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While the women were busy searching for the boys; two of the boys were busy walking through the graveyard. Walter and Ryan were both shivering with fear and walking as close together as they could as they searched for their treasure.
"Man, this is scary. Is it just me or is someone else walking around here too?" Walter asked.
"I hear it too; footsteps." Ryan said, "Our treasure is buried next to a grave that belongs to Happy Halloween."
"Are you serious?" Walter said taking the map from Ryan.
"Yeah."
Walter sighed and looked around nervously when it sounded as if the footsteps were coming closer. The mansion's private graveyard was a lot bigger than they had thought. They hadn't even walked through half of it yet, and they had been walking for almost thirty minutes.
After a few more minutes they heard someone screaming from the woods; women screaming.
"Who the hell is that?" Walter asked, "Oh man, what if it's ghosts coming this way."
"Let's just keep on walking." Ryan said, trying to ignore the screams.
After a few minutes the screaming stopped and Ryan stopped at a grave.
"This is it." He said.
There was a note on the tombstone that said Happy Halloween with an arrow pointing at the ground next to the grave that looked like it had recently been dug up. Ryan knelt next to the grave and started digging. Walter was looking around to see if something was going to show up.
"Walter, help me out." Ryan said.
Walter knelt down next to Ryan and started digging too.
"Damn, it's deep down." He said.
Suddenly leaves behind them started moving and something was whispering to them.
"H?" Ryan called out, "Are you here?"
"He's with Frank." Walter said.
"He could have snuck away." Ryan said, "Kyle? Ray Jr?"
Ryan and Walter still remembered the year before when Horatio had scared the hell out of them all in his house, with help from Ray Jr and his friends.
"Anyone?" Ryan asked.
The sound of sticks breaking from further away startled both men. They glanced at each other and then started to frantically dig for the treasure.
"At least the people buried here aren't moving." Walter muttered.
As soon as he had said it someone sat up covered in dirt from the grave next to the treasure. Both men screamed as the "monster" reached for them and laughed madly.
They got up on their feet and ran back to the house screaming and stumbling over their own feet. As they passed another grave another monster sat up and started to run after them.
"Hurry!" Ryan yelled, "HELP!"
"AAH!"
They ran straight into the mansion and suddenly saw a person covered in green slime. They panicked and ran straight back to the graveyard trying to get away from the slime- person.
"AAH! Run Wolfe!"
As Walter and Ryan disappeared back to the graveyard Calleigh stood in the doorway and looked at herself. They hadn't recognized her because she was covered in green slime. Alexx and Natalia came running down the stairs to her (they had been up on the second floor looking for Horatio and Frank).
"What was that?" Alexx asked.
"Ryan and Walter got scared by something in the graveyard and then came running back here. When they saw me they got scared again and ran back." Calleigh said.
"Well, that's clever; running back to the things that scared them in the first place." Natalia said.
They heard some male screaming coming closer to them again and within seconds Walter and Ryan were back in the mansion again; they ran straight passed the women into the kitchen and hid under the kitchen table. After them came Eric, walking calmly. When he saw Calleigh he ran to her and hugged her.
"Calleigh, oh god! You're okay!" Eric sighed in relief.
Calleigh told him what had happened and then Eric told them that he had been looking all over for her. He had seen Ryan and Walter run around in the graveyard screaming and then they had bumped into him without realizing it was him and had ran to the mansion.
"We have to find, Horatio and Frank." Natalia said.
"Ryan, Walter. Come on out!" Alexx said.
"No way! We're staying right here." Ryan exclaimed.
"Alright, we're going to find Frank and Horatio." Alexx said, "Let's go."
"Do we even know where to start?" Calleigh asked.
"In the woods maybe?" Eric suggested.
"I'm not going back there." Natalia said.
"Fine, you and Alexx stay here and search inside. Eric and I will search in the woods." Calleigh said.
Everyone nodded in agreement.
-I-
"Why did we have to find the treasure with the longest distance from the mansion?" Frank groaned.
He and Horatio were walking towards a lake through the woods. They had heard both women and men screaming and more than once Frank had thought he had seen someone following them.
"Afraid of the dark, Frank?" Horatio teased.
"Horatio, if I find out that you've been doing pranks on us this year too, I will dye your hair blue and shave off your eyebrows." Frank warned.
"Ooo I'm shaking." Horatio smirked, "I haven't done anything this year. I've run out of ideas."
"That had better be the truth." Frank muttered and then jumped when he heard something running behind them.
"We're here." Horatio said and started jogging towards the lake.
Frank tried to keep up, but unfortunately for him he slipped in the mud. Cursing he tried to get up, only to find himself stuck with his right foot.
"Horatio!" He growled, "You got to help me, I'm stuck."
"I found it!" Horatio exclaimed, "I found the-"
Frank heard a yelp and looked up towards the lake. He couldn't see anyone there.
"H?" He called out.
He tried to get his foot loose, but it felt like something was holding onto it. He froze and looked down at his foot with the flashlight when he felt something… or someone holding his ankle. He saw a hand sticking out under the mud and then suddenly he was pulled down on his butt and dragged towards the lake.
"Horatio!" He yelled, "Help me dammit!"
"Frank!"
Frank looked to the left and saw Horatio getting dragged away into the woods. Frank managed to grab onto a rock that was sticking out under the mud.
"Let me go you son of-"
Suddenly Frank stopped being dragged and he sighed heavily. He stood up and walked over the mud towards dry land. He called Horatio's name but got no answer.
"Horatio!"
He started walking to the place he had seen Horatio get dragged away. He shone the flashlight into the woods and saw something looking at him. Yellow eyes looked at him and then someone started growling. Frank started backing away and stepped into the mud again. The growling got higher and Frank turned around to leave when a net covered with black feathers was thrown over him. He tried to get it off him when something knocked him down in the mud.
Frank got to his feet and started running the way he and Horatio had come. He could hear Horatio calling his name as he ran, but he knew he had to get back to the mansion to get some backup from the team before he could save his friend.
-I-
Ryan and Walter finally came out from their hiding place. They walked to the lobby of the mansion and then out on the front porch. They heard someone scream again and glanced at each other.
"Is that H, screaming Frank's name?" Walter asked.
"Yes, it is." Ryan said, "Oh shit, maybe he doesn't have anything to do with this."
"I've heard that this place is haunted."
"Me too." Ryan said nervously.
"Who the hell is that?" Walter asked.
Someone was running towards the house covered with a net and black feathers. It was too dark to see who it was and Ryan and Walter started backing up towards Ryan's car. They stumbled on the ground as the person came closer.
Suddenly the front doors of the mansion closed with a bang and spiders came flying at them. Ryan and Walter yelped and got to their feet. They got into Ryan's car and drove away quickly just as the person the net got the whole thing off him.
"Hey! Stop!" Frank yelled as he chased after the car.
But it was too late and Ryan and Walter were gone in no time. Frank sighed and picked up something from the ground; a fake spider. He saw dozens of them and shrugged. He opened the mansion doors and stepped inside the lobby just in time for Alexx and Natalia to come walking down the stairs.
"We've been looking for you." Natalia said, "Where is Horatio?"
Panting, Frank told them what had happened and that Ryan and Walter had left in Ryan's car.
"We have to find Horatio." Frank said.
Suddenly the roof above them started shaking; faster for every minute that passed. Dust fell through the cracks and then suddenly a red sludge. Natalia screamed as she got covered in small black spiders, she panicked and ran out the door to her car. Alexx followed her and Frank ran out to the front porch.
"Are you guys going to leave?" He asked.
"Yes!" Natalia exclaimed.
"No!" Alexx said, "Natalia we can't leave H alone."
Suddenly they heard a man and a woman screaming from the woods. They could see the silhouettes of two people running towards them. Frank moved towards his car; ready to jump inside it if he had to.
"RUN!" Eric yelled as he came running through the woods.
Calleigh was close behind him and they yelled at their friends to get out of there. The trees behind them cracked, something was growling and from the graveyard behind the house they heard children crying and screaming.
Eric and Calleigh got inside their car and quickly drove away. Natalia got inside her car with Alexx and Frank got inside his car just as they saw something that looked like wolves running towards them among the trees.
Everyone hurried out of the place and Frank called Eric on his cell.
"What the hell was that all about?" He asked.
"We found H. We saw him getting dragged away from us when we approached him. And then these people covered in black showed up with machetes. The trees started cracking and we panicked." Eric said.
"We have to go back to help, H." Frank said and turned the car around.
"We're coming back with more people." Eric said and hung up.
-I-
"Good job, boys." Horatio said as he dusted the dirt of his costume.
Kyle and Ray Jr grinned proudly as they walked back with Horatio to the mansion. Behind them were some of their friends. Yelina stood on the front porch and laughed when she saw Frank's car coming back.
Frank leaped out of the car and ran straight towards Horatio.
"What the hell happened?" He asked.
"I can't believe I tricked out guys this year too." Horatio smirked.
"How did you do it all?" Frank asked.
"Well, first of all this place is already filled with traps from the previous owner. Like the tilting floor that Calleigh stepped on. We just filled up a bathtub with green slime for her to fall in." Horatio grinned.
The room Ryan had entered had been set up with lights and posters on the walls to make it look like people were watching him as the light blinked. There were special locks on the doors and lights in the house that were controlled from a control room in the attic. There were also special machines on the doors that had mde the doors close and lock behind Ryan. Through the control room the lights had turned off as he passed them in the corridor.
The creatures flying towards people were dolls with microphones in them that had a sinister laugh playing automatically. All the sounds in the woods were made from a sound recording. Ray Jr's friends had placed several speakers in the woods and played a recording of growling wolves and sticks breaking, trees cracking, children laughing and crying. All to create the illusion that ghosts were around. Even the tree that had started shaking with Natalia on it was made by one of the kids, since the tree was so old and not so big it didn't take a lot of force to make it shake.
"And the wolves?" Frank asked.
"Dogs." Horatio corrected, "All trained dogs here just to scare you."
Horatio nodded towards some dogs lying on the floor and Frank shook his head.
"Alright, what about the lake thing?" He asked.
Again, Kyle and Ray Jr's friends had helped. A lot of things could be bought on the internet and Horatio had paid for it while the kids set it all up. Such as a metallic hand grabbing onto Frank's foot as he stepped on, (which he had when he slid down in the mud. There had been several metallic hands placed close to each other so that Frank wouldn't be able to miss stepping on one). When Frank had stepped on it, it had grabbed his ankle and dragged him towards the lake; because at the other side of the lake (which wasn't big) sat a machine that controlled the hand; which Kyle had been operating.
The people in the graves that had scared Ryan and Walter were friends of Kyle's; they had gladly hid under some dirt with a small breathing tube in their mouths to make sure they didn't die.
"It worked perfectly too." Horatio grinned, "When you saw me being dragged away that was also by a metallic hand. Only difference between you and me was that I knew it would happen."
"I can't believe it. You did it again." Frank said, being impressed by what Horatio and the boys had done, "And we suspected it was you all along and yet we still got fooled."
"Dad knows how to scare people, that's for sure." Kyle smiled.
"I couldn't have done it without you boys." Horatio said and looked around at the group of people with a grateful look.
"And what did Yelina do?" Frank asked.
"She operated the little device on the second floor that made the roof start shaking and the red sludge run through the cracks. She also operated the so called spider gun that shoots out fake plastic spiders at people." Horatio said, "This took over a week to set up and I've been planning it since last Halloween."
"You're the only man I know that loves to scare his friends half to death." Frank chuckled.
"I only do it once a year." Horatio grinned innocently.
"Unbelievable." Frank said, "Well, I'm glad that you're okay."
"Ready to party?" Horatio asked, "I just have to call the team and have them come back."
"You do realize that they will kill you?" Frank asked.
"I'll take that risk." Horatio said, "And Frank?"
"Yes?"
"Happy Halloween."
Please review!
If nothing in this story made sense, I apologize for it.
Happy Halloween everyone!