I hated our house and I hated the stupid shops in this dreadful new town my crazy parents had moved us to. No more fun to be had, all my friends gone! No fancy ice-cream to buy and I had no friends. Worst of all Halloween had arrived and I would have to go out and Trick or Treat for candy all by myself, what a boring plan.
At least mom had bought me a great outfit for Halloween before we left our old neighbourhood. It was witchy, black(so adult. Yay) and sported a truly spectacular pointy hat with purple neon glitter all over it; secretly I couldn’t wait to wear it, but I’d played the brat with mom and hadn’t let her know how pleased I was with it.
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I spied myself in the mirror, and had to admit that mom had outdone herself. The outfit was sublime and mom had painted my face, lovingly and carefully, with white face paint and added black lipstick and purple eyeshadow to effect a complete transformation that turned me into a scary looking little witch. Strange that mom didn’t seem to mind makeup for Halloween when it was absolutely forbidden at all other times.
“Now my beautiful tiny witch, listen up, you are going out with Amber and Felix from next door. I know that you guys are not friendly yet, but they’re nice kids and are also new in town. I’ve arranged everything with their mom. You kids are going to have fun together. Now promise me you’ll try to be nice.” Mom had just landed her surprise. Wow, Halloween was now totally ruined, but I knew better than to argue with mom when she had that look on her face. I’d just lose the neighbours once we left the house.
My plans were made.
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Unfortunately, Amber and Felix were quite entertaining and very hard to shake. Amber was dressed as a vampire, while Felix was Casper the friendly ghost.
However, we were not alone.
Trailing behind us was a pretty awesome looking ghost, she was incredibly beautiful and dressed in an amazingly hideous costume.
Although she appeared aloof, she was definitely on our tail.
“Hey, why don’t we slow up a little and let our shadow catch up?” Felix had spotted her too!
Amber looked over her shoulder and shook her head, “no, she’s not anyone I’ve seen around and anyway, she’s much too slow.” This was true, but my curiosity was on overdrive.
I slowed to let her catch up while my companions sped ahead without sending a backward glance.
At last, I had broken away.
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The ghost’s outfit was incredibly impressive; she was as pale as vanilla ice cream with, I suppose, dark grey kohl pencil around her eyes, she had an ethereal all white, tattered shroud thingy on with various leaves, and other mucky bits hanging off it. Very effective.
“Hi, are you on your own?” Stupid question, I know, of course she was.
“I saw your hat and it reminded me of an outfit I once had. I had to get a closer look.” Flattered, I crept up closer so that she could get a better look.
“What’s your name?” I asked and then realized that I should say something about her awesome outfit too.
“Love your ghost cloak, how did you get the leaves to stick to the material like that?” I was jabbering, my voice sounded way too loud in the tiny space between us.
“My name is Treasure Willow and I collect beautiful things as my treat on Halloween. You shouldn’t let your friends get too far ahead of you, don’t you know that it’s dangerous to be out alone on this particular day.” My jaw hit the floor, she sounded like my mom, her manner and poise made her seem, in that instance, much, much older than I thought she was. I turned to see how far off Amber and Felix were, they were just rounding the corner up ahead.
There was no one else on the street.
Then, POOF...in the time it took for me to glance over my shoulder and back again, Treasure simply disappeared and somehow, she’d managed to pull my hat off my head and take it with her.
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Of course I fainted! And that’s how Amber and Felix found me on their way back, arms full of candy, while mine were bare.
Naturally, they didn’t believe my story for a minute and to this day they think I’m totally weird.
To feel the fear you really had to have been THERE...