“Are you sure Jazz said
there was a party here?” Fluff looked through the tall iron gates at a house
that should have fallen down in the 1800s. Spires
rose high, partially blocking the moon.
“Yeah.” Puff stood beside
him. “This is the address she gave me.”
“What do you expect for a
Samhain party?” Horace grumbled, stabbing a button. The gates creaked and
groaned as they slowly opened wide.
“Lights.”
“Music.”
“Candy,” they said in
unison.
The trio walked up the
drive toward the front door. They paused when a candle drifted past an upstairs
window.
“Geez, she’s trying to
scare us with a haunted house,” Puff said, now disgusted. “Come on, like
anything could scare us. Whoa!” He ducked with a dark form swooped past his
head, brushing his ears. “What the Hades was that?”
“Bats. I hate bats.” Horace
raised a clawed fist in the air. “Outta here, you vermin! We were invited
here.”
“So were we,” one bat
responded in a squeaky snark. “We’re part of the atmosphere.” He flew off with
his buddies. They all flew into a single digit formation.
“Your grandmother was eaten
by Dracul!” Puff shouted, as they continued up the drive.
An owl hooted from a
spindly tree and another owl flew nearby.
An eerie howl sounded from
the house along with creaking doors opening and closing and a piercing woman’s
scream cut through the air.
“Whoa.” Fluff skidded to a
stop. “That was really loud.” He slid backwards a few paces. “How come there’s
no cars here? Or party voices? And why didn’t Jazz take us with her and Nick?”
“Stasi and Blair wouldn’t
let me go with them either,” Horace groused. He ambled up the wooden steps that
groaned under his weight.
“They couldn’t have found a
better place for a party,” Puff commented, looking at the porch, the splintered
wood silvered with cobwebs,
Horace tried the lion-faced
door knocker, but no sound was made. “Freaky.” He looked around and finally
spied the doorbell button. He stabbed it then winced as another scream erupted
throughout the interior. The door slowly slid open with a fingernails on
chalkboard screech. “How lame is this.” He walked in with the bunny slippers
behind him.
“Where’s the party?” Puff
shouted. “And lights?”
“If there be light, let it
be shown,” Fluff spelled. “Give us light!”
A lone candle beamed in the
distance, floating mid air.
“Oookay.” The three started
to turn toward the door that now slammed shut and sounds of locks snicking shut
echoed in the air.
“There’s no party here.
They sent us to a haunted house.” Horace bypassed the staircase and headed for
the candle.
“No hauntings here.” A
skeleton stood in a doorway. He grinned maniacally then suddenly disappeared.
“Ho ho, so not creepy,”
Fluff sneered, his ears swiveling like a periscope. “We’ve been frightened by
the best. There’s nothing you can do that will scare us.”
“Yeah, bring out your
worst!” Puff challenged.
“There better be some hot
babes at the end of this,” Horace demanded, leading the way down the long
hallway where the suspended candle still beckoned with a soft orange glow. “Or
at least really good food.”
Wooooo! A
blast of icy air assaulted the trio from an open doorway. When they stopped to
look they saw two women in shrouds floating in the room. Each only boasted half
a face.
“Oh wow, I am so scared. I
want my mommy,” Horace scoffed.
“Yikes!” Puff jumped in the
air. “Something just touched me.” He looked around but there was nothing near
him.
Fluff huddled closer to his
brother. “I don’t think this is a good place for us. Let’s go home and raid the
neighbors for candy.”
They froze when heavy
footsteps sounded upstairs.
“That’s it. They’re up
there.” Horace gestured for the bunny slippers to follow him just as the
hovering candle winked out.
“Oh ick!” The first step
slowed them down as something ooey and gooey attacked them. It grew more
difficult as they climbed upward.
As they slogged up the last
step a tall figure appeared.
“Welcome my pretties.”
Jazz, wearing a black dress and peaked hat held out an old fashioned broom.
“Clichéd much, Jazz?” Puff
laughed. “You really thought all that stuff would scare us?”
“Come with me,” she
invited, turning gracefully, her voluminous dress sweeping around her body.
“I see our honored guests
have arrived.” Nick, handsome in evening clothes and red silk-lined cape popped
into sight. His fangs shoe white in the darkness.
“Gee, if only we’d known it
was a costume party.” Horace laughed, holding his arms over his rounded tummy.
“Hey!” Fluff snarled and
snapped his own fangy teeth at a rat that ran across him.
They followed the witch and
vampire down the hall, pausing every so often to view portraits turn from
normal people to horrific faces, sneer at blood running down the walls, and
hands shoot out to grab them.
“The haunted house in Hollywood was better than
this,” Puff told Jazz.
“Ah, but this one has
something very special for you,” she intoned in a deep voice.
“Something you may not
appreciate,” Nick used his best Bela Lugosi voice.
The room they reached was
huge, yellow from candlelight and a fire burning in the massive fireplace.
Stasi and Blair were dressed in their own witchy garb, while Trev wore dark
purple wizard robes and Jake wore his Border collie fur.
A large table laden with
food beckoned the hungry slippers and gargoyle, but they quickly discovered
they couldn’t get to it.
“What the hell is going
on?” Horace demanded.
“Yeah!”
“There is something that
needs to be done first.” Jazz snapped her fingers. A large bubbling cauldron
appeared nearby. Steam roiled upwards along with the rich smell of herbs.
Horace sniffed
appreciatively. “Stew?”
Fluff and Puff backed up
when they saw Jazz’s smile. Except there was no where to go when they found
themselves surrounded by witches, vampires, wizards, and Weres, oh my!
“Something you three have
needed for some time now,” Blair said, caressing the coarse bristles of her
broom.
“And once it’s done you can
eat all your tummies will hold,” Stasi promised.
“What’s done?” Fluff asked
suspiciously.
“It’s a trap!” Puff
shouted, but it was too late. “Get us
out. Get us out! Get us out!” He pointed his ears in the air, but his magick
fizzled out like a dead 4th of July sparkler.
The three cowered and
howled with displeasure as the witches each picked one of them up and carried
them to the large cauldron.
“Exactly,” Jazz said,
dropping Puff into the hot water.
“WAH!” But it was too late.
Fluff, Puff, and Horace
were now terrified as they’d never been fearful before.
After all, what can be more
horrifying than a Halloween bath for smelly dirty slippers and gargoyle?
