Jorby the Jorbeater

"He's too old for trick or treating", thought Jordan. He had his suspicions that his mother was behind the arrangement. She could be counted on to stand up for him since she doted on the baby of the family. Cliff resented the idea of spending Halloween night with his annoying little brother, but at least his girlfriend Jenny was tagging along. Or at least he hoped she would decide to be his girlfriend after tonight.

"We can't forget to go by Mrs. Flannigan's house, she has full sized Snickers bars this year!" Jordan sensed the excitement in his voice and immediately regretted speaking up. He always felt like such a child around his brother, even though at 12, he was only three years younger. At least Jenny was here too, she was a year younger than Cliff and since she was beautiful and sweet, he hoped she would keep his brother's tormenting in check. "No way he will tease me too much with her around." He thought. He knew Cliff was sweet on Jenny.

"No way are we going to Mrs. Flannigan's. That's over there by where they last saw Jorby the Jorbeater! We don't want to come across that freak!" Said Cliff.

"Who's Jorby?" Asked Jenny, thinking she saw some teasing starting to occur.

"Jorby is that kid that went missing a few years ago, and now only comes out on Halloween. He has huge muscles in a little-bitty body and I'm told he has fangs and talons and eats little boys." Cliff said. "Little boys about Jordan's age. The Jorbeater!" He said again, making goofy grunt sounds.

"Is that supposed to scare me?" Jordan said, although he never knew when his brother was lying or telling the truth.

"I don't know," said Cliff. "If you have a brain, you'd be scared of Jorby the Jorbeater. I mean, your name is Jordan so you would get eaten first." Cliff winked at Jenny. "Plus we can outrun you, Jordan." Jenny just shook her head and tried to change the subject by walking up the sidewalk to the closest door she could see. Cliff followed her of course, wanting to stay on her good side. Jordan tagged along in the rear of the group.

"Trick or treat," Jenny said when the door opened.

The nice lady was impressed with their costumes. Jordan was a beaver with a fur hat and glasses and Bucky teeth, and wore a flannel shirt. Jenny was Rey from Star Wars. Of course Cliff couldn't be bothered, but at the last minute put on a vest and called himself Han Solo, trying to impress Jenny.

Throughout the night, they passed groups of kids and went to countless doors for candy. Jordan had a sizable bag full at this point, he was pleased with the haul so far. Cliff made reference to Jorby the Jorbeater a few more times, and once or twice Jordan thought he saw a shadowy figure resembling the creature but it always turned out to be nothing.

"Here we are, the last house of the night," said Jenny.

"And what do you know, it's Mrs. Flannigan's place too!" Said Cliff

"You did that on purpose," said Jordan.

"Maybe I did, maybe I didn't. But I will say this, and you know it's true too... Every tall tale is based, at least in part, in the truth. So when we go up to this house, you better take it serious and be on guard!" Jenny rolled her eyes, but Jordan couldn't take things so lightly. He felt a chill run up his spine, and now he didn't want to go to that house after all.

"Why do you let him get to you?" Jordan told himself. "Don't believe him. He's lying!"

Jenny and Cliff began to walk up to the front door, through the front yard. Out from behind a tree, a masked shadowy figure slid out and stood silently between Jordan and the other two kids. Cliff and Jenny kept walking like they had not even seen the apparition. It was about the size of a big dog but shaped like a stocky human. In a split second, Jordan asked himself if this was really even happening. The figure reached out a hand and began to lunge. Jordan could swear he saw claws. Talons? And in the moonlight he caught a glimpse of a face, a masked face with big painted on fangs.

Jordan saw the clawed hand reaching out and then felt a tug. The beast wasn't trying to injure Jordan, it wanted his bag! That's when it dawned on him, this wasn't a phantom, this was a punk kid trying to steal his candy that he'd worked so hard to collect!

"That's NOT going to happen!," Jordan said out loud, surprising himself. He yanked his bag backwards and in a split second saw the attacker's momentum send him tumbling across the yard. Jordan felt his own muscles bulging and his heart pounding. He felt ten feet tall.

"Hahahaha". Cliff was laughing. Jordan realized he was laughing at his friend. This was a set up! Cliff did this on purpose. Cliff had no idea how strong and confident Jordan felt after duping the would be attacker. Jordan stood over the attacker, and stepped hard on his non-clawed hand. The attacker had been holding his own bag of candy in that hand.

"I'll take that," said Jordan, as he swooped down and grabbed the attacker's bag of candy.

"Hey you can't do that!" Said Cliff, running up from behind and pulling on Jordan's shoulder.

"That was a mistake," Jordan thought, and he surprised himself by whipping around and backhanding Cliff right across the face. Shocked, Cliff fell back and dropped his own bag of candy. Jordan picked up the bag and looked at Jenny, who wore a beaming smile across her face while she looked at him. Then she turned and frowned at Cliff.

Jordan couldn't believe his courage when he asked her, "Are you coming with me and all this candy, or are you staying here with these two losers?"

"That's a no brainer," she said. "Come on cutie, let's go to my Momma's house and divvy up the goodies." She took his hand and they walked away together. Jordan didn't even have to look back to see the tears of jealousy and embarrassment dwelling up in his brothers eyes. "I'm Jorby now. Jorby the Cliffeater!" he said, mostly to himself. Having heard him, Jenny leaned into his ear, "Cutie McCutieson, I always liked you best." And she kissed him on the cheek in full view of his brother.