Jake looked down into the bag, feeling excited as he saw the many brightly coloured wrappers contained within it. Good haul this year, he thought, as he began the walk back to his home. His mum was going to kill him when he got home. He was supposed to be sticking with his brother, Matt, while they were trick or treating, but somehow he had managed to lose him. Jake wasn’t complaining. Matt was so annoying. He always pretended he was the big, responsible big brother their mum was convinced he was, but really he was incredibly annoying.
Jake popped a Quality Street into his mouth and chewed as he rounded a corner into a little alleyway that was a shortcut to the street his house was on. He suddenly had an odd feeling he was being followed. He glanced back, but there was nothing there. Just the shadows of the trees. He frowned, and shrugged.
He stuck another chocolate in his mouth and carried on walking. It was a bright night, because the sky was clear and a full moon shone on the small village.
Jake couldn’t shake off the feeling there was something behind him. The full moon didn’t help. He stopped, took a deep breath, and glanced around. Something moved. A very slight shift in the shadows. Jake almost screamed, but then he forced himself to calm down. There was nothing there. He was being silly. Just because it was Halloween and Full moon. He breathed deeply for a while, stood stock still, until he was calm again.
He ate another chocolate and turned around to carry on down the alley. For a moment a cloud passed over the moon and all was dark, then it was light again. And there was something standing in front of Jake.
A face, looming out of the darkness. Jake cried out and staggered backwards. He tripped over a loose stone and fell onto the gravelly ground, feeling pain shoot through his palm as he cut it on the stones. He stared into the darkness where the face had been. There was nothing there now, but he had been so sure there had been something...
He pulled himself to his feet and leaned against the wall, holding his throbbing hand in the other. That face had seemed so real. It had been furry, and it had bright yellow eyes and looked hungrily at Jake.
After a few minutes he had calmed down and almost convinced himself he had imagined it. He was imagining things because of the moon and the darkness. He brushed his hair out of his eyes and wiped his sweaty palms on his trousers, cursing under his breath as he realised he was smearing blood on them and wondering what his mum would say when she saw them.
He had dropped the bag of sweets when he fell, and they were scattered over the path. He knelt down and began crawling around, picking them up and putting them all back into the bag. He was sure he had imagined that face, but he couldn’t help glancing over his shoulder every few seconds, sure something was creeping up on him.
When he’d collected up all the sweets he could find he got back to his feet and began to continue down the alley, cautiously, convinced something was going to leap out at him at any moment.
The moon was covered up once again, and Jake stopped, standing stock still until the cloud moved and the moon lit up the path again. He felt something brush past him, but perhaps it was just a stray leaf or something. There were no faces leering at him out of the darkness this time, no shadows moved.
Then his leg buckled and he fell onto the path again, sweets scattering everywhere. He was suddenly aware of excruciating pain in his left leg. He rolled up his trouser leg, ignoring the biting cold that suddenly attacked his bare leg. There was a hole in his leg. Something that looked uncannily like a bite.
He shook his head. No. This was silly. It couldn’t be a bite. He must have cut it when he fell and just not noticed.
But when something brushed past him...
He used the branch of a tree to pull himself up and tried walking. Pain shot through his left leg every time he put weight on it, but he found he could walk very slowly.
How could he not have noticed it though?
Quickly, he collected all the sweets together again and limped awkwardly towards the end of the alley, glancing around every few seconds. He ate a strawberry flavoured quality street, normally his favourite, but now he found he just couldn’t appreciate the taste. His fear and pain left a sour taste in his mouth.
He could see the lights of the street lamps in the street beyond. If he could just reach them he felt he would be safe.
“Jake!” came a voice out of the shadows. Jake shrieked, and fell over for the third time, cursing as he saw the sweets fly away into the darkness yet again. Someone stepped out in front of him. He screamed again, and tried to crawl backwards.
His brother Matt laughed. “Jake, calm down, it’s only me. No need to have a heart attack!”
Jake breathed a sigh of relief. It was just Matt. For once he found he was actually glad to see his elder brother. Matt reached out a hand and helped him to his feet. Matt glanced at his hand, now covered in Jake’s blood.
“You alright, Jake?”
Jake nodded. “Fine. Just fell.” He breathed shakily. Matt helped him put all the sweets back in the bag again, then the two of them began to walk towards the light.
Jake smiled, now, laughing at his stupidity in thinking there was something attacking him.
“You know,” he told Matt. “I could have sworn there was something chasing me.” he laughed. “Then a face appeared.” he shook his head in disbelief, amused that he had believed that there really was something there. “Then I thought something had bitten me!” he laughed again. “I know it was just my imagination, but I was sure there was something attacking me.”
For a moment the moon was obscured again. Matt’s voice came out of the darkness somewhere next to Jake.
“That’s silly,” he said. “It wasn’t your imagination.”
The moon shone down again, showing Matt’s face. But it was different. He smiled, and suddenly his teeth were sharp and yellow, and his eyes were yellow, gleaming hungrily. Fur covered Matt’s face.
“You were being attacked.”
Jake screamed again, not noticing as his sweets scattered for the fourth time that night. He didn’t notice as he smacked his head into a brick wall. He only saw his brother, what had been his brother, leaping at him, and then the unbelievable pain, and then the darkness...
![[send message]](https://www.writerscafe.org/images/mail.png){kind=small}
![[befriend]](https://www.writerscafe.org/images/friend.png){kind=small}
Share This
Email
Facebook
Twitter
Read Request
My Library
Flag Writing