Help Us

He couldn’t help but smile to himself as the credits started to roll on screen. The sound of her small snores mixed gently with the rain bouncing off the windows. “Sweetheart,” he muttered, shaking his wife to wake her.

“Hmm?” Her eyes fluttered open, and she pried herself off of his shoulder with a yawn.

“So, how’d you like it?”

“What?” She blinked a couple times as she reentered consciousness, and then his words hit her. “Wait, I missed the whole thing? Seriously?”

“It’s okay,” he teased. “The ending was a real snoozer anyways.”

“Shut up!” He got up from the couch to grab the remote, and she pouted. “I’ve been wanting to watch this stupid movie all month.”

“Don’t worry, honey. We can always watch it again. Maybe during the day, when you’re awake.”

“You can’t watch horror movies during the day, Brad.”

He grabbed the bowl of leftover popcorn kernels and brought it into the kitchen, and she followed behind pensively, leaning against the counter with a frown. “Hey…do you think we’re boring?”

Brad raised an eyebrow. “Is this because I made that snoozer joke?”

“Your jokes offend me in an entirely different way, don’t worry.”

“Rude.”

“Seriously though, it’s Halloween and we fell asleep on the couch before ten. We didn’t even dress up.”

“Such a shame. You look so good in a sexy nurse costume.”

She groaned. “We’re so boring we’d survive a horror movie to the end, babe!”

“Oh, yeah? Would a boring old married couple do this?”

Before she could respond his lips were on hers, silencing her worries. He lifted her onto the counter, and she wrapped her legs around him eagerly as he pulled her closer, his fingers entangled in her hair. She moaned and reached for the hem of his shirt, yanking it over his head and tossing it to the floor so her hands could explore his body to her pleasure.

Knock, knock.

She froze, her fingers just above the zipper of his jeans, and she shivered as he started to kiss down her neck. “Shouldn’t we get that?”

“They’ll go away if we wait long enough.”

“But what if it’s kids though?”

“I really don’t want to think about kids right now, Jen.”

Knock, knock.

Brad rolled his eyes at her disapproving glare. “Fine. Wait here.”

He opened the front door a crack, and before the kids could say a word he held up his hand to cut them off. “We’re out of candy, guys. Go home.”

Jen frowned from the counter as her husband shut the door in their faces. “Would it kill you to be nice? You know for a fact there’s still candy on the coffee table.”

He shrugged. “It’s too late for trick or treaters. They weren’t even dressed up as anything!”

“Maybe they were busy until now.”

“What could a couple of ten-year-olds possibly be busy with?” He paused. “I think we were busy with something though, weren’t we?”

“You know, I might still have that nurse costume somewhere.” She giggled as he kissed her again, his hands sliding up her shirt and along her body lustily. The button of his jeans fought against her fingers.

THUMP, THUMP, THUMP.

She yelped at the crash on their porch, clinging to Brad with concern. He pulled away from her and stormed back to the front door, swinging it open wildly. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

The two children stood perfectly still in the doorway, their gaze downcast. “Sir, we’re looking for our mother. Could you please give us a ride?”

“Not a chance,” he snapped, though he couldn’t explain why the question left a knot in the pit of his stomach.

“Please, help us. It will only take a minute,” the other child said firmly.

“I said no, kid. Get out of here.”

“Hang on.” Jen joined him in the threshold, her arms crossed. “Why won’t you help them? They’re only children, Brad.”

“Dammit, Jen.”

She bent down to be closer to their level, but they kept their eyes to the ground. Neither wore a costume, but their clothes were outdated and worn, and both were completely dry despite the rain falling around them. “Tell me about your mom, guys. What’s she look like? Do you live around here?”

They looked up as Brad sulked back into the kitchen, catching her eye as the first one asked, “Can you give us a ride?”

There was a moment of silence before she spoke. “I’m going to give them a ride.” Her voice was soft, the usual emphasis in her tone suddenly missing. Her words made the hair on the back of his neck stand on edge. “I’ll be back soon.”

“What? No!” He grabbed his shirt off the floor hastily and pulled it over his head. The children looked down again shyly as he approached. “Let me come with you at least.”

She turned to him with an odd smile. “No, you stay here. If their mom shows up, you can tell her what’s going on.”

He opened his mouth to protest, but as his eyes fell on the two small figures staring at his porch quietly he couldn’t figure out why. After all, she was right. They were only children. Irritated but unable to explain his worry, he simply nodded and handed over her car keys. “Drive safe.”

“I’ll be back soon.”

The knot in his stomach continued to grow as he watched the headlights pull out of the driveway and fade into the distance, but he did his best to ignore it. Hopefully the kids’ mom was already home waiting for them, worried sick. He didn’t feel like talking to anyone.

The minutes ticked away slowly, so he started on the dishes from the night’s dinner to pass the time. With no chores to think about, hopefully they’d be able to pick up where they’d left off when Jen returned.

He collapsed onto the couch with his phone when he’d finished, opening the games folder in hopes of finding something to entertain him. Nothing could hold his interest, though; he couldn’t stop thinking about Jen, and with every passing minute he wished that he’d been more insistent about going with her. Even if they were just kids and were completely harmless, the weather was only getting worse.

Half an hour had passed, and the knot in his stomach had risen to his throat. If the kids were trick or treaters in their neighborhood, they couldn’t live too far away. Nervously he hit the speed dial for her, his anxiety growing with each ring that went unanswered. “Hi, you’ve reached Jennifer. I’m not available right now, but -”

He didn’t bother leaving a message; she wouldn’t check it if she was driving. He opened a game of solitaire, but paid more attention to the clock in the corner of the screen than any of the cards. The rain beat heavily against the roof, keeping him grounded in the moment. Five minutes hadn’t even passed by the time he decided to try again.

On the third ring he heard the call connect, and he breathed a sigh of relief. The lights in the house flickered around him. “Jen?”

He was greeted with only silence, and as the seconds dragged on the dread returned. “Jen? Are you there? Where are you?”

“Adults shouldn’t use the phone while driving.”

The call disconnected, the sound of the child’s voice echoing in his ear. He quickly redialed, his heart pounding. It didn’t even ring. “Hi, you’ve reached Jen -”

He hung up and shoved the phone in his pocket, snatching his car keys off the table and rushing toward the door. Part of him wanted desperately to call the police for help, but what could he tell them? He didn’t know which direction she was headed, much less who she’d really left with. He slipped his shoes on haphazardly, not even bothering to tie them.

Knock, knock.

His hand was already on the doorknob when the knock sounded, and he pulled it open, hoping against hope that he’d see his wife’s smiling face staring back at him. Instead there was a single child, eyes shyly lowered to the ground. “What the hell are you doing back here?” Brad demanded. “What did you do with my wife?”

“I’m looking for my father,” the child replied calmly. “Can I use your phone?”

“‘Father’?” He stepped out onto the deck, towering over the kid threateningly despite his growing horror. “What happened to your mom, huh? Who the hell are -”

The phone in his pocket started ringing, a familiar love song that sent a chill down his spine. Without taking his eyes off the child, he put the phone to his ear. “Jen? Where are you? Are you okay?”

“Brad, help me!” Her voice was a frantic shriek, and the sound of raucous children’s laughter could be heard in the background. “Get out of there before -"

The line went dead, and the child on the porch giggled mockingly as he screamed her name, his voice swallowed by the stormy night. “Poor mother.” Lightning flashed across the sky as the boy looked up, and Brad cried out and stumbled backwards, falling against the closed door that barred him from the safety of his home.

The child’s eyes were pitch black, a hollow void, but despite the terror flowing through his body Brad couldn’t move, couldn’t look away. The boy raised a bloody hand to his mouth as he loomed over him, licking his finger clean with a toothy smile. “She’s a real treat, isn’t she?"