4
The rain pounded the neighborhood hard. The wind whistled through and around the trees and houses. Water flooded from downspouts and down driveways into storm drains creating rivers in the street with leaves trapped in the current like miniature boats in turbulent waters. Candles burning in pumpkins blew out. A few Halloween decorations blew away torn from houses and yards. Autumn leaves took to the sky as if they were chattering bats taking flight. A blanket torn off a fence ascended the sky in the form of a large dark goblin threatening the neighborhood. There was not a sign of life outside as people stayed sealed up in their houses out of this stormy weather. Most of the lights were on up and down the block as the Jonas Street residents spent their Halloween safely watching TV in their homes, but down the street in the former firehouse, things were not quite normal. Kevin, Joe and Nick Lucas of the band JONAS were huddled and packed tightly into the same closet off their kitchen.
"She's going to kill us." Kevin was pushed against the wall. "She's going to kill us."
"She's not going to kill us." Nick was still trying to rationalize things. "Stella wouldn't harm a fly."
"Stella wouldn't…" Joe looked between them. "But Sadie Winters hates all men. She's the one who's going to kill us. She's going to steal our souls and live forever."
"I saw this movie where this guy held on to his girlfriend, and she sucked him up into her chest!" Kevin was stressing out. "She left nothing of him behind! Nothing at all!"
"That was just a movie!" Nick pointed out.
"I know, but it's given me nightmares ever since." Kevin looked as if he was about to cry. "I'll never go see another Mila Kunis movie again!"
"Mila Kunis?" Joe looked to Kevin. "I saw that movie. I heard they're making a sequel with Ashley Tisdale and Demi Lovato!"
"Really?" Nick was interested. "Do they have a script? Are there parts for us?"
"Guys!" Kevin struggled in the crowded closet to stay on his feet. "We're not going to live long enough to make any movies. Stella is possessed and trying to kill us!!!" He heard the staircase out in the room creaking. Coming down in the firehouse inside Stella's body, Sadie Winters looked over the banister and scanned the room. The front door was ajar, but not open. The fire hose had kept them from opening it. They were trapped somewhere inside unless they had open a window and tore off the storm windows.
"Oh boys…" Stella placed her hand over the light switch and the power went out in the firehouse. Heat, electromagnetic energy, the ions from the lightning-charged air, the chemical reaction in batteries, even the electricity in this place, she was absorbing all of it and getting stronger and even more powerful. All she needed was the psychic energy from one or all three of those young virile male pop stars and she'd be unstoppable.
"Where are you, boys?" She came round the bottom of the banister and walked through the center of the room around the dinner table. "Oh come on, I'm not going to hurt you…" She looked under the table and stood erect again, taking a minute to crack the bones in her neck again with a creepy crack of her ligaments popping. "I'm just going to absorb your souls…." She noticed the door to the basement under the staircase, finished her route around the table and came back toward the door. Her fingers curled around the doorknob, twisted it and pulled it open.
"Here's…. Stella!!!" She jerked the door open.
Nothing. She leaned in and glanced down the stairs to the basement. Something told her they did not go back down there.
"Oh, Joe…" Closing the door again, she still had the backrooms to check out in the place. She slinked across the first floor peeling off the wraps from her arms. "I'm still wanting that kiss. I know you want it too. How about you, Kevin? Nick?" She treaded across the room placing her feet in a straight line, her senses gradually detecting every noise in the place.
"Come on guys…" Stella leaned backward and checked down the left hand side hall as she headed toward the kitchen to check behind the counter. "Don't make me play this out. Surrender yourselves to me. I know you want to. Don't make me have to wait till midnight."
"What happens at midnight?" In the closet, Joe looked to Kevin.
"It's like her deadline." Kevin looked to his brother. "At midnight, it's no longer Halloween; it will be November 1, and she'll be forced to return to her grave for another year."
"And take Stella with her?"
"I'm not sure."
"I think I saw this on an episode of the Monkees." Nick mumbled.
"Okay…" Joe checked his watch. "Midnight is in… oh god, an hour and forty-five minutes…." He took a deep breath to muster his courage. "I've got a plan. All we have to do is trap Stella in the closet until Halloween is over and Sadie is forced out of her body. Stella will return to normal, and we won't lose our souls."
"That's a great plan!"
Outside the closet, Stella stood leaned up against the wall listening to them. "Yes, that is a very good plan." She mumbled to herself.
"Okay, guys…" In the closet, Joe picked up and pulled on his old football helmet. "Kiss-proof gear."
"Kiss-proof gear!!!" Kevin and Nick pulled on their old helmets.
"Isn't it weird these things just happened to be in the closet?" Nick commented.
"Well," Kevin responded. "Mom has been after us to clean it out for months! Now… now let's kick some lady ghost butt."
"Do you have to say it like that?" Joe opened the door and started looking out toward the living room. The room was dark except for the old emergency lights and the illumination from outside. The storm still raged outside, but it didn't seem so bad. It seemed to be passing over. The basement door was hanging open.
"She's gone down to look for us in the basement." Joe told his brothers.
"Oh!" Kevin had an idea. "That big closet where mom stores her gardening supplies, we could trap her down in it then get out the back door!" He started closing the hall closet and found Stella patiently waiting behind the door with her head resting on her elbow. He looked close enough into her eyes to see her eyes burning bright blue.
"I was wondering when you guys were going to come out of there." She tossed back her hair and grabbed Kevin, pushing him against the wall and reaching up to lift off his helmet from his head. Joe and Nick spun around as she took his head in her hands, tilted her head slightly to kiss Kevin and leaned her head forward to his lips, but Joe pulled her backward and Nick re-opened the closet. The next thing Stella saw was herself getting pushed hard and fast into the closet amidst extra coats, old board games, spare umbrellas and forgotten board games and sports equipment. Kevin caught his breath as Joe reacted and pushed the bureau in the hall up and over in front of the door. It was full of old bric-a-brac and magazines, just possibly heavy enough to trap the blonde possessed seamstress.
"We got her!" Joe cheered and applauded his brothers with high-fives. "We got her!!!"
Stella's fist crashed through the door ahead of her arm, and Kevin screamed like a girl to see how strong she was. From inside the closet, Stella was hissing, growling and pounding at the door as she widened the hole she had made and gradually pushed the heavy bureau from the door.
"Oh my god…" Kevin watched too fascinated to look away. "She's just too powerful for us. I got it! We'll trap her in Nick's bed with the hatch placed over her and our amplifiers stacked on top!'
"You're putting what in whose bed?" Nick didn't like that idea.
"Guys…" Using incredible paranormal strength, Stella forced open the closet door and slid it and the heavy bureau to the side, casually striding up to the brothers smiling. "You know, I'm beginning to think you don't want me kissing you. If you guys don't stop this, you are really going to make me angry, and trust me, you do not want to make me angry." She grinned effervescently bobbing her head.
"Oh my god…" Kevin was freaking out again. "She's going to grow really big and eat us all like popcorn!!!"
"Back door!!!" Joe screamed and led the way down into the basement. His brothers right behind him, he didn't look back as Stella briefly hesitated and continued the chase.