Tricking The Truth

"So...this is it is it?" Matt asked from the back of the steamed up car, peering out of the window at the small wooden house Charlie had pulled up in front off.

"Yup." James answered cheerily from the passenger seat, quite proud that his map reading had been good enough to get them there after only a few minor detours.

"Finally, I was beginning to think we'd never get here." Charlie muttered while reaching to open his door.  He was all too aware of James 'Minor detours.' After 

fearing for the lovely unscratched paintwork of his car down the long, narrow, overgrown country back roads..  They all got out of the car and stood looking up 

at the beach house they'd be staying in for the next week to get some song writing done.

"We have got to write a Hallowe'en themed song while here!" James suggested, looking at the house that looked as though it probably hadn't been stayed in for 

a while. Even in the rapidly darkening light they could see cobwebs spanning the windows and the house inside looked pitch black, but not just dark – the kind 

of pitch black the suggests abandonment.  James was looking at it all eagerly, Hallowe'en being at the end of the week he felt this was the perfect kind of place

to be staying.  Charlie looked at it mildly interested, it did look kind of, well he didn't know  how to describe it.. just fitting.  Matt however glanced at it and 

looked at James. 

"Do you really believe in that kind of stuff?" he asked and James nodded. 

"Look at the place, it's perfect for Hallowe'en." hereplied as Charlie started to head towards the house, getting impatient at all the standing around and aware of 

the fact that the sky was getting darker, the wind  stronger and the temperature cooler.  He wanted to get inside before the storm that was threatening came to life.

"James it's just a beach house.  Hallowe'en is just for kids that scare easily." Matt stated and with that he felt the conversation was over so headed after Charlie.  

James stayed where he was though.

"I don't care what you say, this place has atmosphere.. and Hallowe'en  ISN'T just for kids!" he shouted after Matt.  "and I'll make you see that..." he added 

quietly as an after thought.  He grinned as he started to think of all the possibilities but as he stood there, just thinking, the storm decided to state it's presence 

and James felt a large drip of water fall into his hair.  Not wanting to get soaked he made a dash for the door and got inside just before the downpour started.

~

Inside the beach house was dark even with the small bulb turned on in the sitting area of it.  The house consisted of six rooms, the kitchen, sitting area, bathroom 

and three bedrooms.  All of these rooms were small and not in the best of states.  From the outside it had looked as though it had been abandoned and from the 

inside it appeared the same.  Matt had managed to get a small fire started in the old fire place in the sitting room in an attempt to warm the place up a bit and 

James had managed to find the kettle in the kitchen so they were all now sat close to the fire holding large, chipped mugs of steaming tea.

"Sooo...had any ideas for songs yet?" Matt asked as he looked at the other two.  Charlie shook his head but James didn't answer being too busy staring into the 

flames of the fire.  Matt watched him for a minute before getting annoyed at him obviously not listening.

"Oi! James!" he said loudly and James' attention snapped onto him, making him look at Matt in bewilderment.

"What?" he asked and Charlie laughed slightly looking at the agitated Matt and the obviously confused James.

"I asked if you'd had any ideas for songs yet." Matt told him and James' face suddenly lit up.

"Well...I had one idea...but you wouldn't like it." He answered and Matt rolled his eyes.

"If it's about Hallowe'en you’re right." he said and James nodded slightly.  Charlie was a bit more interested though. 

"It'd be interesting to write a song with a Hallowe'eny kinda theme to it." he commented and Matt turned to look at him.

"Not you as well." Matt groaned.  He didn't get the fascination of Hallowe'en.. for him that had been lost at around the age of thirteen.  Hallowe'en was all about 

being scared of things that didn't even exist and that, as he thought, was just being a wimp. 

"Oh come on Matt you've got to admit this place is a bit.. well... spooky." Charlie said as they all watched the light flickering slightly because of the storm. 

"It's just a beach house in a  storm, there's nothing spooky in that." Matt said stubbornly. 

"Well I'm going to write the song anyway, even if you don't want to help with it." James said, beginning to sulk at Matt's lack of enthusiasm for Hallowe'en but 

also beginning to form the first of many plans for that week.

~

Matt went to bed before Charlie and James, sick of listening to them talking about Hallowe'en.  They'd moved on from talking about the song, which in Matt's 

eyes was ridiculous anyway, and had moved on to telling each other ghost stories.  Matt had got sick of it when he noticed James kept looking to him, obviously 

trying to check if he was being spooked out yet or not.  Matt had just maintained that he had grown out of Hallowe'en a long time ago and stormed off to bed. 

Now he was laying wide awake in his bed trying to get warm.  The storm outside was just getting worse and the wind just seemed to be going straight through 

the house.  He was freezing and beginning to wish he hadn't stormed off to bed and instead stayed sat up by the nice warm fire.  He reasoned though that if he 

had he probably would have resorted to hurting James in an attempt to shut him up about Hallowe'en and however much James was annoying him he still didn't 

want to hurt him.  

James had always been childish, he knew that so it was fairly obvious really that he'd be obsessed with Hallowe'en.  Sometimes Matt wished he'd just grow up 

a bit.  If he did though he wouldn't really be James though.  Matt's thoughts were beginning to confuse him now so he decided to just stop thinking and try to 

get to sleep.  

Ten minutes later and he was fast asleep.

~

James and Charlie stayed up late.  They were talking about plans to freak Matt out, James was still determined he'd believe in Hallowe'en by the end 

of this week and Charlie just thought it would be funny to scare him.  So far they hadn't really come up with any original ideas.  They'd decided that 

tomorrow night they would play with the lights, make them flicker and stuff and see what Matt thought then. Charlie was highly doubtful about that one 

working but James seemed satisfied with it.  After James had thought of that idea they'd ground to a halt.  Neither of them could think of anything else 

they could do.  

They kept trying to thing of things and after a few ludicrous suggestions from James they finally had the whole week planned out with the mission James 

had named 'Freak Matt Out’. much to Charlie's annoyance as it was a way to obvious name.  They both went off to bed once they were clear with all 

the pranks they were going to play, how they were to be carried out and how to make Matt believe it wasn't them.

When James finally fell asleep that night it was with a large grin still firmly in place across his face.

~

"Look!.. I've had enough of you two and your pranks. They're not funny, they're not smart and they are definitely not freaking me out.  Just stop them 

now, I've had enough.  I'm going out for a walk." Matt shouted as he slammed the front door of the house closed making the whole house shake.  The 

little puddles of water that had supposedly been left by a ghost all over the house had been one prank too far, especially after he had slipped over and 

banged his head on the wall.

"Those puddles were you weren't they?" James asked Charlie as they stared at the shut door.  Charlie slowly moved his gaze to James and shook 

his head. 

"No...I thought you'd made them." Charlie answered uncertainly.  "They were never part of the plan." He added.

"Well it wasn't me." James said "So if it wasn't you what was it?"

"Maybe it's just rain blowing in during the night, we know this house is drafty." Charlie suggested but James shook his head.

"It didn't rain last night." he stated and they both looked at each other unsurely.

"What caused them then?" Charlie asked but James didn't answer, he just stared into the fire. 

"I always said this house looked scary." he said and Charlie laughed.

"James me and you both know that everything was just us." he said and James glared at him.

"Well those puddles weren't us, and we know that." He said before getting up and storming off to his room. Charlie sighed, got up and followed 

him. He didn't want to be left in a room by himself in this house, plus he thought they ought to get some more songs written.  Well writing songs 

was the explanation he'd tell James anyway.

~

Matt stayed out on his walk for a long time and by the time he reached the house again it was beginning to turn dark.  He'd been walking along 

the beach all afternoon, just enjoying the quietness of it.  No one else had been out so he'd just been totally on his own with no James or 

Charlie trying to freak him out.  He was sick of it by now.  Everything they had done, all the light tricks, all the noises, the water and the

various other things they'd thought of had all obviously been them.  They hadn't fooled him once and he knew they never would.  He just 

didn't fall for tricks like those anymore.  With it turning dark he had decided it was now time to get back to the house.  It was also starting 

to get really cold and what with having stormed out in a huff he hadn't bothered to take his jacket with him.  He wished he had now as he 

still didn't really want to go back.  He didn't want to have to put up with more bad pranks from James.  He knew they were all James' ideas, 

Charlie was just going along with it all and helping James out.  He doubted very much that Charlie actually believed in Hallowe'en like James 

did.  He was just following James so he wouldn't have the pranks played on him and to keep him quiet about it.

Matt got back to the house and saw it was dark inside. He guessed Charlie and James must have been in their rooms so the living room had 

been left dark.  He opened the door slowly, waiting a minute before stepping through it to make sure it was prank free. Once convinced it was 

he stepped into the house and closed the door behind himself, shutting out most of the cold although a draft still ran through the house. He looked 

around the living room where he was now stood for any sign of James and Charlie or their pranks.  

His gaze came to rest on tall, slim man stood in the middle of the room twisting a knife around his fingers.  Matt stared at the man wondering 

who he was. His face was gaunt and pale, the grey eyes sunken yet still bright and alive.  The fingers that twisted the knife around were long 

and boney, the skin that covered the bones was pale and the nails were slightly

orangey.  The knife itself was a large kitchen knife, one with a wooden handle and a large silver blade.  He noticed that the handle had some 

kind of pattern carved into it and as his eyes travelled down from the

handle to the blade he felt slightly nauseous as he realised the knife blade was dripping with a dark red liquid that stained the metal - blood.  

He quickly looked away from that and back to the mans face.  The fire was casting an eerie orange glow over the man, highlighting parts of 

his face and catching the knife, making the cool silver glint slightly as it moved between the mans fingers.  He dropped his gaze from the man 

then and down to the floor, hoping he might vanish when he looked back up but instead his eyes caught on something else or rather two 

something elses laying on the floor by the mans feet.  One on either side of the man, lay the bodies of Charlie and James.  Matt stared at them 

before he looked back up to the man who was watching him and laughed.

"Come on you two, get up." he said, this was just another of their pranks.  They'd paid this man to come and freak Matt out, make Matt think 

he'd murdered his two best friends. 

"You think they'll get up do you?" the man spoke and Matt looked to him.  His voice was clear and sharp but at the same time it was low and 

almost whisper like. It had a strange edge to it that Matt had never heard in a mans voice before.  

"Yeah, 'course they will.  This is just another of their pathetic attempts to scare me." Matt stated and the man cocked his head to one side and 

looked at Matt who's eyes had been drawn down to the knife again, watching as the man played with it, the knife moving almost fluidly 

between his fingers. 

"Is it?" the man asked, his voice showing mild interest.  "Who am I then?" he asked and Matt looked back up to his face again. 

"Someone they brought in to make me think had murdered them."  Matt told him and the man then laughed.  A laugh like Matt had never 

heard before rang through the house.  It was cold yet somehow full of humour. It chilled him.

"Really?" the man asked yet it wasn't really a question and Matt caught that so he didn't say anything.  He looked back to Charlie and James.

"Come on, get up.  I know you're just messing and it's starting to get boring now." he said but neither body moved. 

"You still think this is one of their pathetic pranks do you?" the man asked and Matt looked back up to him. The man was smiling now but 

not in an amused kind of way and Matt felt slightly unnerved at it.

"Yeah, they'll get up soon, when they get bored." Matt stated, starting to get annoyed at the fact they were letting it drag on for as long 

as they were.

"Really?" the man asked again.

"Yes." Matt answered it this time, he was starting to loose patience with them now.  "Come on just get up."

"Pretty impressive party trick they've got then, if they're just going to get up, that is." The man said and Matt looked at him confused, 

wondering what he meant by that.

"Oh come on Matt, look at them properly and you'll see.  If I could cut my own head off then just get back up right as rain I'd say 

that's a pretty impressive party trick.  Wouldn't you?" the man said. Matt did as the man said and looked at them.  He looked at James 

and saw the deep red liquid spilling down from a large gash running right along his throat and then looked to Charlie and saw the same thing 

on him.  Once again Matt felt slightly nauseous.

"That's just fake wounds and blood." Matt stated, not impressed at all.  This was just all one of their pranks.  It was.  Once again the man 

laughed, that same laugh. 

"Ok then, so if this is just them mucking around who and what am I?" the man asked, taking a step closer to Matt.  Matt was again drawn 

to watching the movement of the knife between his fingers.

"I said before, someone they've brought in to help them out." Matt said and the man took another step towards him.  Then another.  

Then another.  He now stood right in front of him.

"Really?" he asked that favourite question again and Matt nodded, too preoccupied with the movement of the knife to voice an answer.  

"Then how come I can do this?" the man asked and he took another step forward, straight through Matt. Matt spun round on his heel 

to see the man now stood behind him.  Matt opened and closed his mouth a couple

of times trying to say something.

"So come on....am I still someone they've got to help them out?" the man asked and Matt stared at him for a minute. 

"You're a hologram...that they're controlling somehow." Matt said, still determined this was all just a joke. 

"Really?" and there was that question again.  

"If I'm a hologram how can I do this?" he asked and with that his arm shot out and the hand without the knife grabbed hold of Matt's 

arm.  Matt stared at his arm, where the mans fingers held it in a tight grip. He stared and stared at it.  What was this man?

"So...do you see this isn't a prank yet?" the man asked and Matt looked up to his face but didn't answer the question. 

"What are you?" he asked instead and the man laughed again.

"Well....I'm sure you've heard of the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future haven't you?" he asked and Matt nodded.  

"Well...I'm the Spirit of Hallowe'en." he finished and Matt just continued to stare at him. This couldn't be true, it had to be a prank.  

It just had to be.  Matt looked at him for a little longer, studying the mans face and then the knife again.  He didn't like that knife.  

He turned from the man and back to face the bodies of his two friends.  He looked at them even

closer than he had before and saw that the gashes weren't just gashes.  He could see  bones laying within them and their heads were tipped 

too far back. They hadn't just had their throats slit like he had first believed they had.  No, their heads had been completely severed from their

 necks and realising that, Matt thought he was going to throw up.

He looked back up from them and discovered the man was stood right in front of him again and staring at him.  Matt looked away feeling unnerved.

"Why them?" he asked quietly, not understanding why this guy had turned up and just murdered Charlie and James.  Sure they had been annoying.. 

but not THAT annoying.

"They were getting on my nerves, running around and ruining my reputation like that.  Have you any idea how long it took me to get this scary?  

They were ruining that.  They just had to go." the man answered smoothly,  looking down at his knife though.  His voice was impassive like he didn't 

care about what he'd done.

"What do you mean they were ruining your reputation?" Matt asked.

"All those stupid pranks.  They were seriously pathetic.  Trying to pass them all off as me too.  They had to go." the man said and Matt just gaped at him.

"They were trying to scare me!  Nothing else.  They didn't deserve to have their heads chopped off." Matt told him, his hands balling into fist by his sides, 

the unfairness of it all getting to him and making him angry.  The Spirit of Hallowe'en however did not seem that impressed by Matt's statement as Matt 

soon felt the coldness of the point of the knife's blade pressed up against his throat. 

"It's me that is meant to scare people!  They were trying to pretend to be me.  I couldn't have them doing such pathetic pranks under my name!" 

the man growled quietly.  Matt shrank back away from the knife but it had already been removed from his throat and the man was now circling him.  

The knife once again flowing around his fingers.  Matt watched as it went under one then over the next, twisting around the fingers like a baton

 would in a baton twirlers hand.  

The man said nothing more for a while and neither did Matt.  He remained still, transfixed by the movement of the knife in the mans hands.  

The thought that this still had to be one of James and Charlie's pranks still stuck firmly in his mind but he was starting to believe that couldn't be true.  

He couldn't come up with an explanation for their bodies or for the 'Spirit of Hallowe'en' as he'd called himself.  There was a slightly more 

pressing matter for him to deal with as well, how did he get away from this thing with the knife without coming to harm.  This was one very bad prank.

"So...what do I do now then?" The man finally asked, breaking the silence they'd held.  Matt looked up from the knife and to his face again.  

The grey eyes were still as alive as they had been before.  Matt didn't answer the question and it turned out the man did not want an answer as 

he continued on himself.  "I could do the same to you as I did to them?" he said and pointed the knife vaguely in the direction of Charlie and James' 

bodies.  Matt gulped.  "....Or.. I could.. just leave."   Matt somehow didn't think the second option would be chosen and remained quiet. 

"You know, I think I'll go for the first option, have a bit more fun before I leave this place.  It was along journey to get here you know." the man said and 

Matt returned to watching the movement of the knife.  This was one really sick prank, or at least he hoped it was.

"Now the question is just do I want to have some more fun?  Or do I just want to get straight to it?" the man asked and Matt once again remained quiet.  

The man was still circling him, still twirling the knife and now looking at him in great interest.  Matt waited to hear what was going to happen to him.  

It took a full ten minutes before the man spoke again.

"Well, I think I can safely say you believe in Hallowe'en now don't you?" he said and Matt just nodded, not wanting to aggravate him in any way. 

He'd now worked out this was no prank.  This was real. 

"I think I'll get straight to it then." and with those words Matt froze as the knifes movements stopped and he felt the man grab his arm tightly before 

the knife was lifted to his throat.

~

"I wonder where Matt's got to.  It's really dark now, he should be home." James said.  Him and Charlie were sat in James' room on his bed 

surrounded by sheets of paper with their guitars out.  They'd been writing songs all afternoon and they hadn't noticed till now how dark it was 

outside and that Matt should have been home by now. 

"Yeah, guess he was pretty annoyed at us." Charlie said and James nodded.

"Guess so but he really should have come home by now, it's past eleven and he doesn't know this place well.  Plus the weather isn't great and 

he didn't take a coat." James said looking out of the window and seeing the rain that splattered across it. 

"Stop worry, if he's not back in another half hour we'll go out and look for him but he's old enough to look after himself." Charlie replied.

"Suppose so." James agreed and with that they went back to their song writing.