Cursed (A Short Story)

Cursed...

3 young teenagers roam the streets of Rokeby Lane ignorantly on Halloween night. The sounds of children laughing and their parents talking fill the air from afar. But the question that remained between the three children is why was no trick-or-treaters on this road. The 3 children dress as a Ninja, a Zombie, and Waldo from Where's Waldo. They had heaping servings of candy in their pillowcases, slowly weighing them down as they made their way to their house. But on the way there, the Ninja and the Zombie plan to prank Waldo at the "haunted" toy store on the way to their destination. Local folklore had provided this myth of a "haunted" toy store. And the Ninja being slightly more gullible, was hesitant of lingering around a supposed place haunted by ghost children.

"Hey guys!" The Zombie called out, the two others turned to face him

"Let's take a shortcut!" The Zombie announced, fighting back a devious smile.

The Ninja winces, "Why do we have to take a shortcut?" He asked, knowing the answer. But hoping the Zombie would reconsider the prank.

The Zombie glares at him, once Waldo gets out of earshot of a whisper, the Zombie speaks, "What are you doing?"

The Ninja sheepishly looks down and mumbles, "I don't want to do this prank anymore." He grimaces slightly on the word 'prank'.

The Zombie whispers through his teeth, realizing it sounded a lot more aggressive than he meant to, "If you don't want to do this then leave."

The Ninja looks up, furious, "Ok, fine! Do your stupid prank! I'm done!" He stomps off back to the house.

The Zombie scoffs and catches up with Waldo. When he gets there, Waldo looks at him quizzically, "Where'd your friend go?"

The Zombie fumbles for excuses, "Uh...He went back the other way. Probably to get into his candy faster." He chuckles nervously.

Later....

"Whoh, look at this place," The Zombie praises the haunted one-story building. His eyes agaze at the now faded "Samantha's Toy Store" sign.

The building's windows were shattered and graffiti stained the wall. Vines crawl up and down the cracked and greyed cement walls inside of the store. And the outside walls weren't any better, if anything, they we're worse.

Waldo surveys the building fearfully, "Um...Why are we at Samantha's?"

No answer...

Waldo looks around frantically for his friend, "Hey! Where'd you go?"

He peers into the building, fear-stricken, "Hello?"

Again no answer...

Waldo pulls out his phone and turns on the dim screen as a light and walks into the store. He asks hello multiple times, but every time, he gets a reply of eerie, noiseless, hushed air. A loud ringing pierces the air, Waldo screams, never been this scared in his life. He turn his phone screen towards him and sees it's his friend the ninja calling him. Waldo answers it with shaky hands.

"Hello?" He answers timidly.

"Hey, are you alright?" The Ninja asks over the phone.

Waldo voice goes absurdly hysterical but shouts a whisper, "No! I am NOT alright! The zombie kid disappeared! I can't find him! And we're at Samantha's and--"

The Ninja interrupts, and laughs, "Dude, he pranking you. Sorry, I forgot to tell you. And hurry up back to the house, I want to eat some candy!" He hangs up.

Waldo is filled with rage and anger, he shouts to nothingness, "You better not be pranking me! Just come out now, your sick jokes over!"

The air is still. No noises whatsoever...

Waldo spots a dark shadow on the floor, and suddenly he was scared again. He shines his phone upon it, slowly approaching it.

It was the zombie costume that the other child wore.

Waldo's eyes widen upon the realization and he also sees something else laying on top of it. He works up the nerve to pick up what was on his costume. He inspects it, It was an old cymbal monkey. It's fur missing in some places and his cymbals partially rusted. He notices the wind-up key was missing, replaced with a rolled up sheet of paper. He pulls out the paper and hesitantly unfolds it. Being seemingly oblivious to the darkened red liquid spotted on it. He reads aloud...

Get ready for a surprise

He soon realizes this wasn't a prank anymore...