cuff-links together. He paused long enough to hear the children run by
switftly on the street below, outside this warm two-storey house, like
so many grey mice the children, like so many leaves.
   By  the  sound  of the children you knew the calendar day. By their
screams you knew what evening it was. You knew it was very late in the
year.  October. The last day of October, with white bone masks and cut
pumpkins and the smell of dropped candle wax. 
 
Read the rest here:

http://lib.ru/INOFANT/BRADBURY/october.txt