Today’s my turn with the Halloween Flash Blog Tour.

A flash about an evening that went a bit spookier than intended. I hope you enjoy it.

 

A bit spookier

Sebastian watched as three ghosts, one witch, a crocodile, a skeleton and two Spidermen ran towards the next house, which was decorated with pumpkins and candles. Maybe here would be something to get.

He followed the screams of his nieces, nephews and their friends, demanding sweets. They yelled Süßes oder Saures in the face of every apartment owner. The phrase was an adapted version of the American Trick or Treat, but was closer translated as Sweet or Sour.

The first houses hadn’t been really successful, but the little monsters weren’t deterred from their plans for a real Halloween.

The young woman smiled and talked with the kids. Sebastian did a quick headcount, but all the little monsters were still there. Thank God, losing one of them would be hell in the darkness.

The friendly woman was still talking to the little ones and handing out some sweets. The kids had seen a movie about Halloween in the U.S. and were determined to have the same. Despite Sebastian’s claims that it wasn’t that common in Germany, they wanted to try, and it seemed at least a few people anticipated the kids.

Sebastian waited for the children to finish talking and nodded a silent thanks to the woman. He turned around to wait for until the little ones to run ahead to the next house.

A high pitched, loud scream wailed through the night. Fuck. Sebastian whipped around, but didn’t see anything.

Little feet stomped over the dry ground, kicking up dry leaves, rustling them to all sides as the kids came running back to him.

Sebastian looked at their frightened faces. “What’s up? What did you see? A cat?”

“No, something bigger. Like a—a—a ghost.” Marcus, one of the older kids answered.

“A ghost?” Sebastian raised his eyebrows. Marcus and Sven were at least ten years old; they wouldn’t be scared so easily.

“Maybe it just was a shadow?”

The bigger guys shook their heads. The smaller ones looked quite shaken, but didn’t say anything.

Sebastian turned around and looked into the brush again. Nothing. Who knows what they’d seen.

Sebastian shook his head at the kids and led them to the next driveway. They all stayed by his side now.

Something rustled close to them. Sebastian stared intently in the darkness, but he didn’t see anything. “Over here, guys. Maybe we’ll get something here.”

The little monsters ran up to the door and rang, while Sebastian followed in a slower pace. He was in the open now, nothing to hide in the front yard of the house, but he felt like someone watched him.

Sebastian chided himself. Such bullshit. Who’d watch him?

The kids stayed at his side for a couple of houses, but nobody heard anything. At the third house, there was no holding back the little ones and they sprinted forward again.

There. There. Something had moved in the bush over there.

Sebastian’s breath stopped. Damn. What is that?

He exhaled hard. Time to stop being a wuss. He stepped towards the dry branches, trying to spot anything in there. Nothing.

The kids stood around him, frightened expressions on their faces.

“You heard that too, didn’t you?”

“Na. I think there might be a cat following us. That’s all.” He looked around. The little ones didn’t seem to be convinced. Not even slightly, to be precise.

“Come on, guys. Let’s go to the next house, see if they know what Halloween is.”

“Yeah, that’s Frau Meier, she’s very nice.”

“You know her?” Sebastian asked Marcus.

“I’m living a couple of houses over there. Of course I know her.”

At least he saved the “duh” that his tone implied. Some of the kids were from around here, while two of his nieces were from further away. His nephews lived two streets away, so he shouldn’t be surprised to hear their friends were from all around here.

Sebastian looked back in the direction Marcus had pointed. It was the house where they’d gotten a lot of sweets.

“Okay, let’s get going.” Sebastian motivated the kids to get out of the front yard again, but they’d lost some of their urge to run and stayed closer to his side.

“Uuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhh…aaaaaahhhhhhh…”

Sebastian froze. His heart stopped beating. FUCK! That definitely came from the overgrown yard that was next on their tour.

The kids looked in the direction the sound had originated, their expressions horrified.

“That’s—nothing. Absolutely nothing,” Sebastian stammered, over the pulse pounding in his ears.

“But—there. That was—what was that?”

“I don’t know. An—an owl, maybe?”

The kids didn’t look convinced.

“Come on, we’ll try the next house.”

The kids stayed close on the way to the next house. Sebastian reached in his pocket to pull out his phone. Maybe he should call the police.

It wouldn’t hurt to watch the things a couple of houses and then maybe call after he dropped off all the kids at their home. If he made the call now, whatever it was would hear him.

They went into he next yard, this one pretty overgrown and dark.

Something moved. A shadow. Sebastian squinted his eyes. Something rustled.

“Uuuuuuuhhhhhh”

“W-w-w-what w-w-w-was t-t-t-that?” Sven was very much white around the nose.

“I’m going to call the police, if you don’t come out of there now! Stop scaring the kids!” Sebastian called, his voice only wavering a little.

“Uuuuuuhhhhhhhhh”

A dark figure stepped out of the shadows. The kids screamed. Sebastian stared at the thing, frozen on the spot. The thing raised a hand and shoved the hood from his face.

“Max!! You—you!”

With that Marcus flung himself on the figure, pummeling at him with both hands. The man went down, laughing, while trying to fight off the kid.

Sebastian watched as they rolled on the grass, the man apparently trying not to hurt Marcus, but laughing so hard that the kid got in a few punches at the guy’s ribs. They definitely had wrestled before.

Slowly the fight left both of them, and they sat up, still chuckling.

“That was you?”

“You complained that Halloween would be boring. So I decided to change that.”

Marcus looked offended and Sebastian burst out laughing.

He reached down to help the man up. “You are?”

“Marcus’s brother. Max.”

“I’m Sebastian. You scared us all right.”

“Sorry for that. But he—” he gestured at Marcus, “was mouthy as hell today.”

“It’s okay. No worries. But you can come along and watch them now. I somehow went from spending an evening with my nephews and nieces to having eight kids to look after.”

Sebastian admired Max’s handsome face, the dark hair and the grin. “Maybe we can get a drink or something after we have them home again.” He smiled at Max.

“Or something sounds good.” Max grinned back at him, one eyebrow raised.

Oh, yes, or something would be much better.

They started walking next to each other, the kids now way ahead of them, and Sebastian cast glances at Max whenever the light of a streetlamp allowed it. Once or twice their gazes met and held. If Sebastian wasn’t mistaken, this Halloween would be one of the best in a while.

 

 

Have a good day, and thanks for reading this.

Tomorrow the tour stops at the following blogs:

Kate W

Heloise West

and Skye Jones

 

Chris