By Ross Hepburn
Halloween is a favourite time of year. Especially for the residents of the spooky and strange town of Dunning. Nobody understands this better than 13 year old Beki Lansdale, a girl who normally thrives with excitement for halloween.
Whether it’s decorating her room to look like the inside of a haunted pumpkin, or planning her costume months in advance before October is even there, she is excited for halloween as most kids younger than her would be for Christmas.
But this year is different. This halloween she has to do a job. Her dad drives her through the rich and higher class area of Dunning, where the houses are so tall they reach sky, and the weather is constantly dry and pleasant. The complete opposite of everything that Beki is used to.
Her dad drops her off, outside the front door of a massive manor house. It almost looks older than the town itself. She stands up on the tip of her toes to reach the doorbell, and a big orchestral “Ding Dong” rings through the house like a church bell at a new hour. The door opens to find standing at the door is a woman in a long silk lavender dress and long silver hair with a face painted with only the finest colours.
“Hello. My name is Beki, I’m here to-” Beki says softly and sweetly before getting cut off.
“Ahh ofcourse. You are Just in time. Come on in, I’m Mrs. Davenport.”
Greeted warmly and with open arms, Beki makes her into the house. She looks around at the high ceilings and wooden staircase and is amazed. She notices the table next to the door and finds a massive pile of the most decorative and amazing chocolates and sweets that money can buy.
“Wow!” gasped Beki. “The children around here must love coming to your house for halloween. You’re giving them a gold mine!”
“Well yes” laughed Mrs. Davenport. “We like to put the best effort possible for the young ones. Some unfortunate children only get apples. We don’t want to be those people.” Mrs. Davenport then cups her hand over her mouth and raises her voice up the stairs.
“Gerald. That’s the babysitter here”
From the top of the stairs and the far end of the room a voice booms down back “Be right down Vivianne. Just putting Elijah to bed now.”
“Well while he’s doing that, allow me to give you a tour of the house.” offered Mrs. Davenport.
Beki follows Mrs. Davenport around the house. Trailing behind her long flowing lavender dress. The kitchen is so huge you would have thought it belonged in a restaurant.
The living room, though large and vintage looking like the rest of the house, had a massive TV in the center of it.
“That’s bigger than the one we’ve got in our house!” said Beki.
“Feel free to watch anything you like on it. Me and Gerald hardly ever use the thing. It’s mainly for the maids, butlers and..babysitters” said Mrs. Davenport.
“Oh you have other babysitters too?” asked Beki curiously.
“Only for during the week. But since it’s Saturday we had to find one at the last minute. Come let’s go find Gerald”
Mrs. Davenport leads Beki up the staircase, past all the portraits of family members long gone and attempts of painting made by Gerald himself when on holiday in fabulous places. They make their way into a nursery which doubles as the child’s bedroom.
Mr. Davenport is dressed in a fancy tuxedo, without the jacket and is bending over the child’s bed as he sings a little lullaby to send Elijah to sleep.
“Gerald. This is Beki. She’ll be looking after the house and Elijah this evening.” said Mrs. Davenport.
Beki sticks out her hand for Mr. Davenport to shake it. “It’s a pleasure to meet you and i must say you have an incredible house”
Mr. Davenport straightens himself up and shakes hands with Beki. Much like Mrs. Davenport, he had an impressive hair cut for a man his age. Not bald but not long either. And the same colour of silver as his wife.
“Ahh Beki, it’s so nice to see you. Thank you for agreeing to babysit for us this evening. I’m sure this isn’t too much of a trouble for you?” asked Mr. Davenport in his rich, booming yet deep voice.
“No no. Not at all. All I was gonna do anyway tonight was just have my friends round and watch scary movies. I do it every halloween.”
“You can still watch scary movies here of course. Just make sure the volume is turned down, not to disturb the little one.”
“Of course. Is there anything else that I should be aware of? Like feeding times and what not?” asked Beki.
The Davenports looked at each other with a cold expression. As though they were about to let Beki in on a secret that they both don’t want to keep or want to share. Mr.Davenport picks up his coat from the floor and puts it on.
“I’ll just show Beki where we keep the baby food and what not.” said Mr. Davenport.
“Very well, I’ll just call for a taxi.”
Mr.Davenport takes Beki by the arm and leads her back downstairs. His voice gets much quieter as he leads her to the living room.
“Have a seat. Please” Mr. Davenport instructs. Beki sits down on the sofa, closest to the tv.
Struck with nerves about what he’s about to share, Mr. Davenport rocks in his chair, as though what he’s about to say is going sound as bad as not saying anything at all.
“Now. Beki. We don’t have that many rules…In this house. But…For your safety and the safety of our child Elijah…You must promise me one thing. And this is only one thing.”
Beki leans closer to what Mr.Davenport is going to tell her. She’s never had to deal with a secret or instruction like this before.
“Ok ….What is it?” asked Beki cautiously.
Mr Davenport takes in a deep breath, as he lets out the horrifying secret.
“No matter who comes to the door. Treat the Tricksters…”
Inside Beki deflated, and although she didn’t say it out loud, in her head she was thinking “Is that it?”
“…No matter what they’re dressed like, sound like or even if they bother you badly. Just please, for the safety of you and my son. Please treat the tricksters. Because a treat to a trickster is a treat for everyone. But a trick from a trickster is the worst kind of treat…for anyone who tricks them…Can you do that for me?”
Beki kept a serious face on at all time, as though not to want to burst out laughing at this ridiculous demand. But she lets out an even deeper breath and shakes Mr.Davenport’s hand again.
“You have my word.” said Beki in her best fake yet sounding serious voice.
Mr.Davenport looked relieved after that, he got up and wiped his forehead with his handkerchief in his coat pocket.
“Gerald. That’s the taxi here” said Mrs. Davenport in the doorway of the living room. Mr and Mrs. Davenport wave goodbye to Beki as she stands at the doorway. The door closes behind them and Beki leans against the door letting out the mightiest and loudest laugh she’s let off in a long time. This was going to be the most chilled halloween ever…Or so she thought.
Night fell fast, as night so often does in autumn. And on halloween darkness was the bow on top of what already is a perfect gift of wonder and fright.
The trick or treaters were out on the street, dressed as zombies, werewolves or even zombie werewolves!. It was another successful halloween night in the town of Dunning. That was for sure.
Even though Beki wasn’t doing her usual halloween tradition, she sat in merriment over the task she was given in the house. She couldn’t contain how ridiculous it sounded that she called her best friend on her mobile phone to tell her all about it.
“And then he said “Treat the tricksters!”. It was the hardest I’ve had to hold in a laugh since Mr. Poland in biology actually farted during a test!” laughed Beki over the phone.
“But this is seriously gonna be one of the best halloween ever. I’m getting £10 an hour to sit and babysit a house and give sweets to the kids who come to the front door. Honestly Hannah if this happens again next year, you should try to-”
Beki gets interrupted as the orchestral doorbell goes off throughout the house. She put the phone down and was greeted at the door by Frankenstien, Dracula and an evil scientist. With massive grins on their face as they cheered at the door “Trick Or Treat!”
“Wow. Look how all scary you all are!” said Beki. She loved halloween and she loved watching people have fun on halloween as well. She gave a generous handful of sweets to each of the little monsters, as they thanked her and went on their way. Beki closed the door over once more and got back to her seat on the sofa.
“Sorry about that, Trick or treaters. Now what was I saying?..Hello?”. Realising that her friend had hung up on her, Beki got comfortable on the sofa and turned on the massive TV to watch whatever horror film was gonna be on for halloween that night.
It just so happened that it was one of her favourite horror films of all time “I was a teenage vampire”. As the film starts and sets its eerie and creepy mood. The orchestral doorbell goes off once again. It’s been rung so many times that Beki even began to lose count at the amount of people who came to the door.
She got up and opened the door to find a rather tall figure standing in front of her. Wearing a long black cloak that covered their entire body and a hood that hid their face. Beki stood perplexed at the outfitted person but then went back to her cheery spooky self.
An awkward and long silence grew between Beki and the figure at the door.
“…Not gonna say Trick or treat or anything?” asked Beki.
From underneath the cloak, a hand reached out holding a rather large canva bag. Which had on it as though it was drawn on from years ago a picture of 6 girls, standing hand in hand in a circle around a goat in the middle.
“Uhh…Ok. I guess you can get something”. Beki gives a generous amount of sweets once again to the trick or treater. Once the treater feels the weight of the bag in their hands they close up and walk away from the house. “Happy Halloween!…I guess” shouted Beki to the treater.
Although she was rather confused and perplexed by the person who came to the door, she sat back down on the sofa and continued to watch the film on the tv. She just missed the part where the lead character reveals to his girlfriend that he is actually a vampire and needs to feed again and tries to eat his girlfriend.
But she didn’t have time to catch up with the film as once again the orchestral bell went off. Beki gets up to the door and answers to find the same blacked hooded figure standing in front of her in the exact same position as before.
“Uh…Weren’t you just here like 30 seconds ago?” Beki asked, but got no response. Only that once again the figure in the black cloak held the same canvas bag with the same pattern on it.
“Oh I see what you’re doing. You think you can just empty your bag of sweets and hide them, only to come back to the same house and do it all over again?!” Beki was a smart girl, and this proved that she caught on to the usual halloween tricks.
“Alright then. I’ll give you more sweets. But I know who you are now. You better not come back and try that again…Or else!”. Said Beki in a jokingly but threatening way. She tried to laugh it off but the hooded figure just stood again in silence waiting for the sweets.
Beki once again filled the bag, but only gave half the amount she gave before. Not being as generous the 2nd time round to someone who’s been to the same house twice. The figure walked away again. Though Beki didn’t say anything to him, she stood looking smug knowing that she caught a real halloween trickster on her hands.
By the time Beki sat down again, the pile of sweets next to the door looked like they were barely even touched. It was amazing how many sweets were there for the trick or treaters. She took a handful of chocolates, sat back down on the sofa and picked up where she left the film off.
The main character is on the run from the police and is drinking blood from the high school head master in hopes of turning him into a vampire for him to control. Beki knew this film so well, she very rarely gets scared watching it anymore.
As she got drawn into a scary part of the film, the only fright she got came from when the doorbell rang through the house. Beki got up again, this time shaking the sweetie wrappers of herself and watching them land gently on the floor.
She opened the door only to find once again the same black cloaked figure, holding out the same canvas bag with the same pattern on it.
Beki groaned in frustration at the figure. “Didn’t I tell you not to come back to this house?! This is like the third time you’ve come here!. Other kids want to have these sweets as well you know, they’re not all just for you!” said a more agitated Beki. However the hooded figure did nothing, except for standing still in complete silence and holding out their canvas bag.
“Get out of here. Go to the house next door, or the house across the street. Stop coming here and taking all of the sweets. Got it? Now beat it!”
Beki slammed the door in the figures face. This time now more determined to sit and watch the rest of the horror film in silence. But before she could even sit back down again the doorbell rang off in the house.
Beki turns back around in a frustrated fashion. As though even going back to answer the door is going to be a chore for her to do. She opened the door, expecting to find the hooded figure once again.
“I thought I told you to get lo-”
She stopped, and was surprised to see that no one was in front of her. If no one was at the door, then who could have rung the bell?. She looked to her left and right to see if anyone was walking down the street, but now this street was deserted. On Halloween night, it never looked this quiet. Especially round the town of Dunning.
Confused by this, Beki goes to close the door, when she looks down and sees staring up at her, but a black goat calf.
“What the?…How did this thing get all the way out here?” she asked herself. The nearest farm was miles away from where the houses of Dunning were.
“Baaa!” went the goat, with its rather peculiar smirk that it had on its face. It ran around in a circle outside the door before running back down the path to the outside.
“Wait! A car could be coming!” yelled Beki. She chased after the goat outside the pathway of the house only to find the goat was returned to its rightful owners.
Beki stopped to see, standing in the middle of the road of the dead empty street were 3 identical black hooded figures, each with the same identical canvas bags. The goat stopped in front of the figures and sat down.
Beki stood stunned by the fact that there was more than one of the same figures that came to the house.
“Oh…Listen. I’m sorry for rejecting you sweets. Whichever one of you it was. I see that the goat thing is yours. If you want, I can go back to the house and give you the sweets you wanted” said Beki. Apologetic and sincere, it didn’t seem to go anywhere as the figures continued to stand in silence with their hoods over their heads.
“….Well?” said Beki hoping to break the silence.
Finally the figures made sounds, but it wasn’t a nice, welcoming sound. It was the sound of a low, building cackle. That got higher and higher til the cackles were loud and hysterical. The streetlamps started to flicker off and on, the wind built up and the hoods of the figures were blown off their faces. Underneath were 3 ugly, monstrous looking girls. With long noses, brown and broken teeth, grey eyes and skin that resembled that of a sphinx cat. They cackled continuously until Beki’s face was frozen in fear.
“WE WANT SUGAR!” screamed the figures in unison. “AND WE WANT THE SWEETEST THING IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD….THE CHILD!”
Beki turned and fled as the figures lunged and flew towards her at such speed, you would have assumed that their feet never touched the ground.
Beki got back in the house just in time to slam the door shut in the faces of the ugly trick or treaters. She locked the door and put the sweet table up against the door. She ran back through to the living room and grabbed her phone from the sofa and began calling her dad.
“Hey dad. I need you to pick me up now. That’s me finished at the Davenport’s house…Dad?” she looked down at her phone. Her reflection showed on the black screen of her dead phone. She tried to turn it back on again, but the phone was completely dead.
She was stranded. From behind she heard bellowing out in a high pitched scream “SUGAR!”.
Beki turned to see the full screen of the tv, showing the full frame of the figures ugly faces. They cackled as they pushed through the screen. Without even thinking, Beki hurdled her phone towards the tv.
The phone hits the TV direct in the center and falls to the ground with a loud thump. Gently as ever Beki wanders over to the fallen tv on the floor. Silent and still as not to make a sound. The TV then shakes and vibrates violently on the floor.
It erupts, flies up to the ceiling and smashes into a million plastic pieces. Underneath it, standing perfectly up are the trick or treaters.
“THANK YOU. WE WERE HAVING A HARD TIME GETTING OUT OF THAT ONE!” their voices said in their horrifying shared speech.
They lunge at her again, only for Beki to throw herself onto the sofa and out of their way. Beki Jumped over the sofa, threw the table of sweets behind her making a tremendous crash on the ground scattering the sweets and chocolate all over the floor.
“There!. Have all the sugar you freaks want!” shouted Beki. Using whatever courage she had left for this moment. “Now take what you want and get out of here!”
The trick or treaters looked to Beki, as the sweets were scattered all over the floor like the constellations of the stars in space. They stepped on them walking towards her, the sound of crunching and breaking hard sugar and chocolate echoed throughout the hallway.
“IT’S NOT GOOD ENOUGH. WE WANT THE CHILD!” They wretched out there systems with glee.
Beki, as fast as she could, rocketed up the stars to the nursery where Elijah was sleeping. She threw herself through the nursery door and barricaded the doorway using just herself pushing up against the door.
She stood in complete darkness, panting for breath, hoping not to wake baby Elijah. The trick or treaters reached the door and began to beat the door forcefully and violently. Beki began to shake while the door was getting abused.
Tears of pure dread started streaming down her face, the treaters didn’t stop. They kept on going and going to try and break through the wood of the door and make it into the nursery.
Beki was starting to strain in fear, hoping to to let out a scream that would wake the baby. Her terror grew so high. But it was all too late, as 3 ugly hands with broken nails, boils and scars burst through the door and started to grab her hair and pull it through the holes of the door.
“GIVE US SUGAR! WE WANT..SUGAR!” The treaters cackled and screamed. Until Beki, finally let out one massive scream. A scream so loud it would have woken more than just the one baby in the nursery. It would have woken all the babies in Dunning.
She screamed til her lungs felt like a deflated balloon “LEAVE ME ALONE!”…
Beki stopped screaming, and noticed that everything was silent. She turned to see no holes in the door. And that even baby Elijah was still asleep. She opened the door to find the sweets were still on the table and the TV wasn’t broken or in a million pieces.
She wandered up the stairs once more to check on Elijah, when the front door of the house opened. She stopped at the top of the stairs and saw the Davenports return from their night out. They were jovial and in high spirits.
“Ahh Beki. Hello again, I trust little Elijah wasn’t too much trouble for you I hope. And I see you’ve gotten through a few of the sweets yourself as well. Never mind, there was plenty for everyone” said Mr. Davenport.
Beki whispered in fear “Get up here quickly!”.
The Davenports looked at each other in confusion and looked back up to Beki.
“Why? What’s happened?” asked Mr. Davenport
“I’ll explain up here. Where it’s safer. Hurry!”
Without questioning it, Mr and Mrs.Davenport make their way upstairs and meet with Beki outside the nursery.
“Would you care to explain what’s going on?” sternly said Mr.Davenport.
“Gerald, you talk to Beki. I’ll just check up on Elijah.” Mrs. Davenport said before making her way into the nursery.
Beki took a deep breath, before retelling her worst babysitting job ever. “Everything was going fine. Elijah slept throughout the night, the trick or treaters came and I sat watching the tv. When suddenly, these…Witches with their pet goat turn up…and start breaking into the house and wanting sweets and-”
“You remembered to treat…all the tricksters. Didn’t you?” asked Mr.Davenport.
Beki looked guilty and embarrassed as she realised what she had done wrong. “…No. I thought it was the same person coming to the house over and over again. I didn’t think-” Beki stopped to swallow back her sadness building up in her.
“It’s alright. I should have properly told you. Every halloween, around this part of town, a group of witches come and steal the youth from children by coming to this part of town and picking up on the houses. In order to distract them from taking the children, we give them sweets. It confuses them enough to go away. Until they see that a fresh child is present for youth..And then they kidnap them…And I don’t know what happens next”
Beki stood silent. Not knowing whether to believe what she heard is real, but what she had just been through that evening explains everything more clearly.
From the nursery, Mrs. Davenport gently talks for Beki and Mr.Davenport.
“You two. Come in here. Elijah is awake and he’s curious to see everyone!”
Mr.Davenport looked down at Beki, as she used the bottoms of her sleeves to wipe away the tears from her face.
“There there now. You done alright kid. You protected our little Elijah. As Long as the witches never got him that’s all that matters.”
“If it’s alright with you Mr.Davenport I don’t think I’ll return for this job again next year”.
“That’s quite alright.”
They both made their way into the nursery to see Mrs. Davenport cradling the baby,wrapped in a blanket in her hands. Beki wandered over to Mrs. Davenport to see Elijah properly.
“It’s amazing how he slept through the whole night. It’s almost as if he-”
Beki was then knocked unconscious. From underneath the blanket wasn’t a baby, but a miniature cricket bat.
Later that night, the doorbell rang through the house once more. Mrs. Davenport was greeted this time by all 3 of the trick or treaters, standing outside holding their canvas bags out.
“Not to worry. He’s coming now.” said Mrs. Davenport.
She stood out of the way as Mr.Davenport carried, wrapped in a massive piece of canvas similar to that of the witch’s bags. The same length and size as Beki.
The witches took it with glee and walked away. They opened up the canvas quickly and the Davenport’s watched in horror as the witches went from being horrid looking monsters to suddenly looking more like Beki’s age. Though she would never get a chance to see it.
“Happy Halloween Mr and Mrs. Davenport. See you next year.” said the witch, who looked young and sounded a lot like Beki.