It was cold, dark and damp. Three things that were somewhat less than appealing to a ten year old boy, and after they had realized exactly what it was that they had done, surprisingly it was Marvin who held it together.
"Guys?" He whispered to Petey and Jimmy. “We have to be quiet, or they’ll come in here after us, I know this place is supposed to be haunted but-”
Then it was Jimmy who cut in.
“Hey, that’s right, it is supposed to be haunted, and EVERYBODY knows it! Maybe we can use that!”
And it was then that the three boys had begun to formulate a plan. They had decided to split up and hide in three different rooms when the three bullies came in, and they would try to scare them out of the house.
“Geez Jimmy! How are WE gonna scare THEM?” Petey asked.“Guys, look in your bags for some hard candy. Like jawbreakers or something, if they get close to where you are, throw it in another direction away from you, they’ll think the noise is one of us, and they’ll follow it, when they leave the main room we can all run out of the house!”
So each of them chose a different room and waited to see if the older boys would follow them into the Miller house. Within minutes, the three bullies hesitantly walked in the front door.
“You little brats are gonna pay for making us come in here after you!”
They immediately split up and began to head into different rooms, the biggest of the three went into the room where Marvin was hiding behind a chair. Slowly the larger boy stumbled through the dark room, Marvin had been in the room for several minutes, so his eyes were more adjusted to the dark, and when the boy turned his back, Marvin threw the piece of candy into the next room, making an echoing noise as it hit the floor. The bully took the bait and yelled to his buddies.
“They’re in here! Get em!”
And he ran quickly into the next room, what happened next Marvin could not believe his eyes or ears. When the boy went into the next room, a shadowy figure seemed to have followed him, making a scraping noise along the walls. The same exact scene played out in each of the other rooms where Jimmy and Petey had been hiding, and it was all three boys that met back at the front door. They all looked at each other and then back at the dark and strangely quiet house. Marvin swung the front door open.
“Let's get out of here, guys.” He whispered to Jimmy and Petey.
Slowly they all walked out the door and ran to the sidewalk. They stopped near where the front gate had been broken on the Miller home, and as they turned to look back, here came the three bullies on a dead run, without the sacks of candy that they had plundered from the local Trick or Treater’s. Each boy ran past them without giving them so much as a second look, clearly they were scared out of their wits, as they were screaming at the tops of their lungs. The door slammed shut behind them and immediately everything drew silent. The boys all looked at each other in disbelief, and slowly Marvin moved towards the house, with a hesitant Jimmy and Petey in tow.
“Geez Marvin! What are you doing? Are you crazy, man? You can’t go back in there!” Petey yelled at him. Marvin turned around to face them.
“Ok look guys. We were in there and nothing happened to us. Now I wanna see the ghost!”
Slowly, Jimmy and Petey followed Marvin back up to the front porch, the closer they got, the colder the air seemed to get. Marvin climbed the front porch and approached the door. Slowly, with trembling fingers, he reached for the door knob, from behind him, he could hear Jimmy and Petey whispering instructions. His fingers never even touched the knob when the front door to the old Miller house swung open all by itself. Jimmy and Petey both ran back to the sidewalk, as Marvin stood alone in the doorway trying to look inside. Jimmy and Petey couldn't believe what they were seeing as Marvin slowly entered the front door.
“Marvin, no!!” they both yelled at him.
Silence. They both headed back to the front door, which was still open. Carefully, they looked inside as Marvin came walking towards them, holding three extra bags of candy.
“They were just sitting in the middle of the floor, all three bags were. it’s the candy that those bullies stole from those kids.”
They looked at the names that were written on the top of each bag and discovered that they knew who each kid was, and they would return them as they found them. They each picked up a bag and headed back for the sidewalk, when Marvin stopped and turned around to face the house once more, the door slowly closed shut, and in the window he could see a softly glowing figure watching him, at which ten-year-old Marvin Tallmadge smiled to himself, raised his hand and slowly waved to it. It raised a hand to the window and as if a whisper disappeared from view.
~FIN~
~Scratch A.B.T. copyright © 2008~
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