The Little Book of Spooky Stories

:|: Twenty-Eight :|:

Halloween had always been Lara's favourite time of the year. She loved nothing more than getting dressed up and going trick or treating. Then she got older, and dressing up for Halloween meant going to parties and drinking shots.

Of all the parties she'd been too, none of them compared to this one in the middle of the woods. The costumes and the make-up made the revellers look as if they'd just walked off some Hollywood movie set; she'd never seen anything like it.

Lara walked over to a guy; it looked as if his jaw was hanging off his face and she wondered how he'd achieved such a look. "I'm Lara," she said holding her hand out for him to shake.

Instead of answering, he just stared blankly ahead.

"Great party, huh?" she said in an attempt to make conversation.

Still, he ignored her, fed up with the one-sided conversation Lara walked away. She passed a girl who looked as if her eyes had been gouged out. And a guy who still had rope knotted around his neck. Lara continued to walk through the trees, climbed the fence and made her way through the town until she reached home.

The house looked different; there were no pumpkins - none of the usual Halloween decorations that her mum was famous throughout the neighbourhood for.

She could see in through the living room window from the garden path; her parents were sat in front of the fireplace, looking through an old photo album. Lara recognised it from the pink print on the outside; it was full of all her old baby pictures. Lara pressed her face against the glass and watched them. Her mother looked up towards the window; Lara smiled, but her mother didn't smile back.

Hearing footsteps on the gravel drive behind her, Lara turned around; she saw Spencer stood on the edge of the drive, the sleeves of his jumper pulled over his hands. "Hey, Spencer, what are you doing out here alone?" she called out.

"Lara," he shouted, running towards her. "I thought you'd left me," he said, throwing his arms around her.

"What do you mean?" she asked confused, "I only went to a party. Why didn't you come?"

"I missed you so much," he said kissing her. "My mum, she told me you left, and I missed you a lot, and I didn't think you'd ever come back."

Lara had no idea what Spencer was talking about; she'd seen him yesterday, they had been in his room together, listening to music and making plans for the future. "I came to your house this morning, your mum, she said that you weren't home, but I could wait for you if I wanted to. And I did. I waited, and you didn't come home."

"Look at you two; you don't get it, do you?" Ray, the postman, said as he walked along the path on the other side of the fence. "Dumb kids," he said while continuing to walk past them.

Lara saw that he was missing half of his head, that was when she remembered that he'd blown his brains out in a drunken rage three years ago.

"It's All Hallows Eve, dear; you know what that means? It's the night when the dead walk amongst the living," her long-dead grandmother said from the bench beneath the apple tree.

Part 2 in the next chapter.