Bump In The Night

Somethings in the closet

Little 7 year old John Ballard lay in his bed, hiding under his Spider-Man blankets, shaking with fear. His skin covered in goosebumps. He kept thinking that if he could just make it to his bedroom door he could get to his 12 year old twin sisters room down the hall.
He peaked out from under his hiding place and looked over at the closet door. It creeped open slightly. A rumbling coming deep from within.
John swallowed and took a deep shaking breath.
"Okay. One-two-three!" He whispered as he shot up out of his bed and through open his bedroom door. His heart pounding in his chest, John ran for his sisters room. He opened their door, turned on the light and ran for his older sisters bed.
"Jess! Jess! There's something in my closet!" John said as he shook his older sister. Jess pushed up her black cat sleep mask and through her straight light brown hair over her shoulder.
"John? What? What's going on?" She asked sleepily.
"I heard rumbling coming from my closet and the door moved, Jess! You have to come and get rid of it!" He told his teenage sister.
"Okay just hang on. Jenny, come with me to go check on the little dorks closet." Jess said. As she sat up and pushed her red comforter off to the side. "Jenny come on." Jess said looking over at her identical twins bed. But the dark purple bed was empty. "Jen?" Jess called out. "Ugh, she's probably in the bathroom or something." Jess said as she started her way towards her brothers room.
"Come on John, I wanna go back to sleep." Jess said as she rubbed her hazel eyes. John followed his sister back to his room as he hid outside his doorway.
"Be careful Jess." John said as he continued to hide. Jess crept toward the closet door. A quiet rumble coming from within. Jess slowly reached for the handle and opened the door. But nothing was inside except Johns clothes and toys. And a boom box that was playing a rumbling sound. Confused, Jess picked it up and turned off the music. She looked around at the room. John peeked out into the room at Jess, and she held the boom box out for him to see.
"See it was just this. Now go back to-" Jess started to say, but then a tapping noise started from under the bed. Jess motioned for John to stay where he was as she made her way to the bed. She got down on her hands and knees on the hard wood floor and looked under the bed. Suddenly a hand shot out and grabbed Jess's. She screamed and struggled against the hand until it let go and a girl who looked exactly like Jess except instead of pajamas that had black cats all over them, hers had jack-o-lanterns on them, came out from under the bed laughing hysterically at Jess.
"Jenny!" Jess yelled at her sister.
"You were so scared!" Jenny laughed.
"Jenny you are so immature!" Jess said angrily.
"Hey look at the time Jess," Jenny said as she held out her wristwatch for Jess to see. It read midnight. "Happy devils night Jess!"
"You can come out John! It was just Jenny playing a prank on us." Jess said throwing a pillow at her twin.
"What's going on?" Mrs. Ballard said as she came down the hallway and looked in at the kids.
"Jenny scared us!" John said.
"Tattle tale!" Jenny exclaimed.
"Enough! It's late and you all have school tomorrow. So all of you back to your rooms or we're not going to get your costumes tomorrow!" Mrs. Ballard threatened. All the kids ran back to their bedrooms scared that their mom might go through with the threat.
"Your gonna get us all in trouble one of these days Jen." Jess said as she got into her bed.
"You worry to much Jess. Besides, Halloween is my favorite holiday. Just be careful when you ask for a trick or treat Jess. You never know which one you'll get." Jenny said as she turned over onto her side and looked out the window at the trees that snapped against the glass. Jenny pushed her jack-o-lantern sleep mask down over her eyes and fell into sleep.
John lay in his bed looking out his own window at the trees that swatted at the glass. John closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.
But what he didn't see, was a branch like hand rest against the glass as a strange face peered in at the small boy.