When It Snows on Halloween

Halloween is a big deal in my town. Every house goes all out in a competition to see who can freak out the most kids. Luckily for us, they also compete to see who can give out the best candy. It’s pretty great. And this year, my friends and I were finally old enough to go trick or treating alone.

I spent all day getting ready with my friends Ashley and Sherri. I was going as a vampire, Ashley was a witch, and Sherri was a werewolf. I was just putting some fake blood around my mouth as a finishing touch, when Ashley gasped.

“What’s wrong?” I asked without taking my eyes away from the mirror.

“It’s snowing.”

Shit.

Remember when I said Halloween was a big deal in my town? Yeah, well snow on Halloween was an even bigger deal in my town. It only happened once in my lifetime and that was ten years ago when I was two, so I don’t remember it at all. But that didn’t matter. Every year in the days leading up to Halloween, the grown ups in town would drill it into our heads that snow on Halloween was a bad sign and that if it snowed, we HAD to follow the rules.

The rules were:

If it snows on Halloween, every trick or treater wearing a mask will be asked to take it off before they can get candy.

If you are wearing a mask, you MUST take it off before taking any candy.

If someone refuses to take off their mask, do not offer them candy and do not speak to them.

We didn’t know the “why” behind the rules, but honestly, I didn’t care. Sherri was the only one of us wearing a mask, after all.

“Sucks to be you, Sherri,” I joked. “Hope that giant furball of a mask is easy to take on and off.”

“Yeah, Sher. Makayla and I will leave you behind if you aren’t fast enough,” Ashley said with a laugh.

“Very funny, guys.”

The good news was that we were staying at Ashley’s house for the night and her mom wasn’t much of a nagger, so I figured she’d give us a quick reminder of the rules as we went out the door and that would be it.

My mom, on the other hand, was definitely a nagger. I could sense her phone call before my cell phone even rang.

“Yes, Mom” I said as soon as I answered, not letting her get a word in. “Sherri’s the only one wearing a mask and she knows to take it off before getting candy. We won’t talk to anyone who doesn’t take their mask off, blah blah blah. Love you and see you tomorrow.”

I hung up and giggled. Parents, am I right?

After one last look at our costumes to make sure they were perfect, we tumbled out the front door and into the snowy neighborhood. Our plan was to start at the house next door and work our way around the neighborhood as the night got darker. The inner streets had some seriously creepy looking houses and we wanted to hit those when it was good and dark out for maximum creep factor.

“Do you think Josh and the guys will be out?” Ashley asked as we headed up the walkway to the nearest house. She had an obvious crush on Josh, but swore up and down that she didn’t.

“No idea, Ash.” I said as I rang the doorbell. “Trick or treat!”

As the night went on, Sherri got pretty quick at ripping her mask off her head the second she was asked. I had to give it to her, because she put it back on every time. I know the mask completed the werewolf costume, but I probably would have just left it off after the fourth or fifth house.

Just before 9 o’clock, we hit the last house in the neighborhood. They were known to give out two full size candy bars at the end of the night just to get rid of them. We ran past a group of kids who were just leaving and bounded up the steps.

“Trick or treat!”

“What great costumes! Go ahead and take two bars, if you’d like,” the woman at the door said. “But you two will have to take off your masks first.”

Two? I looked over at Sherri and saw another kid standing next to her. He was dressed as a scarecrow with a burlap sack over his head. The mouth was crookedly stitched on and the eye holes were jaggedly cut. I shivered and looked away. Just some kid trying to get their last bit of candy like we were before the neighborhood shut off their porch lights and turned in for the night.

I reached into the plastic pumpkin the woman was holding out and grabbed a twix and a milky way. I looked over at Sherri, who was pulling off her mask. The scarecrow stood still next to her, his mask still on. Ashley grabbed her two bars and nudged Sherri.

“Come on, wolfy, let’s go.”

Sherri grabbed her candy and turned to the scarecrow.

“Hey kid, you gotta take your mask off if you want any candy.”

“Sherri, you can’t talk to him!” I blurted out.

“Wha--?” she looked confused for a second before her mistake dawned on her. “Oh, shit, the rules.”

Sherri had moved to town three years ago, so the rules weren’t as engrained in her as they were in Ashley and I.

We looked at the woman at the door nervously, hoping she would tell us the rules were just some silly made up thing to make Halloween seem more scary.

Instead, a look of pure terror crossed her face and she yanked the plastic pumpkin back to her chest.

“Run,” she whispered before slamming her door shut and clicking the lock.

Ashley and I grabbed Sherri and pulled her down the steps. We couldn’t help but scream, though we didn’t know why exactly the woman was so afraid.

As we rounded the corner of the sidewalk, I turned to look behind us. I let out a shriek when my eyes met the jagged, empty eye holes of the scarecrow’s mask. He was right behind us.

“Faster!” I yelled, pulling on my friends’ hands as I sprinted down the sidewalk toward Ashley’s house. If we could just make it inside, we’d be safe from whatever this thing chasing us was.

Over the ragged gasps of our breath as we ran, I heard the sound of straw rubbing together as the scarecrow gained on us.

Finally, I saw the illuminated front porch of Ashley’s house. The three of us sprinted up the front steps faster than we’d ever dreamed of running in gym class.

Ashley reached for the doorknob and froze. It was locked. She fumbled for her key as Sherri and I pounded on the door for her mom to open up.

I could hear the rustling sound of the scarecrow getting louder.

Just when I thought my heart would beat straight out of my chest, Ashley swung the door open and pulled us inside. She slammed the door shut and locked it before turning the porch light off.

As we collapsed on the floor, gasping for air, my eyes turned to the side table by the door. On it was a piece of notebook paper. I picked it up and read it quickly before crumpling it up.

“Your mom got called in for an emergency shift at the hospital, Ash. We’re alone.”

Before Ashley could respond, there was a loud bang on the front door. The scarecrow was here. And it was mad.

“We have to barricade the door,” I said, standing up and grabbing the side table. Ashley got up and grabbed the otherside of the table so we could move it up against the door, while Sherri dragged over a chair from the living room.

BANG

Something hit the window above us as the front door knob rattled at the same time.

“Is there more than one of them?” Sherri asked.

“No idea, but we need to get away from the door now,” I said as I scrambled for the staircase. I figured being off the ground floor was safest.

We ran into Ashley’s room and started pushing her desk up against the door. I was pretty sure the scarecrow outside was no ordinary kid and I didn’t want to find out what would happen if it got to us.

“Guys, I’m so sorry,” Sherri said through choked sobs. “I didn’t even think--I just thought it was some dumb kid and I--”

“It’s OK, Sher,” I said. “We’re gonna be OK.”

BANG.

All three of us shrieked in unison as Ashley’s bedroom window shook from the force of being hit. I turned to look and saw those jagged, empty eye holes pressed up against the window.

“How did it get up here?” Ashley screamed.

“I don’t know, but we need to hide,” I said. “Follow me.”

I ran to the closet and ushered them inside, closing the door tight behind us. We huddled together behind Ashley’s hanging clothes, our backs pressed as far up against the closet wall as we could.

The angry banging on Ashley’s window continued. I braced myself for the sound of the window shattering from the force of the scarecrow’s blows, but instead, another BANG sounded from the door to Ashley’s bedroom.

Next, another from the window. Then the door. Then the window.

Sherri wept beside me, while Ashley rocked back and forth. I prayed to God that I wouldn’t skip school again and I’d do all my chores and I’d never ever do anything bad again if he’d let us live.

The assault on Ashley’s window and door went on for hours. I swore I could hear the rustling of straw rubbing together from just outside the closet door. I was certain the door would open at any second and the thing dressed as a scarecrow would drag us all down to hell with it.

But finally, the banging stopped.

We waited in silence for minutes, huddled together in fear. Silence.

I pulled out my cell phone and checked the time. 12:05 AM, November 1.

We made it.