April's Fool

"April fools!" screamed Mason as he dumped feathers and glue on a girl's head. "Mason, you jerk!" she yelled. He laughed and walked away, as he always did. Mason Brown was the school prankster, and everyone knew it, yet no one would confront him. Perhaps they were afraid of him.

Mason had always been a problem child. He was orphaned at two years old upon the death of his parents by a drunk driver. He had lived with his grandparents ever since. Though he always had a smirk on his face, he burned with anger on the inside; this anger was caused by his grief, though he didn't know it. He barely knew his parents, but he felt that part of himself was missing. His heart ached as he watched parents pick up his classmates from school. He didn't understand his feelings, but instead of seeking help, he became controlled by his emotions. He craved parental attention, but he couldn't find it. So to replace the hunger inside of him, he sought attention, good or bad, through his pranks.

Mason lived on a farm run by his grandparents in Oklahoma. The older he grew, the worse his pranks became. In order to keep him out of trouble, his grandfather put him in charge of feeding the chickens. But instead of using that as a means to keep out of mischief, he would take the chickens, break a window in a neighbor's house, and set the chickens loose. He got away with hit several times, but this prank backfired one day when their rooster flogged an elderly man, leaving him lying in his front yard for hours, until his daughter came for a visit and found her father crying out for help. The old man died of a heart attack hours later. They threatened to press charges, but Mason's grandfather talked him out of it. After this happened, he sat Mason down and said, "Listen, son. It's all fun and games until someone gets hurt. Well, someone got hurt, so it's not funny anymore. You better stop before someone calls the police." Mason laughed and walked away.

On his 18th birthday, Mason was arrested. He was found setting mousetraps inside his neighbors' shoes, inside their house. Upon being confronted by the police, he took their handcuffs and through them down an air vent. They tazed him. His grandfather was right, the police would come, and they did. When his grandparents found out, they bailed him out of jail, but he would have to do community service per the judge's order.

For a while, Mason stayed out of trouble. He did his chores, apologized to the neighbors, and went to church. It appeared that he was making a turn for the better, and that his days of being a prankster were over.

One day, while doing his share of community service by picking up trash on the side of the road, he overheard a group of boys his age talking amongst themselves. "You know that big house across the street from the brown farm? Well, word is the owner died and the daughter is coming back to set up house in it." They always said that house was haunted. Well, why don't we show the lady how haunted it is." They all nodded in agreement. "But we've only got one problem, we ain't got no way in, and if we break a window it would kill the plan. But I've heard that the Brown family was good friends with the owner, and I've seen them take a key and go over there from time to time." They all turned and looked at Mason's name on his vest. "Brown." Eddy, the gang leader called out. "Hey, Brown. You don't happen to be related to the Brown family? Ya know, the ones that own the farm?" Mason said, "Yes, I am." They snickered. "Well, you's gonna help us." Mason said, "No sir, I learned my lesson. I'm not pranking no one no more." Before he could say anything else, he found a 22-caliber pistol in between his eyes. "Let's try that again." the thug said. "Now, you's gonna help us, right?" "Yes" said Mason.

It was April 1st. Today was the day. The day that Miss Marshall would be coming back home. They planned to get in the house first, and then hide in the attic and under the old wooden floors, and then make noises as she walked into the house. It was all planned out. They would leave as she ran out of the house, and they would never be caught.

Mason watched out the window for the guys to give him a signal that it was time to go over there. The word was that she would be arriving around 5:00pm that evening, so they would have to be there before. At 3:00, they give him the signal, and he quietly rushed over to the house. They met behind the house to avoid being caught. "Alright boys, this is it. Jackson and Homer, you are going to go up to the attic and hide. Mason, ya know how old and rackety that wood floor is. Well, I've studied it, and there's about a foot and a half of space between the concrete and the wood floor. It was built as a hideaway during the Civil War. That's where you're gonna go." Mason, with the key, opened the door to the house. It smelled of must and old furniture. No one had been in there in years. They began to look around the house. There was evidence of mice. It was almost 5:00, they had to hurry. She would be here soon. Homer and Jackson ran to the attack. Mason crept quietly under the old wood floor. There was a glimmer of light shining through the cracks. "I have a bad feeling about this." He said to himself. He called out, "Hey, Eddy, I don't feel so good about this anymore." Eddy was nowhere to be found. Mason called out again, nothing. A knot twisted in his stomach. All of a sudden, the door opened. There were footsteps, but not that of a person. Suddenly, it stopped over the plank of wood above Mason. Mason looked up at it. "A rooster." He said to himself. "Hey guys, it's just a rooster. She's not here yet." Silence. They were not there either. There was a terrifying suspense in the air. Mason looked at his watch. It was 5:05. He waited ten more minutes, and then he moved the plank of wood to get out of the hideaway. When he peeked his head out, he saw the unimaginable: hundreds of roosters, everywhere. He quietly walked towards the door, but it was locked. There was no way out. The roosters looked intently at him. Suddenly, he heard a sound coming from the window. One lone hen appeared. It walked toward Mason. Upon arriving to him, it flew up and pecked him on the arm, and he slapped it away. At that moment, the roosters attacked him. They all flew up to his head, his shoulders, and his back, and flogged him. He fell on the floor, trying to crawl back to his cutout in the floor. But he couldn't reach it.

After one hour, the door opened, and all of the roosters flew out. Mason, severely wounded, looked up to see a young woman holding the little hen. "Mason Brown is it?" she said with a smile. "Maybe one day you'll learn that I will do whatever it takes to protect what's mine." You may have gotten away with this the first time, but you will never be able to get away with anything ever again."

No one heard from Mason for weeks until Miss Marshall came a week later and found his body packed into the floor of the old house. He was no longer recognizable. It appeared that rats had eaten away at his flesh. Holding in his hands was a note: "April's Fool." His grandparents called for an autopsy, and it was revealed that Mason died at 6:02pm, the exact time the old man died from a heart attack. Detectives investigated and discovered that the gang leader, Eddy, was the husband of the daughter who found her father lying in the grass after being flogged by Mason's rooster. He had been in jail for stealing. The young woman with the hen was the daughter herself, coming for revenge for the loss of her beloved grandfather. The two were arrested.

That old house still stands, but no one dares to go near it. They say that to this day anyone who goes into the house hears knocks from the floor.