The
below flash fiction belongs to Pamela K. Kinney and is copyrighted to
her only, so please share thr blog link to your friends and not take off
this blog to put on yours, or on forums or websites. Thank you.
Trick-Or-Treat
By
Pamela K. Kinney
Janie and Bobby
dressed in costumes trudged up the sidewalk as they passed other similarly
dressed children. It was Halloween, their favorite time of the year. When all
children could go door to door, knock, and candy were poured into their waiting
bags after yelling, ‘trick or treat.’ If the adult refused, the kids could play
tricks on them and get away with it.
Janie and Bobby loved the treats, but they loved doing the tricks even
more. They loved doing nasty, terrible tricks.
“It is tradition,” Mama told them. If the adults gave them candy, then
fine and dandy, don’t do anything. But for that one who said, “No treats for
you here, now go away!” they had permission to go ahead and do what their
family had been doing since the early 1900s.
Janie and Bobby couldn’t wait. For the past couple of years they hadn’t
been able to play any of their tricks, as every door they had knocked at the
owners handed over candy, fruit, popcorn balls, tiny toys, and money. But when
they woke up this morning, they sensed that this night would be different. They
would finally be just like the rest of their family.
Nothing happened so far. Both of their bags laden heavy with the fruits
of their labor, they stopped before the white picket fence that surrounded the
yard of a pretty white Cape Cod home. It looked normal and so . . . suburbia.
This was it. They felt it. They would finally get what was owed them.
They couldn’t wait.
Janie and Bobby tipped up their masks and looked at each other, shark
grins flashing on their sweet, chubby faces. They pushed the gate open and
wandered up the leaf strewn path to the front door. No Halloween decorations
shown anywhere and no lit Jack-O-Lantern greeted them, just the closed door,
painted a cheery blue.
They knocked and waited.
The door opened without one creak, and a little old lady stood on the
other side. Her white hair was swept up in a bun and she wore a cheerful
flowered print top and white pants. She peered at them, then blinked her eyes
behind tortoiseshell glasses.
“Sorry,” she said, “but I forgot to buy candy to give out tonight.”
Bobby grinned. “That’s okay. We rather not have any treats. Tricks are
oh so much cooler.” He tossed aside his bag and the sweets scattered across the
front stoop.
He lifted his real axe. He had dressed as serial killer on purpose this
morning. His sister was garbed as Lizzie Borden, her own axe gripped tight in
her fist. She dropped her own bag and raised it high above her head.
The old lady stepped closer and smiled. “I know. I’ve been waiting for
you, my dears. Human killers are not very smart. Not when inhuman ones have
perfected their own bag of tricks for eons. My kind has been hunting their prey
the hard way for centuries. Many still do. Not me though, I found a much easier
way. Usually I decorate my place to attract regular human children on this
night, but when I moved here and heard of the murders that been going on in
this town for a very long time, I devised a different tactic.” She giggled.
“It’s justice for the humans in this town after all and delivery food for me.”
Her face cracked and it split apart, falling to the floor. The rest of
the body followed. Amidst the scattered pieces of the
flesh, a giant shaggy wolf-like creature stood on clawed hind feet. It
snatched both children to its breast. Bobby and Janie screamed, but the sounds
were cut off when they were taken indoors and the door slammed shut behind
them.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
