Masked

The clock struck 3:20. The last period of the day had 10 minutes left before school let out. Halloween night.

“Are we all set for the party?” Dawn asked the group.

“Nah, me and Alfie don’t have our costumes yet. We’re gonna get them after school ends.” Louis replied back.

“God, why do you two always wait until the last second?” Dawn joked.

“Well what are you going as Ms. I’m Always Prepared?” Alfie jested.

“I’ll give you a hint, meow.”

“I have no clue what that could be,” Alfie laughed. Dawn made a mocking face at him towards his remark.

“What are you going as Leah?” Louis chimed in.

“I am going as an angel,” Leah replied.

“Why did you go as the opposite of what you should’ve, it would’ve fit better” Louis retorted.

“Shut up, I hate you” Leah laughed as she pushed Louis by his shoulder a little.

The clock struck 3:30. The school bell rang as kids tumbled over one another getting out of their classrooms. Some kids were staying in the night, some going trick-or-treating with friends and family, but most kids were attending the party. Almost every kid in the school had been invited. Jenny Mitchell’s parents were going to be out of town so she took the liberty of throwing a halloween party.

“You dorks, go buy your costumes and meet us at Ryan’s Diner. We on the other hand are going to change into our costumes” Dawn told everyone.

“Sir yes sir,” Alfie saluted while talking.

Dawn rolled her eyes and started walking away with Leah. Alfie and Louis walked the other direction.

“So are we not going to talk about how you’re like into Louis” Dawn exclaimed as soon as they got far enough from Alfie and Louis.

“What, where did you get that from” Leah questioned.

“Oh come on. You’re not fooling anyone with your little giggle and shoulder push. Not to mention yesterday.”

“I do not like Louis,” Leah denied.

“Now you’re going to lie to your favorite person ever. I see how it is.”

“Ok fine, maybe a little” Leah finally gave in.

“I KNEW IT” Dawn shouted, catching many peoples’ eyes. “You need to tell him.”

“I’ll pass.”

“Well if you take too long I’m going to do it for you.”

-

“Dude, Leah is 100% into you” Alfie exclaimed.

“What makes you say that.”

“Her little flirty gestures towards you… yesterday” he attested.

“Dude all she did was ask me out on a friendly date. It’s not a big deal” Louis tried disregarding the conversation.

“Yeah to the movies… alone. One minute you’re watching the movie then the next thing, BOOM, makeout sesh.”

“It’s not like that. You and Dawn hate horror movies. Louis still denied.

“You’ve liked Leah since 4th grade. All I’m saying is just go for it. She’s into you” Alfie insisted.

The costume store was within their sight. The bright lights and big halloween decorations out front made it hard to miss.

The two walked into the store and the bell on the door rang. The clerk looked up for a second and looked back down.

“Alright so what do we want” Louis asked.

“We could just wear what Dawn and Leah are wearing?” Alfie said as held out an angel costume he found.

“You know, you may be on to something. We can’t though. They’d be jealous of how much better we rocked them.”

“Ah, you make a fair point.”

Louis walked around until finally he spotted a pirate costume. “Alf what do you think of this?” He turned around and to his surprise Alfie was gone. “Alf?” Louis wandered around the store seeing no sign of Alfie.

Louis walked to a giant display they had set up in the store. From behind the display Alfie jumped out holding a smaller version of the display that covered his whole body making Louis jump back.

“Can you believe they just have these lying around.” Alfie laughed.

“Come on Alf.”

“What, you have to admit that was funny,” Alfie said, still laughing.

“It was sorta funny,” Louis admitted. “What do you think of this costume?” Louis held out the pirate costume.

“That’s sick, we should both get it” Alfie replied.

“20 bucks Dawn calls us unoriginal,” Louis held his hand out to shake on it.

“I will not be making that bet because I know I will lose.”

Alfie and Louis went to the counter to pay. It was easy to tell the clerk did not want to be working. They threw their costumes on the counter. She listlessly rang it all up.

-

Alfie and Louis approached Ryan’s Diner and saw Dawn and Leah dressed up. When Alfie and Louis reached the parking lot, Dawn and Leah noticed them.

“You are both pirates, so unoriginal,” Dawn rolled her eyes and Alfie and Louis looked at each other.

“Are we ready to go to the party?” Leah asked the group. They all nodded in agreement.

“You look nice Leah” Louis added as they started walking away from the diner.

“Thank you, you RRRRRR looking nice too.” Leah looked over to Alfie shaking his head. “Come on, that was good Alf.”

“No, no it was not” Alfie still shook his head.

The group walked together down the road. The journey there was quite a distance away. However, they knew of a shortcut.

“Why don’t we go down Crestoak. It’ll cut our trip in half” Dawn suggested.

“Honestly that’s not a bad idea” Alfie joined.

“Come on guys, Crestoak is creepy.” Leah chimed in.

“It’s Halloween, it’s supposed to be spooky,” Louis said as he moved his hands around for effect. “Plus, when have you ever been afraid of a little creepiness?”

“Fine.”

They took a right to head down Crestoak. Crestoak was a straight road that led into a section of backroads that could lead them to their destination quickly. Crestoak had a few houses that were spaced far apart and not enough street lamps.

Almost 15 minutes into the walk down Crestoak they spotted a man under a streetlamp from afar. The man stood with his head tilted to the side and he stood in the middle of the road.

“Get a load of this creep” Alfie was the first to point him out.

“Why is he just standing there” Dawn asked.

“Guys can we please go back, I don’t like this. Can we just go the long way,” Leah begged.

“We’re already this far. He’s probably just some guy trying to prank us. We’ll be ok.” Louis tried to calm Leah down.

As they got closer to the man they saw he was wearing a skeleton mask, a black hoodie with the hood up, black jeans, and black gloves. The group got closer and closer and he didn’t move from his position. They made their way to the left side of the road since he was standing in the middle and they wanted to avoid him.

“Wow man, you’re so scary” Louis sarcastically said as they passed the man. “Maybe try to find some toddlers, you’ll be able to scare them.”

Leah grabbed Louis’s arm to give him the hint to stop. As Louis looked down at Leah the masked man grabbed Leah’s arm very aggressively and pulled out a knife. Leah screamed but only Louis understood what was happening because Leah was in the back. Louis instinctively pushed the masked man as hard as he could, knocking him to the ground.

“RUN.” Louis shouted as he dragged Leah behind him and ran to the nearby house.

Everyone sprinted to the house and the masked man followed, but walked. Everyone started pounding on the door screaming frantically.

A man answered the door fairly quickly. “I wasn’t exp-” he got interrupted as they all piled in after one another.

“What’s going on here,” he asked. Everyone stood in shock not saying a word watching the masked man make his way to the house. The owner turned and saw the masked man walking up to his house.

“Hey buddy, you better walk away or I’ll call the police,” he said to no avail as he walked out onto his porch. The masked man was a few feet away. The owner finally saw the knife, but it was too late. The masked man walked up the few steps of the house and stabbed the owner. The group stood and watched in horror as the masked man stabbed the owner multiple times. He stopped stabbing and looked up as quickly as a deer would to a noise to look at the group. He then started walking. The door wasn’t far.

As everyone stood in fear Alfie mustered up the courage to close the front door that was still open. As soon as he locked the door the man tried the door knob. Alfie locked it in the knick of time. The masked man looked up at Alfie to look at him face to face.

Leah snapped out of her daze and saw the landline. When she picked up the phone the masked man punched through the glass of the door and went to unlock the door. Louis grabbed Leah and ran upstairs as everyone followed. All of the commotion happening simultaneously caused Leah to drop the landline.

They ran into a random room not knowing where he was. Louis shut the door and locked it as soon as everyone was inside. Alfie started pushing a dresser up to the door and everyone joined in.

The masked man heard the dresser being moved around. He walked up to the door and started pounding.

“Trick-Or-Treat, Trick-Or-Treat, Let me in.” His voice was raspy. He paused from talking and from pounding on the door for a second. “I don’t wanna hurt ya” he finally said followed by an eerie chuckle.

His footsteps could finally be heard walking off after a short while.

“He killed that man. He’s insane. He’s going to kill us too,” Dawn whimpered.

“He won’t kill us. We will be fine Dawn,” Alfie consoled.

Louis got up to rummage around in the closet of the room to see if he could find anything of use. He turned the closet light on but after a few seconds of it being on it turned off. Louis tried to turn the light back on but it didn’t turn on.

“Did this dude just turn the power off? He’s toying with us now,” Louis scoffed.

“Well since we are all dying tonight. Leah likes Louis.” Dawn blurted.

Leah shot her a look. “Dawn, are you serious right now.”

“I told you I was going to tell him if you didn’t and now is right.”

“If it’s any consolation Leah, he likes you back” Alfie added.

“Dude,” Louis said with his head in the closet still.

Leah looked over at Louis looking through the closet and stayed silent.

“Might as well, we are all dying” Dawn said.

“No we aren’t” Louis chirped as he turned around holding a handgun.

“What are the odds?” Alfie exulted.

“Do you even know how to use that?” Leah asked.

“How hard can it be?”

“You forget he can be anywhere in the house right now. There’s a chance he gets you before you can even shoot him” Dawn chimed in.

“Stop being so negative. We are getting out of here right now. Just stay behind me” Louis demanded.

The four moved the dresser out of the way. Louis stood at the door as Alfie unlocked and opened it. The right side of the door which was a dead end was clear. They silently crept to the stairs.

They reached the top of the stairs and before Louis could get on the top step the masked man came from around the corner and slammed his head into the wall. The masked man then stabbed him in the stomach. It happened so fast no one could react. “NO,” Leah in a state of panic sprinted at the masked man. He left the knife in Louis to react. He got low enough and was able to throw her down the stairs. She didn’t hit one of the steps, she flew over all of them.

Alfie was close to getting the masked man, but he pulled the knife out of Louis. The masked man was blocking the stairs so Alfie and Dawn ran back to the bedroom they had just been in.

They tried closing the door but he was too close. He barged the door open knocking Alfie back. The masked man went to stab Dawn but Alfie grabbed his arm just before the knife hit. Alfie pulled him away from Dawn and the masked man overpowered Alfie and pushed him into the wall. “RUN” Alfie screamed at Dawn just before the masked man stabbed him twice in his stomach.

“ALFIE,” Dawn screamed before she ran. The masked man looked back and started to pursue her. She ran to the stairs where she saw Louis at the top. As she ran down Leah lay at the bottom. Trying to focus on running she saw a door. The masked man was too close for her to reach the front door in time. She ran to the door she saw and swung it open. The room was a basement. Not knowing she blindly ran in causing her to fall. She hit her head on the first tumble and then slammed it into the ground when she hit the very bottom.

Disoriented, but she could see the masked man walking down. Her vision was sort of blurry and her ears were ringing from the fall but she knew it was him.

“Trick-Or-Treat, Treat-Or-Treat” the masked man sang with his raspy voice as he slid his knife against the wall.

Dawn knew her end had come as he neared the bottom step; just then a gun went off. Blood from the masked man went onto Dawn and he fell face first next to her. When he fell Dawn could make out Louis at the top through the moonlight that seeped through.

“That was an aggressive Trick-Or-Treater.” Louis laughed uncomfortably.

Louis walked down the stairs wearily to help Dawn up for she had not gotten up due to the shock.

“Alfie,” she mumbled after Louis helped her up. She sprinted up the basement stairs. She could see that Leah was up and calling the paramedics on the landline.

When Dawn reached the bottom of the stairs she saw Alfie at the top holding on the railing. She ran up the stairs as fast as she could. When she reached Alfie at the top she hugged him.

“Easy, be gentle” Alfie weakly chuckled.

“I’m glad you’re alright,” she said, still hugging him.

“That’s an overstatement.”

She helped him down the stairs where Leah and Louis were waiting.

“The police and paramedics are on their way,” Leah infomed everyone.

“Leah, could you see if you can find any bandages of any sort, we need to patch them up” Dawn asked.

Leah nodded her head and walked off. Dawn helped Alfie reach the bottom of the stairs and lay him on the floor. Louis put his back on the wall and slid down.

“I just killed a guy” Louis said after a short while breaking the silence.

“Well you saved us all” Leah replied as she came back with 2 compression bandages and threw both to Dawn.

“You do one” Dawn held out one of the bandages to Leah.

“I broke my right arm in the fall, that’s why I gave you both.”

“I can do my own don’t worry” Louis held his hand out and Dawn tossed him one.

Dawn raised Alfie’s shirt to see two stab wounds on his stomach. She started applying the bandage when distant siren’s could be heard.