Sticky Masks

Halloween is a spooky time of year, it is a fun holiday for the kids and adults too. Anyone who likes to play dress up adores this time of year as people dress like Vampires and Zombies, knocking on strangers house doors, asking for candy with the classic phrase; "Trick or Treat!" Now the first word in this catchphrase "Trick" is often ignored, as most people don't even think about it and just pour a bag of sweets into the kid's plastic buckets. However, if people shut the door in these kids faces, refusing to give out candy, don't be surprised if that house gets toilet roll thrown all over it that very night. These are mostly harmless pranks, that may be a pain to clean up the next day, but it is what it is.

However, there was one particularly nasty case back in 1972, when a young man was selling 5 cent Halloween masks to kids and families around his local neighbours the day before Halloween. For mere pennies, the masks he made were truly frightening and good. Everyone loved them and couldn't believe the cheap price. Everyone thought the man was simply sharing his craft and making a small fortune at it too. It seemed wholesome, but the next night when everyone put on these masks for Halloween, they found that the mouths didn't have holes in them for breathing and there weren't any eye holes either. Soon those who wore these masks would suffocate! Breathing frantically for air, desperately trying to yank the mask off, but it would seemingly melt around their heads, preventing them from escaping. The sick man who had made these deadly masks, had killed almost a hundred children and adults too, everyone who wore his masks were 90% likely to die before getting the hideous traps off.

Police investigated for years, as the same horror story was repeated around America from 1972-1976. Then in the last year of this bizarre murder case, an undercover detective purchased a Halloween mask from a suspicious looking street vendor. The man who sold it to him, was particularly creepy, his eyes were wide with excitement. A collection of unbrushed teeth stained his forced smile and he had long greasy hair. The guy appeared to be in his early thirties and many speculated that he was homeless, for he dressed in dirty old clothes and his beard was fully grown. Perhaps that was just part of his disguise, a poor man just trying to make ends meet by selling cheap stock. Yet the Detective suspected more of this mysterious mask vendor, believing him to be the strange killer he was after. The Detective took the mask to the forensics team in nearby Orlando.

It was revealed that the mask was made out of a very cheap rubber, one that was easily melted by even a gust of warm wind, the sun light itself could crumble the item to tatters alone. So when anyone put on the mask, only to realise they can't breathe, the hot air they'd expel would cause the mask to stick to their face and become almost impossible to take off. It was up to debate whether or not this was done on purpose, or it was just an unfortunate downside of the material being cheap. Suddenly the idea that this killer meant intentional harm was suddenly up for debate, many believed the killer only wanted to make a profit and had no intention of causing mass murder. However, even if this was by freak accident, the killer could've stopped this lunacy, but instead chose to profit off death! Either way, they had their monster, now they just needed to track him down!

Sadly, when the Detective returned to the scene where the mask vendor was stationed, he had disappeared entirely! After searching and questioning the neighbourhood for hours and hours, the Detective had no idea where the creep ran off to. He kicked himself for not arresting the killer when he had the chance, but an unwarranted arrest would've been catastrophic to his career, so he couldn't have risked that. Yet if he knew for certain, back then when he first bought the mask, that the creep who sold it to him was indeed guilty, he'd have happily taken that risk if it meant getting that mad man behind bars. Fate is cruel instead, as the murderous mask vendor was never seen again.

Although the killer was never caught, the strange murders did stop the year he was almost caught. Perhaps this monster realised the police were on to him, so decided to quit this strange career path and chose another method of making money. Maybe the Detective actually did track down the killer and only lied about losing him, as he might have murdered the mad man himself, as the Detective had kids of his own and may have preferred to see this killer dead. Or it could have been a local neighbour on the street that killed the mask vendor, as he or she may have been a concerned parent who wished their kids no harm and went to extreme measures to prevent any more mask killings. Whatever the case may be, it is always safe to buy Halloween masks from trusted brands, as you never know the quality of a cheap knock off. Buying one might just be a deadly mistake.