I don’t know why my mom loved that costume so much, I hated it. Imagine waking up every Halloween morning seeing Tinky-Winky standing over you, and not the Tinky-Winky you see on tv, oh no, my mom’s costume was some sort of cheap knock off version from hell. The eyes were sunk in and way too big for its face, the skin seemed moist, almost jelly like to the touch. And that creepy grin, I will never forget that grin, it used to give me nightmares. I couldn’t tell my mom how much it scared me because that would only make things worse; she loved torturing me like that.

My mom really loved Halloween and all things horror. Well... loved might be an understatement, it was more of an obsession. It was all she could talk about for most of the year. As soon as it was over, she would start planning for the following year and it cost her and my dad a fortune because she refused to do the same theme twice. So almost everything had to be bought new, as you can imagine that went down a treat with my dad.

When my brother Luke and I were young my parents used to fight a lot over moms' obsession. But after a while my dad came to the realization that he was fighting a losing battle and gave up. I suppose he didn’t have much of a choice or she would have made his life a living hell. One time he wouldn’t let her buy an animatronic zombie that could jump out of its seat because he said, it cost too much. She gave him tuna for lunch and dinner every day for 6 weeks, because she said it was his favourite, which it was.

Now he can’t stand the smell of the stuff anymore without gawking, come to think of it there is a long list of foods my dad can’t stand, I wonder why. But to be fair to my mom she was easy going and never complained, even when he forgot her birthdays which happened way too often, so I guess it was hard to argue with her over a few decorations. 

My mom never cared for any other holidays, so for Christmas and birthdays me and Luke used to buy Halloween stuff; decorations, ornaments, even movie props, she loved things like that. Once I bought her a pinhead costume because I knew how much she loved the movie and thought it might encourage her to wear it, and it did, but unfortunately not on Halloween.

I was not the only one who was terrified of that disturbing Tinky-Winky suit, my brother hated it too, we were always trying to find ways to get rid of it. But the only time we ever saw it was on Halloween, 

We searched every inch of that house a hundred times over, but we could never find it. So, we tried to find ways to get her to take it off, but it wasn’t easy, like I said I never saw her break character once never mind take of the suit.

Even the time Luke fell off the oak tree in our backyard and broke his wrist she kept it on the whole time in the hospital. It was fucked up she wouldn’t break character to tell the doctor what happened. Luckily, I jumped in and explained why staying in character was a family tradition. I think if he had to listen to one more, “Eh oh” he would have signed her into an institution and rightly so. Surprisingly he took it well and he didn’t ring child services on her, even though he must have thought she was on drugs.

For the last few years Luke and I have been betting on who could get hold of that suit first. So we tried everything, from throwing buckets of water over her to giving her laxatives in her food, which I had nothing to do with, I might add. But I did accidentally set fire to her once, I was trying to smoke her out of there with some sage she kept to ward of spirits, but it didn’t go to plan, needless to say, that's how she got the bucket of water thrown over her. I felt awful over it. She ended up staying in bed for the rest of the day soaking wet and it ruined her Halloween. After that we agreed to wait until she took off the suit before we tried destroying it.

Since then, we tried to catch her by surprise and started spying on her, we were sure she had to take it off at some point to eat or go to the toilet. It turns out she never broke character once all that time she was alone, it was madness watching her singing and dancing like that the whole time.

One year we got up really early to catch her before she put on her suit, but I swear she must have gone to bed like that because when we went into her room she was in full costume.

I had often asked my mom what the deal was with the suit, but she always said the same thing, “it's a family tradition.” Which never made sense to me since she was the only one that seemed to take part in it. 

Even my dad avoided talking about it, all I got out of him was, “talk to your mother about it, it's not my department” before walking away every time I mentioned it.

Last year I made the decision to get rid of that thing one way or the other. I couldn’t face waking up one more morning with that thing lying beside me, it still gives me shivers thinking about its slimy arms wrapped around me. My dad and Luke used to think it was hilarious when I woke up screaming every Halloween. They couldn’t even eat their breakfast they used to laugh so much. I bet if it happened to them, they wouldn’t find it so funny.

I told them multiple times that morning that I couldn’t take it anymore and promised my mom if she didn’t leave me alone, she would never wear that disgusting suit again. Which in hindsight was not the best way of wording it, considering what happened to her.

I didn’t plan on hurting her. I thought, if I threatened her, she might leave me alone. But she didn’t, in fact it only made things worse, all that day she kept jumping out from random places and scaring the shit out of me.

Until finally I snapped. It was about 8 o clock; I had just finished getting ready to go out and was heading downstairs. When suddenly she jumped out at me when I turned the corner at the top of the stairs. I didn’t think, I just reacted and pushed her, not hard, just gave her a little nudge and she fell, head over heels all the way to the bottom. 

That was the first time I ever heard her voice on Halloween, “Thanks” was all she said before going silent.

I ran down and tried to help her, but I couldn’t figure out how to take off the suit; there was no zipper or anything like that. So, I tried ripping the head off, but when I did she started moaning. Which was a relief to hear, I thought she was dead.

I was just about to ring an ambulance when I heard tyres screeching outside our house, I ran to the door hoping to see my dad's car in the driveway, but instead found a white van.

Seconds later the back door opens, and two guys dressed in hazard suits jump out pushing a stretcher. They almost knocked me over as they pushed passed me on the way to my mother. I didn’t know who they were or how they knew mom was hurt, but I was just happy someone was there to help. 

For all they know she could have had a spinal cord injury, but they just picked her up and flung her up in the trolly like she was a piece of furniture without checking her out. Before I got a chance to process what was happening, they were gone out the door. I tried to follow them but was stopped by a short guy with a clipboard, “excuse me sir” he said as he flicked through the pages, “do you mind if I ask you a few questions?”

“Not right now” I replied as I tried to manoeuvre around him, “I need to check on my mom.”

He sniggered, “this will only take a minute, just answer the questions.” as he shook his head.

“Fine” I said in frustration, “just get on with it.”

He ripped out a sheet of paper and handed it to me,” Can you sign this before we get started, it's just to say you will take on your mothers' responsibilities until she returns home.

I probably should have read it first, but the writing was too small, and I really wanted to check on my mom, so I just signed it. "Now let's get started. Do you like the colour of the sky? If not what colour would you like it to be?

At first, I thought he was joking and laughed, but that made him angry, “Please sir you need to take this seriously” he said poking his pen in my chest, “I want to get out of here today and we have a lot to get through. So, answer the questions fast and honest. Ok!”

I was a little bit stunned, so I just nodded.

“So, the colour of the sky, you like it?” he said impatiently waiting for me to answer.

I nodded, “yep.”

“Ok, where was I...” he said as he hoovered over his clipboard with his pen, “oh yea. If you could be any animal, what would you be?”

“Do I really have to answer these stupid questions?” I replied while rolling my eyes, “can I just go with my mom instead, I am really worried about her.” 

“You have already signed the form. So, yes indeed you do have to answer these ‘stupid questions’ and no you can't go with your mommy,” he replied sarcastically before shouting, “NOW ANSWER THE FUCKING QUESTIONS” so loud that I nearly shit in my pants.

I don’t know why said it, but I blurted out, “a budgie, a budgie, I would like to be a budgie.”

He smiled, then replied calmly, “Very good. we don’t get too many of those anymore. Now, if music had a taste; what flavour would your favourite song be?”

He continued asking me questions like that for about 30-minutes. By the end they became downright creepy, like, “if you were trapped on a desert island with your best friend with no food, and he died; would you eat him?” or “did you ever have homicidal thoughts about your family?” I didn’t really think, I just said the first thing that came to mind, which seemed to satisfy him.

The last thing he asked me was, “What's your favourite Teletubby?”

I smirked, “I hate every one of those freaky fuckers. They creep me out.”

His reply gave me a shiver down my spine, “if you can’t handle them” he grinned, “you're not going to like what's coming next.” Then he turned around and walked away laughing hysterically. As they were driving off, I could see both him and the driver pointing and laughing.

As soon as they were gone I rang my dad and told him what happened, I expected him to panic and ring the cops. But all he said was, “Oh right. I suppose I will have to come home then” like it was an inconvenience to him.

I couldn’t believe it; his wife was taken away in a van by what I believed, was a group of escaped psychopaths, and all he had to say was, oh right.

To make things worse he wouldn’t even let me ring the police. He said, “don’t worry son, I will be straight home and we will sort it then. "The most traumatic experience of my life, and my dad was acting like it was nothing. This was coming from a man who would nearly send out a search party if I came home an hour late, yet his wife could be dying or dead and he didn’t even care.

I expected him to come home immediately, but he didn’t get back for 3 hours, even though we lived 20-minutes from where he worked. Luke came in after him and went straight to bed without saying a word. I was expecting a very long conversation but all I got was, “Did your mother have dinner cooked before she left?” I just stood there with my mouth opened. I was sure I was dreaming there was no other way to explain what was going on.

By the time I snapped out of it my dad was in the kitchen, eating away like nothing happened. I felt really guilty over what I did to mom and confessed everything, I thought he was going to kill me for pushing mom down the stairs. But After 30 minutes of pouring my heart out and begging for forgiveness, all I got out of him was eye rolls, and sighs of boredom. When I finished, he took a deep breath stood up, then let out the loudest burp, “Look son” he said yawning, “shit happens.” Now go to bed and forget about it.” before walking away.

I didn’t know how to react, I just stood there in a daze for I don’t know how long, to be honest I don’t even know how I got to bed that night. But I do remember the dreams, they were so strange; I was on this weird island, my mom was there she was on a stage or maybe it was an alter dressed in her Teletubby costume. There were hundreds of people dressed in Halloween costumes clapping and cheering at my mom as she danced on stage. When I joined in, she stopped dancing and started staring at me for what felt like an eternity. I started feeling uncomfortable and stood up but as I was about to walk away my mom screamed, then someone grabbed me from behind and dragged me onstage.

As I got closer to my mom someone whispered something in my ear, I have no idea what it was. But I know it was bad because it filled me with such rage that I could barely hold it in, then everyone started chanting, “kill her, kill her.” The next thing I know I am on top of her tearing lumps out of her with my bear hands. By the time I am finished there is nothing left only a pool of blood and guts. When I got up and looked around everyone was gone apart from one guy in the back that was slowly walking towards me with his hands behind his back. As he got closer, I realized it was my dad, he was smiling, but it wasn’t a real smile, I could see his pain through his red swollen eyes as he tried to hold back the tears. He stopped right in front of me and took out a mirror from behind his back and showed it to me. I can see in the reflection that I am wearing the Tinky-Winky costume, but it is melting and there is blood oozing out from everywhere.

Then I woke up, at least I thought I did. In the corner of the room, I could see a shadowy figure silently swaying over and back as if it was dancing. I tried to scream but nothing came out and when I tried to lean out and turn on the light I realized I couldn’t move, it scared me so much that I think I blacked out, when I came around, I was still paralyzed, and that thing had gotten closer. It wasn’t long before I blacked out again, for the rest of the night I drifted in and out of consciousness, each time I woke the shadowy figure got closer and closer, until it was right in front of me. It was just standing there motionless, staring at me, then it suddenly reached out to touch me.

The next thing I know it is morning and I am lying in bed with the blanket over my head. Suddenly I felt something moving behind me, so I rip the sheets off and threw them on the floor, revealing Tinky-Winky lying in bed beside me. Then I woke up screaming on the floor wrapped up like a burrito in my sheets.

At the time I thought it was just a crazy dream, brought on by an even crazier night, but it wasn’t, I found that out the hard way. If only I took it more seriously, I might not have started the chain reaction that led up to this Halloween and the horrible things I had to do.