Please Do Not Disturb

Here's a short story to ring the new year with. I wrote this two years ago, my first stab at a short horror piece. Be warned, it is a little disturbing.

***
"Look," the girl said to Ruben, "a nuno sa punso." A gnome in a mound.

In the moonlight, Ruben saw a two-foot tall berm. He silently scoffed. It looked more like an ant hill to him.

"Where are you going?" he asked as she veered to the right.

"Don't you know, we're supposed to leave them undisturbed, or else..."

"Or else what?"

"Or else the nuno will get mad and cast a spell on you."

"You don't really believe that, do you? Anyway, we'll just walk by it." But the girl hung back.

The church bell tolled. "I guess," she said, "we can go this way or we'll be really late for mass." She pressed close to him as they made their way toward the mound.

This vacation was going better than Ruben expected. At first he had hated the idea of going to the Philippines for Christmas. He had rolled his eyes. Christmas among the provincials, in his mother's hometown. Not to mention New Year's Eve. No parties in Boston, no watching the ball drop at Time Square on TV, no kiss at midnight with some girl.

This girl's name was Diana, and she was from Manila. They met at someone's house earlier in the evening. She had invited him to attend mass to celebrate the arrival of the new year. He knew better than to pass up such an opportunity. She was a little taller than him, big deal. She was cute anyway.

They came to the mound and stared.

"When my uncle was young," she said in a hushed voice, "he stepped on one and he went blind for a while."

"No one really lives there," he said.

"Shh. He'll hear you." She walked a few steps, giving the mound wide berth, and glanced at him anxiously. "You coming?"

He took a step back and kicked at the mound. Diana screamed.

"What have you done?" She was all hysterical. It was kind of funny, really.

"It's just an ant hill, see? There's nothing in it." He laughed, but she was already stomping off.

They squeezed into a crowded bench at the back of the church.

The priest was droning on and on. Ruben looked at his watch. Twenty minutes to midnight. He remembered another Filipino superstition. He and his sisters had done it a million times on New Year's Eve.

Jump up exactly at midnight on New Year's Eve and you'll gain an inch or two.

If he gained another inch or two, he'd be as tall as Diana.

At midnight, the church bell tolled. Ruben jumped in place. Diana gave him a scathing glance. Goll, she sure was a nag. He yawned.

When he opened his eyes, his first thought was, where'd all the people go? In front of him was a wall of wood, and to his right was a dark blue curtain.

Then he looked up.

That blue curtain, it was Diana's leg in jeans. She towered over him like a giant. And he was like an ant.

He thought of the nuno sa punso, the one he stupidly demolished.

He screamed just as Diana's foot shifted and her shoe squished him.