Halloween Fun

Tom Brown had kept dutiful watch starting October thirtieth right at midnight, sleeping with one orange eye open. Though his father had not come by the last Halloween, Tom did not believe that the sneaky old imp would let him alone after that one contact only. Fifteen years of silence would make any imp anxious to wreak havoc with a potentially mischievous mortal son. But he didn’t come.

He didn’t come during breakfast.

He didn’t come during class.

He didn’t come during lunch—or at PE while Tom was showering.

He didn’t come at all during free time when everyone was preparing for the school-wide Halloween party.

Tom would have started to relax near dinner time, if it weren’t for the itching sensation he got in the back of his ears as the imps around him swarmed excitedly. Something unusual was approaching.

“Hey, does this costume look right?” his best friend Matt walked into Tom’s room dressed in a burlap sack for a shirt, impressively fake horns on his head, and an enormous amount of tiger striped orange-and-red face makeup. His brown hair stuck out in all directions with green and orange hair gel to color it.

“It’s a costume,” Tom said with a shrug. “You look weird and creepy. That’s enough.”

Matt rested his hands on his hips, huffing loud. “Yeah, but do I pass for a demon? You ought to know.”

Shrugging again, Tom didn’t want to respond. In the stark fluorescent lights, Matt was a decent caricature of a demon—but when he had stepped into the shadows, all the livid colors took on a more realistic hue that reminded Tom of some of the unseen creatures only he was privy to witness on Halloween evenings. It was part of being half-imp, he realized.

“It is good enough,” Tom said again. Then he pulled on the sheer shaggy cloth over his already white clothes, including a hood for his face. It set his already pale skin and near-white hair into ghostly perfection. He grinned at Matt. “Do you think I’d freak out JJ with this getup?”

Matt shrugged, determined to deliver back all the nonchalance Tom had given him. “Good enough.”

Tom snorted then snickered. Both of them could tell when someone was lying.

They left together to the already thundering party inside the school gym. Troy and Randon had gone ahead dressed as two secret agents. Rick was unable to attend. The full moon fell on Halloween that year, and he was stuck hunting as a real wolf for the duration. He and his father went out of state earlier that week to one of their animal reserves and would not return until well after the moon had waned. Tom thought it strangely convenient for a pair of wolves to own so many animal reserves. It was a pantry for wolves, he chuckled to himself.

“What’s so funny?” Matt asked, marching with Tom downstairs.

Shrugging again, Tom smirked, “Just thinking about our wolf friend.”

Matt nodded. “Yeah. Sucks to be him right now. I think SRA hunters just love searching for his kind during this time of year.”

Tom agreed. Perhaps that was why the Deacons had left New York for the entire week.

The moment they reached the doors to the party, Tom and Matt danced their way in. The music was awesome. The songs were easy to dance to. And the games were better than the usual fare. Of course, with the new staff involved, that was to be expected. Sgt. Kreiner led most of the physical games that not only tested their ability to grasp an apple with their teeth and an orange with their necks; he also had a number of games where they tested their endurance and strength. The boys spent much of their time trying to prove who was the strongest in a race that required they carry buckets filled to the brim with water and apples. It was all about the apples.

Then there was mystic-curious Dr. Pierce. He was still around, despite Tom’s predictions that he would quit before October started. Though, the man had developed a tick at the corner of his eye, and he jumped a lot at nothing. The punked-out PhD put on a magic act, which was mostly sleight-of-hand, flash, and card tricks, with no real magic involved. Tom mimicked him behind his back as the teacher put on the show, purposely getting imps to sabotage most of the tricks in the middle. Dr. Pierce’s deck of cards were now scattered all over the gym floor.

Capt. Eifert was the surprising one. She led all the learned dances, from the line dance in the Thriller music video to her version of the Monster Mash. Most of the other dances she taught were things she made up while on duty in Iraq. And as unlikely as it sounded to the Gulinger students at first, they were all fun.

Of course there were those teachers and administrators that put a damper on the party. As usual, Ms. Arntz watched Tom with scathing suspicion, shouting at him whenever she noticed him messing around with Dr. Pierce, whom she had to comfort that evening before he had another nervous breakdown. The last one hit at the end of September when one of the students set her homework on fire by merely looking at it. That was around the time Tom predicted he would quit. Apparently Ms. Arntz could also calm thoughts and emotions. Matt suspected she had been hired to help with teacher retention. But, during the entire party, Mr. Wilderman scowled over his beach-ball sized body, sick of people asking him if he came to the party dressed as the Good Year blimp.

Mostly everyone had fun.

Nearing eleven in the evening, Matt staggered out of the baking gym to get some fresh air. Too many bodies dancing to Rock Lobster. He stumbled into the hall all the way to the far window and opened it. The alarms hadn’t been set, so it was safe to stick his head outside. No siren would go off. Besides, the student the alarms had been made for was in another state hunting rabbit. Tom stumbled after Matt, first out of curiosity—though once he was in the cooler hallway he understood immediately. He lingered in the doorway, yet he also needed air—and silence. The noise imps made escalated in parties.

Matt gazed up at the sky, breathing in and out, wondering if he would be able to see any stars at all. The New York lights usually obscured them. The night sky was dark, but he noticed flickers of glittery movement above him. Not stars though. No. Not stars.

Their pal Troy pushed his way out the gym door, calling to Tom and then Matt to come back in.

“Hey, Matt!” Tom jogged through the hall towards his pal, laughing with a wave of his hand. “We’d better get back in there! Mr. Jones is about to tell one of his horror stories. True ones.”

Turning to answer, Matt almost pulled his head back into the school. But his eye caught on a glimmer of light reflecting off of something up above that he could barely make out in the darkness. A glittering cloud? More like a reflecting stream full of swimmers…in the sky? He leaned out farther.

“Hey! You might fall out, you know.” Tom snickered, rushing up to him until he was five yards from Matthew. “Come on. Don’t keep me waiting.”

That second, Matt’s feet left the floor. His entire body toppled out the window. Tom lurched after him, grabbing his ankle. It was good he was part imp. A normal human would not have been able to move fast enough.

That’s a little devil… his father is one. Literally.

Spirited Away

But Matt did not fall down. He fell—no—he was pulled up. And Tom, hanging on to him, got

Impressum

Verlag: BookRix GmbH & Co. KG

Tag der Veröffentlichung: 20.09.2014
ISBN: 978-3-7368-5211-2

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