Disclaimer: I do not own Austin and Ally. I also do not own the horror stories that appear in this story. The links to the sources are:

antique-doll/

scarecrow/

clown-doll/

WARNING: THESE ARE REAL HORROR STORIES (BESIDES ALLY'S STORY), SO IF YOU DON'T LIKE THAT KIND OF STUFF, I SUGGEST YOU DON'T READ.


Ghost Stories and Getting Even

Austin, Trish and Dez entered the music factory and found Ally sitting with a few of the students, telling them a story that seemed to be highly amusing.

"Hey, guys. What's so funny?" Austin asked, sitting down next to Ally and wrapping an arm around her shoulders. Ally stopped laughing immediately. "Nothing," she replied, her voice an octave higher as she began to twirl her hair. "I was just, um, telling everyone about… the time we all went to get some froyo. Heh, got to love froyo."

"No, you were telling us how you pranked Austin, Dez and Trish last Halloween, and how they all screamed like little girls," Herman corrected her.

"Ally, I thought we agreed you'd stop telling people that." Trish glared at her.

"To be fair, I didn't say you screamed like little girls; that would have been highly sexist. I said that you screamed like little kids," Ally said with an apologetic glance towards the three. At their glares, she continued. "I didn't mean to tell them, it just slipped out."

"Fine," Dez huffed, Trish and Austin nodding in agreement, "just don't let it slip out again."


"So how are we going to get back at Ally?" Austin asked Trish and Dez as they sat down in the food court later that day.

"Wait, shouldn't we discuss our revenge plan for Ally in a place where, I don't know, Ally isn't likely to show up?" Trish stopped him, rolling her eyes and muttering 'doofs' under her breath.

"Don't worry, I'll text Ally to make sure she won't come here for the next two hours," Dez replied.

"Okay, just make sure not to tell her that we're having a meeting to get back at her for scaring us last Halloween," Austin told him. Dez might be his best friend, but he could be a bit… dimwitted at times.

"What do you take me for, an idiot?" Dez scoffed. "There, we're safe until four," he closed his phone.

"So," Austin turned to Trish, "you're the queen of revenge. Do you have a plan?"

Trish started to answer but Dez cut her off with a chuckle. "I'm flattered you think of me that way, Austin, but I wouldn't refer to myself as the queen of revenge. Maybe the archduke of revenge. Anyways, we'll need two giant bananas, an elephant-"

"Not you, doofus, Austin was talking to me. And yes, I actually do have a plan, a sane, normal plan that doesn't require giant fruit or giant mammals. We want to scare Ally, not kill her with elephants and bananas." Dez opened his mouth to argue with Trish about the sanity of his plan but she shushed him. "So here is what we have to do…"


"So, guys, any reason why you insisted on having this sleepover tonight? When it's so rainy, and cold, and thundery?" Ally asked them nervously as they were setting their sleeping bags in the music factory's practice room, jumping every now and then when a particularly loud thunderclap was heard.

"We just know that your dad is away at a French horn convention in Fresno and we didn't want you to be alone on this dark, scary, stormy night. And is thundery even a word?" Trish wrapped her arm around Ally, as if to comfort her.

"Aww, thanks, guys, you all are such good friends. Especially since I know you were a little mad at me for accidentally telling the students about how I scared you last Halloween. And thundery is a word, you can google it up." Ally smiled at them gratefully and pushed the glasses she had opted to wear instead of contact lenses that night further up her nose.

"Yep, we're doing it because we're great friends. Not because we want to scare you or anything," Dez said cheerfully, and Austin elbowed him in the stomach.

"Okay then…" Ally seemed to decide to pass this of as one of Dez's weird antics. "What do you want to do? We can play Monopoly, or trivia!"

"Nah, Monopoly is too long, and it's never fun to play trivia with you, you always win," Dez pouted.

"I have an idea that popped into my head this very moment," Austin brightened, "how about we tell horror stories?"

Ally chuckled nervously. "How about we sing karaoke? You guys love karaoke. Or we could play truth or dare? Trish, you can find out everybody's deepest, darkest secrets. Doesn't that sound fun?"

"Well, it does sound fun, now that you mentioned it," Trish said and Ally sighed in relief, "but I want to tell horror stories."

Dez began to chant 'horror stories,' Austin and Trish joining in until Ally finally agreed. "Fine, we can tell horror stories. But I want to go first."

Austin got up to turn off all the lights except one small lamp and Dez handed Ally a flashlight from his bag. She turned the flashlight on and held it under her chin and the four friends settled down on their sleeping bags.

"Are you ready?" Ally asked, and the other three nodded. "Are you sure?" They nodded again, getting impatient. "Because I wouldn't blame you if you didn't want to hear it. It's a very, very scary story and we can always play Twister-"

"Just start the story already," Trish nearly yelled.

"Fine. You want a horror story? Here's a horror story.

"Once upon a time, there lived a little boy who ate a lot of candy-"

"What kind of candy?" Dez interrupted.

"Why does that even matter?" Ally asked, exasperated.

"Because I need to know! How can I visualize the story in my head if I don't know what kind of candy the little boy was eating?"

"He was eating Skittles and M&Ms, okay? Now, back to the stor-"

Dez screamed.

"What is it Dez?" Ally asked, and looked as if she wanted to hit Dez on the head with the flashlight repeatedly.

"What kind of weirdo eats M&Ms and Skittles at the same time? Did he mix the all in the same bowl? I thought this was supposed to be fun, not traumatizing."

"All right. He ate candy corn and Skittles, okay?"

Dez nodded and Ally rolled her eyes and continued. "Once upon a time, there lived a little boy who ate a lot of skittles and candy corn. He ate so much, and refused to brush his teeth, and so he got a ton of cavities and all his teeth got black and fell out. The end."

"That's your, and I quote, 'very, very scary' horror story?" Trish asked in disbelief.

"Yep. Dental hygiene is very important, and when not taken seriously, it can be absolutely terrifying."

"I'm sorry Ally, but not even a three year old would find this story scary," Austin told her, grinning apologetically.

"Fine, I'd like to see you tell a scarier story than that," Ally handed him the flashlight. "And without your teeth, I doubt you would have any fans. Or a girlfriend, for that matter. After all, no one likes a toothless pop star."

Austin took the flashlight from her and pecked her cheek. "Now get ready for a real horror story. This one I heard from my great uncle from Arizona. He claims to have actually seen it happening. I bring you the tale of the scarecrow."


There was an old farmer in Arizona who owned the best farm in the area. Everybody said his crops were the best and people came from all over to buy their goods from him. Whenever people asked him how he was able to grow such good quality crops, the old farmer would say it was all down to his scarecrow.

"That old scarecrow is the one I have to thank," said the farmer. "He makes sure no crows or critters or pests come near my crops."

The old farmer had built the scarecrow himself and it was a fearsome sight. He spent months working on it to make it as scary as possible. He knew how important it was to keep pests away from his crops. So he gave it enormous straw arms that stretched out about 6 feet and big long legs that made it as tall as a tree.

But the scariest thing about this scarecrow was its head. The farmer carved it himself out of a huge pumpkin. He spent countless days and nights perfecting his design until it was perfect. The scarecrow's face and head were so grotesque and ugly that even he was sometimes scared to look at it. But it was very effective, scaring away every rodent and bird that ventured near.

The neighboring farm was owned by two young men who were brothers named Josh and Harold. They were lazy and never did much work around the farm which resulted in their crops being bad. They were jealous of the old farmer's success and were plotting against him. If they could drive him out of business they could take over his farm and make more money.

So one night, the brothers decided to sneak onto the old farmer's land. They stole his prized scarecrow and brought it back to their own house, where they stuffed it into an old closet so nobody would ever find it.

The next day, the farmer woke up to find his hideous scarecrow missing and all his crops being eaten by rats and crows. He fell to his knees and cried, knowing that his farm would soon be out of business. Meanwhile, the brothers, Josh and Harold were watching from their own property and couldn't help laughing out loud when they saw the old man's tears of grief.

Hearing the laughter, the old farmer came over and asked them if they knew what happened to his scarecrow. The brothers looked him right in the eye and said they had no idea where his precious scarecrow might be.

"But you know I'll go out of business and have to sell my farm if I can't find my scarecrow," said the farmer.

Josh just laughed in his face, saying "That's just your tough luck, isn't it?"

"Sucks to be you," giggled Harold.

The old farmer walked slowly back to his house, his head hanging down in defeat and depression.

That night, as Josh and Harold had trouble sleeping. Not because they felt any remorse, but because they couldn't get the image of the scarecrow's horrible twisted face out of their minds. They decided they would never be able to sleep as long as that ugly pumpkin head was in their house. So they got up and dragged the scarecrow out of the closet.

Harold took a baseball bat and smashed the scarecrow's head to pieces until all that was left was little bits of pumpkin strewn around the floor. The brothers swept up the pumpkin head pieces and threw them in the trash. Then they went back to bed and were soon fast asleep, having put all thoughts of the disgusting scarecrow face out of their heads.

Sometime after midnight, Josh and Harold were awoken by the sounds of scratching and clawing at their bedroom door.

"Did you forget to put the dog out?" asked Harold, sleepily.

"W-w-w-we don't have a dog," stammered Josh.

Suddenly the bedroom door burst open and a solitary long straw arm snaked in through the opening. Then a second arm thrashed around, followed by two long stick legs. The two brothers were frozen in fear and could only look with horror as the headless scarecrow's body rose up on its long stick legs and it's long arms reached out for them in the darkness.

Harold felt a cold sinewy, straw claw close around his ankle and screamed as loud as he could. He begged his brother Josh to help him. But Josh was already running out of the bedroom. Fleeing in terror, he ran down the hallway, crashed through the front door and out onto the moonlit road.

He ran as fast as his legs could carry him, puffing and panting and screaming at the top of his voice. As he passed his neighbor's house, he saw the old farmer standing at his gate. In the moonlight, he could see the farmer just staring at him with a strange smile on his face.

Josh kept running, his bare feet slapping against the rough gravel road. He glanced back over his shoulder and saw something that scared him to his very soul. He saw the scarecrow running along the road close behind him. It was gaining on him, coming closer and closer. And that wasn't all he saw. He noticed that the scarecrow had a brand new head. And it looked a lot like Harold.


Ally was shaking and hugging her knees when Austin finished the story. Even Dez, who had heard the story before, looked terrified. Only Trish seemed unaffected. "Please. You call that a horror story? It's almost as scary as Ally's story, meaning not at all. My horror story is way better."

"Are you sure we need to tell another horror story, Trish? I think two spooky stories are more than enough. Not that I'm scared or anything, but I'm, um, really tired. Maybe we should wait until it stops raining and it's daytime," Ally asked, looking at her best friend desperately.

Trish shook her head and snatched the flashlight from Austin. "No way. What's the point of telling horror stories in daylight? They aren't nearly as scary. And the rain sets the mood. Anyways, my horror story is about a little girl named Lucy who got an interesting present for her birthday."


On the morning of her birthday, Lucy's mother woke her up and told her a package had arrived in the mail and it was addressed to her.

The girl hurriedly unwrapped the gift and was horrified at what she found inside. It was the most disgusting old doll she had ever seen. It was completely bald and its skin was cracked and caked in dirt. The worst thing of all was its teeth. They were long, pointy, sharp and beastly. They looked like an animal's fangs.

With a shiver, she took the doll and threw it in a corner. Her mother scolded her, telling her that someone had gone to a lot of trouble to send her this antique doll. Her mother told her she had better appreciate it.

Lucy tried to protest but her mother would not listen. She forced the young girl to keep the doll. So, to put her mind at rest Lucy stuffed the antique doll into the little cupboard under the stairs, behind a pile of shoes where she wouldn't have to look at the ugly, evil little thing.

It was not until a few nights later, when Lucy was lying in bed that she heard a noise… a shuffling sound, which went on for about five minutes. Then, a brief dragging noise and finally, a scuttling, like light footsteps walking very fast.

By now Lucy was shaking in her bed with fear, unable to move. Then, she thought she heard a faint raspy voice whispering quietly from downstairs. Lucy always slept with the door open and the landing light on, as she was a little scared of the dark.

She heard the voice say "Lucy, I'm on the first step"…And then loud scrabbling again as whatever was speaking apparently turned tail and returned to it's place of hiding.

Lucy was so scared that she didn't sleep a wink that night but laid in fear until the break of dawn, when her mother got her up for school.

Lucy tried to explain to her mother what had happened the night before, but was so tired that, when her mother passed it off as "just a dream" she began to believe it might be the case.

Of course it wasn't. Lucy begged her parents to let her throw the antique doll in the garbage, but they insisted that it was a present and she had to keep it. So Lucy reluctantly went back to bed, telling herself that it had only been a dream. She checked the cupboard under the stairs, but the doll was exactly where Lucy had left her.

That night, Lucy fought sleep but she eventually drifted off even though she had fought sleep. Presently, the deep disembodied voice woke Lucy again. She wondered if she could only hear it in her head.

"Luuuuccccyyyy! I'm on the fourth step…" it said. Then came to scuffling noise and the voice didn't reoccur that night. Lucy was crying by now, and again she didn't sleep that night. At school, Lucy told her friends about the doll, and of course they laughed at her. Lucy could only think that if the doll was climbing three steps at a time then there was only one more night to go.

That night Lucy decided to shut her bedroom door. When her mother turned her light out she asked why Lucy was no longer scared of the dark. Lucy replied that she was and could she leave her light on instead of the hall light? But her mother pointed out that her bedroom light was so bright it would keep her awake, and said no.

Therefore Lucy agreed to just sleep without a light. She opened the bedroom curtains instead to light the room a little anyway. Just as she began to doze, she heard the noise.

And then the voice came, very clear this time. "Luuuuccccyyyy! I'm on the top step…"

In the darkness of her bedroom, Lucy heard a click and trembled with fear. She wasn't sure, but she thought she could see her bedroom door opening very, very slowly.

The next morning, Lucy's parents found her body at the bottom of the stairs. They guessed that she had been on her way to the toilet during the night and in the darkness, had slipped and fallen down the stairs, breaking her neck.

The antique doll was found beside her body, and was buried with Lucy. Everyone said what a tragedy it was.

"She loved that doll," said her mother. "Now they can be together forever."


"Okay! That's enough horror stories for one night. What do you say we play Sorry? It's the game of sweet revenge and everybody likes revenge, right?" Ally asked shakily.

"But that's not fair! Everyone got to tell a horror story except for me," Dez protested.

"Come on, Ally. Surely you can't be scared," Trish goaded her.

"And you love fairness. Where would we be today without fairness? Where would humanity be without fairness?" Austin asked with a pointed look.

"Go ahead, Dez. But after this I'm going straight to bed, and nothing you guys will say can change my mind," Ally gave in.

"Yes!" Dez took the flashlight from Trish. "Well, this story is called 'The Clown Doll'."


There was a 7-year old girl named Molly who absolutely loved dolls. She collected every doll she could and displayed them on a shelf in her bedroom. She wasn't doing very well in school, so her parents told her that if her grades improved, they would buy her a new doll as a reward.

Molly was motivated to try her best and, a few weeks later, her report card arrived from school. She had studied so hard that she managed to get straight A's. Her mother and father were delighted and decided to make good on their promise.

The next morning, Molly's mother brought her to the mall so they could go shopping for her gift. As they passed by the window of a second-hand toy store, the little girl grabbed her mother's arm and asked if they could go inside.

When they entered the shop, the woman told her daughter she could choose any item she wanted, no matter what price it was. Molly wandered up and down the aisles of the dusty old toy shop until she eventually came to the doll section. On the top shelf, partially obscured by dusty old boxes, was something that immediately caught her eye.

It was a clown doll with red hair, yellow eyes and a big red nose. The clown's wizened face was twisted into a malicious grimace and its teeth were sharp and jagged. One of the clown's gnarled hands was clenched in a fist, but the other was holding up three fingers.

Molly turned to her mother and squealed, "Mommy, this is the one I want!"

"Are you sure?" asked her mother incredulously. "But, it's so ugly and creepy."

The little girl nodded excitedly. "I want it, I want it, I want it!"

"Well alright then," said her mother as she took the clown doll down from the shelf and brought it over to the counter.

The owner of the store took one look at the doll and said, "I'm sorry, Madam. That clown doll is not for sale."

"What? Why ever not?" exclaimed the surprised woman.

The owner refused to answer.

The mother looked down and saw her daughter's eyes welling up with tears. She began arguing with the shopkeeper and offered him more and more money but he kept refusing.

Eventually, she said, "I'll pay you a hundred dollars!" and held out the money in front of him.

The owner's eyes grew wide. He hesitated for a moment, then grabbed the money greedily and said, "OK, you can have it."

He put the clown doll in a bag and gave it to the mother. As Molly and her mother walked out of the shop, the owner called out after them

"Just one thing," he said. "Never leave your daughter alone with that doll."

The mother and daughter didn't pay any attention to him and left, happy with their purchase.

When they got home, Molly immediately rushed into the living room. The girl was overjoyed with her present and spent the rest of the day playing happily with her clown doll while her mother watched television. As the little girl played with the doll, she wondered why it was holding up three fingers.

Later that night, when Molly went to bed, she placed the doll on the top shelf in her bedroom. Her mother kissed her goodnight and shut the bedroom door.

Bright and early the next morning, the mother was cooking breakfast and called out to Molly to wake her up. When she didn't receive an answer after calling her for the third time, the mother began to get worried. She decided to go upstairs and get her daughter out of bed.

When she walked into Molly's bedroom, she was horrified to find her daughter lying dead on the floor in a pool of blood.

For a few moments, Molly's mother began couldn't believe what she was seeing. But when she looked down and saw the clown doll sitting beside her daughter's mutilated body, she began screaming in horror. The clown doll was holding up four fingers.


"And they all lived happily ever after. The end," Dez finished, seeming pleased with himself.

"How could they all live happily ever after? The poor little girl was murdered by a creepy clown doll," Ally asked him.

"Oh, right. Well, good night." Dez turned off the flashlight.

Austin started to get up to turn off the small lamp they had kept on, but Ally stopped him. "No! I mean… what if one of us gets thirsty in the middle of the night? They'll probably step on everyone in the dark, trying to get some water."

Austin rolled his eyes but agreed, and the four went to sleep.

A few hours later, once they were sure Ally was asleep, Austin, Trish and Dez silently crept out of the room. Austin dressed up as the scarecrow, Trish as the doll and Dez as the clown.

"And now, make up," Trish said after she snapped on her bald cap. The fake fangs in her mouth made her slightly difficult to understand.

"Do we have to, Trish?" Austin whined.

"Yeah, it'll be dark and Ally doesn't have her glasses on, she'll barely see us anyway," Dez sided with him, waving his rubber knife.

"Do you want to scare Ally or not?" Trish asked them. The two boys nodded. "So shut up and do as I say."

"Fine, but hurry up, this straw is itchy," Austin grumbled.

Once they were ready they re-entered the room where Ally was sleeping peacefully, unaware of what was to come. They shook her awake and she squinted at them for a few moments.

Upon realizing what she was looking at, she screamed and, seeing that her way to the door was blocked by them, scurried to the far corner of the room and cowered there.

"Please don't kill me," she begged as they advanced on her menacingly, Trish scuffling in little doll steps, Austin in loping steps he assumed a scarecrow would take and Dez holding out four fingers, "I'll do anything, I promise."

"Anything?" Trish hissed. "Will you stop telling of that time you scared your friends last year, during Halloween?"

Ally nodded, "Yes, I promise I'll never mention it again."

The three exchanged a look and nodded slightly before bursting into laughter.

"Trish? Dez? Austin?" Ally narrowed her eyes and crawled over to the table where she left her glasses.

"We got you this time," Dez told her in between laughs.

"Yeah, you should have seen your face," Austin added.

"Well, I guess you did get me. I… I think I'll go home now," Ally sent them a slightly shaky smile, "see you tomorrow, guys."

"Wait, Ally, you aren't mad, are you?" Trish asked her.

"No, of course not. You guys wanted to get back at me for scaring you last year and as I said earlier, everybody likes revenge."

"Do you want me to walk you home? The streets can get a little scary at night," Austin offered, but when she shrank away from him he realized that he was still dressed in the scary scarecrow outfit.

"Nah, I'll be okay. I'll just go home and dispose of any sharp knives we have, and then maybe hide under the covers for the next three days with all the lights on," with one last weak smile, Ally left the room.

"Why do I feel as if we had done something really bad?" Dez asked.

"Probably because Ally was being so nice about it," Trish grumbled, "and because she looked so tiny and helpless cowering in that corner."

"And Lester will most likely punish her when he gets home and sees how high the electricity bill is," Austin added, "I bet he won't let her read again."

"We should go and apologize," Dez concluded.

All of a sudden, a scream pierced the air.

"Was that Ally?" Austin asked fearfully.

"She probably just saw her own shadow and got scared. We did frighten her pretty badly," Trish answered him, though she sounded just as nervous.

"Austin, Trish, Dez, help!" they heard her yell, and all three teenagers rushed out of the room and down the stairs.

Once they reached the first floor they didn't see any sign of Ally, but they did see three relatively small figures, standing in the doorway of the dark building.

"Guys, Please tell me we're looking at a weird carnival mirror," Trish said.

"You told our stories and woke us up, now you will pay," the figure on the right, a bald doll with cracked skin and fangs for teeth, said in a gravelly voice.

"Is that supposed to be me?" A scarecrow with a hideous pumpkin face raised its hand and pointed at Austin. "I am personally offended. I am nowhere near that height."

"I-I'm sorry, the story said you were really tall," Austin gulped.

"The story also said that I took Harold's head, when, obviously, I took Josh's, and just until the farmer made me a new one."

Austin and Trish were suddenly aware of Dez trying to get their attention.

"What, Dez?" they both turned to him in unison.

Whimpering, Dez pointed to the hideous, face-warped, clown's hand. It took them a moment to realize that the clown was holding up not four fingers, but five.

"You don't think Ally was…" Trish began in a hushed tone.

"Your little friend? Ah, yes, we already dealt with her, and now we'll deal with you," the scarecrow croaked.

Screaming, the trio huddled together, hugging.

"I wish we would have come down the first time Ally screamed, maybe we could have saved her," Dez wailed.

"I wish we would have gone with Dez's stupid plan," Trish added.

"I wish we wouldn't have tried to get even with Ally in the first place, I would let her tease us for scaring us every day for the rest of our live for scaring us if she was still alive," Austin said as he hugged his friends tighter. The other two agreed, and without warning, the lights turned on and the scarecrow started laughing.

"Is that Ally's laugh?" Austin asked the other two.

Dez gasped. "The scarecrow killed Ally and stole her laugh!"

Removing the mask, the scarecrow was indeed revealed to be Ally. The antique doll and the clown also took off their masks and turned out to be Ridley and Herman.

"The scarecrow killed Ally and stole her head!" Dez screamed.

"No, you dimwit, Ally pranked us again. But how did you know we were going to get back at you?" Trish asked.

"I kind of got suspicious when Dez texted me and asked me not to come to the food court for a few hours even though you weren't planning on getting back at me for scaring you last Halloween. So I went to the food court, heard your plan, and made my own plan. Ridley and Herman agreed to help me."

"Dez!" Austin and Trish yelled together.

"What? You told me not to tell her about the meeting, you didn't say anything about telling her there wasn't a meeting," Dez said to them, as if stating the obvious.

"Ignoring this doof, Ally, I'm really proud of you for coming up with such a diabolical and evil plan," Trish came to hug her best friend.

"And I'm so glad you're alive," Austin joined the hug.

"And I'm so glad this whole story is over, and it's all just water under the bridge," Dez completed the group hug.

Ally pulled away. "Wait just a minute. This isn't all just 'water under the bridge'," she air quoted the words, "I have this all on video and streamed to my laptop, and if you guys ever try to scare me again, I'm posting it all over the internet. I'm pretty sure that a lot of people will enjoy seeing you three screaming and hugging like your life depends on it, maybe even more than people enjoyed seeing the baby panda sneeze. And if you try anything like this ever again, I'm never talking to you again."

"Wait, did you use my video camera?" Dez asked her. When Ally nodded and pointed to where it was hidden he rushed over to it. "I hope you didn't record over that video of a bird chirping the alphabet." Pressing a few buttons, he gasped. "Noooooo!"


Happy Halloween! I wrote this story nearly a month ago just to make sure it'll ready in time.

I have another story completed and I hope to have it up after I finish typing it, which I hope will be sometime next week. I also have another story which I started just recently and I hope to post in the next few weeks as well, since I'm supposed to have a break from tests soon.

As always, I would love to hear your opinions on the story and any constructive criticism is gladly accepted.

Happy Halloween again, and thank you for reading!