Chapter 6: The After Party

Lee the Policeman and Amanda herded the costumed kids into Amanda's house. Buck followed behind, curious to hear the rest of the story.

When they all trooped into the living room, Tommy was still watching the mummy movie and eating candy. He grinned when he saw the boys come in and stopped grinning when he saw the man in the ape costume and the policeman with them.

"Thank you for coming to help, Buck," Amanda was saying, "but I think everything will be alright now. You can go home and tend to the trick-or-treaters."

"Actually, I can't," Buck said. "I ran out of candy. I was coming to borrow some from you when I saw Jamie."

"Mom said that she was running out, too," Jamie said.

"No, she's not," Tommy said helpfully. "I found two more bags in the kitchen!" He held up one of the bags he was eating out of as proof. The floor around him was littered with candy wrappers.

"Oh, I thought I'd bought more candy!" Amanda said quickly. "I must have just forgotten where I put it. It's a good thing that those men across the street didn't want to lend me any of their candy. It turns out that all they had were Gobbie Gummies anyway."

"Eww!" Tommy said.

"Actually, I kind of like those," Buck said.

"Ten hut!" snapped Lee.

Everyone turned to look at him.

"I believe that you boys have some explaining to do," Lee said seriously.

Amanda took one of the bags of candy from Tommy and handed it to Buck. "I think you'd better go," she said.

"Oh, okay," Buck said. From the curious looks he gave her and the boys, she knew he would be back tomorrow to find out the rest of the story.

When he was gone, the boys took turns telling Amanda and Lee the story of the night's events. Amanda listened with astonishment and embarrassment.

"I told you fellas to stay here this evening and to stay out of trouble while I was gone!" she said when they were done. "What do you have to say for yourselves?"

"We're sorry," they all mumbled, except for Tommy, who didn't think that he had anything to apologize for.

"I stayed here, Mrs. King!" Tommy said proudly.

"And snitched some of the Halloween candy, leaving a mess on the floor," Amanda said, pointing to the candy wrappers.

Tommy gave her a guilty grin.

"And I think you fellas have seen enough horror movies for now," Amanda said, turning off the tv. "You don't seriously believe in vampires, do you?"

"Of course not!" Philip insisted.

Amanda raised her eyebrows at him.

"We were just . . . making sure," Philip said lamely.

The others just looked at the ground.

"Um, Mom?" Jamie started to stay, but Lee cut him off. He decided that what the boys needed was a dose of discipline.

"Attention!" he said in his best imitation of his uncle. He strode up and down in front of them, lecturing, "I want you boys to know that, even though this is a popular time of year for pranks, you are all responsible for your actions. Hopefully, your neighbors will be understanding and will forgive you for your antics this evening. As long as there is no repeat performance, I am willing to let all of you go with a warning: from now on, listen to your mother and behave responsibly when she's away, is that clear?"

"Yes, sir," Philip and Jamie said.

"And those of you who are guests in this house, you should behave like good guests and be responsible for your behavior as well. Do you understand?"

"Yes, sir," the other boys said.

"Good. In that case, I want to see all of you clean up your mess here. I'll be back in a few minutes to check on your progress. I'm just going to have a word with Mrs. King in the next room."

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When they were out of earshot of the boys, Amanda said, "I like your Halloween costume. You look good in a mustache. I prefer your original hair color, though."

"It's one of my better disguises," Lee said. "Victor never suspected it was me. And it's practical. Very few people would refuse to disobey a policeman, especially if they're trying to maintain a low profile, and nobody questions why I'm carrying a gun."

"What made you come charging into the house like that?" Amanda asked.

"I saw the boys sneaking around the outside of the house and thought I'd better stop them. I didn't know if they knew you were there, and I was afraid that they'd either mess things up or get hurt, or maybe both. Then, I saw you with something red on your blouse, and I had to make sure you weren't hurt." Lee looked at Amanda more closely.

"It's red wine," Amanda said, pointing to the stain. "I'm alright."

"I'm glad," Lee said softly. "But, I'm sorry that you didn't get a chance to plant the listening device. I'm sure we'll find a way—"

"Actually, I did plant it," Amanda said proudly.

"You did? When?"

"When I was helping to clean up the stuff Andy knocked off the coffee table. I planted it in the fruit bowl."

"Excellent!" Lee said. "I can verify that the man who invited you to the house was definitely Victor, but thanks to you, we may learn a great deal more about his reasons for being in this country and the KGB's plans. It may be a day or two, but it's safe to say that the safe house will not be there for much longer. During that time, we'll have agents monitoring the situation and watching your house to make sure you're safe."

"Thank you, Lee."

"Don't worry, your part in this is all over. All you have to worry about is a group of boys who have probably eaten too much sugar tonight."

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The boys in question were still cleaning up their mess in the living room.

"Some Halloween party," Tommy grumbled, getting down on his hands and knees to pick up crumbs. "The movie was fun, but the cleanup . . ."

"I thought it was pretty exciting," Mark said. "I'd like to do this next year."

"I thought we were going to get arrested!" Andy said. "And you heard that cop. If we do this next year, we're in big trouble."

"It's something to brag about, though," Philip pointed out. "Our first Halloween party gets broken up by the police! Not many guys in middle school can say that."

"Yeah!" Mark said enthusiastically.

"You guys," Jamie said nervously. "Did any of the rest of you see what I saw in the window back there?"

"What did you see?" Philip asked.

"Well, I was looking across the room, and I saw everyone's reflections in the window . . ." Jamie trailed off.

"So what?" Philip asked. "It was a bright room. There are always reflections in the window when a room is bright and it's dark outside."

"Everyone had a reflection except for that creepy guy."

Everyone stopped and looked at Jamie.

"You mean the guy in the gorilla suit didn't have a reflection?" Andy asked incredulously.

"No, not him!" Jamie said. "I mean the other guy! The guy who was helping you up when you fell on the table. That's the creepy guy Philip and I met. The one he said might be a vampire."

The others fell silent while they thought about it.

"There's no such thing as vampires," Tommy finally said.

"You're just making it up to scare us!" Mark said.

"It was probably just a trick of the light," Andy said. "Besides, I've got the creepy guy all figured out."

"You do?" asked Philip.

"Yeah," Andy said. "He's a mad scientist."

"How do you figure that?" asked Mark.

"He called that other guy 'Igor,'" Andy said.

"Really?" Tommy asked. He was starting to wish he had gone along to see everything.

"That's right, he did!" Philip said. "You know, maybe we ought to—"

"No!" Mark and Andy shouted.

"Okay." Philip sighed.

"But, guys, I'm serious!" Jamie insisted. "The creepy guy didn't have a reflection!"

"Why don't you go upstairs and get that toilet paper off yourself?" Philip suggested.

"Fine! Don't believe me!" Jamie said.

"Actually," Tommy started to say. Jamie stopped. Tommy said, "I thought your costume idea was pretty cool."

"Yeah," Philip said with a grin. "It was a much better one than the swami."

"Thanks," Jamie said. "Tommy did a pretty good wrapping job. But, I think I'm ready to get rid of it."

He headed upstairs to get rid of his improvised mummy wrappings. On the way, he stopped by his mother's room to drop off her cross necklace. He felt badly about borrowing it, but with a possible vampire on the loose, he thought it was better to be prepared. Maybe Philip would let him have one of those popsicle-stick crosses before they went to bed. If not, there was always garlic.

The End

Happy Halloween!

Author's Note: Extra Credit Points! Besides Orlok, what is the other vampire reference in the story?