Fiction, Written By; Soraya Heppener

Fic in James’s point of view

Haunted Halloween

“Daddy!” , My daughter’s chirping, high voice echoed trough the hallway, I watched her as she ran into the living room, dressed in her vampire costume, she gazed at me, her bright blue eyes glimmering with excitement, I looked up as my wife, Kara, walked into the room and draped her arms round Kristy, resting her hands on her tummy,

“James what do you think of our little vampire?” she asked while straightening the crumbled up bits of the cape by Kristy’s shoulders. Kara took a step back to study her daughter’s outfit; black trousers with wide trouser legs, a white blazer, with a long black cape that dangled near the floor,

“Where did you go my little Kristy?” I said panicked. I fell down on my knees in front of Kristy, who looked down on me shocked, yet entertained by my little act, she placed her small hands on my shoulders,

“Daddy, I’m Kristy!” she chirped and grinned revealing her white, even teeth that looked more white than normal because of her pale, painted face and red pout, “Wait” she mumbled and dug into her pockets, she revealed fake, white plastic teeth, with long canine teeth. She carefully shove them over her own and gave me a dangerous vampire grin,

“Noo, don’t drink my blood!” I said with horror, I protected myself by holding my hands in front of me, and Kristy looked up at her mum proudly of the effect that her costume gave her.

I lifted her up, she snorted with laughter when I started tickling her and I carried her to the kitchen, “Here are both of your trick or treat bags,” Kara said while showing me and Kristy the orange, creepy, pumpkin faced cotton bags. She tossed me one and gave the other to Kristy, who examined it closely. I placed Kristy back onto solid ground and immediately, she hopped sprightly into the hallway. I gave Kara a cheeky grin and she flashed one in return,

“She’s exited.” she said referring to Kristy, “So you promised Kristy and me, to trick or treat the whole neighbourhood, it won’t be skipping any houses.” she warned me, like I never trick or treated before. Just because it was my first time with Kristy, didn’t mean I never trick or treated before, but Kara didn’t think of that. I wrapped my arms around her waist and placed a brief kiss on her cheek,

“I can’t run away from it now, can I?” I asked, Kara shook her head and pushed me back,

“You should get started, you know Kristy isn’t the most patient girl.”

‘’I know’’ I replied while letting go of my wife, ‘’ill see you in a few hours’’ I mumbled and placed a kiss on her nose

 “Kristy, let’s get ready to fill our bags with candy, or do a trick!” I beamed. When I stepped outside Kristy jumped of the swings, where, before she noticed me, she sat on, absently gazing at the ground, with the orange bag tightly clutched in one hand, she reached the other out for mine and smiled nervously,

“What are we waiting for? Let’s get started.” I said, feeling ready for the challenge. It was already dark and the full moon lightened up the black sky slightly, a few clouds overshadowed the moon which made it all a scary cliché Halloween night. I squeezed my daughters hand gently and  headed with her to the first houses.

The street was decorated with pumpkins, that all had scooped out creepy faces, and some houses where decorated with orange ribbons.

Little kids dressed as mummies, vampires, skeletons and other creepy characters, barged trough the street with their candy bags, parents got dragged with the kids and some of them where competing the dress contest as well, by being a Halloween character, only sadly, they lacked creativity and could only be bothered to wear a white sheet, with cut out eye holes.

While we walked along, the long road, up to the first house of the street, we came past loads of dressed up children and my daughter kept raising her hands for waves. 75% of those children I’d never seen before, but I was happy that my daughter had so many contacts.

“Ok daddy… do you have our bags?” Kristy asked me, she held up hers and I showed mine proudly “Definitely.” I grinned, “Let’s crash these houses.” I said feeling anxious of what kind of new experiences I would collect. Kristy smiled broadly and hopped up the step in front of our first goal.

After 10 houses, it got a bit cold, my daughter could jump around, talk about Halloween with her friends and collect stuff, to keep herself warm, while I felt cold from standing like a broomstick outside the house. Chatting to parents, my hands where almost frozen and I dug them deep into my pockets, to keep them warm. I already had my scarf pulled high, with the rim over my nose, and I peered over it to examine the remaining houses of the street. I noticed that, the house in the corner came closer and closer, I never actually been at that side of the street and never bothered to go there. I had heard some vague rumours of haunted houses, but never bothered to listen to them. In the corner, it looked strangely dark, one of the houses got overshadowed by darkness. Weird that those people didn’t bother to buy some decent lights I though,

“Daddy come on! You’re so slow!” my daughter pulled me with her, by the sleeve of my jacket. I grinned vaguely, pushed my thoughts away, of the dark part of the streets, and stumbled after my over exited daughter,

I also felt like a kid, I must confess, I still loved candy and thought it was a shame that no one asked me to do a trick. As a kid, I loved performing and acting, so tricks was my specialty, these days it wasn’t the trick, but more the treat and that disappointed me, I looked up at the a semi detached house that belonged to my best mate; David, and his little daughter Jenny, which was Kristy’s best mate, in my school times David and I used to do the silliest things on Halloween and from insiders I heard, that he was Still a complete nut, when my daughter eagerly pushed the doorbell and David opened it, I noticed he was a weird Halloween character himself; black shorts, green painted chest and face, ‘’Dave who are you trying to be?’’ I asked

‘’Come on jimmy! I’m the hulk! Of all of the people I thought you, the movie freak, would have know it’’ David said, he moved his attention to Kristy who impatiently held up her orange bag, ‘’hey girl, your dad dragged you with him for Halloween?’’ he asked and stuffed my daughters bag with candy

‘’Yeah, all he want to do is tricks, he almost begged the people who live on number 5, to do a trick for them’’ Kristy laughed, ‘’he made me act with him, he was Jim Carry and I was the kid from the movie ‘liar liar’ he knew it wasn’t a trick but, dad keeps saying acting is tricking’’ Kristy rattled, for a 4 year old kid, her vocabulary was quit great, David smiled and patted her on the shoulders,

My attention got graphed again, by the remaining house in the corner ‘’we still got one house left to go, who lives in that hovel?’’ I asked while giving the dark house in the corner a quick glance

‘’You don’t know?’’ David asked mysteriously, his eyes showed fright and I smirked nervously, ‘’your acting like Dracula lives over there’’ I joked, but the expression on David’s face didn’t disappear, I started doubting David’s sanity but tried to act serious by wiping the smile of my face, ‘’Kristy go and play with Jenny, she’s inside honey’’ David said, giving my daughter a friendly pat on her back, Kristy looked at me for an approval and I nodded rapidly, I was curious for David’s story, and fixed my attention back on my mate, ‘’what’s with the house? I heard a few rumours but never really thought about being afraid of it’’ I mumbled calm and cool

‘’The house next to it is empty, the people who lived there where the very nice family Marquez; always outside playing and stuff, after one Halloween at their neighbours; who live in the dark house, the family Marquez suddenly disappeared’’ David stopped his story and lit a cigarette, his voice sounded more croaky then normally and it felt like he was trying to scare me with a high school camp, horror story, ‘’they could have just moved out’’ I suggested, but David shook his head slowly, he narrowed his eyes and gazed at me for a few seconds, ‘’they disappeared, as in missing, the police even looked out for them, the only thing they found is a dead scorpion in the sitting room of their house, James, you might think I’m joking, but these rumours are serious, after someone spread the stories, no one, ever, dared to go round that house anymore’’ David said serious, he laid his hand on my shoulder and gestured to the house by nodding his head, ‘’the family who live in the hovel, never come out, only at midnight, sometimes I wonder what they are doing up there’’

‘’Why don’t you ask them?’’ I asked, I grinned slightly but David kept cool as ice, ‘’I’m serious mate you know I’d never joke with you’’ he said with a trace of irritation in his voice

‘’I know, but your trying to tell me, the Adams family jumped out of the cartoon and lives in the corner of the street, its silly, I promised my Kristy and Kara, to go to every house’’ I pointed at the dark house in the corner, where vague light, lit behind one of the windows, ‘’I’m not excluding that one’’ I said determined, Kristy came outside, together with Jenny, ‘’I warned you’’ David said serious and grinded the stump from the cigarette into the pavement, ‘’thanx David’’ I muttered and lead my daughter away from David’s house, the fear that David’s eyes held concerned me, it was true that the family Marquez disappeared, but I never believed about the silly rumours around it, now I started doubting, ‘’Kristy, maybe its better not to go to that house’’ I said and pointed at the last house of the street , Kristy looked at me with disappointment, ‘’come on dad, you promised me to go to every single house’’ she said with a sad voice

the disappointed glare touched me and I swallowed hard, I wasn’t going to let myself be lead by rumours I thought determined and graphed my daughters hand tight, before heading to the last house in our quest, I looked up in horror when we arrived, the garden wasn’t neatly planted with flowers, a lawn or trees, instead, little piles of compost and groups of weeds formed the strange garden design, my thoughts trailed back onto the gloomy creepy ones and I shook myself awake, not everyone was a born gardener, I walked up to the gate and pushed it open, a small path lead to the house, the house itself looked like the other ones in the street, but the bricks looked older, a window at the right side of the front door was shattered and the light in the front garden was broken , the only form of light, got produced by the moon, that reflected in the dark windows of the house, there was only a tiny bit of light coming from under thick black curtains, that seem to be hanging in front of every window, I jumped up when I heard something that seemed like a wolf howl, I straightened myself immediately, my daughter didn’t have to notice that her father was a scared little puppy, just because some loon told him this house was inhabited by freaks of nature, ‘’isn’t it dark over here daddy?’’ Kristy said, her blue eyes shone in the little bits of lights and she fumbled her hand out of mine, she made her way up to the front door and pushed the doorbell, I silently followed her, ‘’Kristy wait for me please’’ I muttered, being afraid for a sudden attack of something freaky if she rang that bell, but luckily the doorbell didn’t make a sound, I sighed relieved because I wanted to enter this house on my own tempo, but Kristy already banged her little hands onto the clipped wooden door, ‘’trick or treat!’’ she jelled and her voice echoed though the street, ‘’Kristy no!’’ I said stern while walking up to her, ‘’you’ll scare them off’’ I said soft, I casually knocked on the door, and as I wanted to bang my hand one other time onto the door, it had already opened, making me almost fall inside, a scent of old books blocked my nostrils and I coughed because of its strong scent, I looked up at a tall skinny man, with no face expressions, he looked normal, he must have been adjusting himself to the Halloween night cause he worn a pitch black suit, ‘’trick or treat’’ I said and quickly, cleared my throat when it sounded like there was a trace of nerves in my voice, the man didn’t look at Kristy nor me and again I reached for my daughters hand; I was having a strong fathers instinct telling me to protect her

‘’Dann!’’ the man jelled with a heavy voice, it seemed that this tall guy was looking right trough us instead of looking at us, and I glanced behind me to see if there was something behind us, that was more stunning to look at,

a little boy which I estimated to be 5 years old walked up to his father, the guy still kept looking in front of him and when he noticed Dann’s presence, he turned his face to the lamp next to the door which was broken ‘’you should get that light bulb fixed’’ I blurted out, trying to make a ‘neighbour’ conversation, I grinned coyly at the guy and he finally gave me a meaningless look back, his deadly red rimmed eyes pierced trough my body, he vaguely nodded without making a sound and turned round to walked inside the house, ‘’or not…’’ I squalled nervously

‘’here is some candy’’ the boy said, he had a ‘street’ American accent and a dirty smile plastered on his little face, he rummaged into the bright coloured, candy bag he was holding, and put some of it in Kristy’s bag, I made myself a note to analyse the candy as soon as we got home, maybe it was candy stuffed with insects, or it was toxic, I noticed I was really affected by the warning of David and created silly prejudices,

Kristy passed the little boy a heart-warming smile, and the guy grinned back; still in the same dirty way, ‘’you want to come in and check my pet?, my dad bought me a new one’’ he explained and before I could say ‘no’, my daughter already disappeared inside, now it was my turn to be social and brave, and make that step inside to meet the boys parents, I shivered as I slowly moved inside the house and closed the door, I was breaking out in sweat when I noticed that the hallway looked like a city dump, ‘’come on James be a man’’, I said to myself, I examined the hallway and searched for something to proof my prejudices, of these people not being a normal family, where wrong,

I gazed at a wardrobe, I bet it contains neatly folded scarf’s and no garbage, I tried to open the closet, by giving the knob a pull, but the door was closed tightly and it didn’t open, I looked around innocent and gave the door a kick, in vain though, it didn’t open, maybe they didn’t use the old wardrobe, I thought disappointed; now I hadn’t proofed the prejudices wrong, I heard a croaking sound and stifled, it sounded like a door slowly opening and before I could look back, some bony, hard things, fell over my shoulders and something else knocked against the back of my head, I let out a jell and graphed the things that accommodated on my shoulder, I slowly turned my head to look at it; skeleton arms, only not white ones, my breath seemed to reduce, and it took me more effort to get enough oxygen in my lungs, I shook the thing of me and turned round fast, to see where the skeleton arms where coming from, with a loud bam, a white, with rust coloured stains, human skeleton fell onto the floor, its head gazed at me from onto the ground, it fell out of a dusty closet, the one I was trying to open and hoped contained neatly folded scarf’s like normal family’s have

‘’did it scare you?’’ a girly voice asked me, I looked up, still stunned by shock and tried to plaster a smile on my face, I gazed at a little girl, who was wearing a bright red dress out of the 20’s, and black, patent leather shoes,

‘’it was my biology project ’’ she mentioned with a big grin, ‘’ace isn’t it?’’ she asked, her almost black eyes studied my face and I nodded, ‘’Dann and the girl are inside come in’’ she said kind, which made me feel better, see they’re decent people, I said to myself happy, I shook the fright away from me and prepared myself for a warm welcome from the rest of the family………

The girl lead me into the living room, every step she took trough the hallway made a croak, she laid her bony hands on the doorknob and slowly opened the door, I felt nervous to meet her parents, even more nervous than the time I had to meet my ‘in laws’ for the first time, now my hands where already getting clammy with perspiration, the door swung open and I slowly entered a normal looking living room, the first thing I noticed was the expensive, tight furniture, on the other hand there was one cabinet, which looked like collapsing ,and the floor and walls where looking like it dated from the time of the dinosaurs, after spotting the containings of the room, I noticed a woman in her late 30’s; she sat on the sofa with a black cat, neatly spread on her lap, she looked quite normal, but as the little girl, she was bony and paper white, next to the woman sat the man I had already met, he gazed at something with emptiness, I saw my daughter giggling with the little boy, that was called Dann, and started praying this scummy boy wasn’t going to be my future son in law, I noticed she held something in her hands, after giving it a closer look, I concluded it was some dark candy, so I decided not to think bad things of it,  I greeted the parents kindly, and held out my hand ‘’Hi, I’m James Bourne’’ I said warm, I got a cold nod from both of the inhabitants in return, I quickly folded my hands back into my pockets and took a seat opposite the couple, I wondered round the room with my eyes and curiously looked over at my daughter, who was still interested in the candy that laid on her hand, she moved towards me and I noticed that it wasn’t black candy that she held in her hand, but an insect, it was moving slightly and had a tail as long as its body

‘’Look daddy this is Eric, Dann’s scorpion, isn’t it sweet?’’ my daughter asked, while moving the freak under my nose

‘’Honey, I told you not to play with scorpions’’ I blurted out, my daughter pulled her eyes of the black crooling insect and looked at me surprised, ‘’you never…..’’

‘’Kristy listen to me, please’’ I cut in rudely, ‘’give the thing back to Dann’’ I said nervously, pointing at Dann, who already held his hand out, to get his pet back, Kristy flashed me a sob gaze, but did as she was told, I could finally breath normally again when the black scorpion safely landed on Dann’s hands again, I smiled nervously to the parents of Dann, hoping they would understand my reaction, but they looked at me without any expression on their face, I nervously fumbled up my sleeve and looked at my watch, I’m just going to stay for 30 minutes, I told myself, be social, I added in my head, I dug deep into my head to find the best ‘neighbour’ conversation and came up with ‘work’ talk, ‘’where do you both work?’’ I asked on an interested tone, I begged them to answer because I was feeling pretty awkward at the moment

‘’He works at the cemetery’’ the woman explained, she lifted her head for a nod towards her husband

‘’O really?’’ I said semi interested, I flashed a wry grin, ‘’burying dead people, really Halloween’’ I stumbled, trying to stay in the whole ‘party atmosphere’, no one seemed to like my comment and I tried to wipe my grin of my face for the hundred time, ‘’So what do you do, miss?’’ I asked

‘’I work at the city mortuary’’ she said while gazing at me with her dark eyes

‘’This can’t get freakier’’ I mumbled inwardly, ‘’interesting job as well, so you two are both interested in dead people’’ I mumbled stupidly, ‘’ever killed anyone?’’ I joked, I gave a snort, but also this time, I wasn’t the funny guy for a change; no one curled a mouth corner, while I nervously tapped onto the arm rest of the sofa, David’s words echoed trough my head ‘the police didn’t find anything, besides a dead scorpion’  my eyes widened from horror, dead scorpion?!, I flicked my head to Dann’s side, who petted his animal scorpion, my heart started pounding faster, was last years disappearing going to happen to me as well?,  I felt sick by the thoughts, and jumped up, I had to get away, ‘’I really have to…….’’ I wanted to explain that, I had to leave, but halfway trough my sentence and jump up, I didn’t notice that, by the swung my hand made, I smacked the scorpion out of Dann’s hand and the creature landed near my feet, I jumped up from fright and a mix, of clumsiness and shock, but it couldn’t prevent the deadly hit of my shoe on the tiny, but dangerous creature, when I heard a squealing, croaking sound, I looked down in horror and saw the little black paws from the scorpion come out, from under my shoe……… now its dead, like the one that was found in the Marquez house, I killed the house pet!, I didn’t dare to confront the ‘Adams family’ right now and stood there in the middle of the living room, stunned, while having one foot on the scorpion, ‘’daddy!, he killed my scorpion!’’ Dann squealed on a ‘kill him!’ way, for a normal 5 year old he would have burst into tears, but Dann didn’t cry, my daughter did it for him, when I heard a loud sniff followed by a sob, I removed my foot of the scorpion and faced a squeezed insect, for me it had the same shock effect as killing a cockroach, but in this family the insect seemed to be holy, ‘’I’m sorry’’ I accomplished to say, I flashed a guilty look at Dann, who flashed me a dagger look in return

‘’Mr Bourne you think its normal to kill nature?’’ the tall dark guy growled, it surprised me that he could actually talk, he hauled out of his seat and froze me with one of his cold looks

‘’I’m really sorry’’ I lied, ‘’ill buy the kid a new one, we can go to the shop where you bought the…….the thing and ill finance it’’ I promised, but the man wasn’t convinced, the wrinkles on his forehead deepened and the firm line on his mouth bittered, ‘’you should be sorry for taking its live’’ the man growled, I looked over to the guys wife who slowly stroked, her red long fingernails, over the cats black fur, the cat purred from pleasure and the woman looked up, she raised one brow and looked at me dismissively; this family was creeping me out, ‘’I told you I am sorry’ I said again, I looked back at what my daughter was doing, but she was busy, looking at the scorpion together with Dann, like it laid in a tomb and was about to get buried,

‘’you’ll be very, very, sorry Mr Bourne’’ the guy repeated slowly, I could hear an undertone of hate in his voice but his face stayed cool

‘Excuse me? What do you mean, I told you to pay for the thing’’ I raised my voice, this was ridiculous, I offered to pay for the creep and he didn’t take the offer, what was he going to do? Take revenge?, slice me into pieces…….., the words hit me and I looked up shocked, right into the ice cold, blue eyes of the guy who smirked, like he just confirmed my thoughts, ‘’Kristy we are going home honey’’ I said, I didn’t remove my eyes of the guy and reached in the air, searching for my daughters hand

‘’your going nowhere’’ the guy said determined, I shivered when I reminded myself to the disappearance of the other family, I had to get out of here, ‘’you are nuts, all of you!’’ I blurted out, ‘’sick’’ I added, I dragged my daughter with me by her hand and while she started crying again, only this time of surprise because of my sudden angry reaction, I dragged us both out of the house as fast as possible.

‘’Mummy!’’, Kristy screamed when we arrived home, she ran to Kara who flashed me a surprised look,

‘’I can explain’’, I said, like I just cheated with someone, it felt much better being home again, I took a few deep breaths to collect some rest in my body, I had never felt this freaked out before, without having a real reason, the family had only acted freaky, but didn’t do anything which could have been proof that they where dangerous

Kara bend down by Kristy and wiped Kristy’s tears from her cheeks, with the palms of her hands, ‘’don’t cry honey just tell me what happened’’ she asked calm

‘’daddy…’’ Kristy began, hiccupping heavily while saying it, she pointed at me, ‘’killed Dann’s pet.. and… then he started acting funny and angry’’ she sniffed, Kara flicked her head my way and shot me an ‘explain’ look

‘’I accidentally stood on it’’ I muttered, Kara gazed at me confused, ‘’you stood on their pet?’’ She said, finding the sentence very strange herself

‘’Not a dog or a cat!’’ I cleared up, before she thought I crushed a normal house pet, ‘’a scorpion!’’ I blurted out, hoping Kara found it silly as well, to have an insect as a pet

‘’A scorpion?’’ Kara repeated, the expression on her face, told me she agreed with me on the silly part, ‘’still, I think you should apologise to those people’’ she said gesturing to Kristy ‘’for Kristy’s sake’’

‘’you’re telling me, to go back and tell those people that I’m sorry?’’ I spat, I had already planned a night of jamming with my mates in my thoughts, but the image of a great evening shattered into little pieces

‘’I didn’t say that, but now you suggested it, you should go to them now and apologise’’ Kara mumbled, she tried to cheer up our heartbroken daughter, while I was kicking myself for suggesting it, ‘’why don’t you invite them over for a cup of tea, I’d love to meet them’’ Kara said, rising to her feet

‘’meet them?’’ I repeated gasping for air, ‘’no way! I am not going back!’’ I said raising my voice, both Kristy and Kara looked a bit shocked by my demonstration and after two seconds of interruption, Kristy resumed with crying her eyes out ‘’James what is up with you?’’ Kara asked having a trace of irritation in her voice

‘’Nothing’’ I muttered, finding it stupid to explain her that, James Bourne, 26 years old, didn’t dare to go back to an house, with unusual acting people living in it, who had a few things in common with the Adams family, I knew for sure that she would have called the nearest loony bin to get me treated

‘’if there’s nothing, you should go and ask the family to come round’’ she replied stern, while checking her watch, she passed me a begging look and gestured to Kristy, as if she was saying; Hello what are you waiting for?, I groaned inwardly and moved outside again

‘’The things I do for love’’ I muttered when I was standing on the streets again

I took a deep breath, straightened my t-shirt and took big steps heading back to the freaks, I tried to block my fears and tell myself, I wasn’t afraid and that I was having too many prejudices, but the fear feelings got more as I walked over the path near the garden of the freaks, (I was planning to call the weird family; ‘the freaks’ from now on),

Their house looked the same as first, but I had this weird feeling something had changed, I zipped up my jacket when a cold wind struck me, I looked up at  the light bulb that burned behind the door; it was fixed, so that was the thing that seemed so different; there was some light, I raised my hand, to bang it against the door, but wanted to try the bell first, I pushed the white button and a loud ring echoed from inside, this was weird, everything was working, while a short hour ago everything wasn’t, I shrugged and patiently waited for the door to be answered, I knew I wasn’t the most patient person, but answering the door couldn’t possibly take that long, as it was taking now, I tried to peer trough the windows inside, and checked if there was a sign of live in the room, strange…..how could they have fixed the shattered window near the door that fast?, shivers tingled up my spine as I thought of charmed witchcraft, I gazed back at the door and noticed it was already open, I hesitated before going in; maybe it was a trick, curiosity boiled up inside me when it occurred me that I always wanted to be in some horror computer game and this looked a bit like it, adding a bit imagination off course, I let my curiosity guide me, and entered the house,

The feeling that something wasn’t right, got stronger when I opened the door of the living room; the living room was empty, the sofa’s where gone and the cabinets where emptied, a musty smell overwhelmed me and I tried not, to breath it in too deeply,

How.. what… why?, several questions where wondering in my head as I stood there; terrified and stunned in the middle of the living room, I seriously started doubting my sanity, no one leaves a house in less then 2 hours, I heard a sound of what I thought where footsteps, but it was to vague to belong to a human, I looked round trying to be aware of everything, I noticed the black insect, that was crawling up my shoe, ‘’Eric?’’ I blurted out, the scorpion? I killed it, I shook the insect of my feet and looked around fooled, was it all a dream?, I begged that this was a hidden camera joke and that some Ashton Kutcher figure, jumped out of one of the cabinets, to tell me I was Punk’d, but that didn’t happened, this was really weird; everything that happened seemed to be the opposite of what it was two hours ago, where are those kids?, where are their parents? Did they move all of a sudden? I made my way to the hallway and stopped by the stairs, maybe I could check upstairs,

I wondered trough the rooms of the house first, looking for signs of live, or clues of departure, the only things I found where boxes filled with shredded carpet and everything was covered with a thick layer of dust, I checked into the cardboards and found something I didn’t want to find; a knife with dark brown edges, I found it in the top drawer, which was webbed by a little black spider, that protected the knife like it was its baby, I closed the drawer fast and pushed the thoughts of the inhabitants being murders, out of my head,

I looked up and faced my own reflection in an antique mirror above the drawers; my eyes where filled with fear and my skin revealed paleness, I decided not to worry about my looks, but my attention got graphed; in the middle of the mirror was an average size star, like someone punched against it, possibly someone who didn’t fancy their reflection I guessed, surprised that the mirror was still in tact I gazed at it like I was interested in broken mirrors, all of a sudden the star slowly widened and when I looked away, the mirror shredded into little pieces onto the top of the drawer, I jumped back, ‘’what the hell?’’ I blurted out,

I ran downstairs when I thought I searched for the inhabitants for long enough; the freaks just left, there was no simple explanation to find out, how and why, but I didn’t mind ‘good ridden’ I mumbled when I walked towards the front door, then I noticed I missed one room in the house; the cellar, curiosity made me walk down the croaky stairs, to the cellar door, darkness surrounded the door area and my eye caught sight of a flashlight in the corner, I bend down to pick it up and wiped the dust of the black item, ‘’they move but forget to take the flashlight’’,

I tried to flick it on, but before producing light, it had to be given a few taps against it

I held my hand on a the door handle, which was bronzed by age, and opened the door, a sickening smoke of rotten flesh attacked me, I held the flashlight in front of me and scanned all the corners of the dark cellar, old boxes and DIY equipment stacked the cellar and it looked all normal to me, only the smell concerned me, to be sure no horror clichés like; getting locked in a dark basement, wouldn’t happen to me, I placed a brick, that I found on the floor, against the open door,  I looked up pleased with my precautionary measure and continued my search for the inhabitants or any signs of them having moved out,

I noticed there was a small staircase up, that ended at a small door on ground level, which presumably was a connection to the back garden, a loud bang gave me a fright and I jumped up, the flashlight dropped onto the ground and rolled against one of the boxes, it shone onto the door which just slammed close, I felt another group of shivers going up my spine, this couldn’t be, I have put the stone against it, someone must have pulled it close, ‘’hello?’’ I jelled with a croaky voice; the fright had affected it, I felt something move up my shoulder and backed away from it, I bend down, graphed the flashlight and aimed it at the place where I stood two seconds ago, nothing……maybe I was hallucinating?, I let the flashlight glance over the room and stopped when I saw something, or better said; someone, laying on a work table, a foot stuck out from under a black garbage bag, this was too freaky for words, I decided to carefully pull the black bag off, so I could see what laid under it, my curiosity almost caused me a heart attack, when I abruptly pulled the bag off and found out that this familiar looking man was laying under it, only his skin was deadly pale; almost white, and his eyes where closed, suddenly I noticed the knife in his head, the handle at the right side, the sharp point with blood, stuck out of the other side, my breath failed me and I felt like getting sick, Goosebumps covered my skin, I tried not to face the body, I had to think; the rumours might have been true, maybe this was the missing neighbour that had disappeared, they killed him not long ago, because the body wasn’t rotten yet, I peeked trough my fingers and noticed that the knife was fastened onto his head with a small cord, wait a sec.., this is a Halloween costume, a fake knife; one that made it look like he got stabbed in the head, I carefully pulled the knife off his head and noticed it flicked off simply, it was just a Halloween hat!, maybe those silly neighbours are trying to freak me out, I smiled, they must have known I came back and set up a plan to scare the hell out of me, ‘’sir wake up, I know what you’re trying to do’’ I said happy and relieved that it was all some good Halloween joke, I shook the guy by his shoulders, ‘’come on you’re caught, I know its all fake’’ I said, but the guy wasn’t responding, in a flash the ‘dead’ body hauled up and the mans hands graphed for my throat, I backed away; thinking it was a part of the joke, then, when he opened his eyes, I noticed this wasn’t a joke, his eyes where covered with a white, hazy layer and where looking up, instead of at me, like he didn’t have control over them, I wanted to move away from him but I was stuck in his grasp, I pushed my hands against his, to get him away from me, ‘’James’’ he squalled like he was using his last breath, I moved my hands away from him quickly, when I felt some substance trickling over my fingers, the mans body collapsed out of my hands onto the ground,

I held my hands in front of my face for inspection and scanned over them with the flashlight, my breathing started getting harder and heavier, when I noticed, that my hands where covered with dark, red liquid; blood, ‘’what is this?!’’ I blurted out frightened,

A light started flickering off and on, and then stayed on, revealing the true inside of the basement, I could see that blood was slowly gushing out of the mans chest, thick, blood trickled down floor, I retched and moved away from the body, before I got sick all over it, I tried to calm down but I was freaked out, I had to get out of here as fast as I could,

I looked round trying to find out, how and why, the light flicked on, and who was doing this,

my eyes caught red, prescription letters on a dirty, white wall, the letters dripped down the wall but the message was clear enough for me to read; in bright red letters made of blood was written; James Bourne, a knife was stuck into the wall, in between my first and surname, I could see a bit of the sharp side that was sticking out; which was covered with the same coloured blood, I wanted to run, but my eyes wouldn’t let me get loose of the writings; my name on the wall,

I was stiff rigid for seconds, which looked like ages and when I could move my body again, I ran too the door, I furiously turned the doorknob, but the door didn’t open, I kicked against the door for a few times trying to open it the hard way, but someone had locked me in, who was doing this and why?, ‘’help’’ I screamed, ‘’help me!’’

I decided not to wait for help, I couldn’t, they wanted me dead and I had to get out of here, I rummaged into one of the boxes and found an axe, I ran up the other stairs and tried to open that door, also closed; as I expected it to be, my body trembled and the hand that held the axe shook like a little branch in a heavy wind, without thinking, I smashed in the blinded window, little pieces of glass shattered down, onto the grass outside. Without a single hesitate, I jumped out of the window and made my way out of the back garden into the front.

I ran home as fast as I could, looking back several times, in case someone followed me, I thought about the dead man, who so desperately had squealed my name; it was the missing neighbour, I had vaguely recognised him, ‘the freaks’ must have kidnapped him and killed him recently, to make him appear as a good Halloween decoration,

I was glad that I made it away from that house alive, but I was determined to call the police and tell them, I found the body.

When I finally arrived at my home, I ran to the phone, I dialled 911 which was hard to do with my hands trembling, and gave trough the information; that I found a dead person in someone’s home, when I finished my conversation and the police assured me that they where coming right away, someone moved up from behind me and I let out a jell

‘’It’s just me’’ Kara said surprised of my reaction

‘’you scared the hell out of me’’ I gasped holding my chest

‘’please be quiet; Kristy’s sleeping’’ she said, holding her finger in front if her lips, ‘’so where is Dann’s family, they couldn’t make it?’’ Kara asked curious

‘’well…. let’s just sit down and ill explain’’ I said fast, while steering Kara into the living room and pushing her into a seat.

After I gave her the whole story about the empty house; the dead man, and my name engraved with blood into the basement wall, Kara just stared at me with unbelief, I could see that she didn’t really believe the story, but looked up frightened when loud sirens chirped trough the street, a few minutes later a police officer stood in front of our door, ‘’Mr. Bourne?’’ He asked calm

‘’Yeah, that’s me’’ I mumbled

‘’I send some men to the house which you told me, you found a dead body in, I hope you aren’t too traumatised to walk back with me and give me some detailed information?’’ the officer asked

‘’Sure’’ I muttered absent and graphed Kara’s hand to take her with me for some moral support

This was the third time today, that I walked up the same path to the haunted house and it felt like routine, 4 people from the police department where set on the case, they gave me strange grins when I walked by and I frowned back at them, not understanding, what was so laughable about a murder, when Kara and I followed the police officer inside the house, I noticed a change, the furniture was back and the house looked the same as when I came round and killed the scorpion

‘’You told me the house was emptied’’ Kara whispered in my ear, on a confusing tone

‘’It was emptied!’ I said feeling weird

‘’We had to brake into this house, because the inhabitants weren’t in’’ some other guy of the police explained, ‘’the house seems normal, only very antique and dirty’’ he resumed, we walked down the stairs into the cellar, where the light was still burning

‘’Mr Bourne…’’ the police officer began and paused for a few seconds, ‘’we don’t think it’s a funny joke to let a whole team come round for an non existing murder, do you see a dead body?’’ The police guy asked gesturing round

This was the strangest thing ever; the police officer was right; there wasn’t a body, I looked at the wall, where a few minutes ago my name was written on with blood, it wasn’t there anymore, even the window, where I escaped outside from wasn’t broken anymore, while I had broken it with an axe, the whole police team including Kara was looking at me like I was a nut

‘’This cant be!’’ I blurted out, ‘’I saw a body lying over there, from a dead man!’’ I jelled, freaked out by the situation, ‘’I’m not mad! I saw it with my own eyes’’ I added scanning around, trying to find some clues,

Another police officer barged into the basement holding a see trough bag, which contained something black, ‘’ The only dead thing we found, is this insect; it’s a dead scorpion’’ he said holding up the bag