The Cherry Trees

Chapter Twenty-Four: 2013

Our plump orange pumpkins were carved, mangled with what should have been clean cuts. They were supposed to have faces of ghosts and black cats on them, but it hadn't really worked out. My mom was applying this shiny white powder to my face that made me look pale and dead. She said that it was how Wednesday Addams looked. I just nodded my head in agreement, and let her have fun messing with my face.

Little Alice was dressed up as a baby princess, and she looked adorable, her blond fuzz still short, and her head topped off with a shiny silver crown. She wore a pink dress that was nice and soft, and little silver baby shoes. She really did look adorable, no matter how much I tried to deny it.

Lexi had agreed on dressing up as Morticia, Luke was Pugsly, Wednesday's brother, and Will was Uncle Fester. We all met up at my neighborhood's playground, and with our pillow cases in hand, we set off for a night of candy gathering.

"So," Will said smiling mischievously, "you wanna hear a ghost story?"

Lexi and I looked at each other and started laughing, recalling the first time that I ever went over to her house. "Sure," we said simultaneously.

Will and Luke looked a bit confused, but Will continued on with his story.

"So on a night like this, where the moon is full and clouds are whisked in the dark sky, some kids were out trick-or-treating," he said motioning to our candy bags. "They were all walking around, and soon they came to this really boring house, it didn't have one thing decorated about it. Well, they walked up and rang the doorbell, but no one answered, so they began to walk away. It was then that one of the girls spotted some red liquid splattered on the sidewalk. One of the brave and daring boys, such as myself, went down and looked at it closer. It was blood!" he said, raising his voice.

Lexi rolled her eyes.

"They decided to follow the trail, and when it ended, there was an old woman, laying limp and lifeless in her backyard. All the kids, except for the brave and daring boy, screamed and ran the other way. The boy leaned over and noticed a bowl sitting in her arms. Inside was... candy? He reached in to grab a piece and the old woman's eyes shot open, and she grabbed his wrist. 'What do you think you are doing young man?' she said in an old creaky voice. The boy looked at her with wide eyes. 'Best. Halloween prank. Ever,' he said."

"Stupidest. Ghost story. Ever," Lexi said.

Will looked offended. "No way! That one is awesome! I learned it at camp."

"That's some lame-o camp you go to," Luke said. Will pushed him playfully.

"Whatever."

"My turn!" I shouted. Everyone looked at me, and I began my ghost story, the one that I remembered the most.

"So there was once this house, and one day a robber..."

-

The night went on, and it began to get darker. My mom said that Lexi and I needed to be home by nine, so we only had about an hour left to collect as much candy as we could. I saw my dad from time to time, walking around checking in on me every once and a while, holding baby Alice in his arms. Whenever we saw him, we would all run away as fast as we could, and go to the closest house to get our treats. This was the fourth time I had seen him tonight, and so we sprinted to this house, but when we saw where we were going, we stopped dead in our tracks. This was the "haunted house" of our neighborhood. Spiderwebs hung everywhere and demons cackled from what I hoped to be a CD player. Statues of creepy creatures stood everywhere, and the house had its own personal graveyard.

"Are we seriously going in there?" Will asked.

"Heck yeah!" Lexi said.

"C'mon brave and daring boy," Luke teased in a poor imitation of a girl voice.

Lexi grabbed my hand. "C'mon, it's not like we are going to die."

"Mm, and if we do, at least we die with our best friends," I said smugly.

Lexi rolled her eyes, and we all started down the long, dark, driveway.

"I do not have a good feeling about this," Will said.

"Oh please, they are just decorations," I said.

"Yeah, c'mon Will."

We were just rounding the corner of the brick walkway that led to the door, when a large figure with a gorilla mask on jumped out and started chasing after us making weird noises. We all screamed, and Lexi turned around and threw a popcorn ball she had been eating at the gorilla man. We reached the top of the driveway, and turned to see that the man had stopped chasing us, but was walking slowly toward my father with the popcorn ball in his hand.

"I think your kid just threw this at me," he said, handing the ball to my dad.

"Sorry 'bout that," he said, hiding a laugh.

The gorilla guy turned and started walking back down the drive, and my dad handed Lexi her popcorn ball.

"What should I do with this?" she asked me.

I shrugged, and she concluded that she should throw it at Luke. He spun around, confused, but then saw nothing there. Suddenly a terrified look spread across his face.

"Hey guys... I think a ghost just touched me," he said.

"What?" Will asked.

"Yeah, I swear I just felt something touch me, but when I turned around, nothing was there."

"You've been chosen by the spirits to come into their world! Go! Join them!" Lexi screeched.

Luke's eyes widened, and he took off in the direction of my house, Will following closely behind.

Lexi and I started cracking up hysterically.

"So much for those brave and daring boys," I said.