PART I (or something)
I peered nervously at the knife in Terrence’s hand and swallowed. I had an urge to say something, but he’d probably whack me if I did. I sighed. My mouth couldn’t hold back any longer. “I don’t know if I trust you with that knife in your hand, Terry,” I told him.
As I had guessed, he glared at me. Sam laughed from beside him. “It’s only a pumpkin carving knife Tori. Though I wouldn’t say that while he’s holding it.”
Okay, so knife is a big word…still. I made Virgil carve my pumpkin for me. I didn’t trust myself with knife. Even a dull one. Probably a smart idea right?
“I’m doing fine,” Terrence muttered unhappily. “Now, shut up Tori. You’re breaking my concentration.”
“I used to love that game!” Mom piped up, hurrying by carrying a large bowl of candy.
“Oh, wait! Mom! When does trick or treating start this year?” I called after her, leaping up and startling Snowflake in the process who went flying off under the couch.
“I thought I told you already! 5:30, Tori. I’m not telling you again! I’m a little busy, if you can tell,” she called back, and picked up her laundry basket.
Okay, so she might have told me a few times, but I had a bad memory! And besides, she wasn’t doing that much. Just laundry and dinner, and getting candy ready…that’s like, three things less than usual.
If you can’t tell by now, it was Halloween night and therefore, chaos had ensued (i.e. we waited till last minute to do, well, everything, which is why I was going as a flower. I just couldn’t decide and Mom threw something at me and Virgil said he thought I’d look cute, so it was decided. Then Terry said my freckles could be seeds and I kicked his ankle.)
“Next time, you’ll have to ask her,” I told Virgil, who was peering anxiously under the couch at Snowflake. “By the way, where’s David?”
“Oh,” Virgil said, looking back at me. “She’s going with some of her friends from 8th grade.”
“Ah, well. We’re not cool enough for her?” I asked, jokingly.
“Nope,” Virgil grinned.
Just then, the doorbell rang.
Mom leapt out of nowhere, wearing her witch costume which she wears every year (I told her it was uninventive one year, but she threatened to eat all my candy in the night so I shut up), candy in hand, grumbling, “They’re 10 minutes early!”
“Then don’t give them any candy,” Sam suggested.
“No way! I don’t want to seem like a mean witch,” she said, and flung open the door.
As it turned out, it wasn’t trick-or-treaters, but two familiar faces. Two entirely too familiar faces. In fact, I would have rather it had been trick-or-treaters. Especially when I saw what they were wearing. Or…weren’t wearing, that is.
“HELLO MEHALLS AND VIRGIL AND SAM!” the twins called loudly, waving eagerly from the door.
See what I meant?
I got up to greet them anyway. “Uh…what are you two doing here?” I asked, hoping they just came to borrow some sugar or something. Yeah, right.
“We came to be with you for the night!” one of them (possibly Till) announced, tugging on something out of sight, as I still hadn’t decided whether or not to round the corner to be in full view of the front door.
“Yes! For the American holiday of the tricks and treats!” the other announced (possibly Wrevor).
“What a…um…lovely surprise,” Mom said and hurried off as the washer dinged, saying it was done with the current load.
“Where’d you get our address?” I demanded, finally rounding the corner.
“We hacked it from your phone,” Till admitted, still trying to pull something.
“From which we got your phone number back in Florida when you weren’t looking,” Wrevor added, going to help his brother with the pulling.
That’s when I noticed their outfits, or lack of. “Er…” I stuttered, really kind of wishing I hadn’t rounded the corner. “What are you wearing?” I also noticed what they were pulling. “And what is that???”
Terrence appeared next to me. “Why are you two here…uh…covered in glitter? And holy crap, what’s with the ginormous pumpkin???”
“We found it!” Till announced, finally managing to pull the wheel barrow carrying the sumo-sized pumpkin over our threshold.
“Well…we couldn’t decide what to wear,” Wrevor nodded, going around to push the pumpkin from behind. Okay. It was official. The rainbow glitter covering their entire bodies, minus their hands, and face was blinding.
“Usually, we have this cycle,” Till said.
“First, we go as something scary-“
“Then something adorable-“
“Then something either inappropriate or creepy-“
“But this year we got into this huge argument over what we had worn last year-“
“So we kind of ended up putting them all together last minute,” Wrevor finished.
Finally, the other two boys came over to see what the holdup was. As they did, I checked my watch, otherwise known as the clock in the desk room. “Oh crap! We should be going,” I announced. “MOM! CAN WE LEAVE?!”
She walked up from the laundry room. “Okay, but take Casper with you.”
“What? Mo-om….” I moaned unhappily. Casper always ruined it by yelling at us to “stay on the left side of the road” and “don’t do such and such” and etc. “Aren’t we old enough to go alone by now?”
“Aren’t you old enough to be done with trick-or-treating?” Mom retorted, readjusting the laundry basket on her hip.
“Puh-lease? I mean, the twins are coming! They’re tall, and foreign, and I sincerely doubt anyone will come within 10 feet of us with them looking like that,” I argued, kind of glad they were helping my argument.
Mom sighed and looked conflicted. I glanced over at the boys for back up, but they were trying to demand to know “please God tell me you’re wearing something else under that.” Which, I wouldn’t really want to know in the first place but the doppelgangers were refusing to answer (a rarity) so it probably couldn’t be good.
So, I was on my own, being tested by the Inquisition. “Well…” she finally muttered. “I guess you can go alone-“
“YES!” I yelled. “Thank you, Mom! Thank you, thank you, thank-“
“WAIT,” she shouted. “If-“
“I hate ifs,” Terrence whispered. Oh sure, now he was here. But he wasn’t that great with excuses anyway…probably better he wasn’t there or we’d have been polishing oranges for a week afterwards…
“-you all take your phones, you check in every hour, you don’t talk to strangers, and you’re back by precisely 7:30 PM. No later. I want to get everyone home. Tell…um…tell you know who that. They seem to be night owls, which probably isn’t good…” she winced. “Fine. Go. Have fun. Get me some candy.”
“Yes Ms. Mehall!” Terrence announced and skipped off, which looked kind of funny considering he was a make-shift pirate that year.
I hugged her. “I promise! Come on guys!” I announced, grabbing Virgil’s hand and dragging him outside before she could change her mind.
“If you could find a giant candle for that-“ Till said, pointing at the pumpkin.
“-it would look way awesome!” was the last thing out of anyone’s mouth before Mom slammed the door behind us, still muttering to herself.
Probably for the best…
***
Okay, I was about to go criminally insane. The twins. Would not. Shut up. Sure, they were cute, but they could also be kind of a) disgusting, b) brutally honest without realizing it and c) creepy.
Right, I already am insane…maybe not criminally so, I mean, I have a stem and I am not afraid to use to right? See?
Yeah. I’m kinda insane.
Virgil was laughing at the face I was making (which, really, wasn’t that funny) and I would poke him or something but I didn’t want to get makeup all over my hand.
He was a zombie soccer player. He had let me try and do his monster makeup but, unfortunately, Mom came along, gasped and grabbed the makeup remover. I mean, it wasn’t even that bad. Gosh, Mother. Though, I do admit, she can do it slightly better than me…what? She’s had practice!!!
Either way, I was totally right about people not coming within 10 feet of us. Probably good for their safety. Fear the daisy, people. Fear it.
I like Halloween (though last year, trying to throw a Halloween party took way too much work and evil fairy problems for my taste, but I did get an awesome boyfriend out of it (and Sam, but that’s beside the point)) but, Mom was kind of right. We go around and people look at us weird because we’re teenagers and they’re convinced we’re going to egg their houses and steal all their candy, so it’s a little awkward. Especially when other teenagers hand you candy and then look at you like you’re an idiot.
Lucky for us, we’re either too short to be sure (now I’m not saying who and I’m definitely not going to admit to saying that later), don’t care, or are way too intimidating to mess with (i.e. Virgil who does look pretty scary, though, I’d still kiss him if I could.)
Suddenly, lost in my own thoughts, I ran right into the back of Sam who had stopped moving for some reason. Actually, everyone had. I looked at them. “Uh…what’s going on?” I asked.
Terry pointed. In front of us stood a huge, dark, freaky looking haunted house that I could have sworn wasn’t there earlier when we got home from school. “Has that…um…always been there?” It seemed like the kind of place where darkness surrounded it all the time and lightning struck only in that spot in the neighborhood.
“No,” Virgil mumbled.
“What’s it doing here?” asked Sam.
“Generally, being a house?” Terrence suggested and Sam shot him a look that conveyed more things than I could recognize, though one of them was definitely annoyance.
“Maybe it’s a haunted house!” Till suggested, and his brother nodded.
“People do those, don’t they?” he asked, looking genuinely interested.
Well, they were British. Nothing against British people, I was just saying that they probably didn’t have all the weird American stuff we had across the pond. Like hamburgers. Or the Fourth of July. I nodded and looked at Virgil to make sure we weren’t all imagining the house or something weird like that.
“I’ve been down your street quite a few times now and I don’t remember that being there,” he went to rub his chin but pulled his hand away just in time to avoid ruining the whole undead look. “Why don’t we just turn around and-“
“Or we could INVESTIGATE it!” the twins chorused and went running off towards it.
“What?” I looked at Terry. “What?? No! Get back here!” I ran after them.
“Tori!” Virgil called and ran after me. And so it went on until we were all standing at the foot of the black, large, creepy looking house.
“Holy sh-“ Terrence began but I shot him a look. “Shiitake mushrooms.” Sam raised an eyebrow at him and he just shrugged. “We were all thinking it.”
Virgil looked over at me and tried to say, “I really don’t think this is a good idea.”
I nodded quickly and moved closer towards him, thoroughly creeped out. “I agree.”
“Oh please,” one of the twins rolled his eyes and waved us off.
“Don’t be wimps!” the other one said, mimicking his brother’s actions. Then they started off again.
We all sighed but followed them, sadly though, this time I was grabbed by strong hands and pulled into the bushes. I tried to scream but my mouth was covered. I struggled but was let down my minimal amount of arm strength once again. “Mmmm!” I demanded indignantly.
"Sh-psh!" a voice hushed me. “Stop squirming!”
I wanted to say, "You're the one that dragged me into a bush," but it just came out like a bunch of humming. I stopped anyway, wishing he would retract his grip.
"Are you done?" he hissed. I tried to see the face of my captor but, sadly, I had branches sticking up my nose instead and was unable. I eventually gave up, though still wiggled my fingers in one last effort of escape. To my surprise, my hand managed to break free of his shoulder lock and I pulled his hand off my mouth.
I probably should have been more focused on getting the twig sticking into my eye out of the way, but it's uncomfortable having some guy you've never seen (at all) before put his hand on your mouth. "What do you want?" I demanded. Why is it always me? I thought. "I was walking there."
"Yeah," he said, releasing his hold on me. "Some place to be walking." I turned around to look at him and almost fell out of the bush. “You shouldn’t be here.”
It wasn't because he looked terribly odd...well, besides his hair. He had brown eyes and pale skin and was cocking an eyebrow at me in disdain. His hair, however, looked like it had had a failure of a rainbow throw up on it.
"Woah," I blurted. "What happened to your hair?" It was also sticking up in weird directions, like it had had a failure gel job that morning.
He huffed grumpily, probably used to hearing that. Hey, he was the one who had kidnapped me. "I don’t think-"
At that point, four long, glitter-covered arms reached down into the bushes and hoisted me out by my under arms. I was so glad somebody had helped me that I accidentally hugged the doppelgangers, permanently covering myself in glitter in the process. The whole group of boys cheered happily. "What happened?" Virgil asked, coming over and dusting me off.
"Some guy grabbed me!" I told them.
"Why?" Terrence asked.
"Why not?" the twins responded to the question that wasn’t meant for them.
I just shrugged. "He just told me to go away from here." But as the sky around us began to darken and the creepy house's shadow grew, I began to agree with Bush Dude. “Kind of.”
"Where?" Till asked.
I pointed to the bushes. "We'll get it!" Wrevor announced, and they both went toward the bushes from which I had recently emerged.
"We should be going," Sam suggested. I nodded quickly, agreeing.
"Yeah," Terry nodded too, and we turned on our heels, muttering things about random appearing houses. That was, until the twins strolled up, toting along Bush Guy who looked less then pleased. He might have been almost as tall as them (a feat somewhat amazing in itself,) but they had a firm grip on him and were smiling hugely, per usual. "Here you go," they said and deposited him on his butt next to me.
"Gee, thanks," I managed. Yes, because I wanted him. Actually, all I wanted was to go home and just steal some candy from Mom's basket instead. Bush Guy kind of looked like he wanted to do that too.
Sam reached down and tried to help him to his feet, but he ignored him and got up himself, dusting the dirt off his jeans and looking annoyed. Virgil looked over at me with a weird look on his face. My shoulder met my ears again and he looked away.
Bush Guy looked at me accusingly, "I thought I told you to go away."
"You didn't tell me to go away," Terrence pointed out unhelpfully, as we were just about to leave anyway.
"Nor us," chorused the twins.
"Well, we were leaving," I grumbled, just wanting the uneasy sensation in my stomach to stop. "But now that you're here..." I trailed off, completely losing my train of thought.
"What are you doing here?" Sam suggested, holding my thoughts better than I could. I nodded, though, and moved closer to Virgil.
I really didn't feel like knowing what he was doing there if it a) was something bad because we just always seemed to get involved in that kind of thing and I just wasn't in the mood or b) if it was a long story. Who knew why large, dark, appearing houses freaked me out, but they did and it wasn't gonna be long before I went running off screaming like the mental patient I truly was inside. And maybe it was just a bad taste in my mouth or the overwhelming expectation of being struck by random lightning at any second, but I had a bad feeling about the place.
“I’m on duty,” the guy announced, stick his nose up.
“What kind of duty?” Till asked.
“Is this your house?” Wrevor asked.
“No!” he exclaimed hurriedly. “I just-it’s a special kind of duty.”
Terry rolled his eyes. “Right. What kind of special duty involves hanging around in the bushes around some creepy house?”
“Landscaping?” Till pointed out unhelpfully.
“Surveying?” Wrevor added.
They really had to learn that all questions weren’t meant to be answered. At least, not always by them.
“No,” Bush Guy grumbled.
“Can we leave now?” Virgil asked, sounding exasperated. He tugged on my sleeve and pouted at me.
“Yes,” Sam said.
“No!” Terry argued. “I want to know what he’s doing here! He could be a mass murderer for all we know! If we leave him here, he might kill again…” he trailed off ominously and eyed Bush Guy closely. Bush Guy just rolled his eyes.
I glared at Terry. Most of the time, I loved him. Now was not one of those times.
“I’m on duty,” Bush Guy repeated. “Guard duty.”
“Guarding what?” Till asked.
“The house?” Wrevor asked.
“You!” Bush Guy threw his hands up.
“Us?” I snort-laughed. “By hiding in a bush?”
He glowered at me and waved us off with a rude hand gesture. By then we were all laughing at least a little. He was obviously delusional. “Bye, Bush Dude!” I called as I turned to leave, still laughing.
“My name is AJ,” he grumbled. “And you people deserve to get captured by him!”
“Him?” Terry asked. “Right, sure.”
“When you’re all trapped, don’t come crying to me!” Bush Guy shouted.
“Ha,” I began. “I don’t th-“ Then the ground opened out from below us.
We all fell down, down, down except the twins who had been being surprisingly quiet (for them) and apparently had trap-tracking devices installed in their brains and AJ the Bush Guy. Everything was pitch black. I tried to scream but was unable.
So, down, down, down, into the rabbit hole we fell. And this Alice was not a happy girl about it.
Ps. Tori and Virgil are together, Tori's my MC of my other series, you probably know Sam and Terry and the twins and AJ is guy from my other main series. ^^
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