Juan's Purpose: A Halloween Horror Story
This Halloween story was written by my daughter Lily Bull. The story is by Lily Bull and Ava Egan. It was edited by Donald Ian Bull.
Its horror is absurd, random and existential, which is what life is sometimes like for a fourteen-year-old.
Juan’s Purpose
Once upon a time, there was a guy named Juan. His life was normal until one day, after eating breakfast, he walked out of his house and crossed the street. What he didn’t realize was a huge semi-truck was heading towards him and BOOM! his life ended. His eyes went black.
When he awoke he realized he was a baby again. He lived his second life to the fullest, up until the day his new mother died and he became depressed. This depression sent him to McDonald’s. All he did there was eat Big Mac after Big Mac after Big Mac. While eating he kept asking himself, “What is my purpose?”
Over time, he became obese. Then one day he went for a yearly check-up and his doctor broke the news: he had stage 4 stomach cancer and he would die very soon. The doctors could do nothing, and he went back home and slowly died over the next few months. When the day finally came for his life to end he reminisced about his life before. All he saw was black until a rush of light filled his eyes and he heard himself crying as a baby. He was born yet again, now into his third life.
This time, something was different - he was a girl. Life was normal until one day she decided to go out to the store and buy chunky white Filas. She had to ask herself however, “Is buying Filas why I am here?” She put the Filas on in the store, and as she walked outside, she had to go down a series of steps. She got to the last step and her Filas gave out and it cracked both of her ankles, she fell, hit her skull and she died … again.
She woke up in her fourth life, but he was a man again. His name wasn’t Juan anymore he was James Charles. He lived his life as a successful make up guru. He asked himself however, “are creating make-up lines why I am here?”
Then one day, Jeffrey Starr poisoned James’s new make up palette. James immediately broke out in hives and his throat physically could not produce air and he suffocated to death.
He awoke yet again into his fifth life as a new person, but this time something felt very different. This time he felt like his life was going to mean something. He was going to be the president! He was quite sure of himself, and said, “This is my purpose!” He soon realized that he was not different in any way, and thinking that way was pure stupidity. Somehow, he became the President of the United States. No one thought it could happen, but it did. One day, as he was giving a speech, a hawk came down thinking he was an orange, and pecked his face off.
When he awoke, Donald realized he wasn’t human, he was actually, Ellie, an alien from Mars. She asked herself yet again, “why am I here?” She then lived the rest of her fifth life disguised as a homeless woman all the way up until the day she turned 82. Suddenly the FBI knocked on her tent. “Ellie are you in there?” they asked. The alien Ellie emerged from the tent. She felt the bullets go into her head and body because they had figured out who she truly was.
Once again she awoke, this time into her sixth life, again as a woman. She lived her life until she downloaded an app called TikTok. She hopped on a trend and became a VSCO girl. She had to ask herself however, “ Is making short videos why I am here?” One day she was drinking out of her Hydroflask from her metal straw and she sucked too hard. The metal straw went down her esophagus and she was unable to breathe, so she died.
He awoke again for a final time, in his seventh life. He no longer worried about what his purpose was, since nothing made sense. Once again he lived his life until one day he was driving his truck down the street. As he was driving he saw something that looked familiar coming at him. He realized it was his first self, Juan. Stunned by the sight of his past self, he couldn’t control the truck and he hit himself, and as he watched himself die, he died himself as well, and as he died he realized that he was the one all along and this cycle would never end.
The End