I could feel my blood chill as I looked towards the end of the walkway. There was the dark figure moving slowly but surely towards the woods. This was like watching something straight out of a horror movie. This can’t be happening, I thought to myself. It just can’t be.
I can remember the crisp, autumn air that day as my friends and I were getting ready to go trick-or-treating. My name is Jake Palmer. I am a 14 year old kid with short, dirty blond hair, and I would consider myself to be an average, everyday kid, but with a very peculiar story.
“Come on, let’s go! I’m already sweating and this Elmo costume doesn’t have any air holes,” said my friend Tyler Aybill, very anxious to get the night started. Tyler wasn’t exactly what you would call a “fit” kid. He was somewhat chunky, but his double-chin and curly blonde hair gave a comedic feel to everything he said.
“Hold on chubby, the candy isn’t going anywhere.” That was my friend Ethan Kane. He was tall, athletic, had dark brown hair and always had a ready response to whatever Tyler said. My other friend Dennis Hollander let up a grin in silence at Ethan’s remark. Tyler walked out of my room and closed the door behind him.
“You guys almost ready?” I asked Ethan and Dennis.
“Yup,” said Dennis, adjusting his ninja belt.
“Yeah, just a second Jake.” Ethan put on his old man mask, the same one he had worn the past 3 years. “Alright I’m ready.” We walked into the living room to find Tyler waiting with his pillowcase.
“Real original Ethan, you’re fooling all of us this time,” he said refering to the mask.
“Shut it Tyler,” he answered without eye contact.

“Alright, let’s just leave before it is too cold,” I said and put on my Boston Red Sox hat to go with my baseball uniform. “Here are some walkie-talkies, just in case.” I handed out walkie-talkies to the three of them, not expecting we would use them. We headed out the door, anticipating the usual Halloween journey full of laughs and much enjoyment. But we were wrong.
After about an hour of going door to door on Eden Avenue, we each had a moderate amount of candy in our pillowcases. The properties on Eden Avenue were thick with many trees, lush bushes and a wide variety of flowering plants.
“I have more candy than you do! All the parents like my Elmo costume better than your stupid mask!” Tyler teased Ethan.
“Actually, they just give you the most candy because they feel bad for you,” responded Ethan. This kept Tyler quiet for a while. I looked over at Dennis and he seemed to be enjoying their prolonged argument too. We walked up the dark, cool lawn at the next house and rang the doorbell. A gray-haired woman answered the door accompanied by a very small boy in a superman outfit.
“Trick or treat!” we shouted.
“Well what do we have here! Let’s see, a ninja, very cool… a baseball player… an old man… and… Elmo?! Wow, I haven’t seen a costume like that all night! You get double the candy little boy!”
“Thank you ma’am!” exclaimed Tyler, smiling while looking inside his pillowcase as he walked down the front steps.
“You get double the candy, little boy!” Ethan mocked the old woman.
“I guess my costume is just better than yours,”
“Yeah, maybe for a little kid.” The argument ended with Tyler being stumped again. We continued further down Eden Avenue, just to find a dead end with a huge lawn of very tall grass and an unlit brick walk leading to a house without lights on.
“Alright guys, I don’t think anybody is home there,” I said, trying to stop Tyler from walking up to the door. But my attempt was overruled by his curiosity.
“Look guys! It’s a bowl full of candy!” Tyler was filled with joy by the sight. I decided to walk closer. I saw a sign on the door written with a red marker saying Please Take One. Ethan walked up to the door. He read the sign. Dennis gave me a this-isn’t-going-to-end-well sort of look.
“Yeah, right,” he said derisively. He started shoveling handful after handful of Snickers bars in his pillowcase. “Now who has the most candy, huh?! Huh?!” He said with a look of playful rage at all of us. He was standing at the doorstep while the three of us had already backed up toward the street. I looked at him, ready to tell him to stop making so much noise, when suddenly the lights of the house turned on.
“Ethan! The lights, come on, let’s go!” said Dennis with a slight hint of fear in his voice. Ethan turned around and saw the lights.
“My bad.” He got off the doorstep and jogged towards us. We walked away for about 10 seconds. “That was a close one,” he said.
“I almost thought we were gonna-“ I was cut off by the slamming of worn-out metal screen door. We all simultaneously turned to face the doorstep of the house. A man was standing there. I was unable to clearly perceive his face in the array of darkness, but I could tell by his posture that he was not a happy man. He took 3 steps down until he was on even ground with us. He began coming closer at a fast-walk pace.
“RUUUUUUUUUUUUN!!!!” screamed Dennis. And that is exactly what we did. We ran as fast as we could. However, Dennis didn’t give us precise directions where to run. I followed him into the grassy field, and Tyler followed Ethan into the forest. Tyler Aybill and Ethan Kane, all alone in the woods. That’s just a recipe for disaster, I thought. Unfortunately, Tyler’s bright red Elmo outfit made him stick out like a sore thumb in the darkness. Dennis and I crouched down in the field. The house was probably 50 feet away from us now.

I could feel my blood chill as I looked towards the end of the walkway. There was the dark figure moving slowly but surely towards the woods. This was like watching something straight out of a horror movie. This can’t be happening, I thought to myself. It just can’t be. The man was walking into the woods, just where Tyler and Ethan were hiding! I started hearing a buzzing noise from my pocket. It was the walkie-talkie.

“Hello?! Please, Jake come help me if you hear me. I can’t get over this fence! I helped Ethan get over but he just left me here to die!” I could tell Tyler was horrified.

“Tyler! Shhh, you need to be quiet. Dennis and I will come get you as soon as possible. You just need to be quiet. Understand…? Tyler?” He was silent for a second.

“Guys… guys… guys!” Tyler’s voice rose with fear and anxiety.

“Tyler?!” No reply. Suddenly, a scream echoed through the cool night air, undoubtedly Tyler’s voice. “Tyler?!” I said into the walkie talkie. All I could hear was the monotonous ring of the white noise from the walkie-talkie spreaker. Tyler Aybill was never seen again since that Halloween night on Eden Avenue.