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Fiction pg1
Halloween Party
A week before Halloween of 1960, three teenagers, Billy, Bob and Sue, were out driving around the countryside in Bob's Chevy. They weren't looking for anything in particular. They were just driving around. Suddenly Sue happened to notice an old, unused road leading into a treed area. The road apparently had not been used in years, as it was almost completely covered with grass and weeds. They decided to explore the road.
After driving about a quarter of a mile, they entered an old abandoned farmyard. The house, which was a big run-down two storey building, had an empty, eerie look about it. The boys got excited and wanted to explore it. Sue didn't think it was a good idea and tried to talk the boys out of it. It didn't work. She didn't want to stay behind by herself, so he went with them.
When they got to the door they couldn't open it. It took both of the boys to open the door. It opened with a creak. The front door opened into an entrance hallway. There were cobwebs in every corner of the room, and there were white sheets on the furniture which made it look spooky. Some of the furniture was either torn or eaten by the mice that were scampering across the floor.
Billy suddenly had a great idea. He figured that since Halloween was coming up, the three of them could clean up the old house a bit and put some stuff in for a Halloween party. Bob loved the idea and said they should start cleaning first thing in the afternoon. Sue still hated the idea. She thought they should leave the house alone because it wasn't their house, and they didn't know whose it was. Billy and Bob didn't hear one word Sue said. They were discussing the changes they could make in the house. A little later the boys conned Sue into helping them.
In the next few days the three of them got the house ready for the party. They invited a great number of people to their party. Billy, Sue and Bob told all of their friends that the party was a costume party, and in order to come to the party, they have to dress up.
On Halloween night at 8:00 pm, people started to show up at the house in their costumes. Sue, Bob and Billy got there at 7:00 pm to set out the food for the party. When Sue and the boys got there, some of the furniture had been rearranged. Sue suddenly became frightened. She knew something was wrong or was going to go wrong. The boys weren't one bit frightened. Billy suggested that some other explorers, like themselves, saw the road and decided to check it out. They found the house door unlocked, walked in and moved the furniture as a prank. Sue was relieved.
Since there was no electricity in the house, they had rounded up some big candles and placed them around the room. These lighted candles cast eerie shadows on the wall as the other kids, dressed in their spooky and funny costumes, moved and danced around the room.
The party was turning out great, as they all enjoyed themselves. Their music, as loud as it was, prevented any of the kids from hearing the weird shuffling noises coming from the upstairs.
One of the boys standing by the table, nibbling on the snacks set out, suddenly saw a few of the plates shifting from one side of the table to the other side by themselves. He laughed and thought that Billy or Bob had rigged the table to scare them.
Suddenly one of the girls screamed. Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked to see what was the matter. She was standing petrified, pointing up to the ceiling. There, floating in mid-air was a skull. The skull started to float up the stairs. An unearthly scream echoed throughout the house. A headless body, wrapped in tattered cloak, suddenly appeared at the top of the stairs. It then floated down the stairs, plucked the skull out the air with its bony hands and rested it on its shoulders.
The teenagers, unable to believe their eyes, stood motionless. The furniture started to float around the room with no help from anything. The noise of rattling chains could be heard throughout the house accompanied by the sounds of shuffling feet and high screeching sounds. The candles started flickering and a few of them went out. Suddenly a large axe appeared, stained dark with dried blood. The axe and the once headless body started moving menacingly towards the teenagers.
All of the girls screamed and ran for protection behind the boys. The boys gathered around Billy and Bob, inquiring what they were trying to prove by pulling weird stunts like that. Billy and Bob, just as scared as the rest, denied having anything to do with it. Sue, almost scared out of her wits, ran for the front door. The other girls, seeing her run for the door, quickly followed. Sue, in her terror, forgot that the door opened outward. She was tugging at the door trying to open it inward by mistake. The girls, all crowding around her, were getting more hysterical as the body and the axe were getting closer and closer. Sue, finally getting the door open, ran out into the yard with the rest following.
The axe and the body appeared in the doorway, but did not follow. The boys, being trapped inside, quickly looked for another way to escape. Unable to locate a backdoor, Billy quickly grabbed one of the floating chairs. He smashed it against one of the windows, breaking it. He quickly broke the sharp pieces of glass from the bottom of the window sill with the chair, and yelling for the rest to follow, he quickly dove through the window to safety.
The boys, once out of the house, quickly ran around to the front. Seeing the girls locked safely in their cars, the boys quickly joined them. The axe and the body, unable to leave the house, just watched as the teenagers quickly drove down the road towards town.
The teenagers, safely back in town, all met over at Billy's house. The girls, still shaking gathered around Sue. Billy's parents, hearing the noise from all the teenagers entering the house, woke up and came downstairs. They demanded to know what was going on. All the teenagers started at once. Unable to understand what they were saying, Billy's father ordered them all to be quiet and told Billy to explain what happened. Billy did, and when he finished there was absolute silence in the room. Billy's father then asked where the farmhouse was.
He then told the teenagers that about thirty years ago, the old farmer who lived there had been murdered in his sleep. Someone had chopped off his head. The police had never been able to solve the crime or had any motive for the murder. Nothing had been stolen, the old man had not been rich. No clues or fingerprints were ever found. It seemed like the old farmer, appearing the way he did was searching for his murderer. Billy's father advised all the teenagers that any future parties should be helped at someone's home. They all agreed.
By
Kerry Kushner
1984 Grade 9 - 14 years old