the 13th story

the tour part 1

     It was Thursday, the 31st of October 2024, twelve year old Olivia Whisp was sitting in her room watching the sun begin to go down. She watched as adults began walking their children down the street, knocking on the doors of houses with their front porch lights on and receiving candy. Oliva was happy to see the children happy, but she also had a sense of dread inside her.
     Olivia lived on number 12 Elk Street with her mother, father, and older brother Jack, who was only one year her senior, though many would tell you that it seemed like they were a decade apart due to how they acted. Olivia tended to prefer staying silent, sitting alone at school, or in her room reading. Jack was the complete opposite. He was loud and was friends with most everyone in his school, including a fair few teachers. You wouldn't know they were siblings if it weren't for their shared last name, and even then, many people still questioned if one was adopted.
     The biggest difference between them was their opinion on Halloween. Jack loved everything about Halloween. He loved the candy, the creepy costumes, the scary movies, all of it. Olivia, however, found most of the candy far too sweet for her. She thought the costumes were always either too detailed or not detailed enough, and she hated horror as she scared very easily. Jack knew this fact and took it upon himself to make his sister as frightened as possible, as often as possible.
     His most famous scare was the previous Halloween night, where he and a few friends had dressed up as people in black robes with a ghostly white mask and had chased her all around the neighborhood. Olivia had thought it was from one of his movies, shriek or shout she believed it was. She always dreaded October since it meant Jack's scaring season had now officially begun. She had planned on skipping halloween this year, but her mother forced her to at least buy a coustume and go out, on the promise that if Jack tried anything, he'd be grounded for a month. "Worth it to jack," Olivia thought as she watched the sun set fully.
     Olivia put on her witch's hat and picked up the Walmart bag that she had picked out for carrying candy. She peeked downstairs to see if her brother was hiding nearby. When she saw no sign of him, she sneakily moved out of her room and down the stairs, making very sure not to make a sound.
     If I can get out of the house before he sees me, Jack will have no idea where I am all night, and he won't be able to scare me, she thought as she reached the bottom step, only to turn around into the loving room, and she Jack standing right their, having an argument with her mother.
     "Why do I have to go with her!?" Shouted Jack at his mother.
     "Because I don't trust you not to meet up with your little friends to scare her again! You can consider this punishment for all the previous halloweens!" Shouted his mother right back at him.
     Jack pouted. "Cmon, mom, they were only jokes!"
     "Jokes that had your sister crying in her room for hours!" Shouted his mother, who was clearly starting to become increasingly irritated. "Now go with your sister now, or you won't go at all!"
     Jack turned away in defeat. He wore a vampire costume with two fake blood marks on his neck that had already been half rubbed away. "Cmon, let's hurry up so we can get our candy and come home," he said in an annoyed tone.
     "I thought dad was gonna come with me, he was supposed to have the day off early!" Said Olivia as it began to dawn on her that the person she had planned on avoiding all night was now her chaperone.
     "There was a problem at work. He's stuck behind their now, so this will have to do for now." Said Olivia's mother
     You could tell by the look on Olivia's face that she was trying to figure out any way to get out of her current situation. "Can't you take me!?"
     "Unfortunately not," her mother answered as she threw on her coat, "I promised help with the haunted house up at the school this year, remember? I can't cancel now, or they'll never let me work with them again."
     Olivia's face now resembled her brother. It seemed for once, neither of them were particularly happy with how the night was unfolding. "Fine," said Olivia. "Let's make this quick."
     Jack picked up his bag and opened the door. Both siblings stepped outside and shut the door behind them, seeing the street that just minutes ago had been crawling with people and their coustumed children. And yet, curiously, neither of them saw a single soul walking along the block.
     "Where is everyone?" Asked Olivia as if her brother would somehow know the answer. Jack looked around the block and said, "Maybe everyone already cake down this block, we are in the fun sized part of town." That was one of the few things Jake had ever actually done involving a chart. Over the course of the oast 5 or so years, he had carefully charted what type of candy every house in town tended to give out. Making him especially popular on Halloween, as kids wanted to know which houses gave out the king-sized bars.
     It was here where Olivia noticed something strange. Every single house on the block now had their porch lights off. Every house except for one that is. The house right next door, number 13 Elk Street, sat with its porch brightly lit. This was strange since, as far as Olivia and Jack's knew, no one had lived at  number 13 Elk Street in years. Mostly because no one would want to live their. It was barely accurate to call it a house. A cabin or shack would be more accurate. It was old and run down from no one keeping up with it in years, and from the outside, it looked barely big enough to hold a single bedroom.
    "Mom and dad never said anything about someone moving in next door," Olivia said as Jack turned his head to look at the small house. Jack stared at the house and said, "Who would want to live in that place, other than snakes and rats."
     Perhaps out of curiosity, or perhaps because of some unseen force, they both quickly found themselves walking twords number 13 Elk Street, and before they knew it, Jack was already ringing the doorbell. A few silent seconds passed before the door creaked open, and a woman who looked to be about in her mid sixtys stood before them.
     "Oh dear, my first trick or treaters of the night!" Said the old woman. "Come in, come in the candy, and fund is this way!"
     "Fun?" Asked Olivia."What do you mean?" The old woman turned around and looked at the two children."We'll yes! What's the point in a holiday where you don't have any fun!" Jack nudged his sister "see she gets it."
     "Now come, dears! You don't want the other kids to steal all the fun, do you?" Said the old woman. Olivia looked puzzled. "I don't think all three of us can fit in their," Jack sighed. "Come on, Olivia, just have some fun. Worst that happens is she tries to kidnap us." Olivia got a frightened look on her face, causing Jack to let out a pleased giggle.
     Jack walked into the house, and Olivia quickly followed. To their amazment, it seemed like a whole mansion on the inside. They stared at the house's inside for a few minutes before the door slammed behind them and locked.
     "Hey!" Olivia shouted as she desperately tried to get the door back open. "Jack, help me!" The old woman came out, a key jingling by her side. "Calm down dear, I'll let you out soon," she said as she sat down next to an overly large fireplace. "Come now."
     "What do you want!?" Jack asked as he and Olivia refused to move any closer.
     "I just want to tell you a few stories, I have thriteen for you," said the woman before taking a sip of some tea from a cup that was almost too big for her to hold.
     "We don't want to listen to your stories! Let us out!" Olivia said as she pannically attempted to pull the door open.
    "It doesn't work that way dear, it's a magic lock, I can't open it until my stories are done, even if I wanted too" said the woman before taking another sip "the faster you agree, the faster you get out."
     Olivia and Jack stared at each other. Jack walked over to Olivia and whispered. "She's clearly senial. Let's just play along until she agrees to give up the key."
     Olivia listened before slowly looking over at the old woman. "What's the first story?"
    "You see that door over there?" She pointed at a white door in the walk next to them, which both siblings could have sworn wasn't there before. "Put your ears up to it and tell me what you hear,"
     Olivia and Jack put their ears up to the door and listened closely. A few moments of deafening silence passed before they heard an ear-piercing pig squeal. They both jumped back from the door in suprise. "You have a pet pig?" Asked Jack as the door began to shake like something was thuding against it.
     "Oh yes, my favorite pet, well I suppose that should be our first story, the story of where my pig came from. Let's get started." The woman said as she sat down her oversized tea cup. "It all began on a small farm..."