There's this old mansion outside the city, you know, the kind of place kids like to scare each other with. Make up horror stories about it, dare each other to go past the tall metal gates chained closed. Go up to the house and throw a rock at the already broken in, dusty windows. Or take something; a metal scrap from the garden, a piece of wood, some of the peeling paint from the side of the house. Evidence that you were actually there. That you were brave enough. Or stupid enough. Whichever.
It's been closed off for a while now actually. Ever since some trespassing punks climbed the wall and broke into the house. Well, the door was unlocked, so It wasn't really breaking into the house. More like, entering without permission.
But they almost got crushed to death by a portion of the ceiling crumbling and falling off. The whole area was closed off after that. It was officially a mortal danger to people. I wasn't sure who owned it, but seeing what went down in there, I was convinced it would be destroyed at some point, have a completely new house built in the place of the old one. That never happened though.
In fact, there were rumors of activity inside the house recently. Lights at night, strange sounds and movement reported by people driving/passing by. It sparked up a whole another wave of gossip, kids scaring each other with old and newly made up outlandish stories. At least it gave the locals something to talk about. It wasn't significant enough for the media to pick it up, just a subject for smalltalk I guess.
I admit, I was intrigued as well. It reminded me of the good ol times when Claudia Becker had dared me to go up to the house and bring her back something. I can almost hear all the kids from our neighbourhood giggling and clapping as I found a way inside the yard and made my way slowly towards the creepy ass house. I remember how my heart pounded in my chest, my sweaty hands and unsure steps. I was expecting something to jump out at any moment and bite my head off.
I had looked back at Claudia to make sure they were still there, and seeing her calmed my nerves a little. Okay, sure, I might have had a crush on her. No big deal okay? The point is, I was up at the front doors of the house by then. Yeah. Doors. Plural. They were quite huge too, a faded purple colour and had those creepy metal knocker things as handles. No doorbell of course.
I spotted something shiny in the grass right beside the small marble staircase leading up to the entrance. It was some kind of an ornament, decorative thing. I don't know. It was made of metal, small enough to fit in my palms, so I nicked it and made a run for it back outside the gates. By the time I got out, my friends were all cheering and laughing, patting me on my shoulders and stuff. I got a peck on the cheek from Claudia too when I handed the ornament to her. So yeah. It was totally worth it.
The whole thing had me curious though. And still being a kid, I had this idea that I could totally break into the house and look around this time. Maybe even take pictures. Or meet the people living inside. If there was anyone living there at all. Or anything living there.
A lot of different stories had gone around the city over the years. Some suggested ghosts haunting the old mansion, maybe even demons who posess people, that they made the ceiling fall down consumed by the fury to revenge their violent deaths. I didn't believe that of course. Ghosts can be everywhere, maybe in a parallel dimension, but I don't think they can posess people or objects.
Other stories suggested all kinds of different monsters living in that house. Goblins, trolls, gremlins, winged creatures, anything the imagination can handle really. There were no limits to what people could make up. It wasn't like anyone was going to clarify anything about whose property it was. So people were free to imagine whatever they wanted. The fact that it was on the outskirts of the city, next to a thick forest, only helped to spark the imagination.
I liked to imagine what kind of monsters would take up residence in there too, though my imagination was limited to the kinds of creatures I knew from folklore and mythology, from urban legends. I had my reasons to suspect this or that could be living in the house, in the big garden surrounding it. It was fun you know? My friends thought so too. We joked around, playing with the idea of revisiting the old house, for the sake of nostalgia.
One day we actually made a promise to do it. On Halloween night, no less. We thought it would be fun to sneak around and get inside while everyone else was distracted by the trick or treating kids. I liked the plan too.
It was going to be me, my next door neighbour and best friend; Jackson Beaver, plus our friends from school; Bettany Palmer, Neil Flaming, Cody Thomson, Emily Rivers, Scott Larson, and Claudia Becker. It was a nice little team. We all agreed to dress up as well, which I found to be a fun detail in our plan.
I didn't have to ponder too much on my costume, I already had a pretty good idea in mind. I was going to wear a pair of black jeans, a black turtleneck, my black sneakers and a Japanese mask I had bought months prior. It was simple and classy in my opinion. I even planned to paint around my eyes with black makeup to bring the whole thing together.
I told my parents I was going to a Halloween party with my friends, which granted me permission to stay out longer than usual. They probably only let me "go" because I said Jackson would be there with me, and in their mind he was the reasonable one out of the two of us. He would keep me from doing stupid stuff. Which was fair enough, Jackson was kind of the voice of reason in our group.
And I was pretty darn lucky too that I didn't have a younger sibling I would have had to take out for trick-or-treating. I remember how annoyed my older sister had been when she had to do that for me, before I was old enough to go alone. Well, not completely alone. I always had Jackson and friends with me. But you get my point.
I was very much excited on the day of Halloween. I hadn't been to any sort of adventure since our last school trip. Our bus broke down in the middle of nowhere and we had to rent rooms at a crappy motel until someone came to fix the bus. We spent the night assigned in groups, me and Jackson obviously ended up with our friends, and each group got one room.
We didn't get a minute of sleep, obviously. We stayed up all night playing card games, telling spooky stories, sneaking out of our room to explore outside. It was more fun than the rest of the trip to be honest. Anyway. I'm getting off track here.
On the 31st of October, a beutiful sunny Friday, we had school, so we agreed to meet back there in the afternoon. This little adventure was all we could talk about all day, even during class, which our teachers didn't appreciate much. We would trade occasional secret smiles and grins with each other, the fact that only we knew what we were so happy about only added to the excitement.
We parted ways outside the school building after our last period ended, only Jackson accompanied me to the street we lived on.
"What are you dressing up as?" he asked absently as we shuffled along the main street from school. Despite the month about to change to November, the air was quite warm and the sky was clear.
"It's a secret!" I sang with a huge grin. He huffed with a roll of his eyes but made no attempt to ask again. "What about you?"
"I won't tell you either," he mockingly copied my tone.
I laughed, then shoved him playfully a little "Fair enough. Don't tell me then."
We fell into a comfortable silence, and went on our separate ways in front of his house with fistbumps and matching grins.
"I'll come and get you later!" I called after him, already walking backwards to my house. He didn't face me, just made a waving gesture with his hand. I turned around the right way and walked with a bounce in my steps. I was so pumped for the night. I didn't care that technically it was illegal, basically trespassing, what we were planning. I guess the thrill of it made me even more hyped.
"Hey mom!" I called as soon as I was past the front door, kicking my shoes off against the wall and hung my jacket by the entrance.
"In the kitchen!" I heard her muffled answer. I trotted past the livingroom and found her in the kitchen, in the process of carving a pumpkin on the island in the middle. The table was protected with laid out pieces of newspaper, littered with pumpkin seeds and gunk.
"Are you gutting that poor pumpkin?" I asked with a frown as I looked inside the fridge and found a can of soda.
"Yupp. Gonna make a great decorative piece for the front porch, wouldn't you say?" she rotated the pumpkin to face me.
I bit back a laugh when I saw what she had carved into it. I don't mean to sound mean, but it looked like something a five year old carved. The design itself was a face, smiling toothily. The lines were jagged, obviously carved very clumsily. My mother wasn't known for her craftmanship, being a lawyer, but she seemed to enjoy these mundane things, which I thought was good. Everyone needs a relaxing hobby in their lives.
I didn't want to hurt Mom's feelings, so I put on a polite smile and pecked her cheek on my way out "Looks great Mom,"
"Thank you," I heard her answer while I discarded my backpack and flopped down on our couch in the livingroom, sipping my soda. I had some time to kill before our organised meeting, so I took some time to relax. "Honey, when are you going over to Jackson's?"
"Around seven," I raised my voice so that she could hear me "We are going to the party after meeting up with some friends in front of the school." I smiled a little behind the soda can. It wasn't a complete lie, was it?
"Should I give you something to take with you?" she came out of the kitchen carefully holding the carved pumpkin with both hands. She held it like it was made of glass, afraid to drop it. "Would you open the door for me, please?"
I jumped up from my comfortable position and followed her to the front door. "It's a houseparty Mom, not a dinner party. I don't have to bring anything." I told her as I held the door open for her and the pumpkin.
"Thank you sweetie." she sighed and set the pumpkin on the top of the front porch, turning it this and that way until she deemed it perfect and smiled satisfied. "If you say so. But don't stay out too late alright? I want you home by 10 maximum."
"Sure. I wasn't planning to stay out long. Where's Dad by the way?"
Mom took the towel perched on her left shoulder and started cleaning the pumpkin goo from her hands. "He called home about an hour ago. He has to stay in the office later than expected. Seems like I will have to eat dinner and greet Trick-or-Treaters alone." she sniffed.
I only shook my head in answer, whisked up the empty soda can from the coffee table where I had left it and shouldered my bag. "I'll be home before you realize I was gone."
"I know, it just gets lonely here without you and your sister."
I felt a little guilty about that. Amelia was away, living in a rented apartment with another girl who also went to college. I missed her too, but I hadn't realised how much it affected Mom and Dad.
I wrapped her in a hug and pecked her cheek again "I'm sorry Mom."
She smoothed a hand gently over my face when I pulled back and smiled. "Don't be sweetie, I'm just being foolish right now. Go ahead, I won't hold you up longer. I have to clean up in the kitchen anyway. It looks like a battleground."
I nodded with a small smile and made my way up the stairs, but spared a glance at her retreating form halfway up. I felt kind of guilty then, for lying to her about the party and everything, but I wasn't about to tell her truth.
Once in my room I spent half a second deciding that I was gonna ditch homework for the day. I was in no mood to deal with that. Instead I sat at my desk and spent the afternoon on my laptop, watching videos and reading up on stuff I found interesting. Hours went by quite fast like that, and before I could realise it was already past six.
The excitement bubbled up again in my chest as I got into my costume and started applying the makeup. I looked at my reflection and grinned. It was going to be so fun! I slid my fingers through my short hair and made it look a bit more untidy. Once I was satisfied with the results, I tried on the mask.
It fit my face perfectly, and the black makeup did help to conceal my eyes better. With the dark clothes I was wearing, I imagined in the darkness of the night I would totally look like a demon or a ghost.
I'm being a broken record right now, but I was really, REALLY pumped about that night. Call me a weirdo but dumb things like that excite me. I've always enjoyed playing pranks on people, being at places I wasn't supposed to go to, at times I wasn't allowed to. If that place was some creepy abandoned building, that was definitely a plus in my book.
I liked to drag Jackson into these things, because it's not as fun to do them alone. I needed a partner in crime. And after a bit of convincing he was always game, which I loved about him. He always grumbled and complained about me being stupid and how bad my ideas were, but I could tell that deep down he liked them.
At least I think he liked them. I like to think he did. He usually went along with whatever we agreed on and he never betrayed me, ever. Even when things didn't turn out as fun as I had planned them, Jackson was never one to bring that up. It always went kind of unsaid, which made it feel a lot less like failure to me. I appreciated that a lot.
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