I shut my laptop, grabbed a flashlight from the drawer in my desk prepared for the occasion and practically jumped off of the stairs loudly, making it sound like rhinos were about to burst through the walls.
"Hey! Be careful," I heard Mom scold as I got into my sneakers "One of these days you will make those stairs give out under your feet." She came to stand by the door as well, frowning unimpressed and shaking her head.
"Sorry," I apologised in a hurry, practically buzzing with excitement. I don't know how much Mom saw of that, but if she recognised the full capacity of it, she didn't show it. She seemed as oblivious to my lie as ever, if a little annoyed with me.
I grabbed my keys and stuffed them into my pocket, wondering if I had forgotten something. But I couldn't think of anything, so I shrugged it off.
"Be careful honey, and don't accept drinks from strangers." Mom warned me as she came closer to fuss around my clothes, straightening parts and patting them as if I had gotten them dusty. I danced out of her hands and adjusted my clothes.
"I will be fine Mom. Don't worry about me."
"I know that, but as your mother I'm allowed to worry." she told me gently and brushed a kiss on my cheek. As much as I was annoyed by her fussing, the gesture warmed me to my core anyway.
"Bye! I'll be back by 10!" I promised over my shoulder and briefly saw her wave back before I shut the door behind me. I walked briskly down the street and knocked on Jackson's door.
"He's coming!" his father called from behind the door. I waited, a little impatient, feet tapping on the stone steps of the house.
I grinned widely when finally the door opened and Jackson stepped out, all dressed up. He wore blue scrubs with a pair of white sneakers, a statoscope hanging from his neck. He even had a nametag with his name, Dr Jackson Beaver printed on it. He was much taller and more mature looking than me, so much so that if I would have seen him in a hospital like this, I would have believed that he actually worked there as a resident or something.
"Hey. Mom had these laying around," he offered as an explanation.
I nodded, still grinning. It made sense, since his mother worked as a nurse. "Pretty cool. Suits you."
"What about you?" he asked as we began walking.
"Oh! Right," I pulled the mask over my face in a hurry.
"Wicked mask," he smiled "What are you supposed to be though? A ninja? Assassin?"
"A demon of some sort. An Oni. It's a Japanese thing."
He hummed and nodded in understanding. "You could scare some kids easily, looking like this."
"I bet you could too." I grinned playfully behind my mask, then pulled it back to see better.
We both laughed a little at that, then fell silent. Most of the kids who had been trick or treating were probably preparing to go home by then, but we still saw a lot of people dressed up. Some were adults, I guess heading to Halloween parties of their own. I saw Hillary Canning heading somewhere as well, probably to the houseparty we were supposed to go to, and waved to her briefly. She had a similar sense of humor to mine, and she grinned before she waved back. I had asked her to spread the word that we were all at the party that night, only nobody really saw any of us.
Claudia was already waiting in front of the school building when we got there, looking at her phone's screen. Heat concentrated in my belly as I took in her costume.
She wore a red top with black pokadots, a red skirt with similar patterns that hugged her waist and flared out, white kneesocks and her red sneakers with a red jacket. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail, and when she looked up and smiled at us in greeting, I could see that her eyes were outlined in black and had black dots prepped on her cheeks and nose. I was used to her looking nice in general, but this costume looked especially cute on her.
"You look great," I said a little embarrassed.
"Thanks!" she beamed and looked us over "You guys look good too. What are you dressed up as?" she asked me curiously with a tilt of her head.
I pulled the mask over my face once again, smiling "I'm an oni. A Japanese demon, or spirit. In Japanese mythology oni are supposed to bring bad luck, torment souls in hell, but in more modern traditions oni are more like protective spirits, wardens who bring good luck to houses." I only told her this much because I knew she liked it when I talked about this stuff. I often told her about the things I researched online whenever we spent time together.
"Pretty cool," she grinned.
"Thanks."
The others arrived shortly after. Emily and Bettany came together, probably spent the afternoon together and helped each other with their costumes.
Emily was dressed up as a cowgirl, in jeans and cowboy boots, dark hair braided under a hat, and a flannel shirt with sleeves folded up to her elbows. Bettany wore a clown-ish costume. A bright rainbow coloured top and a white skirt with spots in all kinds of colours and sizes, rainbow patterned socks and colourful sneakers. Her face was painted too; white foundation, red lips and black lined eyes. Her blonde hair was tied back in pigtails. I don't like clowns in general, but she looked kind of cute, rather than horrifying.
"You guys look so cute!" Claudia exclaimed as soon as the two girls were in earshot.
"You too!" Betty giggled.
"Jack looks like an actual doctor," Emily laughed teasingly "I don't know how to feel about that."
Jackson and I only rolled our eyes while we waited for the guys to arrive, listening to the girls gush about their costmues. Which wasn't all that long either, and they came in a group as well. They lived in the same direction so they sort of always moved like that.
Neil was dressed in a red football uniform, kneepads and soccer shoes, and had red paint on his face. He brought a very worn out looking football with him tucked under his right arm.
Cody didn't put too much effort into his costume either; he was dressed up as a very loosely recognisable pirate. He had a bandana tied on his forehead, one of his eyes covered with an eyepatch and he wore ragged baggy clothing. He had drawn very sloppy stubble marks on his chin and cheeks, above his lips, but it looked really funny to be honest. Not the desired effect I'm afraid.
Scott wore fake plastic chainmail shirt over a long white garnment, a leather belt around his waist, and a pair of leather gloves. A wooden longsword was tucked into the belt, probably made by his father. Mr Larson was really skilled at working wood. Scott even had a circular wooden shield strapped on his back with a dragon painted on it. The whole picture was only ruined by the the jeans and sneakers he was wearing.
"Scotty, you outdid yourself as always!" I joked lightly as they joined us by the closed off schoolgates.
"I put more effort into it than you," he sniffed, not really upset.
I shrugged, it was true.
"Don't start guys," Betty chided "You look fine. Even you Cody," she snickered "Who drew those on your face?"
"It was me," said Cody in a sniffy voice, chin tilted up. More of those shabby marks got visible under his jaw.
"Yeah, I think everyone can see that." Emily and Claudia both agreed with held back laughter.
We continued to banter like that for a few minutes, making fun of each other's costmues for no real reason, adventure momentarily forgotten. But everyone fell quiet as a group of kids went past us with some parents. We got curious looks, and quite a few of them cast worried glances at Jackson. I was totally right before, I thought to myself happily and shared a look with him. He rolled his eyes in answer.
Neil started kicking the ball on his knees, passing it from one leg to the other. He was really good at that. He was the leader of the school soccer team too, so his getup was very much appropriate if I do say so myself.
"What now?" he asked with a bored expression as we watched the ball bouncing. I knew he wasn't too thrilled to go to that house. He told me he would much rather go to that house party, but agreed to join us anyway. He didn't want to be the only one not coming I guess.
"We take the bus to Longway Street and walk from there. Simple enough." I grinned.
"Simple plan of a simple man," Jackson nodded along seriously, the ever supportive friend.
"Gee, thanks."
We all laughed as we began our journey to the nearest bus stop that was only about fifty metres away. I checked the time table and found that the next bus going in the direction we wanted would be at our stop in a few minutes.
"Everyone got the flashlights?" I asked to make sure, before I forgot.
They echoed 'Yes' in unison and held up the devices, switching them on briefly to show they were in working condition. Scott very helpfully flashed his in my eyes. Probably payback for my earlier comment.
The bus was kind of old and smelly, empty in those late hours. The driver looked us over suspiciously as we showed him our passes but said nothing when we sat down at the far end. I had the strange chilling feeling that somebody was watching us the whole ride though.
But I tried to push that thought to the back of my mind as we began talking about the old mansion in hushed tones. Everyone seemed to be excited by our little plan by then, well, except maybe Neil. He looked kind of anxious, which was really out of character for him. He wasn't the worried type. I felt kind of bad about that to be honest, but at that point I couldn't have told him to go home. We were almost at our stop. Plus I didn't want to embarrass him, even though nobody would have made fun of him for not wanting to come afterall.
It was much darker when we got off the bus. There were only a few streetlights littered on the corners of the abandoned path we were on. The streets sounded oddly quiet for a Halloween night. But then again, it was getting late and we were on the outskirts of the city. There weren't a lot of houses there to begin with, not a lot of traffic either.
The air was getting chilled and gloomy. The sky got even darker and the moon was slowly climbing up by then. It was going to get darker too, clouds swimming across the sky to cover up those few shiny dots that came out, and soon the moon would vanish as well. It would get pitch black, I thought.
So perfect!
We couldn't see the mansion well from where we were standing. The house stood on a small hill hidden by the high stone walls surrounding it. Only parts of the house were visible, even more obscured in the darkness. The trees creeping out from its other side gave it a rather sinister looking silhoulette.
I shone my flashlight ahead on the ground as we climbed the hill, slowly approaching the gates. Emily cried out when an owl flew over our heads into the dark forest. We had a good laugh at her outburst but now thinking back, other than that everyone was oddly quiet. I didn't notice anything wrong though, I had tunnel vision with the house on the other end.
By the time we reached the gates eveyone had their flashlights out and switched on. The clouds were covering up the sky fast by then, and a stronger wind was raising. I just hoped it wouldn't start raining. That would have spoiled the fun a little.
As small kids the gates had loomed over us seemingly impossibly high. As teenagers they weren't as intimidating, but still very creepy looking. I spared a glance towards my friends, and they seemed creeped out all right. Especially Neil - he was frowning, brows hunched together. Maybe I should have asked him if he wanted to stay back afterall. Too late for that though.
"How do we get in?" Jackson asked, looking up at the gates.
Claudia touched the chains and the lock on the gates, old rusty things "I wonder if we could break these."
"Better not," I told them "We don't want to attract attention. Just go in, and then come out."
"And how are we going to do that?" Scott looked skeptical as always.
"Follow me crew!" I sang, going around to the side of the house, to the crack in the stone wall I had wriggled through as a kid. There was a slope at that spot, where the ground was relatively high against the wall. It made the wall low enough to climb over. "Ladies and gentlemen, our way in."
I made sure everyone was safely over before I climbed up as well, hoisting myself up and dropping down on the other side. My friends were spilling light this and that way by then in the quiet yard. It had this creepy horror movie vibe, with crumbling statues and half dead hedges that might have been trimmed into different shapes before. Though, I noticed that all the junk I had seen as a kid littered around the place had been removed. It looked relatively clean.
"Everyone okay?" I asked to make sure. The series of nods I got back satisfied me.
"There isn't much to look at here," Bettany commented as we walked around aimlessly among the rows of dead plants and decayed statues. There was one that really creeped me out when I shone light on it. It was an angel with it's wings broken off in large portions. It had a pained expression amplified by the crumpling stone on its face. I shuddered as I looked into its eyes. They almost looked pleading.
"This one looks like you Betty," we all drifted towards Cody's voice in the yard. We found him looking at a sculpture of a lady whose face was half broken off, limbs falling off as well. She might have been a ballet dancer once upon a time.
"Very funny Cody," Bettany rolled her eyes.
"Can we go inside now?" Scott asked, after we were done messing around.
"Yeah. You promised us spooks Josh," Claudia teased.
I shrugged lazily "I don't see why not."
As we neared the house I noticed that all the windows had been repaired. There was no broken in glass, and no flaking paint. It looked like it had been retouched. This kind of made me worried - did someone move in?
I felt a bit relieved when I took the handle of the massive double doors and pulled, opening one side with a groan. I entered first, making sure the coast was clear, then the monster hunter gang followed me inside
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