“Where are we going?” Lee demanded, jogging to catch up to them. He tugged at one of their shoulders. “You’re passing a lot of good houses across the street.”
The jack-o’-lantern creature didn’t slow down. “Let’s try a new neighborhood,” he crackled.
“Yessssss,” his partner hissed. “A new neighborhood. A better neighborhood. You’ll see.”
They led us past the empty lot. Past a row of small, dark houses.
“Where are we going?” Walker whispered. He motioned to Shane and Shana. “What is their problem? Why are they doing this? They’re starting to scare me!”
“I’m sure they know what they’re doing,” I whispered back.
I gazed around the block. I didn’t see many other trick-or-treaters. It was getting late, and most of the little kids had already gone home.
In the next driveway, two tall kids — a gorilla and a chubby clown — were pawing through their trick-or-treat bags. They had their heads lowered to the bags. We passed by them, and they didn’t even look up.
“Hey — we’re missing a lot of good houses!” Lee protested. He pointed to a brick house on the corner. “Can we stop there? Those people always give out handfuls of candy bars. Really. Handfuls!”
The pumpkin heads ignored him and kept walking.
“Hey — whoa! Stop!” Tabby demanded.
She and Lee both trotted up in front of the pumpkin heads.
“Stop! Come on — whoa!”
“A new neighborhood,” one of them croaked.
“Let’s try a new neighborhood,” the other one echoed.
“A better neighborhood.”
A chill ran down my back. Shane and Shana were acting so weird.
I tugged my cape off a clump of weeds. The air suddenly felt colder, and damp. I wrapped the cape around me.
Up ahead, Lee fiddled with his bee antenna. I saw that Tabby’s ballet slippers were soaked with mud.
We followed the pumpkin heads across the street. And then they stepped off the sidewalk and started into a dark woods.
Walker hurried up beside me. Even through his heavy makeup, I could see the worried expression on his face. “Why are they taking us into the woods?” he whispered.
I shrugged. “I guess they’re getting ready to scare Tabby and Lee.”
Twigs and dead leaves crackled under our shoes as we made our way between the trees.
A frightening thought flashed into my mind. I suddenly pictured the four people who had disappeared.
Four people. Vanished into thin air. Never seen again.
I remembered all of my mother’s warnings. I remembered how she told us to stay where there were a lot of kids and a lot of bright lights.
I remembered how she didn’t even want me to go trick-or-treating tonight.
This is wrong, I realized.
Mom’s advice was smart. We shouldn’t be walking through the woods tonight, I knew.
We shouldn’t be away from the street, away from the brightly lit houses.
We shouldn’t go off by ourselves like this in the dark, creepy woods.
“A new neighborhood,” a pumpkin head crackled from up ahead.
“Just past these woods,” the other one whispered. “A really good neighborhood. You’ll see.”
The light from inside their heads flickered over the dark tangles of bare trees and tall weeds.
My heart began to thud. I hurried to keep up with the others.
Shane and Shana are good friends, I told myself.
I’m sure they know where they’re going.
But this isn’t what we planned. This isn’t what we planned at all.
Why do I have such a bad feeling about this?
“Shane! Shana! Give us a break!” Tabby complained shrilly. “Look at me! Look at my ballerina skirt!”
She held up the front of the skirt. Even in the dim light, I could see the mud stain on the front.
“We have to get out of these woods!” Tabby wailed angrily.
“Yeah. It’s too dark. And we’re wasting too much time,” Lee agreed.
His trick-or-treat bag got caught on a low tree limb. He tugged it hard to pull it loose.
Shane and Shana ignored the complaints. The big, fiery pumpkins bouncing on their shoulders, they made their way steadily and quickly through the darkness of the woods.
A few minutes later, we stepped out onto a narrow street. Seeing the bright street lights and rows of little houses, we all let out a happy cheer.
“Now we can trick-or-treat,” one of the pumpkin heads croaked.
I turned my eyes up and down the street. I saw house after house, all small, all on tiny lawns. Most of them had lights on in front. Many of them were decorated for Halloween.
The houses stretched for blocks. Two rows of brightly lit little houses — as far as I could see.
“This is an awesome neighborhood for trick-or-treating!” I declared, starting to feel a lot better. A lot less frightened.
“Excellent!” Lee agreed. “We’ll clean up here!”
“Where are we?” Walker demanded. “How come I’ve never seen this neighborhood before?”
No one answered him. We were all too eager to get started.
I pulled some wet leaves off my cape and straightened my mask. Tromping through the woods had messed all of us up. We took a few seconds to get our costumes in better shape.
Then the six of us hurried up to the first house.
A young woman carrying a baby in one arm came to the door. She dropped miniature candy bars into our bags. The baby stared at the flaming pumpkin heads and smiled.
At the next house, an elderly couple took forever getting to the door. “Trick or treat!” we shouted at the top of our lungs. They raised their hands to their ears. I guess they couldn’t stand the noise.
“I’m sorry. But we don’t have any candy,” the old woman said. She dropped nickels into our bags. A nickel per bag.
We hurried across the small yard to the next house. Two girls, about seven or eight, greeted us at the door. “Awesome costumes!” one of them said to Shane and Shana. They gave us little bags of M&M’s.
“This is cool!” Lee declared as we hurried to the next house.
“The houses are so close together,” Tabby added. “We can do a hundred houses in no time!”
“Why didn’t we ever come here before?” Walker asked.
“Trick or treat!” we screamed as we rang the doorbell on the next house.
A teenaged boy with long blond hair and an earring in one ear answered the door. He snickered at our costumes. “Cool,” he muttered. Then he dropped packages of candy corn into our bags.
On to the next house. And the next and the next.
We did the next block, stopping at every house. Then we covered two more blocks. The little houses seemed to stretch on forever.
My trick-or-treat bag was nearly full. We stopped at the corner because Walker’s shoe had come untied. While he bent down to tie it, we all stopped to catch our breath.
“Hurry up!” a pumpkin urged Walker. Flames leaped angrily from his eyeholes.
“Yesssss, hurry,” the other one hissed. “No time to wasssssste.”
“Give me a break,” Walker murmured. “I have a knot.”
As he struggled with his shoe, the two pumpkin heads bobbed and squirmed impatiently.
Finally, Walker climbed to his feet and picked up his bulging trick-or-treat bag. The pumpkin heads were already leading the way to the next block of houses.
“I’m getting a little tired,” I heard Lee whisper to Tabby. “What time is it?”
“My bag is nearly full,” Tabby replied. With a groan, she shifted the heavy bag to her other hand.
“Hurry,” a pumpkin head insisted. “Lots more houses to do.”
“Lotssssss,” the other one hissed.
We did two more blocks. Both sides of the street. About twenty houses.
My bag was filled to the top. I had to carry it in both h
ands.
Walker’s shoelace had come undone again. When he bent to tie it, it ripped in his hand. “Now what am I going to do?” he muttered.
“Hurry,” a pumpkin head insisted.
“More houses.”
“I’m getting tired,” Tabby complained, loud enough for everyone to hear this time.
“Me, too,” Lee agreed. “And this trick-or-treat bag is getting heavy.”
“Stupid shoelace,” Walker muttered, still bent over his shoe.
“I guess it is getting pretty late,” I said, gazing around. “I don’t see any other trick-or-treaters. I think they’ve all gone home.”
I pulled off my cape. It was all tangled, and it was starting to choke me. I balled it up and tucked it under my arm.
“More houses,” one of the pumpkin heads whispered.
“Hurry. Lots more to do,” the other one insisted in her dry, crackling voice. The yellow flames danced inside her head.
“But we want to quit!” Lee whined.
“Yes. We’re done,” Tabby agreed shrilly.
“You can’t quit!” a pumpkin head snapped.
“Huh?” Lee’s mouth dropped open.
“Keep going! You can’t quit!” the pumpkin head insisted.
They both appeared to float up, to rise up over us. The fires raged in their triangle eyes. The heads floated up over the dark, caped bodies.
“You can’t quit! You can’t EVER quit!”
“Ha-ha. Very funny.” Tabby rolled her eyes.
But I saw Lee step back in fear. His knees seemed to buckle, and he nearly dropped his trick-or-treat bag.
“Another block,” a pumpkin head insisted.
“Another block. And then another.”
“Whoa. Wait a minute!” Tabby protested. “You can’t boss us around like that. I’m going home.”
She turned and started to walk away. But the two pumpkin heads moved quickly to block her path.
“Let me go!” Tabby protested.
She darted sharply to the right. But the big pumpkin creatures floated with her. Their fiery grins appeared to grow wider. Brighter.
The two of them began circling us, floating silently. They swirled around us, faster and faster — until it looked as if we were surrounded by flames.
A wall of leaping flames all around us!
“You will obey!” came the crackling command.
The flames pushed us from behind. Forced us forward.
We had no choice but to obey them. We were prisoners. Prisoners of their fire.
An old man was standing at the door to the first house. He grinned at us as we stepped onto his front stoop. “You kids are out kind of late — aren’t you?” he asked.
“Kind of,” I replied.
He dropped candy bars into our bags.
“Hurry,” a pumpkin head urged as we crossed the wet grass to the next house. “Hurry!”
Lee’s trick-or-treat bag was so heavy, he dragged it along the ground. I carried mine in both hands. Tabby complained to herself, muttering and shaking her head.
We did both sides of the block. I didn’t see any other kids out. No cars came by. Some of the houses were turning out their lights.
“Hurry!” a pumpkin head insisted.
“Lots more houses. Lots more blocks.”
“No way!” Lee cried.
“No way!” Tabby repeated. She tried to sound strong. But I heard a tremble in her voice.
The jack-o’-lantern faces loomed over us once again. The fiery eyes stared out at us.
“Hurry. You can’t stop now! You CAN’T!”
“But it’s too late!” I protested.
“And my shoe keeps coming off,” Walker chimed in.
“We don’t want to trick-or-treat anymore,” Tabby told them shrilly.
“You can’t stop now! Hurry!”
“Lots more houses. This is the BEST neighborhood!”
“No way!” Tabby and Lee repeated together. They started to chant. “No way! No way! No way!”
“Our bags are full,” I said.
“Mine is starting to tear,” Walker complained.
“No way! No way!” Tabby and Lee chanted.
The two jack-o’-lanterns began to swirl around us again, circling faster and faster, rebuilding the wall of flames. “You mussssst not ssssstop!” one of them hissed.
“You musssst keep going!”
They swirled closer. So close I could feel the scorching heat of their flames.
And as they swirled, they began to hiss, like snakes about to strike.
The hissing grew louder, louder — until it sounded as if we were surrounded by snakes!
My heavy trick-or-treat bag fell from my hands. “Stop!” I screamed up at them. “Stop it! You’re not Shane and Shana!”
Fire leaped from their eyes. Their hisses became a high wail.
“You’re not Shane and Shana!” I shrieked. “Who are you?”
They swirled to a stop. Bright flames licked out of their grinning mouths. Their shrill wails bounced off the bare trees, cutting through the heavy night silence.
“Who are you?” I demanded again, my voice trembling. My whole body shook. I suddenly felt as if the cold of the night had seeped inside me.
“Who are you? Have you done something to our friends?”
No reply.
I turned to Walker. The light of the flames flickered over his face. Through his black makeup, I could see his frightened expression.
I swallowed hard and turned to Tabby and Lee. They were both sneering and shaking their heads.
“Is this your idea of a dumb Halloween joke?” Tabby demanded. She rolled her eyes. “Wow. Did you really think Lee and I would fall for this?”
“Ooh — I’m scared! I’m scared!” Lee cried sarcastically. He made his knees knock together. “Look — I’m shaking like a leaf!”
He and Tabby let out loud laughs.
“These are real clever costumes. Great fire effects. But we know it’s Shane and Shana,” Lee declared. “No way you’re going to scare us, Drew.”
“No way,” Tabby repeated. “Look!”
She and Lee reached out their hands. They each grabbed a pumpkin head — and tugged.
“Whoa!”
They pulled the fiery pumpkin heads off the creatures’ shoulders.
And then all four of us screamed — because the two costumed figures had no heads underneath!
Our screams rose up shrilly, cutting through the night air like wailing sirens.
The pumpkin head fell from Tabby’s hand and bounced heavily on the ground. Bright orange flames shot out of its eyes and mouth.
Lee still gripped the other pumpkin head between his hands. But he dropped it when the jagged mouth began to move.
The fiery heads grinned up at us from the grass.
“Ohhh.” I uttered a low moan of terror and staggered back. I wanted to run away, to run as fast as I could and not look back.
But I couldn’t take my eyes off the two heads, grinning up at us from the wet grass.
As I stared, my heart pounded and my legs began to shake. Someone grabbed my arm.
“Walker!”
He held on to me. His hand was as cold as ice. With his other hand, he pointed to the two headless bodies.
They stood in their dark, flowing costumes. They hadn’t moved. The spot between their shoulders where their heads had rested was flat and smooth.
As if the pumpkin heads had been balanced there. But never attached.
Never attached.
Tabby and Lee huddled together beside me. Tabby’s tiara was missing. Her hair had come unpinned. It fell in wet tangles over her face.
Lee’s trick-or-treat bag had toppled onto its side. A pile of candy had spilled over the grass, inches away from one of the pumpkin heads.
The flames inside the heads danced and flickered. And then the jagged mouths began to move.
The smiles grew wider. The triangle eyes narrowed.
“He
e hee hee heeeeee.”
An ugly laugh escaped their mouths. An evil, dry sound. More like a throat clearing, more like a cough than a laugh.
“Hee hee heeeeeeeee.”
“Noooo!” I moaned. Beside me, I heard Walker gasp.
Lee swallowed hard. Tabby was holding on to the sleeve of his bee costume with both hands. She pulled him back until they were standing behind Walker and me.
“Hee hee heeeeeeeee.”
The heads laughed together, flames flickering inside them.
Their two bodies moved quickly. They reached out long arms and grabbed the heads up from the grass.
I expected them to place the heads back on their shoulders. But they didn’t. They held the heads in front of their chests.
“Hee hee heeeeeee.”
Another dry laugh. The pumpkin mouths twisted on the dark, round faces. The eyes stared blankly at us, bright orange, then shadowy, flickering with the flames.
I realized I was squeezing Walker’s arm. He didn’t even seem to notice.
I let go. And took a deep breath.
“Who are you?” I called to the two creatures. My voice came out high and tiny. “Who are you? And what do you want?”
“Hee heee heeeee.” They laughed their ugly laughs again.
“Who are you?” I choked out again, shouting over their dry, crackling laughter. “Where are Shane and Shana? Where are our friends?”
Flames hissed from the two heads. Their ragged orange grins grew wider.
“Drew — let’s try one more time to run away,” Walker whispered. “Maybe if we catch them by surprise …”
We both spun around and started to run. Tabby and Lee came stumbling after us.
My legs felt so wobbly and weak, I didn’t think I could run. My heart pounded so hard, I struggled to breathe.
“Run!” Walker cried breathlessly, pulling my arm. “Drew — faster!”
We didn’t get far.
Uttering their shrill, frightening hisses, the creatures whirled around us once again. Trapping us. Holding us prisoner inside their circle of flames.
No way we could run away. No way we could escape from them.
Peering over the flying flames, I searched desperately up and down the street.