"Hurry up Mom. He will be here any minute," said nine year old Jake, looking at the clock.

It was Halloween night and Jake's Mom was stuffing more straw into his scarecrow costume. There was straw laying all over the kitchen floor, and his dog Rover, was trying to figure out what it was.

Just then, Jake heard the doorbell ring and he ran over to the door and opened it. Jake felt cold water hit his face and he saw his friend, Joey, standing there with a clown costume on. He had huge, red, floppy shoes on and a big red nose. He had bright yellow hair with a tall black hat, and a flower on his jacket that squirts water!

"Got you," said Joey as he walked into the house laughing.  "Can I use your bathroom, I need to refill my flower?"

After Joey finished refilling his flower, he came back into the room and looked at Jake and asked "What are you supposed to be?"

Jake replied "I'm a very uncomfortable scarecrow."

"Oh, well you look like a haystack," said Joey.

Both boys laughed so hard that Joey's clown nose fell off and Jake lost a lot of straw trying to get it away from Rover.

After the boys fixed their costumes they were ready to go.

"Remember, you have to be back by 8 o'clock," yelled Jake's Mom, as the two boys were walking out the door.

The boys eagerly ran up to the first door.

"Watch this," said Joey.

A man opened the door and water hit him in the face. The man looked totally shocked as he slammed the door.

The two boys looked at each other and Jake said "I don't like this idea of yours, we aren't getting any candy."

"Yea, but did you see how surprised he was?" replied Joey.

"It really surprised him, but I think I saw him laughing as he slammed the door," said Jake.

Both boys laughed as the ran down the sidewalk. After awhile of trick-or-treating, they decided to go to the park and see how much candy they had. As they were crossing the street, the wind started to pick up, and leaves were blowing everywhere.

The boys ran over to a picnic table and sat down. They were looking at their candy, when a lightning flash lit up the whole area.

Both boys looked up and saw a scary looking house across the street. There were jack-o-lanterns lighting up the whole porch.

"Hey Joey, have you ever seen that house before?" asked Jake.

"Yea, but it never looked like that before," replied Joey, looking kind of curious.

"What do you mean?" asked Jake.

"During the day that house looks kind of plain, but tonight, it looks really spooky," replied Joey.

The boys ran across the street. As they approached the gate to the house, they started to slow down. It seemed like the jack-o-lanterns were making huge shadows dance on the front of the house.

The big iron gate looked very old, and it had a carving of a strange looking animal on it. As Jake reached out his hand to open the gate, Joey grabbed it and whispered, "Wait a minute Jake, do you think we should go in, it's getting kind of spooky out here?"

"Come on Joey, I want to see what's in there," replied Jake, as he pushed the squeaky old gate open, and walked in.

The jack-o-lanterns seemed to be laughing at them as they walked up the steps of the porch. The trees were scraping against the house, which made an eerie sound. They could see no lights on inside the house and they were both thinking that maybe they should turn back, but their curiosity had taken over, so they kept on going.

As they approached the door, Joey heard a crunching sound under his foot. Both boys looked down and saw candy laying all over the porch.

"Hey, I wonder where all this candy came from!" exclaimed Joey.

Just then they heard the door start to open. They both looked up and saw what looked like a mummy standing there. Both boys tried to scream but only a faint sound would come out.

In a low whispering voice they could hear the mummy say, "C-a-n-d-y."

He kept repeating the word over and over. It got louder and louder each time he said it.

The boys looked down at the candy on the floor and knew how it got there. "U-ugh, Jake, I'm out of here!" stammered Joey, as he started to drop his candy and run.

Jake yelled, "Don't give him your candy Joey, that's what he wants. Let's get out of here!"

Both boys turned to run. Joey tripped on his big clown shoes, which made both boys tumble down the steps. When they hit the sidewalk, they both turned their heads to see if he was following them. He was still yelling, "C-a-n-d-y," only now, he seemed very irate!

"He's coming," yelled Joey, as Jake was trying to help him up.

Straw was flying everywhere as the two boys ran towards the gate. Just when they thought they were going to make it, something terrible happened!

"Jake, the gate, it's locked!" screamed Joey, with a horrified look on his face. They both tugged and pulled on the gate as hard as they could, but it wouldn't budge.

"Joey, we have to climb over!" yelled Jake.

"I can't climb with these clown shoes on!" exclaimed Joey.

"You're going to have to take them off," replied Jake.

They both turned to see how close the mummy was and realized there was not enough time. He was so close that he could almost reach out and touch them. Their legs turned to rubber as their mind's raced.

Suddenly Jake yelled, "Joey, use your flower! Maybe the water will distract him while I try to get the gate open."

As if in slow motion, Joey's shaking hand reached up to grab his flower. He pointed it right at the mummy and squirted him right in the face!

The mummy made a horrible shrieking sound and grabbed his face. There was a bright flash of blinding light. The boys covered their eyes, and fell to the ground, thinking that the mummy was going to get them.

After a few seconds, they realized that they could not hear the mummy's screaming anymore.

They looked up when they heard the gate pop open, and saw that the mummy was gone!

"Joey, what did you do?" asked Jake, as he jumped up.

"I don't know. All I did was squirt him with my flower," answered Joey, staring at his flower in disbelief.

"Well, whatever you did, it worked, because the gate is open," Jake said excitedly.

They looked back at the house and saw the jack-o-lanterns and candy had disappeared. There was straw laying everywhere and the storm seemed to be gone.

They stood there for awhile, wondering what had happened. They just couldn't believe how calm everything was. Like it never happened.

They decided they were definitely done trick-or-treating and were ready to go home.

"As they walked through the gate, Joey said, "You know Jake, no one is going to believe us."

"Yea, well, at least we still have our candy," replied Jake, as he closed the gate behind them.

As they walked down the sidewalk, Joey started laughing.

Jake looked at him like he was crazy, "What's so funny?" he asked.

"My nose is gone and you don't look like a haystack anymore!" answered Joey.

©Jason Petz
    Age 8