The house at the end of the cul-de-sac...

Bonnie skipped innocently ahead of her brothers and mother and thought the night was particularly dark and spooky but then it was Halloween and that was exactly as it was supposed to be.

Bonnie swung her candy bag hitting the ground with each pass back and forth and giggled.

“This is fun. I wish Halloween were every night.”

“No, please don’t make that wish Bonnie; your mother’s feet would be very unhappy.”

Bonnie giggled but then she stopped and pointed with fear to the house ahead.

“On no, we have to turn back.” She cried.

The dark forbidding residence of one Mr. Wickerly, who died decades ago but no one wanted his mansion, and no one lived there for long, stood like a haunted guardian at the end of the cul-de-sac.

The house was scary enough in the daylight, scary any day of the year, but on Halloween it was the scariest and it’s scariness wasn’t enhanced by decorations, in fact it didn’t need any decorations, and it didn’t have any.

“Please can we go there?”

Bonnie heard her brother’s beg her mother to let them ring the doorbell on that most haunted house.

“No, I don’t want to go and you shouldn’t let them go either, a ghost lives there, a mean ghost,” Bonnie begged the opposite and warned them.

“Okay Bonnie, we’ll be fine. You just have a warped imagination." Her brother Ned teased.

“Or maybe she’s right and we’ll all be captured.” Her other brother Quinton added with a spooky laugh.

Ned and Quinton were twins and always agreed with each other, and usually against Bonnie, but they were good brothers, most of the time.

“Stop, please let’s go back. The other blocks have nice houses.”

Bonnie’s mother shook her head.

“It’s just an old house Bonnie and nothing to be afraid of. No one lives there. Your brothers  just want to ring the bell and you’ll see, it will scare them and they’ll run away. I and your father did the same thing every Halloween when we were little. But if you don’t want to go, that’s fine, you’ll stay with me, but there’s no problem letting your brothers ring the doorbell.”

“I will not look at what answers,” Bonnie said turning away.

Ned and Quint laughed at her silly fear and ran ahead and through the squeaky broken gate, and raced up the creaking steps to the front door.

Ned reached up and rang the bell and Quint knocked on the door just for good measure.

They waited excitedly not expecting anything but they began to hear a lone set of footsteps coming from far away in the house, and the footsteps were getting closer.

“Mommy, please call them back,” Bonnie begged pulling on her mother’s hand.

“You’re afraid for nothing it’s an old vacant house.”

“No it’s not,” she mumbled under her breath and saw an owl high in the branch of an old oak tree and he seemed to agree with her for he nodded. That’s what it looked like he did, and she nodded back.

A dim light seemed to come through the glass pane of the front door and the boys stepped back.

When the door knob began to turn, they held their breath feeling afraid. It was because of Bonnie’s dire warning but no matter what it was, before the door opened, they both turned and ran back to their mother with flying feet.

Ned pulled her hand and Quint pulled Bonnie’s to make them all run away from the house as fast as they could.

Half way down the block they all stopped to catch their breath.

“What happened?” their mother asked.

“I don’t know; I just got scared.” Ned admitted.

“It’s all Bonnie’s fault she made us afraid of whatever lives in that house,” Quint accused.

“Well, good then; you should be afraid,” Bonnie said with her hands on her hips.

“Well, next year I am going to ring that bell again and stay, you’ll see,” Quint said fearlessly enough but his lower lip was still trembling.

“I’ll go with you,” Ned promised but his fingers were good and crossed behind his back.

The four continued down the street and turned right at the corner onto a bright happy block filled with trick or treaters and they forgot all about the old house that sat alone on that dark block at the end of that flowerless cul-de–sac.

 

The creaky door opened and a pair of shinning eyes looked out at the deserted street. A deep breath of disappointment was heard as a second pair of shinning eyes blinked and looked out over the shoulder of the first.

“Was it the food delivery?” the second pair of eyes asked anxiously.

“No, I think they were too afraid to stay; they ran away.”

"Again? Oh that’s too bad but maybe next year…they’ll be braver and stay.”

A guttural laugh escaped the first.

“Yes, then we can have our trick or treat…ers for dinner.”

The wicked laughter rang through the ancient house and echoed off the faded wallpapered walls until the stroke of midnight, when the pair faded away…only to return next Halloween.