The 7 Nights of Halloween

Chapter 12

Chapter 12

       Kotaro started pawing on Ray's leg when Ray and I were by the front door, getting ready to head out and meet everyone else at the haunted house. This was the second night in a row Ray wasn't taking Kotaro with him; dogs weren't allowed in haunted houses of course, and even though Kotaro was Ray's seeing eye dog and could technically bring him, Ray wasn't going to allow his dog to get jump scared by anything.

       Ray crouched down in front of Kotaro, giving the German shepherd a tight hug. "I promise I'll give you all the belly rubs when I get back."

       Kotaro kept pawing at Ray, this time whining as well. He was trained to be Ray's seeing eye dog specifically, so not doing his task was probably making him very upset.

       At least we shouldn't be as gone as long today as we were yesterday.

       "I don't get why you keep going out without Kotaro," Hifumi spoke up from the living room.

       "Because it's close to Halloween, so I keep doing scary stuff," Ray said. "And I don't think Kotaro would enjoy being in a haunted house..." Ray ruffled Kotaro's fur before he stood up. Kotaro took the hint that he wouldn't be going with us, so he laid down by the door where he normally did if he was waiting for Ray to come back.

       Which wasn't often, actually. In fact, I think yesterday was the first time Ray went somewhere without Kotaro.

       Kotaro definitely did not like it.

       Once Ray and I had our jacket and shoes one, I grabbed Ray's hand and opened the door. "Ittekimasu!" Ray called over his shoulder as we were walking out the door.

       "Itterasshai," Hifumi said in reply.

       Ray and I were the last to show up to the haunted house, which Mason said wasn't surprising. Apparently, the two of us were always the last ones to show up to anything. Unless it was baseball practice. 

       "Awe, you didn't bring Kotaro," Maddox said, his eyebrows furrowed and his bottom lip curling into a pout. "I miss Kotaro."

       "Of course I didn't bring him," Ray said. "I'm not cruel. Well, actually, not cruel since Kotaro doesn't really get scared. He would probably try to protect me though if anyone goes near me in the haunted house and I don't want to get banned from it."

       Daisuke, who went to go talk to one of the workers about how many people could go in at a time, walked back to the rest of us. "So a group of twelve is totally okay, but they said they always make it scarier for bigger groups."

       "C-Can we, you know, not do this?" Johan asked. "I hate haunted houses..."

       "You hate anything that's scary," Mo said. "Same with Giovanni." He looked at Giovanni. "How? How can you be a scaredy cat when you look like that?"

       "What's that supposed to mean?" Giovanni asked.

       "Dude, you're the tallest person on the team," Maddox said. "And you look the toughest. But then you're a huge wimp. It's okay, though! I'll make sure to protect you in the haunted house!"

       "How can you be the one to protect him?" Sterling asked. "You're the second shortest and he's the tallest."

       "Don't doubt short people," Maddox said.

       "Yeah, don't doubt us!" Ray said. "We can still fight!"

       Ray couldn't really fight people. He was all bark, no bite. I lost count of how many times this boy tried to start fights with people he just met. Honestly, I would hold him back but I couldn't really care less if he wanted to start a fight.