Chapter 1: The Scream in the Night

Amanda King had just come home from a late trip to the store. She was tired, and she wouldn't have gone out at all except that they were out of milk and bread and would need them for breakfast tomorrow. Of course, once she was at the store, she decided that she had to pick up a few other things as well, giving her more to carry into the house.

A storm was coming. The wind had picked up, blowing fallen leaves into her face as she carried two bags of groceries to the front door.

Hefting the bags as well as she could with one arm, she put her key in the lock with her other hand and turned the knob . . .

"AAAAAAHHHH! No!" came a scream from inside. "Wait!"

Amanda took a moment to recover herself and pick up the bag of groceries she'd dropped, thankful that it wasn't the one with the eggs in it. From inside the house, there were a couple of clunks and scrapes, and then Amanda's mother opened the door.

"You startled me with that scream," Amanda said.

"Sorry, dear," Dotty said, helping Amanda into the house. "I had the stepstool in front of the door, and I was afraid that you'd knock it over. Here, let me take one of those."

Dotty took one of the grocery bags from Amanda.

"What were you doing with the stepstool?" Amanda asked.

"Just hanging up some more decorations."

One thing that Amanda and her mother shared was that they liked to decorate for holidays. They'd started putting up various decorations for Halloween at the beginning of October, but Dotty had found a few more that she just couldn't resist adding to their collection. The garland of red and orange leaves that Dotty had just hung over the door was colorful, but Amanda wasn't in the mood for dead leaves at the moment.

"I'd better get these groceries into the kitchen, Mother," she said.

"I'll help you," Dotty said, glancing into the bag she was holding. "Oh! You've bought the Halloween candy! I was wondering when you were going to pick some up."

Amanda usually liked to buy the candy as close to Halloween as possible because the stores would have it on sale. Originally, she was going to wait until the day of Halloween to go shopping for candy, but she had seen some for a good price at the grocery store this evening and decided to go ahead and buy it.

"We've got to get it hidden before the boys find it and start sneaking some," Amanda said.

"Do you suppose we could sneak a little before the boys find out?" Dotty asked with a sly grin.

"Maybe you'd better let me take that bag," Amanda said. "You take this one."

"Okay," Dotty said, laughing as she traded bags with Amanda. "I just bought another box of pecan divinity the other day, anyway."

"You've been to Cozy Country again?" Amanda asked, referring to one of Dotty's favorite stores. It sold old-fashioned candy, novelty toys, and country-themed decorations.

"That's right," Dotty said. "That's where I got the leaves. You know, I like their Halloween decorations better than most of the other stores. Everything there is cute and old-fashioned, and most of it has a harvest theme instead of those ugly, blood-dripping monsters that you see other places."

Amanda smiled. "Of course, the boys think that kind of thing is cool. Part of the fun of Halloween is being scared."

"I don't see what's so fun about being scared," Dotty said. "They can make their Halloween scary if they want to, but I prefer to think of it as a harvest festival."

"Well, I'd better get this candy hidden before our little monsters find it," Amanda said.

"Hide it somewhere good but somewhere you won't forget," Dotty said. "I've done that with birthday presents before, hidden them somewhere clever and then had trouble remembering where they were."

"I think I know just the place, Mother."