Lottie
At 6:30, I made my entrance downstairs in my incredible costume.
‘Wow!’ said Dad.
‘I know,’ I said.
‘Er, Lottie?’ Mo said, from underneath his Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle mask. ‘No offence, but what are you supposed to be exactly?’
‘Wonder Woman of course.’
I was wearing skinny-fit blue tracksuit bottoms with silver stars glued to them, a red vest with a gold W on the front, a red hoody, and arm cuffs over the top made out of foil. My hair was double French plaited.
‘I don’t remember her looking like that.’
‘I made a few adjustments,’ I said, pulling on my red hi-tops. ‘Wonder Woman is awesome, but if you were going into battle in October, would you really wear tiny shorts and high-heeled boots, with your hair loose?’
‘Exactly. Nobody would – it’s impractical. Girls can be superheroes without being half naked.’
‘Quite right, Lottie.’ Dad smiled. ‘Are you ready to go?’
‘Did you take the you-know-what?’ I whispered to Mo.
‘Yes, it made me feel a bit funny though. Did you?’
‘I did. And I have equipped us with more. They’re in my pumpkin bucket, just in case.’
‘Oh, look – that must be Lorelai’s nephew.’ Dad waved at a small person dressed as a ghost who was standing at the Junkers’ front door. ‘Lorelai has our spare key in case you need anything and Emma and I will be back soon. Have fun, you two!’
‘It’s OK, Sadie,’ I whispered. ‘We’re coming.’
We walked down the steps and across the road to where a faint purple glow seeped out from the open front door at number 79. As we walked up the path, the ghost boy disappeared into the dark house, leaving us to follow. We squeezed each other’s hands and entered.
‘Trick or treat?’ I called out, to break the creepy silence.
‘Don’t ask them that,’ Mo said. ‘What a dumb question!’
‘What else would I ask?’ I said. ‘It’s Halloween.’
‘How about “Where’s our sister?”’ Mo said.
‘Where’s our sister?’ I shouted, but there was no response apart from the door creaking shut behind us.
For a moment we were in total darkness – darkness so thick you could swallow it. And then the music started. ‘Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?’ – the original cartoon version, but slowed right down so the voices were distorted. It was scratchy and jumpy, and sounded like it was coming from one of those old record players that you never see in the real world, only in scary movies.
‘Where did they get a record player?’ I whispered.
‘Ebay, I suppose,’ Mo said. ‘What a lot of bother when they could have just played it from their laptop.’
‘But it sounds much more sinister like this,’ I said. ‘You’ve got to admire their vision.’
‘So what happens next?’ Mo said and, at that moment, a burnt orange light soaked through the gloom to illuminate some scrawly writing on the wall: ‘To get your sister you must walk through the haunted house, but beware – the BIG BAD WOLF IS COMING TO GET YOU!’
‘Well, it’s nice that they left us instructions,’ he said, taking a step forward. ‘Always good to have a clear plan.’
‘And look at all the decorations,’ I said, pointing at the cobwebs and hanging skeletons. ‘They’ve really gone to a lot of effort. I guess they really want to scare us.’
‘Downstairs first?’ Mo said, his voice sounding a little shaky.
I nodded, and we walked down the hall to the kitchen.
All the junk that had been there last time we visited was gone. There were no electrical or body parts lying around. There was no bin, no food, no rubbish. It had been completely emptied out.
The music sounded more distant from here – I guessed it was coming from upstairs where I knew we would inevitably end up going. But we had to be thorough, so we started opening cupboards and looking under work surfaces, in case Sadie was trapped there.
‘We should look in here,’ Mo said, putting his hand on the door of the freezer.
‘There’s always a body in the freezer,’ I said.
‘I know. But we have to look.’ I held my breath as he pulled open the door and then screamed as something jumped out at us. I hit out, trying to get it away from me.
‘It’s OK, Lottie,’ Mo said. ‘It’s just a chocolate gateau.’ He put it back in the freezer and closed the door. Typical Mo, tidying up after himself, even in the face of death.
‘Are you alright?’ he said, looking at me through his turtle face.
‘Brilliant,’ I said. ‘Best jump scare I’ve had in ages. What’s next?’
We moved from the kitchen into the living room. Like the kitchen, the living room had been emptied of anything that would make it homely. The bare floorboards creaked as we walked across them and the air felt cold. It smelt of dust and burning, and those jelly sweets that old people like, which have really disgusting flavours like rose and elderflower. A noose hung from the light fitting, swinging in the draft from the window. There was no sign of Sadie.
‘Anywhere else to look down here?’ I asked, not overly wanting to go upstairs.
‘The cupboard,’ Mo said, leading me back into the hall.
‘Oh,’ I gulped. The cupboard didn’t sound like a lot of fun either. But it had to be checked.
Mo swung open the door under the stairs and we both jolted back, expecting something to leap out at us. Nothing did. Unfortunately, all that we could see inside the cupboard was utter darkness.
‘We’ll have to feel around,’ I said to Mo.
He nodded. ‘Together?’
We both stretched our hands into the black void in front of us. My mouth was desert dry as I waited for something to bite me or snatch me. My fingers inched forwards through dust and cobwebs until they touched something cold and slimy.
‘What is that?’ Mo said.
‘Entrails?’
‘I really hope not.’
‘Splattered brain?’
‘Let’s not get carried away. It feels familiar – I’m going to scoop some out and have a look.’ Mo pulled his hand out of the cupboard and opened it. It was full of some green substance that looked like a cross between jelly and bogies.
‘Alien Goo,’ Mo said. ‘You can buy it at the Pound Shop.’ He wiped his hand on his leg.
‘At least it goes with your costume,’ I said. ‘There’s nothing here, so we go upstairs?’
There was a sound behind us, something large moving through the house. We grabbed each other in fright. ‘Who’s afraid of the big bad wolf, the big bad wolf, the big bad wolf…?’ suddenly grew louder.
My heart was thumping so hard, I thought it might explode out of my chest. Then we really would see some entrails. ‘I guess that was the wolf.’
