A/N: It's the most frightening time of the year again... Halloween. And in honor of the holiday and it's mystical traditions, I have decided to write not only a Halloween story, but a birthday present for my good friend TexasBornMind76, so... happy birthday!
The 'Goosebumps' movie was released and it brought back so much nostalgia for me since I grew up reading the books back when I was in grade school. My favorite one of all was 'The Haunted Mask' (the other being 'Calling All Creeps' of course). And so, this story is a loose adaptation of that 'Goosebumps' story. So, enjoy!
Halloween was upon all the children of New York city. All the children were in costumes running around the streets of their neighborhoods going door to door and shouting 'Trick or Treat' asking for candy. Even though it was only 3:00, just when school was getting out every kid was in a costume.
The only kid in all of New York without a costume was Sherman Peabody, who was 7 ½ years old and the only adopted son of the genius dog Mr. Peabody. He walked down the stairs of his school looking at the other kids in jealousy. It didn't feel right trick or treating without a costume. He sighed as he saw a boy wearing a homemade wizard cloak made out of a purple silk robe with sewn on glow in the dark fabric stars on it, as well as a purple wizard's hat with glow in the dark star stickers on it.
"Wish I had a costume like that" Sherman said to himself sadly.
"You know you still can" a voice said, Sherman looked behind him to see his two best friends, Penny Peterson and Hayden McClaine.
"Oh hey guys" Sherman said as he now started walking with them.
"You can still put something together at the last minute you know" said Penny.
"I don't wanna be a robot like I was last year. That costume felt so uncomfortable and not to mention I got my arms stuck in the arms. By the time I got them out they were scratched up and itchy" Sherman explained.
"You can borrow one of my old costumes" Hayden offered.
"No thanks, but thank you for your consideration" Sherman said.
"Well, maybe there's still a place where you can get a good costume" Penny pointed out.
"You think so?" asked Sherman looking to his blonde friend who he had a major crush on.
"I'm pretty sure there is one. They don't close until 6:00 so why don't we go on a little costume hunt, huh?" Penny offered.
"Sure, sounds like fun" Sherman said. Hayden and Penny then walked with him down the streets of New York looking for a good costume to wear for Halloween this year.
-Fifteen Halloween Stores Later-
"I cannot freaking believe this!" Sherman shouted in frustration kicking a dented metal Dr. Pepper can off the sidewalk and into an alleyway where a cat was sleeping on a crate and got startled, making a shriek and running off. The redheaded boy was still upset and angry because every single store they visited was either closed for the day, or out of whatever was the most popular or scariest costume.
"Don't be like that, Sherman. There are still twelve more places we haven't checked" said Hayden trying to give some reassurance to his friend.
"That's easy for you to say. You're going as an Evil Groot this year and Penny's going as Red Riding Hood, and I don't even have one thing to wear this year" Sherman said with his arms crossed making a pouting-like look.
"First of all, I'm going as a Dryad, not an 'Evil Groot'. Dryads are trees possessed by demons, there's a difference" Hayden pointed out.
"Oh right, sorry" Sherman apologized for making his mistake.
"Hey wait, look" Penny said getting the other two boys' attention and pointed to a store with boarded up windows and a gated up door, and on the top was a sign that said 'Halloween Quick-Mart' on the very top that had fading paint and scratches on it too.
"I dunno Penny, looks kinda creepy. Abandoned places are never any good news, don't you watch scary movies?" Hayden said having his doubts about where Penny was suggesting they go.
"Hayden, not all abandoned places are hide-outs for serial killers and ghosts. Besides, maybe there's a few things in there" Sherman said walking over to the front of the store and began pulling on the iron bars in front of the door.
"Locked, dang it" Sherman said with a look of disappointment.
"Don't worry, there's a back entrance on the side of the wall down that alley right there" Penny said pointing to the alleyway.
"How do you know that?" asked Hayden.
"My dad takes this route normally to take me to school" Penny said before running down the alley, Hayden followed along with her and then the last to follow was Sherman.
"Oh look, a back door. You were right, and it's open too" Sherman said pointing to the dented door with the knob taken out as well. Hayden reached his hand through the hole where the knob would be and pulled on it, making the door fully open and then he looked to Penny.
"Ladies first" he said simply and let Penny walk into the store first and then Sherman went in second, leaving the brunette boy to go in last.
The inside of the store looked like what a candle shop would look like, but on the shelves were masks on Styrofoam heads, and racks containing costumes were nailed to the walls. Plastic decorations hung from the ceiling too.
"Wow, this is a nice little place" Sherman said. The store lights turned on and both Penny and Sherman looked behind them to see Hayden with his index finger and thumb on the light switch.
"What? I couldn't see anything. I'm just surprised this place still has power" Hayden said now looking around the store.
"Since it's out of business I guess it can't hurt to find something I like and take it" Sherman said now looking through the costumes on the racks.
"May as well look around too" Hayden said going to one of the tables and looked at a fake old man's head encased in a jar, he smiled because it looked like something out of a scary movie.
"Find anything you like, Sherman?" asked Penny.
"Not yet, but it's all some pretty good stuff here" the redhead replied now done looking through the first rack of costumes.
Little did they know, a peephole was in one of the walls, disguising it was the portrait of Shakespeare as a skeleton, one of the eyes was what was disguising the peephole. Somebody was watching them silently in the shadows behind the wall.
"Woah, look at these" Sherman said running up to the shelves that contained masks of many different shapes and sizes.
"Those look pretty scary. Maybe you can pull off a costume with just a mask" Penny suggested. Sherman smiled as he was looking through each and every mask, but stopped and saw one he really really liked. It was a goblin mask. The skin was green and wrinkly, it had sharp yellow teeth in it's mouth that looked like they were made of plastic, the ears were pointy like an elf's ears, and the look on the mask made a menacing evil look.
"Wow" Sherman whispered taking the mask off the display head and showed it to his friends.
"Now that's scary" Penny said smiling at the mask.
"I don't know about you, but I think you just found yourself a costume" Hayden said. Sherman smiled as he now looked into the empty eyes of the mask.
"Sure do. This Halloween is gonna rock" Sherman said before putting the mask in his backpack.
"Wait wait! Take it back out and put it on" Hayden said.
"Yeah, we wanna see how it looks on ya" said Penny. Sherman rolled his eyes with a grin and took the mask out of his bag.
"You really wanna see?" asked Sherman.
"Heck yeah, come on we wanna get a glimpse of what we're gonna see you as tonight" Hayden answered before Sherman walked over to the full-length mirror in the corner near the barred up entrance to the store and put it on.
"So what do you guys think?" asked Sherman.
"That looks so cool!" Penny said.
"It feels so real, like I'm touching actual skin" Hayden said poking the cheek of the mask.
"Really?" Sherman asked as he began touching the cheek of the mask and let his fingers run down it's surface, to his surprise, the mask did feel like real skin. It kinda felt like a second face to him.
"That's creepy, but awesome" Sherman said before taking the mask off and placing it back in the bag.
"We'd better get home. My mom wants to take pictures of me in my costume before I go trick or treating with you guys" Hayden said right after looking at his phone clock.
"Yeah, I probably should head home too. Your dad's probably gonna wanna see that awesome mask you got" said Penny.
"I hope he does, I'm so not gonna be a duck this Halloween" Sherman said in relief walking out the store with his friends.
"Your dad wants you to be a duck, seriously?" asked Hayden.
"He's been wanting to dress me up as a duck ever since I was a baby. But I always had other ideas" Sherman said making his friends laugh as they talked and walked together.
The one who was hiding behind the wall came out from behind it and revealed their true appearance as an old man in his 60's with white hair on the sides of his head while the top of his head remained bald, and had a white beard and mustache too. He wore a black tuxuedo and a black cape with a red velvet inside too.
"Oh no. He took it with him! I knew I should have put the lock back on that door!" the old man scolded himself before looking at the shelves of masks behind him.
"I must find that mask, or else that poor boy will be in deep trouble" the old man said in a worried voice before putting the hood that was sewn to the cape over his head and walked out into the open daylight in search of Sherman and his new mask.
"I just hope I can save him before he puts on that mask two more times" the old man thought to himself before crossing the street and ventured his way through Central Park.
A/N: Chapter 1 is done! How was that for a beginning? Hope it was pretty good. For those of you reading this who are fellow 'Goosebumps' fans whether you liked the books, the TV show, or the new movie, then you should be in for a real treat reading this.
What will become of Sherman now that he has his new mask? And why is that old man so desperately trying to get it back? Find out in the next update! Please review, thanks!