by William Smithy

Created on: October 04, 2009

The Portland Haunting of Amber Gale

Amber Gale knew exactly what her costume would be that Halloween. She had just finished watching that movie What Lies Beneath with Michelle Pfeiffer and Harrison Ford and was inspired to fashion her costume after the young woman who had been wrapped up in chains and thrown into the lake. With the exception of the chains she needed for her costume, the rest of the materials would be very economical and she could always use the chains she bought to lock up her bike. It was a brilliant idea and she could finally hone her artistic skills in another idiom besides music. She'd been tirelessly studying a makeup design book lately and just started to grasp some of the concepts. Plus, she had recently been invited to a Halloween costume party and was fretting about what she was going to wear. A cute boy that she had her eye on recently had invited her. Now that she was inspired, there was no holding her back.

Amber was a master shopper that could hunt down what she needed in the city by hook or by crook, either by snagging what she needed from items that had been left on the street corner, from shrewd bartering techniques, or as a last result from a 75% off deal from some local retailer, god forbid. They were the survival techniques one has to learn when they're on their own in a particularly broke city such as Portland Oregon. They were the kind of survival skills that would make legislatures, economists, and politicians blush in shame at their silly remarks and theories that gullible people set down in stone and that are dogmatically followed by the middle and upper classes, theories that work much better when one leaves out the "human" factor involved. She had found the heavy chains she needed for free by bartering some bootlegged music to her friend that was starting up a salvage store. The most expensive buy was her dress that she had bought for a dollar at a thrift store, and had an awful time deciding between the huge selection of old scary dresses that were available to her. Oh yes, she found a little material there and a little here and by the time she was done collecting what she had needed Amber had put together an exact clone of what Hollywood probably would have paid thousands of dollars for, only she did it for the exact price of five dollars and sixty five cents. For less than the price of two Burrito Supremes and a large drink, she had gathered the required items for her masterpiece of terror that would strike fear

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