Haunted Organic (2014 Watty Award Winner)

Six: 1952

SIX - 1952

The side door was unlocked.

Josie pulled it open, slipped inside, and closed it quietly behind him. The hallway was dark, but the street lights shown in through the windows and he could see his feet as he walked.

All the houses on Tamarama Street had been there for a long time. They were wooden, old, had original moldings and door frames. The floors were planked wood, and they often creaked and moaned under the weight of feet. This house smelled musty, mostly because it hadn't been lived in for a long time.

The house was small, and the hallway was narrow, a tunnel. Josie felt the walls close in, felt like he might be closed into a coffin. His breathing went hard and deep in his chest. But he kept going, deeper and deeper into the dark, one foot in front of the other. He could see a light glowing from under the door of the room, two doors down on the right. He walked slowly past the first door.

He hadn't noticed the first door was cracked open, just slightly. And that one eye stared out at him. Watching. Josie took another careful step. He could almost reach the door handle to the second room.

But then, before he had time to fight back or get out, the door of first room swung open, and he felt something jump out behind him.

"Bahhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

Josie spun around. His eyes wide with fire and fear.

It was a trap.

It was some kind of monster. Its face was grotesque, mangled and ensconced in a bright shining light, so that every sinew and flap of skin was visible. Josie panicked, stumbled backwards and fell on the floor.

That's when the monster lumbered toward him, stood over him, and yanked and pulled at its face. It ripped its skin off, chunks of thick skin and fat from his face flew down around Josie. The beast was transforming, melting, morphing into something else, something possibly much worse.

Then, the monster pulled the last bits of skin away.

Josie caught a glimpse. He saw what was under the mask.

A grinning girl. He blinked and looked again.

It was a girl, and she wasn't just grinning, she was laughing hysterically.

"It's a mask!" she said. "Isn't that super-fun?"

Josie sputtered at her, his mind reeling. He was confused and embarrassed.

"I make these cool molds out of clay and then poor in liquid latex, and paint them..." Emerald Phan explained.

Emerald held out her hand to help Josie up, but he refused it and got himself up.

"OMG! The look on your face!" she cackled.

"Why did you do that?" Josie's heart was beating so fast he thought his chest might burst.

Getting to her house had been such a huge risk. He had to move bush to bush, tree to tree across the street, making sure Mrs. Kippelibby wasn't staring out the window, waiting for any opportunity to call the police. And just when he ran, bent over across the street, lept over her fence, bolted up onto the side porch and let himself in through the screen door, he was beside himself with panic, with the idea that one of those reporters would train their cameras on him, that he would be thrown in Juvie.

Emerald's little prank made him furious. He barely knew her and already he was sure he hated her.

But Emerald seemed completely unfazed by Josie's anger. It occurred to him that she might not care what anyone thought of her.