Every October 31st, the 2nd spookiest day of the year occurs: Halloween. You may freeze at the thought of an even more dark, spooky day, and you would be justified in doing so. In fact, the spookiest day is not October 31st, but October 30th: Haunted Refrigerator Night. That’s right, the most terrifying creature isn’t a vampire, werewolf, or even a ghost, but the cold harbinger of death hiding within your kitchen.

Unlike the food items it stores, your frosty container will shorten your expiration date. This is a fact known to the Smithston family, who had experienced their own tragedy on Haunted Refrigerator Night. One night in late October, with just a flurry of snow falling outside, Johnny Smithston, a seven-year-old boy living in Great Bend, had woken from his peaceful slumber to get a glass of water from the kitchen. As he stepped down the stairs, he heard a strange creaking noise, and froze in place. His body felt numb, but he continued onward to obtain the chilly liquid that would calm his nerves. 

Johnny thought he could hear a familiar melody as he forced himself forward. It wasn’t clear, like when you imagine your alarm is going off during the day, but it was enough to unsettle him further. As Johnny stepped into the kitchen, he found no source to pin the noise to. He trudged through the strangely thick air, his steps heavy as if walking through snow. As he reached the cabinet to grab a cup, another creaking sound interrupted his attempt to consume the cool liquid.

The noise’s source became clearer this time: from the interior of the fridge next to where he was standing. Curiosity overtook his body, and Johnny impulsively extended his hand towards the refrigerator’s handle. At that moment, grim determination steeled him for whatever was behind the door. With a quick pull, the contents of the cold locker were revealed: food items, condiments, and drinks. All of it was familiar to the boy; that is, besides the strange spirit occupying the container’s body. A faint image of eyes black as coal, a button nose, and an unnerving smile stared back at Johnny. The presence revealed its name in a distorted, unnervingly high-pitched voice: “Frosty the Snowman”. 

Although the boy’s sanity was unbroken before, he could not comprehend such confusing terror. He fled to his room and resisted the temptations of sleep, for fear that the specter would make itself apparent once more. When sleep failed him, he began rambling to himself about the horrifying visage of the phantom within the fridge. The words woke Johnny’s parents, prompting them to investigate the fridge, finding nothing; merely the common items normally found inside.

Johnny was forced into therapy, but the recovery process was so slow as to be nonexistent. Frosty the Snowman became a forbidden topic of discussion around both Halloween and Christmas. Johnny himself maintains his stance: that the fridge is what should be feared most during the month of October. Whether his story holds true, his advice should serve as a grim reminder that there are days scarier than Halloween, and that Frosty the Snowman could be hiding in your fridge as well.