The little green and white house on Windlestar Lane was decorated with cobwebs and pumpkins of all shapes and sizes. The streetlights cast an eerie glow over the dark shrubs that spanned the yard. The moon was full and orange underneath the misty clouds that washed over it. It was Halloween night and all of the trick-or-treaters had long gone home. Inside of the house four girls were having a great time.

Abbey, Katie, Holly and Lena huddled under duvets and munched on Mars bars as a blood curdling scream ripped through the air. The girls were watching The Ring II and it was the first faze of their annual Halloween Haunt-a-thon.

The girls all sat in their pajamas, with traces of make-up still lingering on their skin. Each of the girls’ costumes said something about them. Abbey was a pirate, she would never let anything stand in her way when she decided she wanted something, even if it meant she had to upset someone else. She had curly brown hair, icy blue eyes and was very small for eye age. Katie was a fairy princess, anything gory scared her and she always liked to bring a little bit of glamour to her ensemble. She had long blonde hair and blue eyes. Holly was a wicked witch, she had different beliefs than most and found herself drawn to witchcraft. She had long black hair and light purple eyes that set her
appearance apart from most. Lena had dressed up as a black cat; she was sneaky and liked to blend in with her surroundings. She had mousy brown hair and eyes and a little button nose.

The movie came to an end and Abbey turned the TV off, then turning to look at friends she said, “Guess what time it is?”

Lena playing along replied, “What time is it Abbey?”

“It’s time for Phase Two of our annual Haunt-a-thon,” explained Abbey.

The girls looked at each other and started laughing as they called out in unison, “Truth or Dare!”

Turning devilishly to Katie, Abbey asked, “Truth or dare?”

Katie twisted a lock of her curly blonde hair and whispered, “Truth.”

“What a surprise,” laughed Holly picking up a packet of Sour Patch Kids.

“I don’t think you’ve ever picked dare,” stated Lena, “Why are you so scared?”

“N.. no. I’m not scared,” replied Katie.

“Come on let’s just give her a truth question so that we can get to our dares,” said Abbey impatiently.

“I’m not scared!” yelled Katie.

“Fine, whatever,” muttered Holly.

“Give me a dare,” whispered Katie.

“What?” asked a surprised Abbey.

“Give me a dare,” she said louder, with only a hint of a quiver in her voice.

“Alright then,” said Lena smiling, “Go down into the basement without turning the lights on...”

“Easy enough,” interrupted Katie.

“Once you are down there go to that little door behind the stairs and slip a note underneath it,” continued Lena.

“Why?” asked Katie nervously.

“Maybe you’ll get a response,” laughed Abbey, “Are you ready?”

“Umm..Well,” started Katie.

“It’s too late now. Come on!” called Abbey, leading the way to the basement stairs.

Lena pulled out a pad of paper and wrote a short note on it. She ripped it off and handed it to Katie. She gulped nervously as she followed them. The girls stopped and
looked expectantly at Katie.

“Come on hurry up,” said Holly.

“I don’t think I want to do this,” whispered Katie.

“Fine. You don’t have to,” said Abbey, “ Here’s your truth then. Are the rumors about you and Jake Freedman true?”

Katie sighed and began to walk down the stairs, “Alright.”

The door shut behind Katie and she gulped. The wooden stairs creaked. Boxes were piled high around the edges of the basement. Katie stepped down onto the cold cement floor, half expecting her feet to sink into it and trap her there. The rusted metal door had a double dead-bolt lock on it so the girls, although they had tried could not get
through to the other side. Katie didn’t know why she felt so nervous. The girls had been down there plenty of times, usually they would try and scare each other by jumping out from behind the boxes.

Katie stopped in front of the door. Nervously, she folded the sheet of paper in half and slipped it underneath the door. She sighed in the silence. The other girls waited
upstairs, wondering what was taking so long.

“Ahhh!,” she screamed running up the stairs and slamming the door behind her.

Down in the basement a long, gnarly hand turned the knob slowly as the other turned a cold, silver key in the lock. The door opened slowly and a figure stepped out into the basement.

Katie ran at full tilt into the family room where the girls had started another movie. They were laughing as they ate candy. They turned to look at her scared face.

“What’s wrong?” asked Lena.

“Look,” whispered Katie, holding out the piece of paper with shaky hands.

Lena unfolded the note and stared at the words written down. Holly read it curiously and Abbey took the note next. She laughed as she read it. Holly and Lena stared
at her surprised by her reaction.

“Abbey she really looks scared,” whispered Holly.

“Do you really think she would set this all up?” asked Lena.

“Nice try Katie. You almost had me fooled there,” said Abbey, “Just one question though. Who’s ‘we’?”

“Why would I write a note that says ‘we are coming?’ Give me some credit. Even I could come up with something better than that,” said Katie angrily.

“Well nothing is behind that door and it is impossible that people cold be in there. It leads to an old cellar or something like that. Anyway there is a double deadbolt on that
door so to get through both sides have to be unlocked,” Abbey explained.

“Is our side of the door locked?” asked Katie.

“I don’t know. When we moved in here the lady said that she didn’t have a key to the room down there,” explained Abbey.

“Well I’m going home,” said Katie, “I have never really liked Halloween and now I’m scared. You guys really aren’t helping me feel better right now so I’m going home.
I’ll see you later.”

With that Katie rolled up her sleeping bag, grabbed her candy sack and walked out the door. Holly and Lena looked at Abbey angrily. Lena walked over to the window and watched as Katie walked down the street and disappeared into her house.

“Nice work,” said Lena, “Why didn’t you just play along. You know Halloween scares her. She probably imagined she saw the door moving. The least you could have done is try and make her feel better.”

“Well you didn’t exactly step up and say that you believed her did you?” snapped Abbey, “She needs to grow up and get over her silly fears. There are no monsters under her bed. She’s old enough to have figured that out by now.”

“Why are you being so mean about this?” asked Lena, “I’m not putting up with this anymore. Every year you scare Katie silly and she never complains. I’m going over
there.”

Lena packed up her bags and walked down the street to Katie’s house. Abbey and Holly saw Katie’s mom answer the door and let Lena in. Holly plunked herself down on the couch and flipped through a magazine.

“Well what are we going to do now?” sighed Holly.

“I don’t know,” groaned Abbey flinging herself on the couch.

A loud thumping sound came from behind the basement door. Abbey looked over at Holly and gulped. They locked their frightened eyes.

“What was that?” asked Abbey.

Holly quickly walked over to the wall and turned out the lights. She beckoned for Abbey to follow her. They walked over to the basement door on their tiptoes and listened.
Muffled footsteps were coming closer and closer to the door. Abbey slowly reached up and latched the door shut. She looked worriedly at Holly and followed her to the door. The front door wouldn’t open. They quickly ran to the kitchen and tried the back door. It was locked too. Abbey rummaged through the cabinet drawer’s contents looking for the house keys. They were gone.

“This can’t be happening,” cried Abbey.

“There has to be someway out,” whispered Holly.

“There are the two doors down here and then there are the two windows upstairs.

The windows are all to high to jump from though,” said Abbey.

“Well come on we have to hide if we can’t get out of here,” said Holly starting up the stairs.

Abbey froze and spun around. The handle of the basement door was turning slowly and steadily. Someone was trying to push it open. Abbey and Holly could see the latch beginning to give way. Holly pulled Abbey up the stairs, trying to make as little
noise as possible. When they got to the top of the stairs they heard a deafening thud. They had broken through the door. They went into abbey’s parents’ room and shut the door.

“What a night for your parents to be at a party,” muttered Holly looking around the room.

She walked over to the window and peered down. The drop was definitely one that would at the very least result in broken legs. The trees were too far away to jump to
and climb down. Holly opened up Abbey’s mom’s closet. The door to the attic was at the back. She pulled back the rows of clothes and found what she was looking for.

“Abbey,” whispered Holly, “Grab your dad’s baseball bat from his bag.”

Abbey slowly opened her dad’s closet and pulled out his sports bag. She unzipped it and looked for the baseball bat. She pulled it out and shut the closet door. Holly had
already opened the door to the attic.

“Abbey, phone for help,” instructed Holly, pointing to the phone beside the bed.

Abbey ran over and picked up the receiver. The line hummed and Abbey sighed with relief. She dialed Katie’s house.

She picked up the phone, “Hello?”

“Katie! Help! They are in the house,” whispered Abbey.

“Who? What are you talking about?” asked Katie innocently.

“I’m sorry. We should have believed you when you told us about the note. Now we are trapped. We tried all of the doors and we can’t jump from the windows. We’re
going to hide in the attic. I need you to phone someone. Get your dad to come over here and open the house up or something. Call the police and then...” said Abbey hurriedly.

The phone line cut out. Abbey put the phone down and looked at Holly. Holly beckoned for her to come forward. She pulled herself up into the attic and reached down for Abbey’s hand. As she did this she heard a scratching noise outside of the door.

“Hide!” hissed Holly, pulling the door to the attic shut.

Abbey looked around desperately and saw the perfect spot. Quickly she ran to the door, where her mother’s new fur coat hung. Since she was so tiny for her age she put
both hands onto the hook and pulled herself up inside of the coat. The door slowly swung open. Two dark, hooded figures walked into the room. They walked towards the closet
and opened the door. They moved the clothes until they found what they were looking for.

The door to the attic wouldn’t open. They pushed up on it but nothing they did would budge it. Finally Abbey though they had lost interest in the room. One of the
figures bent over and picked up something long and shiny. The baseball bat glinted as the
moon’s rays hit it through the window. With one swing the door to the attic burst open. A heavy metal tool box fell down with the door and landed on one of the figure’s shoulders, dragging him down to the ground. He cried out in pain and pushed the box off of himself.
Shaking the attack off he got back up and began to climb into the attic. Abbey heard Holly scream as one of the intruders grabbed her and pulled her down into the room below. She had tears streaming down her face. Abbey peered out from her hiding place but could see very little since she was now facing the wall. The figures mumbled to one another as they began to tie up Holly. When they finished they picked her up and walked out of the room. Abbey could hear their footsteps disappearing. A door slammed and then Abbey realized where they were taking her. Holly was being taken behind the locked door.

Abbey slipped out of her hiding place and silently crept down the hall. Faint muffled noises were coming from the basement. She made her way carefully to the basement door and poked her head into the stairwell. There didn’t seem to be anyone down there. She took one step down and froze, waiting for something to happen. She took another step and another until she was at the bottom of the staircase. Everything was
still has she drew in a deep breath and stepped onto the cement floor. Fear seemed to be gripping her ankles and holding her in place as she heard slow, raspy breathing. She turned slowly in the direction that the sound had come from but nothing moved in the shadows. Abbey took another few steps towards the metal door behind the stairs. The creepy door that had remained closed for so many years was wide open. She put one hand
on the door and warily examined the contents of the room. The cement walls were rough and weathered. Some shelves lined the walls with cans of food. It stretched out into a hallway with a door at the end. Abbey waited for a sign of the intruders and Holly but there was nothing.

Suddenly Abbey was aware of an icy presence. She spun around and gazed wildly into the shadows. Letting her breath out she turned back to the door but was grabbed by
the hair and pulled backwards. She screamed and kicked her legs but the distorted hands only gripped her tighter. The trespasser held a bag to her face and pulled it tighter and
tighter against her skin. She gasped for breath but ended up with plastic filling her mouth. She wiggled and writhed, trying desperately to get out of the person’s grasp. Swiftly the person dropped Abbey and ran into the hallway. Abbey, pulling the bag from her face, gasped for breath as she saw the evil smile on the man’s face. His skin was a sickly green and his eyes were black holes. His teeth were filled with maggots and his
knarly fingers gripped the handle of the door. Slowly he pulled it shut. Abbey tried to scream but nothing escaped her lips.


The man mouthed, “I’ll be back,” before closing the door and locking it behind him.

Abbey flew up the stairs to see a group of people in her family room. They were the girls and Katie’s brothers. Abbey was confused.

Katie turned and started laughing, “I scared you didn’t I?”

“You...you set this up?” gasped Abbey; “You could have killed me!”

“Wow, I scared you that badly?” smiled Abbey; “I was tired of being the victim year after year. So what if Halloween scares me? It looks like it scares you even more.”

“Robbie and Tom?” asked Abbey.

“Yea. They took the keys and locked you in. Then they tried to find you guys.

They ended up getting Holly. It’s a good thing they wore their hockey equipment underneath their get-ups. I heard about that toolbox falling on Robbie,” smirked Katie.

“You knew about this?” yelled Abbey.

“Yea, I actually thought this was pretty funny,” laughed Lena.

“How did you get into the room in the basement?” asked Abbey.

“What are you talking about?” asked Katie looking at Lena and Holly.

Robbie and Tom turned to Abbey; “We came in the back door after Katie left. We didn’t even go down the basement.

“There was someone down there though. They grabbed me and they held a bag over my face. He almost killed me!” cried Abbey.

“Very funny,” smirked Katie, “Don’t try and scare me now. Maybe next year you’ll get me but right now I’m going to enjoy every minute of this.”

The key that had been hanging from the man’s neck looked oddly familiar. She took the painting off the wall and pulled the picture from its frame. There, taped to the back of it was the key. The original owner of the house had requested the painting stay on the wall after it
was sold. Abbey took the key and walked down to the little, metal door and locked it. Abbey smiled. Now her extreme Halloween Haunt-a-thon was finally over.