Halloween By Day: Tales for the Good Children

Tale 7: Truth or Dare

“The rolls are on me tonight!” Ed laughed.

         “Oh my God, you actually brought them?” Adi laughed as Ed pulled roll after roll of toilet paper out from his backpack.

         “Way to go, Ed!” cheered Buck. The group of mischievous middle-schoolers giggled and smirked as they each took two rolls of toilet paper.

         “The old man deserves what’s coming to him!” Ricky added. Emma with a big smirk began to throw long strips of toilet paper onto the dying trees. The full moon shone brightly on her blonde hair and her blue eyes sparkled. She was wearing an angel/devil costume, the kind that was half and half. Ed had on a zombie costume but didn’t bother wearing the mask. Adi was a zombie cheerleader complete with black and white pom-poms. Ricky was a karate master. Finally, Buck was a skeleton, but wasn’t wearing a mask or face paint. 

         Ed and Adi both had dirty blonde hair and green eyes. Ricky was a big thirteen-year old with very short brown hair and brown eyes. But Buck was the biggest and oldest kid. He was an extremely husky fourteen-year old with brown hair just slightly longer and thicker than Ricky’s. Emma, Ed, and Adi were all thirteen as well as Ricky. They had almost perfect skin while Buck’s was filled with pimples and zits.

         They all threw rolls and rolls of Ed’s toilet paper onto Old Man Bert’s trees. He was the crankiest old man ever, especially if you got on his bad side. But these five kids have pushed beyond his limit. Buck was on the lookout to make sure the old man didn’t wake up. The other four were laughing and shouting, though.

         “Guys, shut up! Do you want him to wake up?” Buck loudly whispered at them. They all instantly became quiet. Emma walked over to one of the oldest trees and started to dress it in toilet paper. But she didn’t put one of them on balanced enough and it fell right in front of her face. Seeing the white, ghost-like paper drop right in front of her scared her shitless. Emma let out a loud scream that caused Old Man Bert’s bedroom light to turn on.

         “You idiot, you woke him up!” Buck yelled at her. The kids could almost hear Old Man Bert stumbling down his stairs, cane held tightly in his palm. Adi and Emma playfully screamed as they ran away into the forest that Old Man Bert lived next door to. From the trees, the kids saw as the old man came out in his underpants, shouting at them.

         “You little shits are gonna get caught soon! You hear me! Mark my words!” Slowly, Old Man Bert turned his head to the trees where the kids where hiding. “I see you!”

         Adi gasped unhappily as the old man started stumbling after them. “When I grab a hold of you, I’m gonna cut you up and sell you to the butcher. I think that oughta teach ya to mess with me!”

         “Run!” Ricky shrieked. Instantly, the kids scrambled for their lives in the opposite direction, deeper into the forest.

         “That’s right! I don’t want to see your faces around here ever again or else there will be hell to pay!” He shouted after them. They couldn’t see where they were going. The full moon was a lot of light, but it wasn’t enough to guide five teenagers through a mysterious and unexplored forest on Halloween night. The kids kept on going, but they lost track of how far they were going and how long they have been running for. Eventually, they stopped.

         Bending over, grasping their knees, panting like dogs, they wondered where they were. But Emma was the first to break the silence, besides the loud panting. “Where are we?”

         “We couldn’t have gone too far,” started Adi, “there’s a house right there.” Sure enough, an old, small, wooden house was right in front of them.