Halloween Fright

                                                Halloween Fright

      "Awwwww you're not going in are you?  I bet you're too scared, big fraidy cat.", chided John.

      "I'm going in, you wait and see.  You're the one that's scared, I'm just waiting, that's all."

      "What are you waiting for Paul, Thanksgiving?  If you don't go in I'm telling everyone in school Monday what a chicken-heart you are."

      "I am not!  Okay I'll go, But you've gotta go with me." 

      "I've already been in there, remember?"

      "We've all been in there in the daytime, but this is different.  It's night and there's going to be a full-moon."  It was creepy enough in there during the day."

      "What's the big deal, we both have flashlights don't we?  Besides you don't really believe in those stories they tell about ghosts haunting the place at night do you?"

     "Remember this is Halloween night, we could be out trick or treating instead of doing this.  Everyone knows there's no such things as ghosts, except for Casper the friendly ghost," he joked.

      John and Paul had been friends since kindergarden where they once fought over who was going to use the building blocks.  Fortunately they learned it was more fun to work together.  Paul was fair-haired with brown eyes and slightly taller than John.  Johns' red hair easily made him stand out in a crowd and because of it, was often the butt of much kidding.  Paul always stood up for him, they were practically inseparable.  More often than not they ate their meals in each others' homes.  They were always into adventurous things to do together.  They had decided that they were going, on Halloween night, to visit the "haunted house" at the end of the street.

      The three story house was so old that no one could remember it not being there.  Neither John nor Pauls' parents could recall ever seeing any people living there.  The picket fence that once went completely around the house had long been broken and shattered into pieces.  There wasn't a single window that hadn't been broken by children, over the years, throwing rocks through them.   The front door hung open on a crazy angle, as though it were drunk, of course all its' windows were broken as well.  There was a large pond that someone had made, but now it was overgrown with weeds, moss and instead of water for fish, mostly filled with mud.

      Because it was so old and decreped children had been warned about going inside.  The possibility of rotten floors as well as stairs were a real concern.  To further convince children not to disturb the place there was a story that in its' distant past there had been a series of horrible killings that had taken place within its' walls.  There were those who related hearing strange sounds at night, possibly from the ghosts of those killed.

      Many wondered why the place hadn't been torn down since it was such an eyesore.  It was situated at the end of the street, immediately adjacent to the small forest that bordered the town.  Talk had once been that it was going to be sold to a developer, but it was just another of the many rumors about the place. 

      Carefully and as quietly as possible they made their way up the weather beaten stairs to the porch.  The front door barely clung to the rusty remaining hinge and they eased their way past it.  Once inside they immediately  turned on their flashlights.

      "It's so dark  I know it's night, but golly John, this is really dark."

      "Thank goodness we have our flashlights.  I'm with you, I don't think I've ever been anywhere as dark as this before.  It's really creepy."

      "You want to leave, Paul, I wouldn't blame you if you did."

      "We're inside now and we can still see the doorway, besides I think my eyes are getting a little use to the darkness."

      "Me too, oh well, at least we haven't heard any strange sounds."

      They moved slowly, deeper into what must have been the living room.  Brushing their way through cobwebs, that were everywhere and clinging to everything.  The chandlier hanging in the center was draped in a myriad of them along with spider webs as well.  Thankfully they didn't see any spiders, John was very afraid of them.  What little furniture there was had long been covered with piles of dust along with the cobwebs.  Already tiring, Paul tried carefully sitting on one of the chairs sending up a cloud of dust in to the room.

      "Careful!" John shouted.

      "Oh yeah, like I did it on purpose."

      Moving into what must have been the dining room they were surprised to find that it appeared that whatever happened, long ago must have occurred while they were eating.   There were plates still on the table with bones on them.  Whatever meat had been on them had been gnawed away by rats or mice along with any other food that may have been around.  A few of the dinner plates were shattered both no the table and the floor.  One of them had what appeared to be a blob of blood on it.

      "This is really weird.  I don't remember seeing any of this stuff when I was here in the daytime."

      "Me neither, it's really strange."

      After checking out what was left of the kitchen and the downstairs bathroom, they were both glad they didn't need, they went up to the second floor.  The stairs creaked noisily all the way.  Thankfully the railing was sturdy despite being old and uncared for.

      "Have you ever been up here before?" asked John.

     "Last summer a bunch of us came and had sort of a picnic."

      "Picnic?  A heck of a place to have a picnic.  What'd you eat, rats?"

     "No, wise guy.  Harry and Bob Evens had brought along a bag full of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  I had a large bottle of Coke that we all shared."

      "Some picnic!  How many of you were there, just you and Harry?"

      "I was there, Mary Tyler, Bob and his sister Sue and Spike."

      "Mary Tyler, golly she's such a wimp, she's scared of everything.  How was it that she came?"

     " I don't know, only thing I could figure is that she had a crush on Spike and he persuaded her to come with us."

      So the whole group of you, from our junior class came here,  good thing it was daytime, huh?  How come I missed out?"

      "You had to babysit your little sister, while your mom went out shopping with mine.  You asked if you could bring her, but your mother wouldn't let you."

      "Oh yes, I remember now.  You told me later though that Mary thought she heard a strange sound and went screaming out of the house with half a sandwich in her mouth.  That must have been funny,  what did Spike do?"

      "He ran after her of course and tried to stop her and calm her down.   When he finally caught her she practically fainted in his arms and then she kissed him."

      "Wow , that must have been something to see.  She's a wimp, but what a great looking girl."

      "It was something to see, but none of us knew what to do.  I thought it was a trick on her part to be able to get to kiss Spike.  In any case it ended our so-called picnic and we all went home."

      At the top of the stairs was another bathroom.  Using their flashlights they could see it was in much better shape than the one downstairs.   Still, neither felt the need to use it.   The bedroom immediately to the right was evidently one of the childrens' bedrooms.

It still had some old faded posters on the walls and the closet door.

      "Must have been a boys' room with all those pictures of airplanes and ships." suggested Paul.  I have some myself, except newer."

      "Look here in the closet,  I found some broken parts from a model ship.   He must have built models like me, neat in fact I think I built this same model."

      "I love the ships you build, but you know I'm more into airplanes."

     "I build some of those too."

     What must have been the girls' room was next.  It had the wreckage of what must have been a beautifully crafted dollhouse.   Over the years of visiting,  kids did much to destroy most of it.  In one of the little rooms was a tiny crib with a very little plastic baby in it.

      "I'm surprised that this little thing is still here.  It would have been so easy for someone to put it in their pocket."

      "Oh, who would want a crib with a baby in it?"

      "My sister loves things like that."

      The next bedroom was at the end of the hallway and was obviously the parents'.   They were surprised to see that it still had most of its' furniture still in it.   A huge king sized bed of heavy dark pine dominated the room.  As though it weren't big enough by itself it once had a canopy on top.   The canopy was still there, but it was in shreds, but all the bedding was there.   If it weren't for all the dust and cobwebs one could easily lay down and go to sleep.

       There was a long dressing table for the woman of the house and a very tall armiore.  This attracted both boys since they had never seen one before.

       "Look at this, if you open the top doors there's a place to hang clothes.  This is really something.  Down here are the regular drawers for putting your underwear and stuff."

      "Pretty neat, huh?  Look at the size of the mirror she has on her dresser."

      "Yeah, well look at this tall one he had one that stood on the floor.  I guess it was easier for him to see what he looked like when he was all dressed up."

      Of course they looked all through the drawers, but only found old newspapers that must have been used for lining them.  They could hardly believe the master bathroom.  It had a separate  shower and tub.  The tub had water jets like you would find in a hot tub.

      "Can you believe this!  Their bathroom is about as big as my living room at home."

      "They had a hot tub in their bathroom too, really cool."

     The moon was high, brightening the dark evening sky.  It was gleaming through the broken windows.  Some of the shadows it cast on the walls were eerie.  They kept their lights moving every which way.  Moving back down the hall they passed another room with an old wooden desk in it.  On top of the desk was another mirror when they shined their flashlights in it and were startled by a bright flash of light behind them.  They both screamed and jumped.  When they turned around they discovered that the flash was caused by the reflection of their light in another mirror behind them.

      "Holy cow!  Scared the heck out of me, I thought it was a ghost."

     "I was frightened too.  I have to admit I was ready to run out of here."

      The last bedroom, before going either downstairs or up was probably an older brothers' room.  There wasn't much there,  but going through one of the drawers they discovered, under the newspaper lining, an old Playboy magazine.

      "Funny that no one found this before us and hadn't taken it.  I'd take it now, but if my mom ever found it I'd get all kinds of noise."

      "Me too, let's just leave it here."

      There was nothing exceptional they could find in this final bedroom.  They were deciding  to perhaps go to the next floor.  As they were thinking it over, a cat, outside  the house, had found itself a window ledge to sit on.  The cat wasn't very big, but sitting outside with the moonlight shining, it cast a large shadow on the wall.  The boys coming up the stairs turned and saw what they thought was a huge monster on the wall, moving toward them.

      "Get out of the way, run, run like hell!"

      "Me too, watch out, or I'll run you over!

    They could hardly believe how quickly they made their way out of the house.  When they finally calmed down and turned to look at the house.   They laughed 

themselves silly when they saw the cat, still sitting on the windowsill.

      " Are we stupid or what?  Scared to death by some stupid old cats' shadow."

      "Yeah!  Do you want to go back in?"

      "Why don't we go trick or treating instead, we still have plenty of time?"

    

    

Author's Note

Reviews

[augustus]

Well done that man! Well written and I was with those kids in that spooky house!

[barleygirl]

HOLY GUACAMOLE! You get an "A+" for:
1. Dialogue! Wow! Best I've read from you!
2. Capturing the essence of what it feels like to be a kid in such a situation!
3. Very compelling pace & flow & constant piquing the reader's interest!
I also love the ending. Your overall storytelling is so tight & so enjoyable, it's not even necessary for the ending to be all blasted into drama-land. This is just true-to-life fun with a splash of spooky! Great job of going from room to room . . . each room felt unique & interesting to explore. The reader was right there with you. I believe that this kind of story rings super true becuz you were a teacher. You don't just have to write stories about being in the classroom. You are very good at writing a story that conveys the authentic way that kids get into mischief or are just kids being kids! You give Sam Dickens a run for his money, as the most beloved storyteller (at the cafe) of kids being kids.(((HUGS))) Fondly, Margie

[Dave]

Margie - thank you so much for your positive feedback. You are such a positive influence on me. As I was writing this I kept thinking of what YOU would expect of my characters. It seems that I made them as lifelike as possible.
Believe it or not the cat in the window thing was based on real life experience I had as a kid.
Thanks again. Take care - Dave