The Ultimate Halloween

     "What?" he said uninterestedly as he looked at his magazine.

     "Every year it's been the same Halloween: cheesy costumes, corny decorations, cheap candy. But this year it's gonna be different. This year I am going to have the ultimate Halloween experience, and what better place than the Haunted Woods? So yes, now before you object, I have gathered all the Neopoints needed for this trip," I said quite frankly.

     "Whatever," came his enthusiastic response.

      Naturally I didn't care if he even listened to me. I had his permission, and there was nothing he could do about it. So up to my room I went, and gathered my stuff together. Yes, Dolan you are going to have the best Halloween ever, I thought to myself as I examined my skunk Kyrii reflection in the mirror.

     "Oh man!" my younger sister, Lydia, a blue Riku said as she entered the room. "What a day! You wouldn't believe all the times I got lost!"

      She dumped her backpack on her bed (we shared a room), and plopped down in a chair.

     "Had a fun hiking trip, eh?"

     "Oh, I will never go again!" she frowned then looked at my suitcase. "You going on a hiking trip too?"

     "Nope, I'm going to the Haunted Woods."

     "Why?"

     "Because…" and I went on with the speech I had told to my owner.

     "That's pretty dumb, Dolan," she said, "you can have a perfectly good Halloween here."

     "So says you."

      ****

      So I embarked on my grand expedition from Neopia Central to the Haunted Woods. It wasn't very far, so I decided to rent a carriage. It was then that the driver discovered I had a rare disease called "Carriage Sickness". And so I spent the rest of the trip with my head out the window.

      Finally I arrived there. The Haunted Woods were even better than those pictures in books, and I was for the first time see it in person! The whole place was full of gnarled trees without leaves. There were miscellaneous pets in Halloween-style garbs wandering about, purchasing items, or babbling about Halloween. And indeed right in the middle of all this was a huge sign, which read "1 day till Halloween". You could tell Halloween was a big there, all right. Oh, how I felt sorry for Tylon and Lydia for not wanting to come!

      ****

      Searching around I was able to find a hotel. Of course I wasn't searching for hotels based on price; I was looking based on appearance. All the hotels had this creepy haunted house vibe. This one hotel I picked (called "Rest in Peace Here!") was kind of like the others, but it had a few well-watered flowered pots in the front, so I figured it couldn't be all that bad.

     "Hello!" a plump Wocky with a witch hat said behind the check-in counter, "Welcome to Rest in Peace! We offer reasonable rate for individuals and groups! Plus there is a special 10% Halloween discount this whole week!"

     "Um, cool. I need a one-bedroom bed, please." I paid the Wocky, and then she showed me to the room.

     "Here you're getting a nice room, even though we have quite a rush this season!" she said as she pointed to room 12, and shoved a key in my hand. "If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to see me at the counter!"

      I opened my room, and saw immediately the torn mattress, dingy ripped wallpaper, and a broken chandelier dangerously swinging on one hinge over a small table. This room was nice?

      ****

      Well I have to admit, I didn't sleep like a traveled tourist that night. All throughout there were screams coming from different places, and the whole hotel creaked creepily. Well, you're getting what you wanted, Dolan boy, I thought, the ultimate Halloween experience. I turned over and over hoping to try to sleep, but I couldn't. Then something happened which didn't improve my night. I saw a ghost! At first I thought it was a dream, but the only problem was I was awake, no matter how many times I pinched myself. So I yelled like a lunatic and ran out of my room and down the staircases.

     "What's the matter?" the plump Wocky asked, appearing out of a room in a sleeping cap and holding a lantern.

     "There's a-a g-g-ghost in my room!" I stuttered.

     "Oh, that's it?" she said stifling a yawn.

     "There is a ghost in my room! A g-h-o-s-t!" I repeated myself. Maybe she hadn't heard correctly?

     "I know. What did you expect there was going to be around here? A faerie?"

     "B-but…" my voice trailed off. She really didn't care.

     "What did this ghost look like?"

     "It was a ghost Chia-"

     "Oh, that was Bob, he sweeps around here. I always tell him to knock before entering a room, but you know ghosts, it doesn't matter to them." She stifled another yawn, "Well, you'd best get back to bed, big day tomorrow!"

      She went back in the room, and I carefully climbed the steps back to my room. Upon entering my room, I looked around. "Bob" was gone. I lay awake with both eyes open that night, and with my backpack in hand.

      ****

     "Breakfast!" the Wocky came in next morning, carrying a tray to my bed.

      I sat up happily; you sure can get hungry after having an eventful night. But then my happiness faded away. My food was looking at me.

     "What is this stuff supposed to be?"

     "Oh, well they're jellied eyeballs," the Wocky pointed to the bowl. "And this drink is called a spooky shake, absolutely delicious!"

     "Are those real eyeballs?" I said staring nauseously at the bowl.

     "Yes, absolutely fresh!"

     "Where did the eyeballs come from?"

     "Dunno, I just got them from the market."

      After gratefully skipping breakfast (there was this odd stuff floating in my spooky shake). I planned out a whole day of excitement, first there as going to be the Halloween parade, then visit some spooky places, then finish it off with a great trick-or-treat procession. I opened my backpack to pull out a clean pair of clothes, when I gasped with horror. This wasn't my backpack, it was Lydia's! All that was in there was a bunch of cutesy plushies, and glitter paint. I had left all my pairs of clothes at home and my costume!

      Stuck with one pair of shirts and pants (That after a couple hours, were starting to feel very uncomfortable) I trudged through the streets, I did catch the parade, but kept my distance (they were throwing eyeballs at the crowd). The rest of the day I wandered cowardly thorough the woods to buy souvenirs. It wasn't fun having all these eyes stare at you. In fact, I wasn't having fun at all on my vacation so far. Vacations are where you enjoy the sights and have a grand old time, not where you walk around in a paranoid manner wondering what could jump out and eat you.

     "Oh, sorry!" this Zafara in a cloak said as I bumped into her.

     "Oh, I'm sorry," I said, hastily bending down to pick up the basket that she was carrying that had dropped.

     "That's alright. Hey would you like to try a peanut butter spider?" she reached into the basket and held up her palm that now crawled with little brown spiders.

     "Um, no thanks," I said taking a few steps back.

     "Oh, come on!" She held the spiders even closer to my nose. "They only wiggle around a little bit at first, but they taste really good!"

     "Okay," I sighed and closed my eyes as I grabbed a wiggling spider and stuck it in my mouth.

     "Hey, that is good!"

     "Told you!" the Zafara giggled. "You sure seem like an outsider. There is no way you'll be able to have fun on Halloween if you don't eat the food, so come with me! Me and my folks own a little food shop."

      So I followed her, I learned her name was Kara and she was the same age as me. We soon reached a small little corner store, which she announced proudly as her shop. Inside, the walls were aligned with jars of eyeballs, spiders, and all other kinds of horrible things.

     "Hey mom!" Kara said greeting the lady behind the counter. "This is Dolan; he's a new one here. I'm going to show him the food!"

     "Well you better, that's the only thing he can eat here!" she chuckled. "So sell any spiders?"

     "A few," Kara handed over the basket and a bag of Neopoints.

      She then led me to this storage room in the back.

     "Okay," she reached inside one of the barrels, "this is an almost-gummy rat strawberry flavor."

     "Almost gummy? What's that supposed to mean!"

     "Oh, come on! Stop making a face and eat it!"

     Hastily eating the "almost-gummy" rat like I did with the peanut butter spider, I too realized it wasn't that bad.

     "Alright, now you want to the try an Eyeball Custard."

     "No, I really don't like eyeballs," I said backing away slowly.

     "Eat!" she shoved it in my mouth.

      I have to admit the custard wasn't that bad either, it tasted like lemon mixed with jelly. And the eyeball? It wasn't that bad, kind of rubbery.

     "Well, I'd say you're ready. Trick-or-treating starts soon. Meet me here in half an hour?" Kara said stretching.

     "Sure. Hey Kara, one question. Where do you get the eyeballs from?"

     "Don't have a clue, my dad just orders them from some place."

      ****

      So taking a few Neopoints, I was able to buy a cloak and a wizard's hat at a nearby store, and with Lydia's backpack (it's where I kept all my money, therefore I could not afford to leave it at the hotel) I walked to Kara's. Kara was dressed in a black dress and witch's hat, and off we went to different houses. Kara knew which neighbors would give you a handful of candy, and which ones would give you hardly a morsel.

     "Wow, look at all this stuff!" I said peering into the backpack when we stopped underneath a tree, "chocolate, candy corn, toffees!"

     "Yeah, there was a nice amount tonight!" Kara said happily going through her candy. "Well, we'd better get going back now."

     "Okay," I peered around. "Why don't we take a shortcut through these woods, we could save a lot of time."

     "Yeah, we could, but I've never been in there before. I really don't know what we might come across."

     "But I'm tired, and for once this place has stopped creeping me out!"

     "Okay…"

      We crept through the woods slowly; there were less of those freaky eyes staring at us than I would have thought, which cheered me up slightly. But then suddenly…

     "Who goes there?"

     "Yo, boss, we got trespassers!"

      All these voices jumped out all together, and before we knew it, we were surrounded with these thugs, and then came the ring leader. The ring leader happened to be an infamous Werelupe named Balthazar.

     "Well, well. We got some rats, eh?" Balthazar said menacingly.

     "Run!" Kara yelled. For once I didn't argue with her and just sped off.

      They threw nets at us, one caught Kara. I was able to dodge them all. In the end it didn't make a difference, I was cornered by a bunch of thugs soon enough.

     "Well, this one's pretty shrimpy," Balthazar poked me in the ribs, which felt like getting the wind blown out of you.

     "Ow! Look, we didn't know this was your place, or else-" I rubbed my sore ribs.

     "BOO!" Balthazar quickly spun around making me jump five feet in the air; immediately all the thugs started laughing while I cowered on the ground.

     "Boy, you're a weak one, for sure," Balthazar cackled. "Tell you what, since this is so fun, let's have a contest."

     "C-contest?"

     "Yep, a scaring contest! If you win, you and your girlfriend can go away."

     "She's not my-"

     "Let the contest begin!"

      Well, Balthazar got me after every round. I tried to make snarling noises, even making faces, but instead all I got were laughs. And by seeing Kara shake her head sadly, I knew I was just making a fool of myself.

     "Oh please, just let us go! I give up! You can take anything in this backpack!" I said flinging down Lydia's backpack in front of Balthazar's feet.

     "Giving up already, shrimp?" Balthazar said in a too-happy voice, "Wait, what's that in your backpack?"

     "Oh this?" I said taking out a baby Wocky plushie and waving it in front of Balthazar's face, "You can have it, its actually my sister's."

     "Eh!" Balthazar wheeled back. "Get that thing out of my face! I-it's hideous!"

     "Are you serious?" I waved the plushie in front of him some more, and he tripped stumbling over a rock!

      I was shocked, the great fearless Balthazar scared of a baby plushie? I looked around at the rest of the thugs, they weren't laughing, they didn't even have jeering smiles on their faces. Why, they were scared too! A feeling was surging inside of me, it was time to free Kara and get out of here!

     "Yes, it's a cute little plushie!" I roared and threw it at some thugs, who jumped a few feet back. "And here are some more!"

      Taking each little cute plushie and faerie doll out of Lydia's bag, I threw it all around at the thugs. They screamed and yelped and jumped, slowly they all started moving away from me.

     "Wait, don't you guys want some glitter paint!" I brandished the paint brush out of the bottle as if it were some sword, "Come on!"

      I threw gallops of paint around, and that sent them running. Now Balthazar was the only one who remained.

     "Come on Balthazar!" I said inching the paintbrush towards him. "Don't you like sparkly paint!"

      He tried to swap at me, but I got him too quickly. I stood back triumphantly looking at the streak of glittery blue paint across his jaw. Then like a wounded animal, Balthazar got up, snarled at me, and ran away.

     "Here," I said helping Kara out of the net.

     "Thanks!" Kara said, then moved back when she saw the paint brush in my hand.

     "You're scared too?"

     "Guess living in these woods, I never got accustomed to bright colors," she laughed nervously.

     "Guess not," I smiled."Now come on, help pick up these toys, it's not that bad. Certainly not like an almost-gummy rat!"

****

     "Thanks for saving me and stuff!" Kara said the next morning.

     "Sure thing!" I said happily waiting for this Uni, who was going to take me home, to return from the bathroom.

     "You should take a carriage, they're cheaper."

     "Nah, I think I'll be able to scrape by," I said as the Uni returned. "Well I better be off."

     "Yeah, be sure to visit soon! Oh wait, nearly forgot," Kara went in her store and came back with a bag, "here is some food for you and your family."

     "Thanks!" I peered into the bag. "Lots of eyeballs, wonderful! My family's gonna love this stuff!"

The End

Author's Note: Feedback por favor? :)