The group walked down the hill and onto the main roads, deeper into town. As they got farther from home, they spotted more people -- little kids with their mothers and teenagers roaming in large groups. Jonathan was sure he was the only college student walking a couple of kids around.
"I feel ridiculous," Jonathan said.
"Why?" Jenny asked, skipping along and waving to someone she knew.
"I'm too old to be doing this," Jonathan said, looking away from yet another group of people who passed them by.
"How old are you, again?" Jenny asked.
"I'm 21," Jonathan said.
"That's not that old!" Ryan said.
"Thanks," Jonathan said. "That makes me feel a lot better, but I didn't say I was old -- I said I was too old to be doing this."
"Our mom didn't think so," Jenny said. Jonathan looked at her but didn't say anything.
They came to a house that screamed Halloween -- literally, there was a skeleton hanging from a noose on the roof that screamed, "It's Halloween!!!!!" again and again. All around the house there were cauldrons and cobwebs, corpses and creatures and all manner of horrifying, store-bought items. A big chunk of fake cobwebs got stuck in Jonathan's hair as the trio walked to the front door. Jenny rang the doorbell, and the door opened.
"Trick or treat!" Jenny and Ryan shouted. The woman who opened the door smiled down at them and filled their bags with candy. Then she looked at Jonathan.
"Oh, who is this?" she asked. "Is he your father?" Jonathan's lips spread in a frown so tight that his mouth nearly disappeared.
"No, he's not our dad," Jenny said, laughing. "He's our big brother!" Jonathan looked down at her for a moment but recovered quickly.
"Oh, how adorable -- a brother taking his siblings out for a nice Halloween night," the woman said. "Who are you supposed to be?"
"Er," Jonathan said.
"He's a gentleman," Jenny said, nodding. "He's not very good at thinking up costume ideas. But it does suit him, doesn't it?"
"It does," the woman said. "He's quite handsome." She peered at his face a few seconds too long and then filled his bag with candy.
"Thanks!" Jenny and Ryan said. Jenny nudged Jonathan in the ribs. "Thanks," he said.
The woman closed her door, and the three walked away from the house while the skeleton hanging from the roof cackled, "It's Halloween!!!!!" They turned a corner and Jonathan let out a big sigh, letting his head fall backward so that he could stare at the full moon hanging in the sky.
"Well, that was embarrassing," Jonathan said. "I'm not even old enough to be a father. Do I look that old to you? I don't look that old, right?"
Ryan looked up at Jenny, and she looked down at him. The air was still. Jonathan could sense something happening beyond his comprehension. Was this how brothers and sisters communicated?
"No," Jenny said. "You don't look that old." Ryan nodded his head in agreement.
"Thanks for that vote of confidence," Jonathan said. "Where are we going next?"
"There's a guy down the street who always gives out a ton of candy," Ryan said. "Let's go visit him next!"
"You're the boss," Jonathan said. They walked down the path in a straight line, with Jenny in the front, Ryan second and Jonathan at the back, his bag hanging limply at his side. When they closed in on the next house, Ryan and Jenny stopped about 30 feet away from it, while Jonathan, who had been going on autopilot for the past couple of minutes, walked a few steps beyond them and stopped once he realized the two were no longer in front of him.
"Why did you two stop?" Jonathan asked, turning around.
"Wow, look at the house this year!" Ryan said, clapping his hands. "It looks so awesome!"
"What looks awesome?" Jonathan said, turning around again. The home looked relatively normal, but off to the side was a large, white structure with "Haunted House" painted on the top in dripping red letters. Several corpses were littered around the haunted mansion, some with knives sticking out of their backs, and others with axes in their chests. Two sticks with flaming skulls on top of them stood in front of the entrance of the mansion.
"Let's go there right now!" Ryan said.
"Uh, sure," Jonathan said. "Looks great."
Ryan and Jenny ran ahead, while Jonathan approached slowly from behind. The two kids stopped at the entrance to admire the flaming skulls, whose fires shot toward the starlit sky and danced wildly in front of their eyes. Jonathan rubbed his forehead and shook his head slowly as he went to join Ryan and Jenny. Before he got to them, however, a shadowy figure jumped from the bushes and screamed at Jonathan, who shrieked and fell to the ground.
"Holy Mother of God!" Jonathan shouted. He put a hand to his chest and let his breath out in slow, loud gasps.
"Beware, all who enter the haunted mansion!" the person, a shriveled, hunched old man, said. "There is a wondrous bounty at the end of the path, but the road is long and dangerous, and many will not survive! Beware!" The old man cackled before disappearing back into the bushes.
"Who is that guy?" Jonathan asked, standing up and wiped some mud off his backside.
"That's Old Man Johnson," Jenny said. "He really likes Halloween."
"Huh," Jonathan said. "I guess the name kind of rings a bell."
After a few moments recollection, Jonathan followed Ryan and Jenny into the haunted mansion. The inside was like a small maze. There were white partitions that rose above Jonathan's head and blocked the view of the twists and turns one needed to take to get to the end. The trio sneaked along on tiptoe, looking around for any signs of abnormal activity. But the only sound they could hear was the crunch of the grass as they walked through the mansion.
Something snapped in the distance. Jonathan craned his neck high and swung his head around. His heart pumped along like a piston furiously pounding away in a car engine. There was an eerie tingle in his hands from the sweat forming on them. Jonathan gritted his teeth; this was no time to be behaving like a child.
"OK, Jenny, Ryan, let's get out of here," Jonathan said.
"Um," Jenny said. "I don't see Ryan."
"What?" Jonathan said. He looked around the mansion and could not see Ryan. Not good. Miss Martinez would kill him if he did not return Ryan safely -- that is, unless whatever lived inside the mansion did not kill him first.
"OK," Jonathan said. "Jenny, let's split up and look for Ryan." There was no response. "Jenny? Jenny?" He could not see Jenny anywhere. The only sign of her was a shoeprint she had left in the mud that led to the mansion's exit. Jonathan stopped in his tracks. His heart froze. This was stupid -- incredibly stupid. This was just a cheap joke of a maze, and there was no way he would see it to the end. It was moronic.
The wind blew in from the mansion's entrance. Its coldness pricked the hairs on Jonathan's neck and crawled down his spine. He looked back. The sheet covering the entrance flapped back and forth; the darkness beyond it reached deep into Jonathan's soul. He took a step backward. The darkness seemed to grow larger. Jonathan moved his mouthed uselessly, trying to form words that would not come out, and then he gave up and ran toward the exit.
Jonathan grabbed at the partitions and used them to thrust himself forward. He was almost at the exit and could taste the sweet freedom in his mouth. It tasted a bit like cherry lollipops and peanut butter cups. He could see the exit. Sweet, glorious freedom. He threw open the sheet and stepped outside.
He was greeted by one corpse holding an axe and another holding a knife. Both let out a bloody war whoop and swung their instruments of doom down at Jonathan. He screamed bloody murder, fell to the ground and cowered before certain death. However, his death was not so certain. The corpses stopped their attack just before the weapons could hit Jonathan. They clunked them lightly against his head; he could feel that they were plastic. His face burned red.
"Congratulations!" the axed corpse said. "Have some candy from our bowl!"
Jonathan looked up with his mouth hanging open. Jenny and Ryan stepped out from the shadows, swinging their bags of candy. Jonathan quickly stood up and wiped his clothes off.
"Some brave kids you have here," the knifed corpse said. "Didn't hear a peep from either of them when we attacked them. You should be proud."
"Yeah," Jonathan said. "I'm very proud. Let's go."
He sulked and walked away from the house with Jenny and Ryan in tow.
