The Terror Next Door (Based on a True Story)

15)Halloween Terror

"This is Halloween" by Marilyn Manson

***

During the next few weeks a part of Sophia felt she was losing her mind. The feeling was not from more horrible things occurring, but rather, none at all. Despite all of the strangeness that had plagued her for the better course of August, September, and early October, the bizarre things that had been happening simply stopped happening. There were no more noises in the attic and no locker incidents. Mr. Bradshaw stopped requesting a babysitter for his teenage son while nothing more was done that could qualify in the Summers' household as 'strange'. Days were quiet and nighttime was now nothing to be afraid of. Things were calm and collected. Nothing happened all day, every day, but weirdly enough, that was what Sophia hated.

Even though nothing more was happening when she would see the neighbor boy outside of his house or in the halls at school, Sophia couldn't quite believe the badness revolving around Blake Bradshaw simply vanished. But what exactly did that thought entail; the boy was lying in wait? Sitting around and carefully planning his next move?

"EARTH to Sophie!" Georgia chastised, poking Sophia on the arm to grasp the teenager's attention. "Mom said you have to go trick-er-treating with us!"

Sophia blinked out of her stupor. "I'm NOT going trick-er-treating just so you little kids can all throw your bags at me to hold."

"But mom said you gotta!"

"Well mom can find someone else."

Georgia smirked. "Tell that to her face. MOM-"

Sophia cut her sister off by covering her hand over her shrieking sister's mouth. The child was a pain when she wanted to be. "Alright, alright! I'll go!" Sophia hissed as she tried to stop her shriek. Georgia suddenly beamed as she skipped away from her grasp, heading for her closet. The girl soon emerged with a large, oversized wizard hat. She also held a white beard that was a clip on. Immediately sensing where she was going with this, Sophia stared. "You've got to be kidding."

The mere thought of going with her siblings to do something as childish as Halloween mortified her. She and Dylan were now 'talking' about furthering their new friendship into something more. They were going on their first date that weekend! God forbid he saw pictures of her on Instagram where she was tagged in such a dorky wizard costume. Her young sister merely shrugged at her. "I'm a witch, Nate's a wizard, Gabby is Professor Greasy, and Jimmy across the street is going as a you-know-who! You HAVE to play Dumble-"

"If it stops you from talking in that annoying sing-song of a voice, than sure," Sophia interrupted, rolling her eyes as her sister happily clapped her hands excitedly.

***

After a half hour session of picture taking in the front yard, Sophia instantly realized she made a bunch of little kids extremely happy. The teenager then figured wearing the dorky wizard getup wouldn't be too bad. The night was sure to be fun. Cute costumes and a Harry Potter movie marathon was back at home with pumpkin seeds and candy galore. There was talk of ordering pizza for dinner as well. Sophia would never admit it but she was actually having fun dressing up in a costume for the first time in a few years. Although, she was pleased when her younger sister said she could remove the long beard. It was itchy.

It was only as it was time to trick-er-treat did she dread which house her mother was taking the younger kids to on their first stop. "No mom, not the Bradshaws!" Sophia hissed quietly, shaking her blonde head adamantly. Her eyes bulged at the very thought. Even though her parents neglected to believe Blake was involved with the dead animals found weeks earlier, Sophia felt strongly Blake had killed them.

Mrs. Summers scoffed as she tried to herd her younger children the opposite direction. "Soph, they're the only house on the block that has their lights on besides us. We can't walk past their house to get to the next block, we would look rude!"