48 - Attack of the Jack-O'-Lanterns (5 page)

“But you were so late,” Walker protested. “I thought maybe something was
wrong.”

My heart was thumping. The knot in my stomach grew even tighter. “Okay,
okay,” I urged. “Let’s just calm down.”

It was a clear, cold night. A light frost made the lawns silvery. Overhead, a
sliver of moon rested near a cluster of bright stars.

Most of the houses on the block had their lights on. I saw two groups of
little trick-or-treaters across the street. They were all hurrying up to the
same house. A dog barked excitedly in the house next door.

I turned my eyes to the corner where we were supposed to meet Tabby and Lee.
No one there.

Walker and I stopped under the street light. I adjusted my cape. It was
really choking me. I saw that I hadn’t cut it short enough. The bottom was
soaked from dragging along the ground.

“Where are they?” I demanded.

“You know they’re always late,” Walker replied.

He was right. Tabby and Lee loved to keep people waiting for them.

“They will be here any second,” Walker said.

A tall hedge ran along the corner yard. Walker started pacing back and forth
from the hedge to the curb. His outfit was so black, when he stepped into the
shadow of the hedge, he completely disappeared!

“Could you stop pacing—?” I started.

But my voice caught in my throat when I heard a cough. From the other side of
the hedge.

A low, gruff cough.

Not a human cough. More like an animal growl.

I turned and saw that Walker had heard it, too. He stopped pacing and stared
at the hedge.

I heard a scraping sound. The hedge appeared to shiver.

“Wh-who’s back there?” I choked out.

The hedge shook again. Shook and cracked.

“Hey—who
is
it?” Walker cried.

Silence.

The hedge shook. Harder this time.

“Is this a joke or something?” Walker demanded in a trembling voice.

Another low animal growl.

“Noooo—!” I cried out as two ugly creatures came snarling through the
hedge.

I saw only a blur of ragged fur. Open jaws. Saliva-covered teeth.

Before I could move, one of the creatures leaped onto me, snarling and
growling. It shoved me roughly down to the grass. And dug its fangs into my
shoulder.

I let out a shrill wail of pain.

I tried to scramble to my feet. But the snarling creature had me pinned to
the ground.

“Stop!
Stop!”
I struggled to squirm free as the creature tugged my
cape over me, covering me like a blanket.

“Hey—!” I heard Walker’s angry shout. But I couldn’t see what was happening
to him.

“Noooooo! Let me go!” I shrieked.

With a frantic burst of energy, I reached up one hand—and swiped at the
creature’s drooling face.

To my shock, the whole face pulled off easily.

A mask. I held a rubber mask in my hand.

I stared up at a grinning face.

It took me a few moments to recognize the boy. Todd Jeffrey. Yes. Todd
Jeffrey, the high-school kid who had frightened us all at Lee’s party two years
ago.

“Todd,” I murmured. I frantically pulled the cape away from my face.

“Gotcha! Gotcha good!” he whispered. He let go of me and stood up.

“You creep!” I cried angrily. I tossed the rubber mask in his face.

He caught it in one hand and laughed. “Drew, can’t you take a joke?”

“Huh? A joke?
A joke?”
I screamed.

I climbed to my feet and furiously began brushing myself off. My cape was
totally tangled and covered with wet brown leaves.

Walker had been wrestling with the other creature. The guy pulled off his
mask. Of course it was Joe, Todd’s disgusting friend.

“Hope we didn’t
scare
you!” he teased. He and Todd laughed like
hyenas. They fell all over each other, slapping high fives and low fives.

Before I could tell them what jerks they were, I heard more laughter. To my
surprise, Tabby and Lee came stepping out from behind the hedge. And all four of
them enjoyed a good laugh together.

“Grrrrrrr!” I uttered a furious growl. At that moment, I wished I really
were
a superhero. I wanted to plow my superfists into their laughing faces.

Or maybe spread my cape and fly away—far away, so I wouldn’t have to see
any of them anymore.

“Happy Halloween, Drew!” Tabby called smugly.

“Happy Halloween!” Tabby and Lee repeated in unison, grinning their
disgusting grins.

“How long were you and Lee standing back there?” I demanded angrily.

“Long enough!” Lee snickered. He and Tabby both burst out laughing again.

“We were standing back there the whole time,” Tabby declared. “I
love
Halloween—don’t you?”

I growled under my breath. But I didn’t say anything.

Keep cool, Drew, I instructed myself. Tabby and Lee and their two high-school
buddies played a little joke on you.

But they won’t have the last laugh.

When the night is over, I told myself, Walker and I will be the ones who are
laughing.

When Shane and Shana arrive, we are going to terrify them. Truly terrify
them.

Todd and Joe had pulled their monster masks back on. They tilted back their
heads and howled like wolves. Todd’s mask was really gross. It had rubber saliva
dripping over the long, pointy fangs.

“They’re not coming trick-or-treating with us—are they?” I asked Tabby.

Tabby shook her head. She adjusted the tiara on top of her blond hair.

“No way!” Todd replied from behind the ugly mask. “Joe and I are too old to trick-or-treat. Especially with you
crybabies.”

“Then why are you wearing those monster costumes?” Walker demanded.

“Just to scare kids,” Joe replied. He and Todd laughed again, loud, cruel
laughs.

Joe grabbed my mask and pulled it down to my chin. Todd rubbed the back of
his hand over Walker’s cheek, smearing the black makeup. Then they ran off to
find some other victims.

What creeps.

I was glad to see them go. I stood watching them, making sure they didn’t
change their minds and come back.

“Nice guys,” Lee said. He set his orange and black trick-or-treat bag down on
the grass. Then he adjusted his bee antennas.

I heard kids laughing across the street. I turned and saw a group of four
kids—all monsters and goblins—running up the driveway to a house.

“Let’s get going,” Tabby said. “It’s kind of cold.”

“Aren’t Shane and Shana supposed to meet us?” Lee asked.

“Yeah. They’ll catch up to us,” I said.

We crossed the street and started toward the first house, a tall, brightly
lit brick house with a smiling pumpkin cutout in the front window.

As we made our way up the gravel driveway, I glanced at my watch.

And gasped. Nearly eight-fifteen.

Shane and Shana were supposed to meet us on the corner at eight. Where
were
they? They were never late. Never. I swallowed hard.

Was this Halloween about to be ruined, too? Had something gone wrong?

We stepped up onto the front stoop and peered through the glass storm door. A
big orange cat with bright blue eyes stared back at us from the other side of
the door.

I rang the doorbell.

A few seconds later, a smiling young woman in jeans and a yellow turtleneck
came hurrying to the door. She carried a basket of Snickers bars and Milky Ways.

“You all look great,” she declared, dropping a candy bar in each bag.

“Drew—hold up your bag!” Tabby ordered shrilly.

“Oh. Sorry.” I was still worrying about Shane and Shana. I held up my bag for
the woman. The cat narrowed its amazing blue eyes at me.

“Are you supposed to be a princess?” the woman asked Tabby.

“No. A ballerina,” Tabby replied.

“And you’re a lump of coal?” the woman asked Walker.

“Something like that,” Walker muttered. He didn’t do his
dark-and-stormy-night routine. I guessed he was worried about Shane and Shana,
too.

“Have fun,” the woman said. She pulled the storm door shut.

The four of us jumped off her stoop and started across the frost-covered
grass to the next yard. When I glanced back to the door, I saw the cat still
staring out at us.

The next house was dark. So we crossed the lawn to the house next door to it.
A group of kids was already on the front stoop, shouting, “Trick or treat! Trick
or treat!”

“Where
are
they?” I whispered to Walker.

He shrugged.

“If they don’t show up…” I started. But I saw Tabby watching me. So I
didn’t finish my sentence.

We waited for the kids to leave, then climbed up to the stoop. Two little
kids—probably three or four years old—were handing out little bags of candy
corn to everyone.

They laughed at Lee’s bee costume. They wanted to feel the antennas. The
little boy asked Lee where his stinger was.

“I stuck it in someone,” Lee told him.

They stared hard at Walker’s all-black outfit. I think it kind of frightened
them. “Are you supposed to be a monster?” the little girl asked Walker timidly.

“No. I’m a lump of coal,” Walker told her.

She nodded seriously.

We hurried away and did three more houses to the end of the block. I saw two
kids that I babysit for. They were in matching robot costumes. I stopped to talk
with them for a minute.

Then I had to run to catch up to the others. They had crossed the street and
had started doing the houses on the other side.

A strong gust of wind fluttered my cape. I shivered—and glanced nervously at
my watch again.

Where were they? Where
were
Shane and Shana?

The whole plan depended on them….

“Wow! Pretty good haul so far!” Lee declared. He held his bag open, studying
the contents as we crossed the street.

“Did you get any Kit Kats?” Tabby demanded. “I’ll trade anyone for Kit Kats.”

“Only one person gave out apples,” Lee said, making a disgusted face. He
reached into his bag and pulled out the apple. Then he heaved it as hard as he
could across the yard.

The apple hit a tree trunk with a loud
thunk.
Then it bounced into the
next driveway.

“Why do people give out apples?” Lee grumbled. “Don’t they know we only want
candy?”

“Some people are just cheap,” Tabby said. She pulled out her apple and
dropped it in the grass. Then she kicked it with the toe of her ballet slipper.

They both really deserve what they’re going to get, I thought. They’re both
really jerks.

But where are Shane and Shana?

We trick-or-treated our way down the block. It was getting pretty late, and
there were fewer little kids out.

The streetlight near the corner was broken. We stepped into a patch of deep
shadow.

One of Lee’s antennas kept slipping off. He slid it back into place for the
tenth time.

As we neared the corner, a tall tree blocked the moonlight, and it grew even
darker.

“Oh—!” I let out a cry as two figures leaped out at us from behind the
tree.

I thought that Todd and Joe had returned.

But I quickly saw that it wasn’t those guys.

In a gray blur, the two figures turned their backs on us, blocking our way.
They wore dark robes that flowed straight down to the ground. And over their
heads…

Over their heads…

They wore pumpkins!

Large, round pumpkins, perfectly balanced on their shoulders.

“Whoa—!” Walker let out a startled cry. He backed up and stumbled into me.

Tabby and Lee gaped in surprise.

But the most horrifying surprise was yet to come.

As they slowly turned to face us, their jack-o’-lantern faces came into view.

Eerie, jagged grins cut into their pumpkin heads.

Flashing triangle eyes.

Lit by flames!

Bright orange and yellow flames danced inside their heads!

And as the pumpkin heads turned their fiery, ragged grins on us, Walker and I
opened our mouths and screamed in terror.

Our screams echoed down the block.

The fire flashed in the pumpkin heads’ eyes.

I turned to Tabby and Lee. The light from the fiery jack-o’-lantern faces
flickered over their faces. They stood calmly, staring at the grinning pumpkin
heads.

Tabby turned to me. “Is this your idea of a joke? Were you trying to scare
us?”

“We
know
it’s Shane and Shana,” Lee said. He tugged at one of the
dark, loose, flowing costumes. “Hey, Shane—how’s it going?”

The two pumpkin heads remained silent.

“How did you get the fire to work? Do you have candles in there?” Tabby
demanded. “How can you see?”

The pumpkin heads grinned back in silence. A lick of fire darted out from one
of the jagged mouths.

I shivered. These costumes were
too
good. I could hear the flames hiss
inside the big orange heads. The costumes were dark green, like pumpkin vines.

Why aren’t Tabby and Lee frightened? I wondered.

I expected Shane and Shana to appear in something frightening. But I didn’t
expect anything as good as these fiery jack-o’-lantern heads.

The costumes were great. But I felt so disappointed. Tabby and Lee were
definitely not frightened.

This Halloween is going to be a disaster—like the others, I thought.

I stepped up beside Walker. I couldn’t see his expression under all that
black makeup.

“How do they do the fire?” he whispered. “It’s really awesome!”

I nodded. “But it didn’t scare Tabby and Lee,” I whispered back.

“It’s early,” Walker whispered. “Shane and Shana have just started.”

My cape had become tangled around my legs. I tugged it free and tossed it
behind me.

The two pumpkin heads still hadn’t said a word.