It Was Halloween

Have you ever heard of the abandoned school? The school my mama attended to when she was my age. Nobody knows what happened to it. My mama seems to have forgotten.  Anita Dunlap, my very best friend, told me that two bats live there. One short and stubby and the other long and windy. Of course, she was joking. Such a silly thing could never be real.

“Ivette it's time for school” my mama hollered, “You're going to be late.”

It was Halloween today. The sky was inky black, my window was all foggy. The spooky touch that Halloween brings was lurking around every corner.

Just one more lifeless, tiresome day. I thought as I begrudgingly got out of bed. My clock read 6:55. Five minutes till the bus gets here. I flopped out of bed and stumbled into my walk-in closet. I glanced at the clock again.

6:56. four minutes till the bus arrived. My brain processed this and I jumped a foot in the air. Wait! Four minutes! I got dressed in a frenzy, then ran into the kitchen, grabbed a stale bagel, (along with my backpack) and ran out the door.

“Ivette, guess what!” shrieked Anita

“What” I sighed.

“My mama got me a pet iguana!” she whispered as we boarded the bright yellow bus.

“You know...!” I told her, “Iguanas are the largest lizards in America. An Iguana has strong jaws with sharp teeth. They have a very long and sharp tail that is usually-”

“I get it Ivette” Anita sighed, cool stuff about iguanas and stuff.

“Stop saying the word stuff so often!” I said, “it gets annoying.”

“Well it gets weird when you name off tons of facts all the time.” she shot back, then she lowered her voice, “Speaking of weird...”

Santiago Mcleod passed us.

“There's Mr. weird himself”. I laughed.

We watched as Santiago sat down by Oswald Jones. Oswald was considered the "shy" kid. He hardly ever spoke to anybody and usually tended to hide in the back of the classroom. He was also really lazy and barely did anything throughout the school day. His only friend was Santiago.

I liked to consider myself an expert on everybody in our town. It was a really small town out in the middle of nowhere, we were all practically our own cousins and the only thing to do on a hot afternoon was to watch your neighbors. (which pretty much consisted of the whole town.)

I sighed. Life was boring.

That morning we did hardly anything interesting. Mrs. Reid made us to “fun pumpkin math problems” but they weren't fun at all. In almost every class we did something Halloween associated. It was October 31, after all.  When lunch finally came around I went over to my usual seat at my usual table. Like every uninteresting day. Anita was there, but there were two other people there also. Santiago Mcleod and Oswald Jones. Santiago looked like he was in space. Oswald looked as if he was still sleeping, except for the fact that his eyes were still open and he was tapping his foot.

“What are they doing over here?” I muttered.

“Well they kind of just walked over here” Anita explained, “they said something about wanting to sit somewhere new for a change.”

Then I realized they must have been bored out of their minds too. It was easy to get tired of everyday life in such a small town like ours.

I turned to Oswald, not wanting to look at Santiago. He had a far-off look in his eyes, it almost looked like he wasn't meant to be here. I opened my mouth to say something, but just before I spoke Anita said,

“I-Ivette”

I glanced at her and she was trembling. She looked genuinely scared and It spooked me a bit. My friend was not one to be afraid.

“Yeah?”

She slowly pointed at the window. I turned my head to see.

I froze.

There were two bats perched upon the lunchroom windowsill one short and stubby the other long and windy. Their eyes seemed to glow red through the foggy window.  Anita looked horror-stricken.

“ I-I was joking when I described them” she stuttered. "I made the whole thing up..."

I looked over at Oswald and Santiago, expecting to see two terrified faces. But to Ivette's surprise, they didn't look scared at all, instead, they seemed even more tired.

Suddenly Santiago looked up.

“There just bats” he babbled. “Boring, useless, dreary bats.”

“You're right” I responded, although I didn't want to be seen agreeing with Santiago of all people.

“Boring, Yeah,” remarked Anita.

Although she Pretended it was uninteresting, I could tell she was still horrified about the bats and how they fit her perfect description.

-.-

After school, Anita rushed up to me in the halls and shook me.

"We need to talk," she said.

“What's wrong?” I asked, shocked.

“The bats... they fit my description, almost exactly” She whispered.

“Except for their eyes, Their eyes seemed to glow red” I Whispered back.

Out of nowhere, Anita's eyes seemed to brighten.

“So, you were paying attention! I knew it! There's no way that those creepy bats just appear out of nowhere, fitting my crazy story of them almost exactly."

"Yeah? And?"

"I stole that story from a strange figure claiming to be passing through town," she explained.

A chill went down my back.

“You're always saying you're bored, right?” Anita questioned.

“Yeah, I guess so” I replied, wondering what she was up to.

She continued with a smirk,

“Well, why don't we make life fun and do something new on Halloween night for a change.”

“...Like What?” I was getting suspicious.

“Like finding out where those bats came from.” She almost squealed.

“Are you crazy!” I stammered, “Those things are creepy.”

“But it wouldn't be boring.” She answered, “What if they lead to the abandoned school, That would be an adventure.” She smiled a daring smile as if to say if you don't come you're a big chicken.

Just then, Santiago, who seemed to pop out of nowhere from behind us, asked, “You're going to the school remains?”

“Yeah, sure you could call it that,” Anita claimed.

“Ohh we wanna come too!” insisted Santiago. “Right Oswald?” He snapped.

“Yeah, sure, whatever” replied Oswald.

“How about 9:00” Santiago suggested. 

“Yeah let's meet at the graveyard” whispered Anita.

I was extremely confused.

First of all, where did Santiago and Oswald even come from, (had they been spying on us?) second, why in the world did Anita invite them to come without even hesitating?

"So?" Anita pushed. "Are you coming or not."

"Sure" I replied.

I don't know why I agreed to it. Maybe it was because I wanted something new, I possibly just wanted to go to keep Anita company, make sure she wasn't going crazy. Either way, I arrived at the town graveyard at 9:00. Anita, Santiago, and Oswald were all there waiting for me.

"Well? what are we waiting around for," Cheered Anita. "let's go find those bats!"

After a few hours of searching for bats, we came upon an eerie-looking cave.

"Looks like a bat home to me," Anita said.

"Well, I'm not going in there," I whispered.

We sat there in silence for a few heartbeats before Santiago spoke up.

"I'll do it." He said with mock bravery.

Then he ran into the cave.

About one second later we heard a scream, then Santiago came running out of the cave. Two bats right behind him.

"I found them." he panted, then fell to the ground.

Anita ignored him.

"Hurry, let's follow them!" She said.

"But what about-" Oswald started.

"He's fine!" Anita shooed him away. "He's just resting."

Oswald shrugged and continued to follow her after the bats. I glanced back at Santigo.

He wasn't moving.

With a shudder, I reluctantly ran after the others.

-.-

It had been hours of jogging after bats (Oswald, barley being able to keep up) when we finally arrived somewhere.

It was an old torn apart building, much smaller than any I'd seen in our town so far. The windows were cracked and there appeared to be claw marks in the eroding wood. A crooked sign over the top of the shack read, "School."

Anita gasped.

"It's the abandoned school!" She said in awe. "let's go inside!"

"Are you kidding? No."

"Cmon you chicken." she taunted. "b-kak!"

I frowned and shook my head.

"You're just a big fat chicken." She jeered. "Oswald will go with me though right?"

"Sure," he grumbled.

"Good." She giggled.

I was starting to think she really was going mad.

She and Oswald entered the school cautiously. I stubbornly stayed behind.

I heard Anita gasp, then Oswald.

I stumbled back.

Then I heard their screams. Screams of horror. Screams of absolute and true terror.

Then the school was quiet.

My eyes widened, and I began to run away from the school with lightning speed. After a while, I passed Santiago, he looked pale and cold. I kept moving.

Once I thought I was far enough, I slowed down to a walk, gasping for breath. Part of me was curious as to what Anita and Oswald had seen in the rickety old school, but the rest of me was determined to get as far away from it as was possible.

I heard a stick snap behind me and I flipped around. Before me stood the silhouette of a little girl. She looked around the age of four and held a little stuffed animal in each of her hands.

One held a short and stubby bat,

The other a long and windy one.

My heart began to race.

She grinned and quirked her head to the side, and I noticed how her eyes glowed red, and how her brows were turned inward.

She was enraged.

I screamed, and she lunged at me.

Then all was dark.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

When the bodies of four of the town's teenagers were found dead, but seemingly unhurt, the townsfolk began to question the reason behind their death's.

Many rumors were spread about the poor children, but none of them seemed to hold any truth to them.

The real truth was that it was a mystery, and the people of the small town here in the middle of nowhere would never know.

It would haunt them for forevermore and they would never quite feel perfectly safe in their town again.