It's been awhile. Trust me, I had every intention of posting this on Friday, but things happen, internet connections fail, and Halloween is best celebrated away from the computer and with real live people. With that out of the way, I was in a creepy kind of mood and decided to come out of retirement for a couple of days to write a silly one-shot for Halloween. Hope you like it.
- kp
October 29th, 1976
Jill just managed to catch a glance over the top of the mountain of boxes and assorted junk in her arms at the clock hanging on her wall.
Just past 6:56 P.M.
She groaned as she squeezed her way through her front door, swinging it shut with one foot and somehow only losing one bag of plastic spiders on her way out.
Sabrina and Kelly were expecting her at 7:00.
She could make it. Of course, she could.
Determined, she hastily adjusted the heavy burden in her arms and made her way down the steps to her car. Her lopsided walk quickened as soon as the terrain evened out and by 7:00 PM, and minus an additional bag of spiders, her trunk was filled to capacity and the white and blue Cobra was squealing out of its parking spot and into the street.
By 7:25 PM, Jill was jogging across the parking lot of St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church, huffing and puffing with exertion and trailing bits and pieces of her burden like breadcrumbs behind her. The closed door of the church's rec center loomed before her, a seemingly impossible task with her arms loaded down the way they were. While she was working out a way to get herself through the door without dropping everything she was holding, the door thankfully swung open, revealing a mixed blessing in the shape of a very miffed looking Sabrina.
"Jill, where've you been?" she called out as her friend breathlessly approached.
Jill rolled her eyes, glad Sabrina couldn't see it behind the box of black tablecloths pressing against her cheek. "Where haven't I been?" she huffed back. "I got everything though."
"Everything, huh?" Sabrina commented doubtfully. But to Jill's relief, she reached out and relieved her friend of the top half of her cargo.
"Thanks." Jill panted. "There's more in the car. And before you say anything else, I'm not that late."
Sabrina raised an eyebrow and led her inside. "It's 7:30, Jill."
"Yeah. It's just 7:30. I'm not that late."
Grinning at her logic, Sabrina led the way down the narrow hallway and into the bustling rec room where a surprising number of people, some costumed, some not, were hurrying back and forth, shouting directions to each other, and hastily sticking decorations to the walls. The haunted house the church staff was putting on for the neighborhood was nearing completion. "It's ok, Kelly figured you'd be half an hour late. It doesn't start till 8:30."
Jill gave her a blank stare. "What? You mean I was rushing for nothing?"
"No, not for nothing." Sabrina laughed. She deposited her boxes on a long folding table and dug through it. "We can't have a haunted house without costumes, right?"
"Hey, Jill! You made it!"
Both women turned to see Kelly making her way through the crowd, her long brown hair pulled up out of her face and looking as if she'd been working hard the past few hours.
"Connie, Joy, this is my friend Jill that I was talking about!" She called out to a few women standing nearby.
One of them, Jill wasn't sure which, smiled politely while the other looked at her watch.
"Hey, you were right about her!" she commented, prompting Sabrina to immediately burst into laughter.
Her snickering quickly spread to the other two women and, accepting that she was now the butt of a joke, Jill glared playfully at Sabrina before turning towards Kelly and regarding her with an expectant look. "Right about what, Kell?" she challenged her.
Caught red handed, Kelly could only shrug and offer a helpless grin. "Nothing." She said innocently and then was suddenly very interested in one of the boxes on the table. "Oh, hey! Look, at all this stuff Jill brought!"
Her ruse worked. Attention shifted towards the scary masks that had been stuffed in the box , Connie and Joy whisked away a couple of bags of decorations and Jill, Kelly, and Sabrina were left standing by the long folding table.
"So, what else needs to get done?" Jill asked.
Kelly pursed her lips thoughtfully before running a hand through her sweaty hair. "Not a whole lot. Maybe you can work inside."
"Where do you want me? What are you going to be doing?"
"Uh…" Kelly answered her. "Well, I'm taking tickets outside. Bri is one of the monsters-"
Jill's face suddenly lit up. "Oh! Can I do that too?"
"You've had the practice." Sabrina chimed in and Jill made a face at her in response.
"Sure." Kelly said through her giggles. "I don't see why not." Her eyes traveled up to the top of Jill's head and she smiled. "I would lose the shades though. I don't think it gets too bright in there."
Jill looked puzzled. She sent one experimental hand to where Kelly had been looking and was surprised to find the red and white plastic sunglasses she'd perched up there hours ago and then forgotten. "Oh, damn." She chided herself. "I stuck them up there when I went for the costume, didn't I?"
"Probably." Kelly laughed. "They're not very scary. You want me to hold them for you?"
Jill snatched them off of her head and dug her keys out of her pocket. "Nah, there's one more box out in the car. I'll go grab it and leave these."
Her intentions announced and seemingly accepted, Jill jogged out of the hallway Sabrina had led her down a few minutes earlier and made her way back out into the parking lot. It was dark now. Almost show time. Cars were starting to pull into the mostly empty parking lot and in another twenty minutes it would probably be full.
Eager to get her makeup and costume on, Jill hurried down the steps and to her car, parked alone in the closest spot she could have gotten. She keyed open the driver's side door, grabbed the last box from the passenger seat and carelessly tossed her red and white sunglasses into its place. Full of excitement about her first turn inside of a haunted house, she relocked the door, slammed it shut and then rushed back to the church.
October 30th
Just after 12:30 AM, a very tired but happy group of people trickled out of the church's rec center and into the dark parking lot. The Halloween Festival had ended at 10 and so the parking lot was mostly empty now, save for the vehicles of those who had stayed behind to clean up. The crowd dispersed at the foot of the stairs, calling variations of "See you next Sunday!" and "Goodnight!" to each other as each person headed toward their respective vehicles.
"Thanks again for your help." Kelly said through a yawn, as the three angels separated from the crowd. She'd been setting up since before noon and looked very ready for bed.
"No problem, Kell. I had fun." Jill chirped. She cleared her throat, noting that her voice would probably be hoarse for the next few days thanks to all the screaming and yelling she'd done for her job as a monster. "Why haven't you invited us before?"
Kelly shrugged. "This is the first time I've been able to help. Thought it'd be nice to bring you two along."
Sabrina yawned. "It was nice."
"What are you two doing the rest of the night? Wanna stay over at my place?" Kelly continued hopefully.
Sabrina elbowed her playfully. "Is someone a little spooked by all the monsters she saw tonight?"
"No!" Kelly insisted. "It's just that it's Friday night and we've been so busy with this, we haven't had a Halloween party of our own. I think we deserve some R and R, don't you?"
"Sure." Sabrina teased. "But, I'm parked at your place anyway. I wouldn't mind not driving home tonight. Jill?"
"I dunno." Jill said slowly. "I kind of want to just soak in the tub and then go to sleep. But, definitely tomorrow night." Perked up by the thought of more Halloween festivities, her pace picked up. "So, what do you want to-"
But excited as she was, her words abruptly cut off.
Something wasn't quite right.
A few beats of silence ticked by before Kelly turned to her, unnerved. "What?" she probed.
Jill ignored her, her narrowed blue eyes fixed on her car in the shadows. Was she seeing things? Was it the shadows?
The girls were still walking, but Jill slowed as they approached her vehicle, suddenly apprehensive. She wasn't seeing things, she realized. It wasn't the shadows.
The passenger door was wide open.
Confused, Jill slowed to a halt, staring intently at the open door and feeling her heartbeat start to quicken.
Why was it open?
She had exited through the driver's side door upon arriving, of course, and hadn't opened the passenger door all day. Jill frowned as she stared. Even when she'd gone back to leave her shades, she'd, out of habit, made sure both doors were locked. The passenger door hadn't been used.
So how was it open?
"You leave your door open, Jill?" Sabrina asked.
Jill shook her head. "No." she answered quietly. "I..it was locked."
"You must have left it open when you went to leave your shades." Kelly suggested, without much conviction.
Again, Jill shook her head. "No, I used the driver's side door. And I locked it behind me."
The girls unconsciously grouped closer together as they closed the distance to Jill's car. The streetlights lights overhead cast just enough light inside the Cobra for them to see that it was empty. There was a tense moment while the girls checked the trunk, but there proved to be no surprises. Save for some beach towels and the bag of extra clothes Jill usually kept in there, it was empty as well.
Jill breathed a sigh of relief.
"Well…that's weird." She said, feeling a little colder than usual.
"Is anything missing?" Sabrina asked her.
Jill rubbed her arms and swung the passenger door shut. "Doesn't look like it. I just don't know how that door opened. I don't remember, but maybe….maybe I did open it whe-"
A horrible sinking sensation overcame her in an instant and her words again cut off mid-sentence. Jill felt her stomach drop as her blue eyes gazed at the completely empty passenger seat.
"My shades….my shades are gone." She blurted out. "I…I left them right here and I locked the door!"
Kelly and Sabrina exchanged identical looks of alarm.
"Are you sure?" Sabrina pressed. "You didn't leave your keys or-"
"No, I didn't leave my keys!" Jill snapped at her. "I know I locked it!"
Kelly laid a calming hand on her back and though uneasy herself, made an attempt to see reason. "Ok, ok." She placated her friend. "Look, you have a nice car and trust me, there's a hundred different ways to break into a car. They probably broke in and didn't find anything else so they stole your-"
As Kelly spoke, Sabrina inspected the windows and locks on both doors.
"I don't see any sign that anyone jimmied the lock." She called out.
Kelly rolled her eyes. "Then maybe they were really good at it. I know I was." She explained. "Besides, if no one jimmied the lock then that means they were in-" She bit her lip and decided, for Jill's mental well-being, not to finish her sentence.
Unfortunately, Sabrina did it for her.
"Unless, they were already inside?" she guessed.
Her comment made Jill shudder. "Oh, no. No, don't say that."
"Did you leave your door unlocked anytime you were running errands?" Sabrina asked, looking very concerned.
Jill felt nauseous. "I…I don't know. I…"
While she hemmed and hawed her way through an answer, Kelly yanked back open the driver's side door and, with the dome light now on, peered inside. "Is anything else missing?" she asked.
But Jill's face had gone white. Through the window she could see for herself that nothing else was missing. On the contrary, it appeared her unseen passenger had left her something.
"Oh my God." Jill groaned. Behind the passenger seat, in an impossibly small space was a tattered black coat. She rushed forward, pushed her way past Kelly and yanked it outside. Her nose wrinkled immediately. It reeked of cigarette smoke and body odor and, disgusted and horrified, she flung it away from her. An empty, crumpled bag of Doritos fluttered out of the coat before it landed in a heap a few feet away.
"I'm guessing that wasn't yours?" Kelly commented dryly.
Jill, eyes wide, whirled on her two friends. "I….you two have keys to my car. If this is a Halloween prank, one of you better say something right now."
"I was with you the whole time." Sabrina denied.
"I didn't do it either." Kelly said, shaking her head. "This is the first time I've been outside since this morning."
Jill ran a shaky hand through her hair, feeling very violated and unsafe. "How…I…I think I did leave my door open at the mall. But…I mean, how could anyone have fit back there. And-" Her blue eyes went wide. "Did I drive back to my house with him in the car?! Oh my God!"
Sabrina and Kelly exchanged another look.
"Did you?" Kelly asked her.
Jill looked frantic. "I…I must have. I went home to change after the mall. Oh God."
"He's probably long gone by now. But, we better drive by your place to make sure everything's ok anyway." Sabrina said solemnly.
Jill looked sick. "Ok. Then….then I..I think I will stay with you tonight, Kelly."
Kelly's face looked grim. "Sounds like a good idea. Thank God he didn't hurt you."
"Hey, you ladies ok? You have a flat or something?"
A loud male voice started all three women, but upon turning around they discovered a familiar face heading toward them. Patrick, a middle aged member of Kelly's church, had worked with both Sabrina and Jill as one of the monsters in the haunted house, and the three had made pleasant small talk during breaks.
"Hey, Pat." Kelly called out to him. "No, we're fine. Just figuring out who's house we're staying at tonight. Too many spooks in one night to sleep alone, right?"
Patrick slowed to a halt in front of them and smiled. He'd painted his face earlier and though he'd washed it, there were still traces of white face paint streaked on his cheeks and matting his hair. "I hear that." He chuckled. He glanced up at Jill and regarded her with a puzzled look.
"Where's your gentleman friend?" he asked.
Jill's heart stopped. "What?"
"Didn't you come in with a fellow?" Patricked continued. He lifted his arm to indicate the height of someone at least a foot shorter than him. "Small fellow. Beard. I pulled up right after you did. Thought I saw him get out of the car with you. "
The three girls exchanged such a look of horror that Patrick's polite smile melted away.
"What?" he asked nervously.
Jill swallowed hard, feeling very sick. "Was I carrying anything when you pulled up?"
Her intensity made Patrick uncomfortable. "Uh…yeah, you were carrying a little cardboard box or something."
"Oh my God." Jill groaned, leaning heavily into Kelly. "Ok. That's it. I'm done. Let's go home."
Patrick looked confused. "What's going on?"
"Nothing." Kelly answered gently, her voice much more collected than she felt. "One too many spooks for her, that's all."
Still confused, Patrick bid the three women a polite goodnight, Sabrina hopped into Jill's car with her and the three angels made a very somber drive back to Kelly's house for the night.
October 31st
By Halloween night, Jill's mood had been much improved to the point where she was able to joke about her unseen hitchhiker.
Should have let my meter run, she had been able to joke that Saturday morning after a troubled night's sleep. The girls had made a sweep of Jill's place that night, found nothing, and Saturday evening found the incident almost forgotten. The three girls enjoyed a Halloween get together, perhaps a little too much, and by Sunday afternoon, after a good night's sleep, they were in high spirits. Since there were no cases on hand at the moment, the trio decided to stay at Kelly's house to hand out candy to the children in her neighborhood. Besides, Kelly had reasoned, Halloween fell on a Sunday this year, a school night, and the kids wouldn't be out too late. So, with some appropriately themed movies playing on T.V., and the leftovers from the party to sustain them, the girls settled in for a quiet night of lounging on the coach and taking turns answering the door.
Kelly had been correct about her guess. The trick-or-treaters were in full swing until around 8:00 PM, when they started to slowly wind down, the gaps between the doorbell ringing getting gradually longer. By 9:00 PM, it had been a full half hour since the last trick-or-treaters, a miniature Evel Knievel and a cowboy, had trudged up Kelly's walkway. Deciding Halloween 76' was over, Kelly flicked off her porch light and the three girls made themselves more comfortable.
"Is there any candy left?" Jill asked through a yawn.
Kelly flopped herself on the coach and pushed the big nearly empty bowl of candy toward her friend. "Not much. Please eat it, 'cause if it stays here, I will."
Jill leaned over to take it from her. "My pleasure." She giggled. She pulled the bowl onto her stomach, Sabrina migrated towards her, and the two munched contentedly as the trio waited for the late show to start.
At a little past 9:30 PM, the doorbell rang, startling the three girls.
"Looks like you have a late trick-or-treater." Sabrina acknowledged, though she made no move toward getting up. Neither did Jill and, amused, Kelly stretched and pulled herself to her feet.
"Well, don't all get up at once." She grumbled, tossing a handful of stray candy wrappers at her two lazy friends. "Did you leave anything?"
"There's a little left." Jill answered her, lifting the bowl for Kelly to take. "We didn't eat everything, see?" She tore her eyes away from the screen just long enough to send Kelly a gleaming white smile and, despite herself, Kelly found it impossible not to laugh.
"Yeah, I see that." Kelly replied tolerantly, snatching the bowl away. Fighting a yawn, she shuffled over to her front door, expecting to see some teenagers loitering on her porch. The doorbell rang yet again just before she unlocked her door and threw it open.
The friendly smile Kelly had plastered on her face instantly vanished. Instead of a group of children, standing before her was a short, middle aged man, clean shaven but shabbily dressed. Hoping his appearance hadn't startled her so much that it showed on her face, Kelly forced herself to smile again so as not to be rude.
"You, uh…forgot your costume." she remarked.
The man only smiled at her, revealing two rows of yellowed teeth. He looked her up and down before, seemingly satisfied, he turned and began strolling down her walkway, whistling an upbeat little tune to himself.
Indignant, Kelly threw open the door and stepped outside.
"Creep!" she called angrily after him.
But, he didn't turn around or appear to acknowledge her in any way. Instead, he continued whistling to himself as he grabbed up a beat up, old bicycle he'd left leaned up against her tree. He hopped on it and, still whistling, began pedaling down her walkway.
Kelly watched him go, watched as he pedaled out of her walkway and into the empty street. As she watched, the little man turned his head and winked at her as he pedaled away.
Kelly's stomach gave a sudden lurch as a sickening wave of realization crashed over her. So caught off guard by the lecherous looked he'd been giving her, that she hadn't noticed much more than that. Shocked, she could only stare out into the street at the little man and at Jill's red and white sunglasses perched on top of his head, catching the moonlight one last time before he was gone.