Trick or Treat?

Fall was Rose’s favorite season. Something about the pumpkin-flavored everything in coffee shops, the bright orange-red decorations on houses, and the leaves that flew off trees, almost like a dance. Fall was the smell of coffee, the taste of cinnamon, and the sight of colors. It was also when Halloween occurred, another favorite of Rose’s.

    “Let’s go trick-or-treating now, guys!” Rose said, putting her dark purple witch hat on. “If we go later, the candy will be gone and it’ll be freezing.”

    Her friends rolled their eyes at her. At the age of sixteen, Rose was still so enthusiastic about this holiday, despite her friends’ protests. Eventually they did give in and they left. Streets were packed with little kids running around with parents chasing them. There were sounds of the candy moving around in everyone’s trick or treat bags and Rose could not be happier.

    Door to door, house to house, Rose went. They looked so out of place with kids  that met their elbows in height. Her friends could not wait to go home and maybe find Halloween parties to crash. Rose could not wait to count her candy just like every year.

    “Wow, look at that!” exclaimed Rose when they saw one of the brightest lit houses on the street. Even her friends gasped. They had dozens of fake gravestones in their yard and lights strung over every corner of the house. There was a sign that read, Come into the back! Haunted house with candy at the end. Enter at your own risk.

    “It looks fun. Let’s go!” said one of her friends. They all grinned and nodded. This was going to be easy peasy. Probably just a bunch of fake tarantulas and people that were dressed up with white tablecloths on their heads to spook them. When they walked in, there was eerie music coming from some sort of speakers nearby. It was the violin playing extra slow and an organ playing in the background. Rose rolled her eyes. She felt her friends digging their nails into her arm as they all squeamishly jumped around and moved in excitement and thrill. It was almost laughable at first. All there was was corny scary music and a bunch of fake limbs and spiderwebs.  But somehow a bunch of middle schoolers came rushing in—about twelve of them—and they all pushed through like a raging river. Rose felt her friends being dragged away like wood in the water and she felt an underlying anger rise. Stupid eleven year olds.

She hurried to the exit. The “haunted house” was a bust and these talkative eleven year olds were giving her a headache.

Near the end, there were a lot of trees. The people seemed to live near some woods. Rose didn’t know if she should go through them and maybe the end was there or maybe turn back. But since turning back didn’t make any sense, she went forward. The violin music was even heard softly within the woods.

Rose reached for one of the Kit-Kat’s in her bag and ripped it open with her teeth.  From all the walking and asking for candy, she was getting a bit hungry. The woods weren’t that scary; she almost liked them. She could hear the chirp of crickets and feel the crunch of leaves under her shoes.

A flash of white caught her attention. She turned. “Hello?”

It was a kid—well, it had to be. The person stood in a white tablecloth, just like her predictions. Unfortunately, the tablecloth seemed to be too big and swept all the way to the ground. The kid must’ve tripped over himself or herself all night. Not to mention their bad artistic skills. In black sharpie, there was a smile drawn on where the kid’s face was, but no eyes or nose or anything. No holes to see or breathe or speak from.

Rose laughed. “Okay, you got me. You’re pretty scary looking.”  She tugged at her sleeve and nervously laughed again. “Am I almost at the exit?”

The kid didn’t respond. He just stood there, concealed by leafless branches. It was actually pretty creepy.

“Are you a part of this haunted house thing at all?” she asked, trying to get any kind of response. Maybe this kid was lost and needed his mother. Getting lost on Halloween was definitely not fun. She had gotten lost a couple years back.

The tablecloth ghost didn’t nod or speak. The sounds of laughter and middle schoolers got louder and Rose’s feet twitched to move. “This would be really awkward if you’re just one of those things that look real but aren’t,” Rose said. She would get closer to check but she also knew that if she did, the person in the costume would probably jump at her to scare her. It was all so predictable. So she didn’t let it win. “Okay, I guess I’ll see you around. Bye.”

A smile spread across Rose’s face as she walked through the path and finally to where her friends were. Halloween was so stupid like this but she also loved it. The small tricks and corny things people did and the not-so-scary costumes. It was all part of the fun.

“Hey guys,” she said to her friends as she caught up with them. “This violin music is so corny, I can’t even.”

“What violin music? And where were you?”

“Just got distracted.”

“I bet ten bucks you were just eating your candy. You can never resist.”

“True,” Rose said and they went home.

Later that night after marathons of Halloweentown, Twitches, and all Saw movies, her friends were knocked out. They were all sleeping over Rose’s house and had fallen asleep in her room with the television on. Rose ignored the tv as she spread out her candy and counted seventy-seven pieces. She grinned and set it aside before getting ready for bed. When her little brother came back from his sleepover with his friends tomorrow, she’d rub it in his face.

Rose brushed her teeth and combed her hair in the bathroom. Wiping off the fake blood from her face was a pain but it had to be done. Sighing when done, she closed the bathroom lights and tiptoed to her room even though her friends were dead asleep and her parents weren’t home. A soft noise began as she walked to her room.

“What the hell?” she whispered. “Bethany better not be playing some stupid slow love song again. It’s like one in the morning.”

When she got closer to her room, she realized it wasn’t because the television had gone black. They were probably using her speakers. Rose sighed. Whatever they were playing sounded like crap from the 1600’s. Did they even have music back then? she wondered. Probably.

    At the door she paused and said, “Okay, guys, we’re going to wake the neigh—”

    With the dimmed lights in her room, she saw a silhouette. It wasn’t any of her friends. She knew this because all of her friends were hanging from the large fan attached to her ceiling. Rose gasped, feeling all the candy rushing back up her throat. The fan had been turned on and all four of her friends swung around with nooses around their neck. It was disgustingly played out. All their hands were tied together, like they were just holding hands and spinning around. Violins and piano played in the background. There was blood on the cream colored carpets of her room. The shadow turned.

    It was the ghost. From the woods.

    The ghost looked the same. The same sharpie smile but now there was blood splattered on it. Blood looked like it was dripping from that single smile. Violins got louder and the piano played heavier, like somebody was punching the keys.  

    “I-I. Y-You. My f-r-riends.” Rose couldn’t speak. It felt like there was a hand wrapped tightly around her throat.

    The ghost came closer.

    “N-n-no.” Rose tried taking a step back.

    Suddenly, the tablecloth on the intruder shook and fell to the ground, as if there never was a person underneath it. Rose choked on her words. Where was the person? How could that happen? The last thing she heard was the orchestra in the song rising to the climax and the piano being played all chunkily and she could’ve sworn she heard her friends’ screams.

    And then she blinked and she was in front of the haunted house from before. Come into the back! Haunted house with candy at the end. Enter at your own risk. The same sign. The same place. She was in her costume and her friends were around her.

    “It looks fun. Let’s go!”

even i was creeped out writing this ew ugh hanging people always scare me

and i am more proud of this piece than my recent horror ones bc i'm not rlly good at horror as u can see ahah and sorry for uploading so much, i'm behind on uploading them on here

enjoy xx